123Print's Tips for Your Small Business

20Oct 2011 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

Infographic: Anatomy of the Perfect Mobile Email

Expert Advice, Marketing Info, Small Business, Small Business Lounge, Technology News

So we've covered email etiquette and words that may potentially toss your email into the spam folder, but let's venture into a new territory, shall we? One that some people seem hesitant to get into because it's so open and vast, so fresh and new... but it's becoming more and more necessary. Mobile email. With the iPhone and Android phones dominating the market more and more, people are putting away their flip-phones and investing in a smart phone, which means they can read their email while standing in line for a ride at Disney World. While they're waiting for their dinner to be brought out to them they can check their email and compose one with a few quick clicks of the keyboard. Whenever there is some down time, people…

19Oct 2011 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

Steve’s Corner – Small Businesses: Are You Mobile? PT 2

Expert Advice, From 123Print's President, Marketing Info, Small Business, Small Business Lounge

Smart devices are taking over! Get used to it. What are doing about it? How are you taking advantage of it? Comscore, a leader in measuring the digital world, just released a mobile usage study stating that 7% of all U.S digital traffic is now coming from smart phones and tablets. This is just an amazing transformation for connecting with your customers. With this information, we need to ask ourselves What is driving this growth? Increased WiFi availability ½ of the U.S. mobile population uses mobile media (Defined as those that browse the mobile web, access applications or download content) iPads dominate among tablets in driving digital traffic – iPads delivered 97.2% of tablet traffic. WOW! 50% of users made a purchase on their tablets Tablets are social devices Consumers…

18Oct 2011 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

Sharing is Good – Especially When You Get Something Out of It!

Everything Else, Expert Advice, Fun and Humor, Small Business, Wedding & Family

If you’ve been reading along with us for any length of time you’ve probably already realized, and if you’re new around here you’re about to realize, that we don’t tend to get wrapped up in talking about sales or promotions on the 123Print Blog. But every now and again there are some things that are so swanky we just can’t resist letting you in on them. The swank-o-meter goes up another notch when an opportunity for you to profit is involved. This, my friend, is one of those times! The level of chatter from the number crunching and bean-counting half of the marketing department was getting louder and louder and for once it wasn’t “forecast this” and “analysis that.” That meant one thing and one thing only – something big…

17Oct 2011 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

10 Trick-or-Treat Safety Tips

Everything Else, Wedding & Family, Wedding Lounge

Halloween is a time for costumes, fun and gorging yourself on candy. Being that it’s exactly two weeks until Halloween, you’ve probably seen an influx of Halloween party invitations show up in your mailbox, but most children look forward to trick-or-treat more than a party. When I was still young enough to trick-or-treat, (and wow it's been awhile since it was socially acceptable for me to dawn a costume and ask strangers for candy) I was that kid who wasn't allowed to eat any of the candy until my parents inspected every single piece. Growing up, I never understood this. I thought my parents were paranoid and being overly protective. I was naive (like all small children) and didn't understand why or how anyone could harm children via candy. It…

14Oct 2011 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

Looking for Inspiration? Climb Out of Your Familiar Rut

Everything Else, Expert Advice, Small Business

It happens to the best of us. We start out in our adult lives and careers wide-eyed, excited and eager to take in as much as we can; we’re hungry to try new things, we tackle challenges of all sorts and do what we can to forge ahead and grow in whatever it is we do. And grow we do. Along the way, as we grow, we refine our expectations and we focus – often leading to some level of success that comes pre-packaged with some level of comfort. We settle in, we settle down and before we know it we’ve gone from being bold, innovative, forward-thinking and creative to, well, being lame and out of touch – successful perhaps at a handful of highly focused things – but lame…

13Oct 2011 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

7 Ways to Avoid Getting Sick at Work

Everything Else, Family Lounge, Small Business, Small Business Lounge

Oh October in Maryland. I welcome you with open arms. The cooler air, being able to see my breath for a little bit in the morning, the leaves starting to turn colors, pumpkin beverages from the local and national coffee shops... there's so much about you that I love. What's that? You're ushering in flu season as well? Well October, for as lovely as you can be you sure can be a total buzz kill. As I write this, I find myself starting to sniffle. Someone just walked past my cube and sneezed. I didn't see if they covered their mouth or not. I hope they did. Panic is ensuing. I need to get my yearly flu shot. Better make an appointment with either my doctor or one of the…

12Oct 2011 by Cindy Berrier 1 Comment

Top 9 Email Pet Peeves and How to Avoid Them

Everything Else, Expert Advice, Fun and Humor, Small Business

Email – it may not play a huge role in your personal life any longer, but in the workplace it still reigns supreme despite the fact that it’s really about as arcane as passing memos around the office in manila envelopes. If you’re anything the folks here at 123Print you get a ton of email from colleagues and eventually it’s bound to happen. Certain common things people do in, and with, email is going to grate on your nerves! Before you snap and do something that’s going to land you on the evening news – and not in a good way – because you just can’t take seeing another cutesy animated graphic in someone’s signature line understand that it’s not their fault. Blame it on ever-relaxing workplace atmospheres or people…

11Oct 2011 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

9 Credit Card Apps You Need to Check Out

Expert Advice, Marketing Info, Small Business, Small Business Lounge, Technology News

[caption id="attachment_833" align="alignleft" width="240"] http://www.flickr.com/photos/tronman[/caption] This past weekend was Thurmont, Maryland's 48th Annual Catoctin Colorfest. What's Colorfest you may be wondering? It's one weekend in October where hundreds of crafters (generally from all over the East Coast) come to display and sell their creations. It's something the entire town looks forward to and gets involved in. When the weather is nice (much like it was this past weekend) the streets are filled with people and there are long lines to purchase just about anything. I've lived in Thurmont for the last 23 years. I've probably attended Colorfest 18 out of those 23 years, so I've seen how it's changed over the years. A lot of the same vendors still come year after year, new food venders have been popping up, and some of the crafts now…

10Oct 2011 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

10 Ways to Improve the Quality and Visibility of Your Linkedin Profile

Everything Else, Expert Advice, Marketing Info, Small Business, Small Business Lounge

When partners, co-workers or potential employers search for your name, what social profile would you prefer them to see? If you’re a small business owner or white-collar professional; chances are you’d prefer them to see your Linkedin profile. Why? Because it’s real! You can’t fake a good Linkedin profile. These tips and suggestions should be used with Linkedin’s suggestions to get your profile to 100% completeness. Here are 10 relatively easy things you can do to improve the quality and visibility of your Linkedin profile: 1. Use a professional-looking photo. You don’t necessarily need to pay for a professional portrait. Almost everyone has a friend who is a part-time photographer or someone who can take a decent picture. And you should at least…

07Oct 2011 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

Dance Down the Aisle to Wedding Bliss

Fun and Humor, Wedding & Family, Wedding Lounge

One of my youngest sisters (I have two) recently got engaged, and I think my other sister and myself are contemplating what the wedding will be like more than the engaged sister. The engaged sister isn't super girly and is incredibly laid back, but she can also be a control freak. She has to have everything a certain way, and I am 96% sure that trying to find the perfect wedding ensemble is going to be what takes the longest. That's not to say that that is a bad thing. I've yet to be engaged so all of my opinions on wedding planning are based solely off of my friends planning their weddings, and wedding shows on TLC. It seems to me (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong)…