CBF Group's blog

So you have received one of our branded Order Confirmations.  Purely and simply this is confirmation that your Order with us is being processed.

Please make sure when you receive the email with the Order Confirmation attached that all the job details are correct as this information is the same as the working jobs sheets internally.  If your information is not correct make sure you tell your Account Manager as this may effect the end price and non of us like nasty surprises.

The information on the Order Confirmation should include the Name of the job, The paper stocks we are using to print your products on, the number of pages in your finished product and the finishing instructions including the folding, laminating, creasing and perforating.  There also should be the basic of delivery instructions on there to highlight that we are sending out the items to your address.

If there is any information that you feel should be on there please drop us a call as unless we know we cannot fix it.

Hello all of you Gloucestershire business people out there.

This is going to have to be a short and sweet blog post, not because I do not have any thing to say but my laptop is having a complete moment and will only stay on for 15 minutes before randomly restarting again. At first I thought this would be really annoying but I am quite liking the idea of just getting punchy information out to you about #TuesdayCatchUp.

#TuesdayCatchUp is now just over a year old and what can I say, it has become far bigger than I ever expected. From its humble beginning where 10 or so of us met up for a bit of business banter we are now a year on with over 40 plus attendees.

What is #TuesdayCatchUp?

#TuesdayCatchUp is a totally free networking group that invites all businesses from all around Cheltenham, Gloucester and the surrounding areas.

We are strong believers in going back to basics when it comes to making your business work and the more contacts you have the more likely you are to succeed. #TuesdayCatchUp is not all about passing leads and making referrals.

The majority of the positive feedback that we receive from people joining us at #TuesdayCatchUp is the fact that by simply getting to know and being apart of such a diverse crowd of like-minded business people they are opening more doors to business opportunities.

One of the things that makes #TuesdayCatchUp so different to any other networking group is that we understand the importance of introducing fresh faces. This is why we actively encourage all of the people who attend #TuesdayCatchUp to bring work colleagues, people they know they feel could benefit from networking, friends and even family members. By introducing new people all the time we increase the chances or new leads being created.

The structure of the #TuesdayCatchUp events is simple, you get out what you put in. You simply turn up and work the room, talk to as many or as few people as you like. See it like the mix and mingle environment of a singles dating event with a business, networking twist. You can divide your night up in to making sure you spend a couple of minutes speaking to everyone or you can just concentrate on a couple of people you feel you could really benefit from knowing.

Why should you come along to #TuesdayCatchUp?

The reason why you should at least try #TuesdayCatchUp is simple, everybody that attends is there for one reason and that is to improve their business. Not only by receiving leads but by making contacts, learning how other businesses work and by soaking up local business knowledge. #TuesdayCatchUp is like a little community so the networking does carry on out side of the events through people meeting up in the own time, having one to one meetings and by keeping in touch through the likes of twitter and facebook.

When and where is #TuesdayCatchUp

#TuesdayCatchUp is held at the Exmouth Arms Pub on the Bath Road in Cheltenham, you will find us in the main bar area. The events are held on the first Tuesday or every month so be careful as the date may vary. The event technically starts at 6:30pm but we totally understand people need to organise other things so it’s not the end of the world if you turn up slightly later. The same goes for when it finishes, most people disperse at around 8:30pm but if you can only make it for a flying visit then that is totally fine too.

If you are interested in coming along and would like to find out more then please do not hesitate to contact me by the following;

Name: Adam Le Grand
T: 01242 237 652
E: alegrand@cbfnet.co.uk
Tw: @cbfprinters

Or you can contact Lawson Willett at lwillett@cbfnet.co.uk / @lawsonwillett

We hope to see you at a #TuesdayCatchUp event soon.

For those of you that haven’t ventured on to the #TuesdayCatchUp blog before or have never been to one of our events here is a quick rundown of what you can expect and what it’s all about.

When? First Tuesday of every month at 18:30.

Details
#TuesdayCatchUp is a rapidly growing networking group with a difference, recently the events have had representatives of 50+ businesses attending. We don’t believe in having people sign up to memberships or making them stand up in front of people. If you join us for one of our events you will be met by a bunch of friendly like minded people who just want to enjoy their networking experience. With this mentality bridges are built a lot quicker and the referrals are far more genuine. Why not come and find out for yourself and watch the leads roll in.

