Smart Saving With Outsourcing

Two of the biggest resources that fuel a business in its drive for success are time and money. Wasted time and money are the biggest drains on any business’ energy. It is no wonder that businesses will cover great lengths to increase productivity, efficiency, and to minimize lost work time. Budget concerns are always on the front burner when it comes to business management.

But one of the greatest resources that is sometimes overlooked as one of the major factors of success in any business is the people that make it possible: the staff. People talk about wasted time and energy all the time, but they rarely take a close look at how wasting talent, time, and energy of an employee is as significant as wasting the lifeblood of your business. Though it is harder to quantify than dollars and cents, it only makes good sense to look at your employees as the most important resource in your business.

Businesses today seem to be most interested in cutting corners in every department to save money. And when it comes to handling all their work-related tasks in-house, most business owners fall victim to the idea that by handling things without outside partnerships, both time and money will be saved, while the opposite may actually be more accurate. The burden of doing everything yourself can be both stressful and highly resource-intensive.

Handling mundane working tasks in a self-contained manner can have significant effects on your business flow. Trying to do everything in-house does a variety of things. It splits your business focus, requires a significant amount of expertise in multiple areas outside your business core competencies, and wastes precious time and money while you outfit your business to handle all things on your own.

Let’s look at the process of printing and mailing as an example. An owner of a dry cleaning business called Pop’s Dry Cleaning has both large and small clients such as huge restaurant tablecloths and uniforms to launder, and individual laundry and dry cleaning to handle as well. They have client accounts for both individual and large businesses alike. People and businesses can drop off their laundry on a Monday and pick it up on Friday without ever getting out their wallets. Their accounts are updated weekly with their orders and they are sent monthly bills that they can send one check in to cover their entire month of service.

Pop’s also produces a monthly newsletter with coupons, daily discounts, and sales events, so that when people receive their monthly fees, they get updates and offers as well. Between the newsletter and all the client bills to be updated, Pop’s employees are busy 7 days a week. Since it is a family-based business, Pop’s wife, daughter, son, and their kids’ in-laws all work together to make the owner-operated establishment a success while serving their local community. The family works hard and rarely ever has time off together as a family except for major holidays such as Christmas.

Pop’s wife, Peg handles accounts and all the printing and mailing for the business. She’s over 60 years old and has been handling it for the business for decades. She literally works 6 days a week and about 12 hours a day each day. In addition to doing the books, she greets customers, handles each and every invoice, all the client bills, and creates and sends the monthly newsletter.

Peg still physically prints each client’s bill, folds it by hand, puts it in the envelope, handwrites the envelope and adds the postage to each one before driving the batch to the post office each month. She and Pop have over 1,000 loyal customers who love them for both their dry cleaning perfection and their kind personalities. But, Peg spends almost all of her time in the back room working on her accounts, rather than getting to spend the precious time with the clients that love her. As a result, Pop has to keep the front counter staffed with his daughter and daughter-in-law while he and his son work the backroom handling the laundering.

Let’s imagine now when the daughter-in-law becomes pregnant and is going to have to leave work for a few months after the birth of Pop and Peg’s first grandchild. The front counter will be left with only one person handling the drop off and pickups. Pop and Peg might be forced to hire a part-time worker to cover the front counter, which will be a significant drain on resources, training, and onboarding.

They’ve invested in new printers almost every year, stock the back room with paper, ink, envelopes, stamps, etc. It takes up a huge percentage of their storeroom. And takes a long time for Peg to accomplish each month.

Now imagine if Pop’s partnered with a professional specialty printing and mailing company. They would be able to eliminate the stash of printing and mailing supplies. Peg would be able to handle customers at the counter and reap the benefits of all that face time with her clients. The business would not need to hire an additional worker for the front when employees need to take leave. They would free up all of Peg’s current hours that she spends on the bill printing and mailing. The savings in time, money, and energy is tremendous. Not to mention the benefit the customers have by having time to interact with someone that has been one of the faces of the business for so many years.

All of the savings go right back into the business. And the small price of outsourcing the printing and mailing with a third-party specialist company such as Towne Mailer cannot possibly compare to the cost of labor, time, money in equipment, and energy that Peg spends now.

Increase Business Flow

Partnering with a third party bill printing and mailing company helps any business to increase flow of energy. By eliminating all the busy work, the drudgery, and the mundane tasks such as bill printing and mailing, a business sees an increase in focus on core competencies, and a revitalization of business practices that lead to greater efficiency. The workflow is better managed when you outsource non-critical or fringe business practices.

Relieve Stress

The stress relief to the business can be dramatic. Peg is free to handle clients, and a significant amount of her job is lifted when Pop’s Dry Cleaning partners with Towne Mailer. The amount of hours, time, and energy that is saved is almost immeasurable. Stress decreases and business flow increases. What a relief!

Who is Towne Mailer?

Towne Mailer is a locally owned and operated specialty bill printing and mailing company located in Missoula, MT. We started as a small, local mom and pop store almost 20 years ago. Over the last two decades, we’ve grown into a 7,000 square foot state-of-the-art printing and mailing company that serves clients all around the country.

It is so easy to turn over bill printing and mailing to a printing and mailing expert such as Towne Mailer. The process is fast, simple, and effective. Let’s look at how Peg would handle their 1,000 bills each month when she outsources Pop’s monthly bill printing and mailing with Towne Mailer.

Peg updates all the client bills and prepared them to be uploaded to Towne Mailer’s online portal. With the click of a button, her files are sent directly and securely to Towne Mailer. Before she even finishes her emails, we are receiving her documents and getting them ready to print. If any formatting is needed to create a more professional presentation, we at Towne Mailer do so before sending a proof.

One of our customer service specialists sends the proof document of the print layout and quality to Peg. Once she approves it, we quickly run the 1,000 bills to be printed, folded, and stuffed into the envelopes to be mailed within 24 hours of approval. They are sent and received within a couple of days by Pop’s clients. The quality, speed, and efficiency of the process are elevated considerably and Pop sees bills being paid faster and with more consistency than ever before.

Small businesses need all the help they can get in today’s business climate. We at Towne Mailer make it our mission to help small businesses to save time, money, and energy when they partner with us for their bill printing and mailing. We excel at every part of the process from customer communication, training, to our expert layouts and beautiful print quality. And our speed and efficiency at mailing in a timely manner is unparalleled in the industry.

We at Towne Mailer consider ourselves to be your partner in business. Our commitment to quality and service is an asset to you and your customers alike. Partnering with us by outsourcing your bill printing and mailing will save you time, energy, and even money. But most importantly, it will better the lives of those who work with you, your greatest resource: your employees. Call us today for your no-obligation quote.