We love to work with you on your custom printing projects!  We have professional designers on staff who can help you take your project from concept to reality, but many of you have your own designers or staff members who handle the files for your publications and send the completed files to us.  Sometimes, the finished product may not look exactly as you envisioned it when you created the file and we get questions on how to make it better next time, or why doesn't it look like I thought it would?

Today's blog is the first in a series of blogs that I will be writing on the subject of custom printing.  I'll try to answer some of the more common questions that we field and give you some general tips to help your file designs work better for you.

I don't like having to constantly write the same thing over and over again, so I am a huge fan of stamps.  I have several of them on my desk; some are pre-made and some are custom stamps.  They're very handy and easy to use, but the one thing that I don't like about them is that they take up so much room on my desk.  I used to have a tray that held some of my smaller stamps, but it only fit one size of stamp, so the others still had to sit somewhere on my desk.

Ruth to the Rescue!

(Sorry - if you're not from the Detroit area, you won't get that.)

Meet Stamp Stack®.

Maintaining filing systems can eat up a good portion of your budget.  You need more folders, more tabs, more tab inserts, more interior folders, more labels for the interior folders etc.  Everyone has their own preferences for how they like their filing system set up - I know I do.  Are you a tabber or a labeler?  How do you recycle your file folders?

Buying more of the hanging folder tabs and the inserts to go with them can add up if you have a large or very active filing system.  Likewise, file folder labels can be expensive - they can run between $5 and $35 depending on what kind and what size package you choose.  You can avoid those expenses with erasable file folders - they are available in both hanging file folders and interior folders and they can really save time and money. 

We all want to save money on things we buy and if you're the company's purchasing person, it's your job to save money.  You are always looking for ways to cut costs yet maintain operating efficiency. The popular saying is "Work smarter, not harder."  Well, that applies to your budget and purchases too - buy smarter!

Today I am offering my top 5 ways to save money on office supplies.  I'm not going to divulge some great heretofore unknown secret of the office products universe - they're mostly just common sense - but you really can save a lot if you follow these simple rules:

Recently, I was learned of a unique charity called Gabe's My Heart and a program that it offers called Gabe's Chemo Duck Program™.  I want to share this story with you because I'm certain that you will be as touched by it as I was.

Gabe's My Heart is a nonprofit organization that was founded by Lu Sipos, whose son, Gabe, was diagnosed with cancer just one week before his first birthday.  As she and her husband struggled to deal with their own emotions, Lu tried to find some way to help Gabe. Her beautiful boy endured nine months of chemotherapy treatments, radiation and numerous surgeries during his first two years of life.  Lu came up with the idea for Chemo Duck Program as a way to give Gabe a companion that could provide comfort to him  as well as help him understand his illness.

Part of any company’s budget is cleaning and janitorial supplies – also referred to as Jan/San.  Every business needs to put forth a neat, professional appearance for its customers as well as handling normal sanitation like cleaning restrooms and kitchens. 

Even if you outsource the major part to a cleaning company, you still need basic supplies like toilet tissue, facial tissue, dish soap and paper towel and those items can take a bite out of your budget.  We can help you tame that budget with our large selection of jan/san products.  “Office products” used to be just items like pens, pencils and paper, but times have changed and the office products industry now includes so much more than only those types of items.

I was asked to write a blog on a furniture topic and I thought about it for a while, trying to decide what to write about.  I thought about all the questions I've taken from customers over the years and one thing popped right into my mind - chairmats.  Perhaps not the most riveting topic out there, but a necessary one I think.  I've worked in customer service for many years and I've lost track of the number of times I've explained how to choose a chairmat.  

Bring your pooch to work and let him enjoy all the attention your co-workers can shower on him. Your co-workers will benefit as well because research shows that petting a dog reduces stress - and we all have tons of stress at work, right?  (You know I'm right - even if you don't want to admit it.  Wait til your boss walks away and then you can say yes.)

 Post a pic of your furry friend and tell us a little bit about him.  