Venue
Exmouth Arms Pub
Bath Road
Cheltenham
GL53 7LX

Cost
Free! Apart from the cost of your favourite tipple

Event Contact Details
Adam Le Grand
01242 237 652

#TuesdayCatchUp is a FREE networking event for all to enjoy. Known for its buzzing yet relaxed atmosphere people from all around Gloucestershire come along to spread the good word of their business or trade.

To keep up with what going on keep an eye out for the #TuesdayCatchUp hash tag on Twitter.

If you are a regular or somebody looking to dabble in the realms of #TuesdayCatchUp we look forward to seeing you all at our next event.

Adam & the CBF team.

We’ve done it!

Today is proof that success comes from hard work! With the live debut of the Online Print Control (OPC) software offering, we have gone live with a bang!

With 1977 customers going live today nationwide all using the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) training course to train their staff and customers with individual billing and reporting requirements, including some of the largest blue chip organisations in the UK. Internally we have had to increase print capacity and administration staff to manage the support for the increase in workflow.

Managing the print requirements for the British Computer Society (BCS) for the past two years has led us to today. This is the start of the print management tools that will be looking after the Qualifications Department and the promotion of their courses. To start, we have gone live with a number of promotional flyers, posters, branded promotional gifts and downloadable PR materials.

All this is available to order 24/7 and accessible online. Each user has specific access rights and is able to customise their own materials according to their user type and the courses they offer. Each material is either made to order fully personalised using our design tools or picked and packed from pre-printed stocks. Once established and the dust has settled, the future plans for the BCS – Marketing Support System will see further materials being placed online to help promote the ECDL computer course.

This coupled with new courses going on-line over the next few weeks the success is all down to the collaboration of the staff at the BCS and the internal workflow, software management and staff at CBF.  This is the end of a 2 year working period internally for CBF getting the software to meet ISO standards and be efficient enough to be quick and reactive to our customers making us infinitely scalable as a business.

If you or your business would like to know more about our services, software and the print management tools feel free to drop us a line.

The majority of mistakes and discrepancies are purely down to lack of knowledge of the print process for the customers point of view. Following some very simple steps your print experience can be more a lot easier and stress free. Like anything, it is easy when you know how.

EXAMPLE: 5,000, A5 FLYERS

Flyers are one of the most basic printed materials you may deal with within your business but the steps behind this print process can be used in almost all print jobs.

1. Set a date to when you would like the materials to be completed. If you are looking to take your flyers to an event on a particular date then turn around times lines are extremely important.

NOTE: IF YOU HAVE THE PRINT READY ARTWORK FILES READY THEN YOU WOULD ALLOW 5-7 WORKING DAY TURN AROUND FOR THIS PARTICULAR JOB. IF ARTWORK NEEDS TO BE CREATED THEN SPEAK TO YOUR PRINTER LONG BEFORE THE JOB IS DUE TO FIND OUT THEIR ESTIMATED ARTWORK TURN AROUND TIMES. ARTWORK CAN EASILY DOUBLE THE OVERALL TURN AROUND DEPENDING ON THE JOB.

1. Talk to the printer about your paper stock options, there are many different stock out there to fit different specifications and budgets.
2. Find out how your printer prefers to receive artwork. The most commonly used is a Hi Resolution PDF file sent via email, other options are discs or memory sticks.
3. Once you have found out your printers preferred way to receive the artwork talk to them about the specification of the artwork set up. What is the minimum dpi (dots per inch) the artwork needs to be to created at to produce a quality printable image, does the artwork need bleed marks, does you branding include any specific Pantone colours, does the artwork need to be set to specific dimensions etc.
4. Once you have submitted the artwork to the printed make sure you receive a proof. Proofs are typically either digital proofs sent as files attached to emails or digital wet proofs which are physical printed proofs on a digital paper stock. Proofing is extremely important. This is your last chance before your material goes to print to make sure there are no spellings mistakes, no images or editorial have moved around or dropped off in the artwork process and you are 100% happy with the artwork that is going to print. Only give the printer approval to print if you can say yes to ALL of these factors. Once you have approved the artwork you have no come back if there are mistakes on the printed material.

It cannot be stressed enough the importance of leaving plenty of time for the whole print process to take place before you need your printed materials completed. It is when jobs are left to the last minute and print gets rushed that mistakes are made and you end up with a printed material that you are not happy with.

