Marketing Essentials
The Outstanding Benefits
of Staff Volunteering

In The Printshop
What We Don't Use...

Eco-Values
Free Up Office Space:
How to Recycle
Office Electronics

Inside Coastal Printing
Staff Volunteering: Animal Lovers
& Renewable Energy Efforts

January 30, 2009

Dear Customers & Friends,

We hope this note finds your new year off to a good start, and the regular onslaught of precipitation hasn't prevented you from enjoying the upside of all this snow!

In December the Cunningham home “enjoyed” the adventure of living without electricity for a week, as so many families did. Linda Cunningham, in particular, enjoyed living off the grid. Our generator required judicious use of the available electricity so conveniences were limited, but we were reminded of what we can, in fact, live without. The lesson was appreciated.

Since our last newsletter, though the world changed considerably, there is optimism in the snowy winter air. It’s reasonable to believe that business revitalization is around the corner. In the meantime, we are offering a healthy 20% discount on all business cards in January. There is a 1 order per customer limit, and a 500 card minimum.

We also want to let you know that we understand the financial holding pattern our customers are facing currently. To that end, please review your printed materials. If you have delayed printing necessary items due to expense concerns, know that for the first quarter we are discounting our services. Call us promptly for adjusted pricing on your re-orders. Stock up. Also consider having Coastal provide discounted quotes on items we may not have printed for you in the past: office forms, brochures and large format posters to name a few. You have everything to gain by requesting a free estimate. Call me please.

And for our last plug: a reminder that graphics and marketing staff can design eye-catching materials that will increase your visibility at this time when your business needs to be competitive.

Here's to a quick recovery!

Best regards, Scott Cunningham

Marketing Essentials by I. Cann

Lending Staff To Volunteer in Your Community: The Benefits Are Outstanding!

It might be too obvious to suggest that this is a great time to lend yourself and your staff to charity events in your community. After all, they all need the help like never before. But if you feel this form of Corporate Social Responsibility is less than relevant because you believe that you can’t spare the resources, consider the economic and social benefits.

"Despite the growing pressure on resources which many small and medium-sized businesses face, an employer supported volunteering program can bring considerable benefits. Companies with employer supported volunteering programs find that:

• employees are proud to work for them
• potential employees want to join them
• customers feel good about buying from them
• partners want to work with them
• investors want to invest in them
• local strategic partners welcome them to their area.

Whether as a company you support existing volunteering or develop your own program, employer supported volunteering can bring benefits to the company, the employee and the community. It is a win-win situation.” (Volunteering.org.uk)

And the challenges addressed in the process of volunteering, outside of the comfort zone of the workplace, result in lessons staff can apply back at the business. "Skills-based volunteering, in particular, can give younger employees a chance to develop their management, teamwork, communication and leadership skills, as well as their technical skills." Explains said Evan Hochberg, National Director of Community Involvement, Deloitte Services LP (from the Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire). Realizing that the current economy necessitates the most versatile, creative and strong personnel you can muster, why not let community volunteering represent a free training opportunity for your business?

Be an inspiration in your community!

Having your business represented in the public through its volunteer efforts reaps rewards that standard advertising can not. The news media, in particular, wants to tell these encouraging stories. It is publicity that places your business in the best light. Help them to publicize/post your volunteer activities by letting them know about events a couple of weeks in advance. Assign someone in your company to serve as a regular contact for the regional newspapers’ community and business news, and calendar editors.

For more information about the usefulness of news media publicity, please visit the Coastal Printing Summer Newsletter ’08. Our upcoming Spring '09 Newsletter will take a fair look at the usefulness of Online Media and Social Media as a means to build business.

How do you find volunteer opportunities?

The states in Coastal Printing, Inc's, service area, MA, ME and NH, all coordinate volunteer programming. Massachusetts has a very useful site, Volunteer Solutions, where you can look up current opportunities by month. Volunteer Maine and Volunteer NH are similarly excellent regional resources. For strictly local volunteer opportunities, peruse the local newspaper. The calendar section provides insight into community needs. Typically, community centers, senior centers and homeless shelters are in constant need of action based support, including light construction, assistance with tax filings and other both low and high skill support (phone before dropping in while these organizations may have client privacy issues, as is usually the case with shelters). There are also environmental opportunities. The non-profit Coastal Trails organization always appreciates volunteers. Spring trail cleanup is an excellent short term labor event that will afford your staff a natural environment for a welcome change of scenery and a little exercise.

VolunteerSpot is FREE for Everything you Coordinate: Food drives; Adopt-a-Spot; Park clean-ups, etc.

The average contemporary business engages several computer systems; including monitors, printers, keyboards and more. They too often become obsolete within only a few short years as technology improves exponentially. Produced from metals, plastics and glass, the components lay around the workplace, in or out of sight, as storage space dictates. They aren't, in any good conscience, thrown out with the trash knowing that they can be reused or at least dismantled and recycled (additionally, it illegal to dispose of CRT computer monitors and televisions).

Good news. A variety of means to reuse or recycle computer system components has surfaced in recent years. Both: profit and non-profit organizations are available to rid you of these office eyesores. The charges for the components' removal (or local drop off as the case might be) range from no charge to several dollars per item.

In the free-of-charge column is Goodwill Industries. In partnership with Dell, the Goodwill Store at 2454 Lafayette Rd in Portsmouth, NH (603-430-2040) is accepting donations of new and used computers from both businesses and individuals. This is a brand new program and you may the first to be hearing about it. I understand that they are collecting items already, though publicity of the program is just getting started.

For the small business who has just a few obsolete components wasting space, retail operations such as the Office Depot charge individuals a small fee for an empty box, which can be filled "to the hilt" and then dropped off at one of their stores. The MA DEP lists additional retail programs. You may be surprised to see the variety of items that will be recycled for free!

For the larger cache of electronics, CRT Recycling will pick up your collection of electronic items for $150. Each television in the mix costs a bit extra, but CRT's list of what they will accept includes printers and various audio/video electronics. If you know a school that could benefit from a fundraiser, note that CRT Recycling will coordinate a community drop off event at the school, remove the components for free (with few exceptions) and leave the school-determined fees for drop off to the school.

Before you rid your office of the unused computers, please take the steps necessary to protect your identity and your company's proprietary information. Eradicate the information on the hard drives. Microsoft offers useful information about donating computers that includes a list of free disc cleaning software. One of them is Active@ Kill Disk - Hard Drive Eraser 5.0, and can be accessed at download.com

We are conscientious about our use of paper products. We recycle all the paper waste remaining from our printing work, as well as cardboard. Along with soy-based inks, the printshop floor is increasingly green. This makes everyone happy.

Can you use our leftovers?

We still end up with paper products we can't use - but maybe you can. We have both clean, bound white paper notes pads (5" x 9") and peel-off-back stickers; perfect mail and storage box labeling. Please visit Coastal Printing and take home a handful or a boxful.

We remember the '80's

There is leased office space available in our main business home, Coastal Business Park, at 15 Main Street in Salisbury, MA. Please call Scott (978-465-2607) to discuss flexible layout options with recession-buster incentives to ease your stress. A modern building, its location is also very convenient. A literal stone's throw from Seabrook and minutes from Routes 95, 495 and 1, the building is a host to several services useful to local business, including telecommunications, property management, therapeutic massage, marketing, graphic design and wide format printing!