• That the ballpoint pen was invented in 1899 in Budapest by a journalist who got the idea from watching a child roll a marble through a puddle?
• An American version debuted in New York City in 1945, for $12.50 each.  Gimbel's Department store sold over $100,000 in pens that day.  

If you are in the medical industry, chances are that you buy your office supplies from an office supply dealer and your medical-specific supplies from someone else.  Did you know that you can get many of your medical items from us also?

We carry a large assortment of items for the medical industry - from first aid supplies, to masks, to exam room supplies (yes!), to diagnostic equipment like aneroids and percussion hammers, to waste containers and hospital grade cleaning supplies including brands like Sani-cloth, Dymon, Metrex and Beaumont Products. We have furniture, medical labels, exam room status signals, Sharps containers, wheelchairs - the list goes on.

What do you do with all the papers you use daily?  If you're like most people, they go a) in a file folder, b) in a desktop tray or sorter or c) in a ring binder.  And if you chose "c'"  what do you do when one of the 3 holes in the paper rips?  Righteo - you apply one of those little adhesive reinforcement labels so you won't lose the paper.

Some of you may have seen this already, but I wanted to share this for those who haven't.  This story appeared in the May 13 edition of the Detroit News and is also on Facebook.  

This is an amazing story about an incredibly generous man named Dan Dewey, from Gingerville, MI, who for the past 9 years has provided free Starbucks coffee to the staff and chemo patients at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Michigan Cancer Institute, Royal Oak Beaumont Rose Cancer Center and CARE House of Oakland County.   

If your company uses name badges for the employees - and if you are the person responsible for ordering them - this article should interest you.  Ordering custom name badges is easy once you have the basics picked out - which color(s), which font, which frame, etc.  After you've made those decisions, it just a matter of providing the name that goes on them. 

I've been discussing organization off and on and today I'm going to briefly touch on the topic of labeling.  When I say labeling, the first thing that probably pops into your mind is file folders and there is a multitude of products on the market to assist you with labeling your file folders.  You can buy labels that can be used in a typewriter or labels that go through your office printer or copier.  There are white labels or colored labels, etc.  We all know about those labels and you're probably not interested in reading another article about them, but just hear me out.

This is a subject that is close to my heart and I want to share it with you.  Even if your company is not in the Detroit area, you can still help in your own community by organizing a similar project.

Jared Martin, an Eagle Scout candidate from Boy Scout Troop 1707 in Troy is hosting a pet adoption event, which he is calling No More Homeless Pets, this Saturday, April 18th, at the Animal Welfare Society of Southeastern Michigan.  He is also collecting donations (both monetary and goods) for the shelter.  

If I were to take a survey and ask consumers why they laminate, the most popular answers would be what we call the 3 P's of lamination:

• Protection
• Presentation
• Preservation

In case you've missed all the hubbub, there is a lot of conversation going on right now about how environmentally unfriendly K-cups are.  It is a valid point - the plastic is not biodegradable or recyclable (in the traditional sense) and they just end up in a landfill. According to a March 2, 2015 article by James Hamblin, published in The Atlantic, in 2014 enough K-cups were sold that if placed end-to-end, they would circle the globe somewhere between 10.5 and 12 times.

Do your reports look polished and professional?  Do you have crisp, vibrant pie charts and pictures?  Does your boss compliment you on the great job you did putting it together?

If not, the solution may be as simple as changing the paper that you print it on.   Standard copy paper is good for black and white, everyday-type reports, but documents printed in color look best on paper that is designed specifically for color printing.   Color copy paper is heavier, extra bright and ultra smooth.  It offers a better surface for the toner to adhere to and, therefore, creates better quality images.

I'd like to take a moment to congratulate one of our customers, Helena Powers, on her retirement.  Helena works for the Detroit chapter of the Society of St. Vincent DePaul and one of her duties is the office supply purchasing.

In case you haven't heard, Staples has announced that it is buying the newly minted Office Depot/OfficeMax company for an estimated 6 billion dollars.  The new company is expected to generate sales of 39 billion annually.