123Print's Tips for Your Small Business

08Sep 2011 by Cindy Berrier 19 Comments

You Are Cordially Invited…to Scan This QR Code

[caption id="attachment_450" align="alignleft" width="132" caption="Bet You Can't Guess Where This Will Take You!"][/caption] By now just about everyone has seen those funky little white squares with random patterns of black speckles and dots. They're on web sites, on coupons, in ads and on packages. They're called quick response, or QR, codes. Because nearly any kind of data or information, including links to websites and even online maps, can be encoded on them and most any recently-made smartphone with a camera and the proper app can decode them; they're taking the world by storm. What's even cooler is that with a quick search for "QR Code generator" you can find a plethora of free tools to make your own QR codes that can be imported into anything you can drop a picture into! Some folks…

06Sep 2011 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

Harry Potter and the Elaborate Wizard Wedding

Everything Else, Wedding & Family, Wedding Lounge

Here at 123Print, I am the resident Harry Potter nerd. I take great pride in this title, despite the fact that I turn about 1000 shades of red whenever it’s mentioned. In case you’ve been living under a rock the very last Harry Potter film (Deathly Hallows Part 2) came out in July and has made approximately $500 billion. That number is only slightly exaggerated. As a diehard Potter fan, knowing that there is no longer anything Potter related to look forward to was quite depressing. I figured I’d look forward to taking my long-awaited pilgrimage to the Holy Land for Potter fans, Universal Studio’s The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but then after that it would just be waiting for Deathly Hallows Part 2 to be released on DVD.…

29Aug 2011 by Cindy Berrier 11 Comments

Wedding Stationery Give Away Winner Announced!

Everything Else, Wedding & Family, Wedding Lounge

We’d like to offer a big CONGRATULATIONS KIMBERLY HULSEY of AUSTIN, TEXAS Kimberly recently won our huge wedding stationery give away, and was awarded $1000 in wedding stationery and accessories from 123Print! Not to toot our own horn or anything, but $1000 will get you pretty far at 123Print. We pride ourselves on offering the very best at a price you can afford, so with that in mind… what in the world could Kimberly even spend her $1000 on? Glad you asked! First, the most obvious purchase - wedding invitations. Plan accordingly. Decide how many people you’re inviting and purchase the next quantity up from that number. You’ll want to have extras in case invitations get lost in the mail, or you decide to increase your guest list at the…

26Aug 2011 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

16 Words That May Toss Your Email into the Spam Folder

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

Spam. People hate it and wish it would just stop showing being delivered to them at all. No. I’m not talking about the food. I’m talking about those annoying emails from a Nigerian prince who needs your help escaping his country, because there are elephants banging down his castle door with pitchforks and Super Soaker guns, and in return for your help he will wire you $15,000. All you have to do is give him every single ounce of personal information to make this happen. His assurance is guaranteed. You know… that spam. Now, we all know there are certain words and phrases that may trigger a spam filter. Words like “free,” “call now,” “Viagra” and “cheap,” so let’s focus on the lesser known words and phrases that have been…

25Aug 2011 by Cindy Berrier 2 Comments

One Man’s Wedding Lessons Learned – The Wedding Checklist Edition

Wedding & Family, Wedding Lounge

If you’re anything like me you have a system of staying organized and reminding yourself of what you need to do, that while defying all forms of logic and common sense, seems to miraculously work for you. If you’re not like me you’re probably one of those types who abide religiously by the teachings of some efficiency guru and you probably aren’t even reading this. While a bizarre hodge-podge of Post-it Notes, Outlook reminders, text messages, emails, notes and calendars on your phone, scribbles on scraps of paper and the backs of envelopes and notebooks may somehow keep your family fed, the bills paid on-time and all of the work tasks unexplainably on-track; take it from someone who’s been there and done that, you need good, simple organization if you’re…

25Aug 2011 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

Pottermore: The Marketing Scheme That Made Millions Lose Sleep

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

Pottermore. The word has become synonymous to Harry Potter fans for “never sleeping again,” and abusing the F5 key. The site has yet to open to the public, and no one really knows what to expect – but man, has it caused a stir on the internet. During the month of July, Pottermore started encouraging those interested in more information to sign-up for exclusive emails. There were promises of receiving an email to let you know when you could early register for Pottermore. Being a Potter fan, I got sucked in. I gave my email address willingly, but I never got an alert about the stress that I would soon be put through. It wasn’t until my friends were IMing and texting me in a frenzy with things like “OMG…

24Aug 2011 by Cindy Berrier 3 Comments

Ahhh! Earthquake! Small Business Owners, Be Prepared!

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

“Whoa…” “That’s just the wind, right?” “This is not from the quarry.” “Is that the AC coming on?” “EARTHQUAKE!!” “Do we need to like… get under a table or in a doorway?” All of that took place during a meeting at 123Print on August 23, 2011, during the tremors of a 5.9 magnitude earthquake. I should also mention that some employees made a mad dash for the windows to see what was going on, which in retrospect might not have been the smartest thing to do. You’ll have to excuse us. We’re from the east coast and earthquakes are not our forte. 123Print is located in Frederick, MD within a few blocks of a quarry. Every day or every other day there is some type of blast that shakes the…

23Aug 2011 by Cindy Berrier 1 Comment

How Do You Choose Which Typeface to Put on Your Design?

Design Tips & Tricks, Expert Advice, Small Business, Small Business Lounge

Kate is 123Print's Creative Director, and has been with the company for five years. Before coming on as Creative Director as well as overseeing Design Services, Kate worked at many different Taylor Corporations and studied design at Buffalo University. Choosing a particular font may not seem like it'd be difficult, but it can actually be quite the task! Here are some down and dirty tips on choosing which font to use on your design: - A good rule of thumb when choosing which fonts to put on your design, is to stick with no more than two fonts. Anything more than two is overkill and will be distracting. When it comes to fonts - less is definitely more. - If you opt to go for two fonts, garner some interest…

22Aug 2011 by Cindy Berrier 16 Comments

One Man’s Wedding Lessons Learned – The Wedding Invitation Wording Edition

Wedding & Family, Wedding Lounge

I’m going to cut right to the chase on this one. Trust me, you don’t want people to look at your wedding invitations and either laugh or be baffled by the wording. You also don’t want to put yourself through the torture of coming up with your own wedding invitation wording from scratch. Sure, you can go really casual and just wing it, put whatever you want on the invitation and do what feels right. That’s a great way to go if you’re really free-spirited, you’re having a totally non-traditional wedding and you’re either not going to get, or don’t care if you get, unsolicited advice and input from family and friends. But let’s face it; this isn’t an invitation to a barbeque party or a kegger at the frat…

22Aug 2011 by Cindy Berrier 2 Comments

Understanding QR Codes for Your Business’ Sake

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

A QR (Quick Response) code, when scanned with a cell phone camera, can serve as an informational marketing tool. The code itself can contain information like a URL, a map to your storefront, a YouTube video or a Tweet. Some scanning applications can even trigger actions on the phone like automatically surfing to a website (www.123print.com), sending SMS (text) messages, or drafting an e-mail. What do they look like? You've probably already seen them around. They're square arrangements of pixels (little squares) that are gaining popularity in ads everywhere--billboards, websites and metro stops. Note the three positional squares in the top right, top left and bottom left corners. Those are required in QR codes. They help the scanning application position the pixels so they're able to be read. QR Code scanning…