Beat the increase in paper prices
February 5, 2009
Hoorah for the chance to have a lot of fun with the kids in the snow. OK, not good if you really felt it crucial you had to be somewhere and frustratingly you just couldn’t make it, but life goes on and as a nation we cope.
With each day seemingly bringing more doom and gloom I think it probably did us all a good turn by making us review our perspectives on life if only for a few brief moments building that snowman or hitting the intended target spot on with that snowball. I don’t know who were the biggest kids; me and my wife or our daughters and their class mates?
I’ve no desire to break the spell or add to anyone’s woes, but I feel I need to make businesses aware that paper prices will be increasing from March 1st for some ranges, but come April 1st all stock will have gone up by between 5-10% depending on the material/finish. So if you were planning on renewing your stationery, producing a mailing campaign or that company report, you may be wise to place the order with your supplier now if you can and agree a price before the increases come into effect.
Not only may it be an opportune time to get your company stationery or sales literature printed this month, it may be worth considering reviewing your company image. I’ve actually just gone through the process myself after discussions with my personal marketing adviser. Usual scenario, the things you know you ought to be implementing yourself that you’re encouraging your clients to do get shoved down the list of things to do when you’re ‘busy’. For someone who promotes himself as a logo and brand design specialist, I hadn’t actually reviewed whether my own image was still doing it’s job for a while. It had occurred to me that it was probably time for a change… nothing drastic, maybe just a tweak or a change of colour and typeface. As I’m also working on my new web site it was the right time to revisit my own identity so that I can launch with a fresh look and carry that across all my stationery at the same time.
And of course, the importance of having your own regular blog is something I’ve been well aware of for a long time. In fact, I have been blogging… but not for my own business, PM Graphics. One of my ‘other hats’ I wear says Marketing & PR Director for MarlowFM on it. I’ve been beavering away for over a year designing and implementing the MarlowFM brand, designing and maintaining the web site, and spreading the word about our ambitions for a full time community radio station on FM for my home town of Marlow whenever and however I can.
I also schedule the station’s output and present shows myself on a regular basis. Add to this my role of taxi driver for my twin 11 year olds, and you can probably guess I have had time management problems.
I’d like to thank Nigel Temple for introducing me to The Marketing Compass.
A combination of constructive nagging on his part and my own guilt have spurred me into action to at least get this first blog aimed at providing business start-ups and small businesses in particular what I hope will be some useful insights into the world of graphic design, print and digital publishing… and also raise the odd smile along the way.
Feel free to contact me to follow up on anything… even if it’s just to compare the size of our snow men!
