BL> Actually, one thing you could do if you do receive a lot of mail
 BL> is ask the post office about putting a mailman's lock say on your
 BL> front porch door so they can just dump packages or bags of mail
 BL> in the porch and the juvenile delinquents can't get the stuff.
Since I'm home all the time (I live here as well as work here) juvenile 
delinquents can't get at the stuff if it comes through the letter slot.  
anything too big to go through the letter slot either the company owner picks 
up from our downtown address, or wehave brought by courier if it's to 
important to wait for him to drive into Vancouver and back out here.
 BL> Another solution to mail delivery is a post office box but then
 BL> you have to go visit the box to clear it out, preferably daily.
The biggest drawback with post office boxes (aside from being an unneccessary 
expense, and meaning that someone has to get to the box and back to the 
office every day) is that companies whose address is a post office box don't 
look very honest, reliable, or stable.  A number of our competitors have had 
post office boxes, and I get business simply because I don't.
 BL> My office supplies dealer will deliver but for what they charge
 BL> they should send stuff over in a chauffeur driven rolls royce.
It's much less expensive to deal with a bulk dealer and pick the stuff up 
yourself.
 BL> If you find you use a lot of say copier paper or even typing
 BL> paper, look in the yellow pages for a paper merchant who usually
 BL> sells to the printing trade.
We got an enormous amount of letter head and envelopes printed when we first 
started so that we paid bulk prices but still had sharp looking letter head 
paper and envelopes in our company colours.  You can quickly tell paper that 
has come from a cheap paper merchant, and it looks like the company is either 
a Mom and Pop deal or just about broke.  With good quality paper (recycled, 
of course!) in company colours and quality printing it looked like we were 
bigger than we were when we started, at about the same price.  We are going 
to need to get more soon, but we'll go the same route to maintain the same 
appearance.
 BL> Do be realistic in your consemption though and don't buy a ten
 BL> year supply of envelopes just because they were a good deal.
We got several thousand when we started up, which we thought would last us 
for years.  We've been open for just over two years and will need more this 
year.
 BL> Sometimes a group of businesses can get together and buy common
 BL> supplies in bulk and save a fortune.
Common supplies cannot be individually printed with each company's letter 
head without adding greatly to the cost, so the fortune saved intially is 
then spent on printing.  Better to buy your own in bulk in the first place 
and know exactly what you're spending overall.
 BL> I do not print much these days, so can afford to send my
 BL> correspondence out on very nice rag content paper.
Our correspondence goes out on nice quality, professional looking paper.  OUr 
invoices and information inserts go out on ordinary cheap white paper printed 
here in the office.
--- Maximus 2.01wb
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