Is your business reaching its full potential? When a prospective customer rings you and asks for a product that’s not within your standard services, do you turn them away?

One easy way to grow your business is to expand the goods or services you offer. You might be reluctant to do this because of the high costs of equipment or obtaining the necessary skill set. However outsourcing can be the perfect solution.

Just like using IBS for printed items, you can partner with signage companies, companies that sell promotional items, website builders, and any other businesses that can supply what your customers need. Building strong relationships with suppliers can also help you if they refer business your way as well.

As the media begins to report a more positive economic outlook, now is the time to grow and prepare for a huge 2010 – as it will be here before we know it!

Till next month,

The team at IBS Design Resources

Friday 28 August is a local public holiday for the Gold Coast Show. Please be aware that we will close at 5pm on Thursday 27 August and reopen for business on Monday 31 August.

We recommend you advise your customers that this closure will impact on their jobs’ turnaround times.

As you may already be aware, last week we launched a new product – sample sets. These sets have been designed to help you highlight the difference between our products and those that your prospects may be looking at from other suppliers. We have received a few questions about the contents of the set, so we thought we’d let you know exactly what’s included in the $515:

100 x A4 letterhead
100 x DL with compliments slips
5 x 25 leaf A4 notepads
5 x 25 leaf A5 notepads
5 x 25 leaf DL notepads
5 x 25 leaf tiny notepads
100 x uncoated 310gsm business cards
100 x uncoated 420gsm business cards
100 x matt 420gsm business cards
100 x gloss 420gsm business cards
100 x uncoated 310gsm bookmarks
100 x gloss 420gsm swing tags
100 x uncoated 420gsm slimline business cards
100 x matt 420gsm folding business cards
100 x uncoated 310gsm 1/2 DL greeting cards
100 x uncoated 420gsm A6 postcards
100 x gloss 420gsm A6 greeting cards
100 x matt 420gsm DL greeting cards
100 x uncoated 420gsm DL postcards
100 x gloss 420gsm magnetic DL calendars
100 x gloss 420gsm A5 mailers
100 x uncoated 310gsm sumo mailers
100 x matt 420gsm Metallic DLs
100 x uncoated 420gsm Extras DLs

Plus the two acrylic stands, stickers to put on the stands and set up instructions.

Click here to see an example of the generic artwork. These samples are completely unbranded. Please note that we have placed generic blue business cards at the front of our photo – you will obviously put your own cards in these spare slots.

Sample sets can be ordered by emailing your payment plan form and delivery address to samples@ibscards.com.au or call us for more information.

Most people would have heard that the best customer is a referral. It is for this reason that referral programs have been adopted by companies all over the world. While most businesses use referral programs to encourage new customers, I have worked for a company that paid its staff for referred employees. So there really is a variety of applications.

Today though, we’re going to focus on how referral programs can help you gain more customers, and how customer feedback can help you keep current ones. The idea behind referral programs is simple: in return for recommending to someone that they use a particular company’s services or buy their products, you receive a reward from that company.

To implement a referral program, you’re going to need one of two things. Either notepads containing referral forms, which your current customers fill out and pass on to you to follow up, or special business cards which they pass on to prospects. Then you just need to ensure you reward your customers that do pass on referrals. A good way to do this is by issuing a discount on their next order, or giving a gift. Like competition prizes, if you can make the reward something that you produce, you can reduce the cost of the activity.

Customer feedback can also help guide your business in keeping customers. A simple feedback form, printed in a notepad format, can help keep you aware of issues or potential opportunities.

By combining a referral program and customer feedback, you have the chance to show your valued customers that you’re listening to their concerns and suggestions, and asking them to pass on the good word about your business. The result should be more happy customers for your business!

To help you launch your referral program, we are offering 15% off all notepads ordered between 1 and 30 September. Simply quote ‘15% OFF’ in the subject line of your email when sending your order and artwork to receive this offer.

If you’ve ever looked up business cards on YouTube, you would have seen some interesting assessments on what makes the best business card. While it’s impossible to judge what makes a card the best, as everyone has different requirements, one thing is certain: folding business cards can provide you with that point of difference.

Perforated folding business cards
For some companies, such as those in retail or hospitality, it makes sense to use a folding business card. There’s double the space for starters, which means a list of products and their prices can be included. Plus, by adding a perforation, customers can redeem a discount or offer, without losing the details of the company. What a simple, yet very effective idea!

Did you know that the reason IBS’ turnaround time is averaged at around 5 working days is linked to our popularity? At any particular point in time, perhaps at around 9:00am on a Tuesday, for example, we will be juggling several runs in different stages of production. For instance, a run may have just finished being cut by our finishing team and the despatch girls are packing for their imminent sending. Another run is drying after being printed, while another two runs are being put together by our pre-press staff for plating later in the day. All this means that when you send through a job to be printed, while it is booked in and placed on a run in a very short amount of time, there are already other jobs queued up in the process of being produced. This is why it takes approximately 5 working days to turn our jobs around – we’re just so busy!

In fact, in an average month we print approximately 7,000,000 business cards. That's almost 1,750,000 per week!

Importantly, this also means when you request a job to be processed urgently, due to the process involved in printing a job and the jobs already in production, even though we may immediately book your job onto a run, you may not receive it any faster than our average turnaround time.

If you’re interested in finding out exactly how our production system works, feel free to give us a call.

Only a few days remain for you to place your financial year calendar orders… So Click here to see the fabulous range, including the new A4 desk calendars on our ‘Stationery Class 100’ stock.

Order before 31 August to enjoy these great prices!