Also just because you feel your print job is not a particularly big one then don’t assume it will be quicker to turn around. Printers print presses are not just sat around waiting for jobs to jump on them, your job may only be a little one but it may take 2 or 3 days before your job can go to print.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE ANY MORE PRINT TIPS OR HELP THEN PLEASE CONTACT US AT CBF.

www.cbfnet.co.uk  /  01242 237 652  /  Twitter #CBFprinters

Since the latest recession and even more recently the 2.5% VAT increase many small independent businesses and large companies alike have been turning their hand back to printed marketing materials. The reason being, if you know ins and outs of what is and isn’t zero rated for VAT there a lot of printed materials that still remain VAT excluded.

Don’t get me wrong the guide lines are not exactly clear so it is a bit of a mind field and I am pretty sure even the VAT people themselves end up scratching their heads over the finer details.

Hopefully this brief, simple guide to Non VAT registered print materials will help you on your way to start saving you more money and change the way you market your business.

I’ll be honest my head hurts already from researching this but is it all for the greater good of educating you lot out there who I am sure have better things to do thank scrolling through pages of VAT guide lines.

Stage 1. Back to basics – Flyers & Leaflets.

Keep it simple; flyers DO NOT carry VAT where leaflets DO.

What is the difference between a flyer and a leaflet? The easiest way to look at it is that a leaflet is the brochure version of the flyer world. They are made to be high quality and give long term information that can be kept by the receiver. Flyers which do not carry VAT are generally cheap and cheerful to advertise an upcoming event, discount or promotion.

Something worth taking into consideration next time you are revising your marketing spend is that most printed marketing materials are zero-rated for VAT.

So for example you may be spending a couple of thousand pounds + VAT to advertise yourself in a local magazine which may only go out to 35,000 homes. If you were to spend the same money VAT free on flyers you could be hitting around 90,000 homes. You don’t need to do the maths on the increased potential feedback, that’s 350+ possible leads compared to 900+ possible leads for the same money.

Depending on the nature of your business and your budget you can apply the same principle to bespoke brochures, booklets and magazines which are all also zero-rated for VAT. A multi paged material which is solely based on your business will have a bigger impact and far more positive response than advertising in a publication or on a website alongside other potential competitors.

Saving money on printed materials through zero-rated VAT materials is not only based around marketing materials. As long as the print and any other print finished is done by one supplier in house then everything from management reports, financial reports to printed power point presentations all come under the zero-rated VAT bracket.

I hope this has helped all of you out there; it goes to show there are numerous ways to save you business even more money.

If you would like to learn more contact CBF and speak to any of the friendly staff, we are more than happy to help you. www.cbfnet.co.uk

Adam

Online Print Control is our online software to help all customers no matter how big manage their print procurement.  We have designed the tools to be as simple as buying anything online using the shopping cart model.  It has the ability to manage all your printed items and artwork, manage all your printed stock and keep you completely in control of your brand standards using our online design tools.

Using secure logins each user has a unique set of items allocated to them or their department enabling them to purchase items and customise the artwork, if allowed, on the specific pieces.  Each user is able to look at previous purchases, reorder them and personalise them again and again.  They can also pick and order from a pre printed stock that can be delivered anywhere the user requires.  From a managerial level the user can manage their own users and products so that you are always in control of what is available to order.

All businesses can manage multiple sites, multiple users and departments to help run their print requirements with CBF

Our design tools
All accessible through any internet browser anyone can edit their items 24/7; they are able to save their designs and come back to them at anytime.  Our tools are state of the art, enabling the user to be able to edit items according to managerial rules i.e. text with the right fonts, pictures from a set list.  They have the ability to drag and drop images and text around the art board, resize them, change the colours, fonts, angles and layering. 

Do you need design skills to use the online design tools?
If you have used MS Word then the tools should come second nature to you, full training is given and support is always there if you need it, all you need is a creative eye.

What does OPC cost you and your business?
As the software is our own we have no external software companies to pay user licenses to or any management fees to be charged to third parties.  This Print management software is FREE to all users, with no restrictions to your business and no tie in period, no such thing as a free lunch? Don’t forget we are printers that manage catalogues of printed materials so we want to give  you all the tools and support to help you look after all your printing needs.

What’s the catch?
The cynics among you may say you’re paying for the software with the print prices, not so! We are as competitive as the rest.  Why not drop us a line to find out how we can save you thousands help in you manage your print.

Hope to speak to you soon.

Our Online Print Control (OPC) is here!

The latest in print management software is waiting for you to experience.  Print Ordering, Stock Controls and Online Design Tools to help you manage the most complicated brand standards as your disposal.

To find out more watch this space or drop us a line we would be glad to help.

Thanks

Lawson