Print Your Own Stamps -
New service from the Royal Mail which lets you print your own stamps off your computer -
Better or worse than franking machines?

Great news, you can now print your own customized stamps on demand for a small annual fee of £50, with postage on top - all from the comfort of your home office.

But is it worth it and what should you watch out for?

Well one of the obvious savings is time - or is it ...

SmartStamp™ will also print your envelopes as well as 'stamp' them. But you might already print your addresses, so no time saved there. And if you are 100% certain that all your post all of a certain weight, well you could just as well use ordinary stamps.

The real saving in time is if you send a variety of mail out - brochures, samples, etc. Normally you would have to trek off to your local Post Office, wait in the queue, weigh your post, etc. This could easily take up to an hour depending how far your post office is.

So you could you can definitely save time here by weighing your post out and printing your postage labels at home, and just dumping it all at the Post Office fast.

But --- as I've learned to my cost, you have to make sure that you weigh your post accurately.

I once nearly lost a client because I assumed that this important letter was a certain weight, stuck a stamp on it, and sent it out - I was in a hurry. When my client hadn't received the letter within 2 days, I had to rush another one out, had it weighed at the Post Office and found out that I hadn't put enough postage on it. The first letter arrived several days after the second, with a demand to pay the missing postage - Not a way to impress a client.

So make certain that you use accurate digital postage scales. Your kitchen scales just won't do!

Of course, the other big bonus with SmartStamp™, is the fact that you can print your postage stamp design, in colour. Make sure you do it justice, that 'stamp' will then become the first thing your customer notices about you.

The only major problem I see, is if you send out a lot of mail, or send mail out twice a day ...

If you're like me, working from a home office, you've probably only got one computer, or at least one decent printer.

Every time you want to print some stamps, you are going to have to alter your printer and tie up your computer from perhaps more productive work - that Makes you money, rather than spend it.

In that case, enjoy your treks to the Post Office, and look at it as 'thinking and planning time', or get a Franking Machine - and that weighs your post as well!

Happy posting,

Vic Carrara
www.successsecrets.co.uk

You can find out more about the Royal Mail's SmartStamp™ here
Postal scales at discount prices - as well as all other stationery - here
Franking Machines, plus £20 Free Postage

Related Items:

We've all done it! We sit for hours in front of our PCs searching, submitting and scrutinizing, while the very freedom we are building a home business to achieve, dwindles to stolen moments in between search engine submissions - Remind yourself to keep your life in check:
All Work At Home and No Play Make Jack a Dull Boy By Mal Keenan

Some guidance on writing affirmation statements to power up your goal setting and planning ...
Affirm Your Choices - The Power of Affirmations to    Design and Guide your Life Choices … by Vic Carrara
Resolutions and affirmations for any day of the year

Getting Customers to Write a Testimonial for Your Services/Products
What convinces you to buy? The price? The quality?
Or is it the testimonials .. ?
Business referrals in the form of testimonials are probably the most overlooked and under-appreciated form of marketing ...
Get customers to write a testimonial - business referral

Do you feel rich ... no matter your wealth? If you see yourself as poor you stay there. Veronica Lim of Millionaire Thinking looks at how your feelings dictate your results