Tag: printing

I Love Technology

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March 6th, 2015

Technology is an awesome thing, I love technology. When I first went in the mailing business, labeling was done with a Kirk Rudy labeling machine that glued the labels on the envelope. If the machine malfunctioned it would big leave a big wad of labels that there was no way of recovering. Today we are addressing and inserting with a NeoPost DS-1200 that runs at speeds of 12,000 per hour. If for any reason, we have a problem, we simply recover the address in the computer with no loss of data.
Phyllis Burns, President of Burns Mailing & Printing Phyllis with Neopost

Biggest Contract In The History Of Burns Mailing & Printing, Inc.

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October 14th, 2013

It has been awhile since I have blogged and I promise to do better in the future.  Thankfully, we have been very busy at Burns Mailing & Printing, Inc.  We just signed the biggest contract in the history of the company.  We will be doing graphic design, printing and mailing for a provider for the State of TN.  We were selected to bid because we are a State of TN, certified Women Business Enterprise (WBE).  The State of TN encourages minority, veteran owned and women owned companies to participate in State business. We were the successful bidder

Things have been busy in my personal life as well.  Ken had knee replacement June 24th and spent 5 weeks in a rehab facility.  The knee surgery was successful but he is not able to get his leg as straight as he should so his therapist are working on that.  We are trying massage therapy as well and he has been approved for Botox injections to relax the leg.  He also has a new caregiver, James, and that is going well.  He has James take him by Baskin Robbins for his favorite ice cream, rocky road chocolate. A car, driver and a credit card can be a dangerous thing.

This weekend we celebrated the marriage of my grand-niece.  It was outdoors on a beautiful fall day in East Tennessee. It was great to have family from out of town get together for this wonderful occasion.

We Are A Family

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October 17th, 2012

Open House Bar-B-Q

This is a picture of our Open House Bar-B-Que at Burns Mailing & Printing, Inc.  If it looks like a family picture it is because that is what we feel about each other…our other family.  Most of us have worked together for many years.  We support each other, yes we sometimes have disagreements, but doesn’t every family.  Collectively among this group is many, many years of printing and mailing experience.  We don’t have a lot of turn over so everyone knows their job and things move through the shop smoothly.

Having graphic design, printing and mailing…all under one roof keeps our customers from running all over town. They are also assured that their mailings meet postal specifications, have the lowest available postage and have fast delivery due to being bar-coded.

We handle the details so that our customers don’t have to worry.

Women Owned Business

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September 20th, 2012

Last year Burns Mailing & Printing, Inc received our certification issued by the State of TN as a Women Business Enterprise (WBE).  It seems that there is more interest in government organizations and some private sector companies in sending business to minority and women owned businesses.  Now I am not resting on my laurels and expecting a hand out from someone but it is nice that there is more interest in diversity.  Has it gotten me business that I might not have had otherwise, the answer is yes but not to a large degree.  We have one company in Atlanta that works for the State of TN that was looking for a women owned printer and found me on the Governor’s Diversity List.  We have been doing a monthly job for them now for several years.  The mayor of Knoxville recently mandated that the City of Knoxville, TN give more business to minority and women owned business and we just got a purchase order from them.  Our County mayor is trying to be very small business friendly.  I think that the local government is realizing that small business is a big part of how the economy in any given area is doing. We may not have 500 jobs but we have 16-20 jobs and that adds up.

Since I am on my soap box, I just want to remind everyone that no matter what area of the country that you live, it is important to do business with local businesses.  That little shop or store that you love may not be there next year if you don’t continue to do business with them.  Yes, online printing my be a little cheaper but you cannot get the service that a local printer can give you. You can’t sit down with their team and plan your project, look at the paper, get advice for design and pick up your order, in some instances in one day.

To all my customers who continue to use our services year after year, I sincerely thank you.  We have a lot of customer loyalty and after awhile they seem like family.

What Seems Old to Me is New to Some

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July 26th, 2012

I think as a business owner, that we forget that everyone does not know what I know about the printing/mailing industry so we forget to put out useful information to potential customers every day.  It is easy to think, everyone knows what we do.  Everyone does not know what we do and here is a perfect example.  We are on the phone with someone who has been placing direct mail jobs with us and they mention that they have to get it printed first.  When we ask for the opportunity to quote the printing, they respond with “oh, you do printing too?”  Our name is Burns Mailing & Printing, Inc.  We specifically included the words mailing and printing into our name so that everyone would know that indeed we do mailing and printing.  You have heard the saying that making assumptions can make an ass out of you and me?  Well that is so true.  We cannot afford to make assumptions, it may cost us the next job. Although I have been doing this job for 22 years I have to remind myself to not assume that my customers know all of our services.

If you are reading my blog for the first time, check out our services at http://www.burnsmp.com.  Oh by the way, we offer graphic design, printing and mailing.

 

Printing, Personalizing and Addressing All At The Same Time

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April 10th, 2012

I have always wanted a digital press that would print, personalize and address..all on one pass of the press.  That dream came true when we recently purchased a Konica Minolta biz hub digital press.  The press is awesome but what is more awesome is the print shop mail software.  We can now accept a customers database, run it through our mailing software to sort in mail stream order and then print four color on both sides and address for mailing..all on one pass of the digital press.  The biggest sheet size is 13×19 so we can print multiple post cards on that sheet.  If it is a 5.5×8.5 post card we can get four of them on the 13×19 sheet.  Imagine addressing those four post cards as it is printed and them multiply that by say a run of 2000.  Sounds impossible to keep them in mail stream order but with the print shop mail software it prints them in an order that when we cut the post cards as 1-2-3-4 and then stack them back up in that order they are still in mail stream order.  We then put the post cards in trays and they are ready to go to the United States Postal Service.

