The ever-creative Dave Vanz of DaveVanz.com likes to hand out a business card for his company that more closely resembles the size of baseball trading card. The combination of the extra size and great design ensures it gets noticed along side other standard business cards.

The point of a Holiday Card in general is to let your customers know how much you appreciate them and the trust they put in you.  The Christmas season is a great time to say it. 

The challenge with the Christmas time frame is that companies get A LOT of cards during the season and trying to communicate appreciation has the potential of getting lost in the multitude.  

Bill encourages his clients to consider a Thanksgiving Card for a few reasons:  1) Since the main point of a holiday card is to say thank you; what better time to say it than Thanksgiving, 2) Your client receives so many cards around the Christmas season, chances of it being read and noticed are greater at Thanksgiving, and finally 3) You get to avoid the PC (Politically Correct) Police by participating in the “thankful” holiday.

UB’s talented designer, Casey, came up with a real nice 5″ x 7″ card this year, featuring three custom colors; PMS 1815, PMS 4535 and a PMS 7533 raised printed for a really nice look and feel.  All three are printed on a heavy 18 pt. Mohawk Feltmark sheet.  The corners are cut diagonally for an additional special touch.

Since actions speak louder than words Casey included a great quote by John F. Kennedy which says: “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

May our actions match our words.

Thanks.

The Utley Brothers community was saddened to learn of the passing of our dear friend, Carl Yurich.

A friend to all, Carl was a giver. He was involved. Quick to smile. Quick to say hello. Always one to share a picture from his past, from his grandchildren or just a young friend. Carl was a lover of people and of life.

As a lifetime member of the Lions Club, Carl was always outselling the next guy to raise money for one of the Lion’s charities.  As a veteran of WWII, Carl was proudly involved with his old mates in the Navy; making many annual reunions across the country.  He loved his wife, Florence, with whom he had been married since 1945.  Carl was proud of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

Carl joined our team at Utley Brothers in 1994.  At the time, we were trying to attract new clients in a certain area of Metro-Detroit.  Unfortunately for us, few of the potential clients were interested in working with us.  They kept bringing up this guy named, Carl.  These prospective clients who weren’t necessarily loyal to our competitor as much as they were loyal to their driver, Carl.  They said if you hire Carl, we’ll start working with you.  Finally one day we ran into Carl and began courting him like free-agent and eventually “signing” him at the age of 72.  Within days, those prospective clients turned into customers.  And for the next 15 years they have remained as customers to us and friends to Carl; often calling and checking on him when he was out with a sickness.

Once on board, then President of Utley Brothers, Bob Utley and Carl realized they served together 50 years earlier in the Pacific during WWII; Carl with the Navy and Bob with the Marines.  During conversations over the next decade they realized they were active on the same islands in the Pacific, with Carl’s LST group delivering Bob’s 4th Marine Division to islands like Iwo Jima, Saipan and Tinian.

In the 15 years Carl worked with Utley Brothers, he became an important part of our company fabric; a father figure to some, a grandfather to others but a friend to all.

His place in our company and the local community will not soon be forgotten.  He was after all, Carl.

Carl Yurich | November 8, 1922 – October 25, 2011

Take-aways from the presentation included:

- Making the Leap from Legacy Management to Professional Management. This was a difficult period for the close-knit company and people who had been with the company for years had to be replaced with new people - with new skill sets; necessary to take the company to the next level.

- Living Your Core Values and What that Means.  The company lives by six Core Values which are ultimately reflected in their motto “Movers who care”.

- Evolution of a 30 Year Old Company.  For someone part of a company 65-year-old family business, this was interesting to me.  The blessing of having to take it slow helped them set a solid foundation for the growth they enjoy today.

- Persevering Through the Curve Balls that Life Throws at Us.  It doesn’t matter where the business is located, what industry, curve balls are coming.  What you do with them is the important part.  Melanie mentioned the saying “Where there is no struggle there is no progress”.  This gave me hope as I thought about challenges that we face at Utley Brothers Printing.

- Franchising.  While we don’t utilize a franchise business model, it never ceases to amaze me how much I can learn from someone in a completely different industry and business model.  Come the end of the day, those of us in small business face many of the same issues and opportunities.

When asked in a Q & A session what she wishes they had done differently, Melanie said she wishes they had gotten better people in key positions sooner.  Or as Jim Collins of Good to Great says, she wishes they had gotten the right people in the right seats…sooner.  Sage advice from a Really Cool Lady.

Melanie added; she follows her 3 P’s daily: Prioritize, Persevere and Pray.  I can say after spending the briefest of time with this Really Cool Lady…her 3 P’s have served Melanie and her family’s business well.

