Save your business's bottom line and don't buy this.

With all the regulations changing and the economy really shifting to an Ecommerce based economy we had to change with it.  I have seen a ton of opportunities and some of that takes extra revenue to do.  Our company found a way to do it but we had to cut back on some things.  The change for me has been to take over some of these tasks and to source a lot of materials for our company and how we are going to go about making these changes actually valuable to us.  The whole goal of the move was to save money and to allocate those extra savings into doing either more marketing or simply to pay salaries if things start to get a little dicy.  Even in 2021, I have seen some of our own partners affected. Cutting back on some things allowed us to save some money, so I have jumped into saving and expanding our company.

Marketing is key and so much cost is lost here for many companies.  We were one. Gift boxes are something we use all the time both for marketing and then also for some goodwill with our clients as well. These two areas though set us apart from much of our competition and skimping on the quality of either of these areas was not going to be worth the savings if we did not do these areas correctly.  Don't reinvent the wheel when it is already working well. So I went back to see what we had done and recreated it from the past marketing work.  That makes the most sense to me.

It took some time to really break down all the different pieces we would need and the quantities.  I knew what I needed and had to get the right amount of direct mailing and gift boxes created at a certain cost. These two tasks had a lot of individuals pieces involved and the fact is that I needed more information on packaging supplies to understand what I actually needed to do. Learning can take time and that also costs money.

Finding professionals that can help is key.  It also helps when they don't cost much money besides your time.  Online packaging supplies companies were my answer and it saved us big time.  What I actually found was that their customer service was basically a marketing team all on their own because they had created all of these things thousands of times for massive clients through the decades.  I got all the items lists fulfilled and customized and was given tips on tape to use and ways to lower costs by getting the correct items and not the off-the-shelf ones that we see at big box stores. This company took me through the behind-the-scenes look at what major corporate gifting marketing companies are doing and we were able to buy the same things we used before at a fifty percent discounted rate.  I used this for all our other products and boom, we saved a ton of money.

 Information was key and I would not have been able to do it if it was not available.  So think about this and try to apply it to your own company if you can. It can save thousands.  

Keep Your Home Clean and Recycle Wisely

We saw some huge changes last year.  Most of the world economy took a big dive and our State shutdown most foot traffic-based businesses.  It happened all over the county.  The shutting down of much of the United States Economy and the forced purchasing from online or nowhere has really made an impact on how we shop.  ECommerce is huge now and it really has blown up.  I personally have made over double the purchases I normally do online in a given year and I see that percentage increasing as time goes by.  The fact is though that I am also receiving a crazy amount of boxes in my home each and every week and I am having trouble getting rid of them.  Boxes are all over my home and garage and I want to talk about how I get rid of them and recycle them as best I can.

If you take together every family ordering all of these boxes and not recycling, that really adds up.  Not only will the cost of shipping increase but likely the landfills and sustainability of the industry will be limited unless we as a whole actually make a difference in the amount of cardboard used on a daily basis in this country. Morally I am a fan of recycling and if we all pitch in shipping costs will go down for all of us too!

The home does not need to be filled with trash.  So getting them out is key and doing it wisely is just good.  This is much easier said than done and as of a few years ago, I would have thought this was all a joke.  But a few months ago I looked in my garage and the boxes had piled in the corner to the ceiling because I couldn't get them in the trash each week.  I am not one to tear a box down with my bare hands so I found I could only toss away a few each month into the cans provided for me.  I know that recycling can be hard.  My own town does not allow my trash company to put out more than one can to do it in.  So my goal is to make that work for me and my family.  

After a lot of time I will cut to the chase.  Cutting the boxes down to fit in the can is the only way to actually allow me to get rid of them all each week.  WIth me getting 10 to 15 sets of packaging supplies and boxes in each week I needed to find a good way to eliminate them without hurting myself and especially my hands.  Scissors were just not a good idea and caused blisters and I am not able to tear them down so I ended up with a knife. No, it is not unsafe or over-kill.  It is the best tool for the job.  It is that simple. 

Getting a nice and sharp fixed blade knife was safe and kept me from getting injured.  I always cut away from myself and used gloves.  I kept a sharpener nearby so I could sharpen the blade if it got too dull.  That allowed me to be safer because I was not over-pressuring cuts.  I got all the boxes into the can each week from that point out. Do not fear, just be smart and enjoy.