Print and mail in one day?  Yes it is possible if the press is not too heavily booked.  Political season is nearing again and we will be ready for those last minute push in political campaigns.

If you are interested in seeing our biz hub run, give me a call and we will give you a demonstration.

Mailing Lists

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March 26th, 2012

In my opinion the mailing list if the most important part of a direct mail campaign. You can have a brilliant design, great copy and a well printed direct mail piece, but if it does not get into the hand of your target market, it is all wasted. The best list possible is the list that you keep yourself. If you are a non-profit organization make sure that you capture the names and addresses of volunteers, donors and others who may have come in contact with your charitable organization.  Those names are of people who know of your organization and the work that you are doing in the community by either volunteering or through donations.  If you want to mail to a larger number of people then use your list and buy some names to go with them.  Your mailer can do a duplicate check and combine the lists.  Over the years, I have had organizations want to mail to several thousand people that they acquire from a list company and then are disappointed with the results.  A good list takes careful planning and attention to capturing the names of people associated with your organization.

If your company is a for profit company and you want to purchase a list, then narrow your demographics to your particular market and then to the area that you want to mail.  Be careful to insure that you can handle the calls or business that the mail piece may generate.  If you intend to mail 25,000 then it might be a good idea to drop them 2000 at a time and see how much interest is generated and if you can handle the business that is brings.  If your not getting enough response with 2000 then drop 3000 on the next mailing until you hit the right number.  That is the good thing about mailing vs media, that it is trackable and can be targeted.

 

Print, Personalize And Address For Mailing..All At The Same Time

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December 29th, 2011

I have wanted to have the capability to print, personalize and address for mailing all on one pass of the press for some time and in 2011 that wish came true.  We went in the mailing business in the early 1990’s to offer our customers something that would set us apart from other printers in town.  That has worked well for us over the years and most of the printing trade magazines are now telling printers that they need to be in the mailing business.  We feel that with the installation of our new Konica Minolta bizhub press and the software that we purchased that gives us the capability to print, personalize and address for mailing, all on one pass of the bizhub, helps once again, to set us apart from other printers in our area.  Printing a job and mailing all in one day seemed impossible just a few years back but now is a reality at Burns.  During the last election, we were printing and mailing political collateral in one day.  Again at Christmas, when companies had not printed Christmas cards but decided last minute to send them out, we were able to quickly turn the project for them.  The color is great, we are applying the intelligent bar-code, all postal regulations have been checked out so what is not to love?  If you don’t believe me, call me for a time to come over and see for yourself.

We are a printer who knows mailing and a mailer who knows printing.

Happy New Year!

I Love NonProfit Fundraisers

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Being in the mailing/printing business I have a lot of interaction with nonprofit folks .  I have also been a member of the Smoky Mountain Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) in Knoxville, TN since 2000.  I am convinced that people who work at nonprofit organizations have a heart of gold.  They are educated, dedicated and obviously their motives are not for money.

Recently, I have been in their shoes trying to raise money for Lost Sheep Ministry, where I serve on the board.  Lost Sheep Ministry only has two paid employees and everything else is done with volunteers.  Usually a nonprofit has a development director to raise money but we cannot afford a development director, so yours truly is trying to head up additional fund-raising.  Maxine Raines, our founder, with the help of many volunteers has been raising money for 18 years by speaking passionately about the ministry and by applying for grants and the suppport of local churches. Being in AFP has been beneficial for me because I have learned a lot in the monthly meetings and from my friends in AFP.  However, I am learning just how hard fund-raising really is and I am convinced that running a mailing/printing company is much easier.  They have my utmost respect.  I know that newsletters, mailing appeals, website and donor database is essential but most importantly doing them right is a must.

The list is probably the most important thing.  Making sure that the list does not have bad addresses is now a requirement at the United States Postal Service.  I recommend cleaning up the list by NCOA link move update.  In fact ,we offer this service free to our nonprofit customers who are printing and mailing with us. The person who already has an association with the nonprofit is the very best person to target.  Someone who already knows about the organization and if you are lucky has a passion for what is being done in the organization.  The next is the letter or appeal.  Make it personal, the recipient expects the organization to know their name.  Telling that person what their donation is doing to make a difference in a life or in their community makes an impact.  The appeal does not have to be fancy, in fact, if it is too fancy the recipient may wonder why so much is being spent on design, printing etc. Usually two colors of ink for the printing works very well.  Coding the mail is one way of measuring the success of the appeal and is easily done by adding a code to the return donation slip or envelope.  Measuring the success of the mailing is essential and coding allows you to determine that success and also to do a test market of more than one appeal. I am going to continue to to learn from AFP and my fund-raising friends but I doubt if I would have gotten very far without being around them for a number of years and my association with AFP.

I loved nonprofit fundraisers before I tried being one but now I really love them for what they do for all of us.  Everyone else should too, the world is a better place because of them.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed – it’s the only thing that ever has.”  Margaret Mead