Electronic Filing – why are you resisting?

 

 

electronic filing reasons

Yes, I admit it – I am on my strata council. In fact I am the Vice President of my strata council. I am the one who isn’t afraid to insist we work towards greening our building.  For example, we invited the Lighthouse Sustainability Centre to give us their How to Green Strata Seminar earlier this autumn.  (But alas, you can’t please everyone…)

Not so coincidentally, I rallied to change the way we deliver strata minutes to the 88 owners that live in the building.  Every year we spend approximately $1,000 on printing (on traditional copy paper) + postage just to mail monthly minutes. I thought it would be an easy task to get the owners to switch to emailed minutes that they could electronically save. I even attempted to “bribe” them with free gym passes and gift cards. It didn’t take…

The reason for owners not wanting to make the shift was surprising.  They didn’t want to have to file electronic copies. What? I thought this was the norm – and then I looked around – paper paper everywhere! Even I’m guilty of it.

So – three easy e-filing lessons (that I am using – can you imagine the chaos if I wasn’t using these??)1.       Think about your filing cabinet – now organize your e-files the same way.

a.       Are you a date or word type of person? Choose one system and stick with it. I like words followed by dates for my actual files (words for my folders).

b.      Think about a file you were looking for a year ago. How did you find it? What did you think about to jog your memory as to where it was stored either electronically or in hard copy form. Write your file names so you can remember them.  (Just a hint – numbers DON’T work- you wouldn’t think, “hmm, that was number 5 of 25 from last May … or would you?)

2.       Some client filing examples (email me if you want some more hints – truthfully though, I’ll likely just send you to a professional organizer…Oh Tracy….)

a.       Example: I have dozens of clients – so each has a special file with the same sub categories:

• email communication (with emails dated mm/dd/yy),
• advertising (sub files include different advertisers we are currently using or are considering working with)
• email newsletters (the majority of my clients are on newsletters) – sub domains here: image bank, and then by mm/yy
• Financials – invoices and receipts
•  Web – sub domains: web files, seo, blog
• Events – sub domains: mm/yy, event ideas
• Design – branding, image gallery
• Marketing – [enter title here] project (aka brochure or booklet or business card)    

b.      Another example: general work information categories

• Marketing – sub domains: idea bank, sources (websites I like etc), marketing quotes, my marketing material (templates for quotes, logos,
• Printing – sub domains: quotes, contacts, samples
• SEO – my ebooks, quotes, general information
•  Writing –idea bank, articles, blog (my various blogs published and not), the book I’m secretly writing

3.       Establish a system

a.       Every Monday is office day at Polished Promotions – myself and my designer, Michelle get together and listen to boy bands in our pajamas – I mean…. we work on creative print, web and designs together, setting the tone for the rest of the week where I free Michelle to work in her pjs from home.

b.      I make Friday’s my organizing days so I can have Monday’s to be freshly creative. Friday’s I clean out my inbox (there has to be less than 50 emails in there – which is usually the amount of “working on” projects happening on any given week), delete or save sent messages, remove everything from my desktop (both my computer and my desktop)

c.       Finish the week with a soothing sigh of “ahhhhh….” rather than a stressed out exclamation of “AHHHHHHH!!!!!”

…oh yeah – and save trees while doing it!

Choosing a Sustainable Printer – some information (Part 1 of many…)

 Photo credit: Isaac Bowen

I’ll be honest, I lacked in printer knowledge.  With a communication background, I didn’t spend time learning about printing – and when I first started Polished Promotions, I wanted to believe that people would reduce the amount of printing they did all together.

**sigh** printing continues. At least what we choose to print on can be consciously and thoughtfully chosen.

Here is a fragment of what I have learned – stay tuned for more

·         Not all printers are created alike. Some have very genuine information and are shaping the world one small business at a time. En Masse Media, located here in Vancouver, is one such company. Richard Cooper, owner and printer extraordinaire, not only knows printing inside and out (he comes from a family of printers) but he knows GREEN printing!  But his Green Print thumb isn’t why you’d choose to print with En Masse Media

…Here are 5 reasons why you WOULD choose En Masse (FYI – Richard has no idea I’m blogging about him! But I’ll tell him once I’m done!)

1.       He knows how to use the most of the sheet of paper being printed and cut. Case in point –last week I had to figure out a way to fit a spa menu inside an envelope that would hold a gift card, business card and look like gift wrapping all at the same time so that my client, an environmentally friendly hair salon, (shameless plug) Salon Montage, wouldn’t have to add unnecessary packaging to their presentation. En Masse Media invited me over, sat down with me and together we crafted a great looking, cost effective* design.   It’s with the designer right now getting gussied up!

 

2.    The quality is superb – they use 13.5 pt stock for business card printing (which is thicker than most of the printers I have worked with). I am impressed with the types of output from their work. They just changed their website – you can request a sample kit here

 

3.    It’s cost effective.  We saved paper by creating a long slender envelope, making it possible to fit more on one sheet of printing paper (thus saving trees)

4.    En Masse uses 100% Post Consumer Recycled (PCR) Content – a lot of printers say they have recycled fibre in their paper – but that  doesn’t make it 100% recycled.

 

5.    They’re reliable and fast. If you’ve ever been frustrated with printing schedules – you’ll understand the great feeling of getting printing on time! Because the printing is local, I can even pick it up and hand deliver it to my clients (saving them a few dollars and the courier an extra trip out to their businesses)

Stay Tuned for Part 2 – Find out what your printer can do for your next print job