It’s been interesting to watch Barnes and Noble battle it out with Borders over the years.  With the dawn of the digital age, the battle shifted and it wasn’t so much about battling each other as new avenues in which digital content could be acquired.  Barnes and Noble did a better job of anticipating consumer preferences; such as with online purchasing of books via their website (as did Amazon) and even developing their own e-reader, the Kindle (as did Amazon).  Further, one doesn’t have to look a lot further for the effects of the digital revolution than to look at what has happened with the video renting or the music business. 

For a second I figured the people at Barnes and Noble would be celebrating the demise of their arch competitor but then I thought how it’s been in the printing industry these past few years.  Oh sure, there were the first few print competitors that closed and the thought was; Yes! more opportunity for us.  But then the next printing company closed and the next one – until there were hundreds regionally and thousands nationally and it wasn’t so great anymore.

I hate seeing companies fail…especially ones in which I didn’t have a problem.  If the company abused their customers and had an all-around poor product or service, well then they deserved to go down.  But I didn’t feel that way about book stores like Borders and I don’t feel that way about a lot of print shops that have closed either.  They are good people caught up in a perfect storm. 

This of course doesn’t remove our responsibility as small businesses.  In fact it is more important than ever to sharpen our focus, vision, processes and people to compete in an increasingly competitive world.  Those that do it successfully are rewarded and those that don’t…close like many book stores and print shops.

Happy Printing.

As you know, we are really proud of the flag in our facility.  It seems even more special as we celebrate Independence Day this weekend.  The economy has been filled with lots of twists and turns these past few years; making for many challenges and opportunities.  As we do our best to plan and look into the future, it is a privilige to stop, reflect and be thankful for the many freedoms we are afforded in the United States of America.

I kept thinking to myself…I have a great idea…for the few businesses left in the state of Michigan, let’s go harass them with regulations.

My other visit was to the Bulk Mail Entry office (USPS) to make sure we had prepared the paperwork properly for a mailing we’re dropping off later this week.  It took the clerk, Marlaina, 30 minutes to find the correct form (because I used the wrong one) and a fairly long conversation with her supervisor who I think was trying to tell her not to accept the mailing and tell me to go away.  Thankfully we had dropped the same mailing last year and she knew we did and kept pushing back with “they mailed this same thing last year”.  Eventually the right form was found and we were set straight.

Both women are very nice people.  They are professional. They are helpful (seriously) but the organizations they work for are not.  These women are a tiny part of huge unresponsive detached bureaucratic machine.  I don’t have a complaint against them.  To me, that’s like getting your dinner at a restaurant and getting upset at the server for undercooked vegetables.

As a small business owners we anticipate and make our moves to respond to the market because if we don’t we won’t be around tomorrow.  These organizations don’t live in that reality.  They enjoy a protective cocoon of the long arm.  It’s sad but I am actually afraid to express myself – especially about OSHA, which tells me I need to keep writing.  The truth is we run a good shop.  When the Security Officer asked me for some injury form I had no idea what she was talking about (more paperwork).  She asked “when was your last workers comp claim?”  It had been so long I couldn’t remember. We later determined it had been well over a decade.  But she found bottles without caps, bottles without labels, paperwork out-of-order and I’m sure other things.

OSHA will be back in a few weeks to discuss their findings.  I am interested to walk this path.  But I can agree with what a famous man once said “The scariest words in the English language are ‘We’re from the government and we’re here to help.” 

I would have to agree.

Ah yes. The unofficial beginning to spring. The home opener for us folks in Michigan.  It’s also time for our annual Opening Day Kit handout.  As always, we attempt to combine our marketing and printing specialty to the calendar with some sort of seasonal piece.  This year is better than ever. 

As always, the kit includes peanuts and Cracker Jack (by the way, after extensive research the spelling is correct – “Jack” no “s” on the end). And a marvelous printed postcard (not pictured) was produced on our new digital press. But the coolest element is a baseball card of our new digital press. The back side of the card even includes stats for the press’ capabilities.

The postcard includes this marvelously written marketing grimble, “It’s that magical time each year, a rite of passage each spring, that leads one to dream of the summer to come-the season yet to be played, ball games under the lights, and hopes for a pennanant race come fall. All of us at Utley Brothers have been excited about our recent acquisition-the MGI DP60. With stunning color, short runs, extended format, and multiple substrates including paper, plastic, envelopes & laser-safe letterhead, not to mention variable data, the MGI DP60 has been a big hit with the fans.  while our “season” never really ends, you can count on Team Utley competing for your business by constantly improving and updating what and how we serve you. Here’s to another Great Season!”

But the best copy is this…

All together now…”Take me out to the ballgame. Take me out to the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack. I don’t care if I never get back! Cause it’s root, root, root for the home team. If they don’t win it’s a shame. For it’s 1-2-3 strikes you’re out. At the old ball game!”