Special Message About COVID-19

I realize that I am breaking the rules by being long-winded, but these are not ordinary times and I beg your indulgence. I sincerely hope this message finds you healthy and safe. Minuteman Press Sandy Springs is still open because the printing industry has been deemed essential to other operations that have been deemed essential by the federal government, for example, the U.S. Postal Service. We are operating responsibly: washing hands frequently, respecting social distancing, cleaning common spaces more frequently, and so on. We are here to serve you as the need arises.

As I prepare to send this message as an email and a post on social media, I suspect that most of you are at home reading this. You are still getting mail from the post office, maybe even looking forward to it more than ever, just because it is something to read that is not on a computer screen or smart phone. It seems to me that I should send something like this out via the postal service but perhaps with a twist to add some entertainment value to it. Besides, a lot of emails, as you know first-hand, don’t get read – or don’t get read past the first few lines. Studies show that direct mail is different, that if the message is compelling it will get read, and if it strikes a chord, it will get kept. If we have a valid mailing address for you, you’ll “see” from us in a few days.

My father, God rest his soul, was a Podiatrist in Augusta, GA for over 60 years, practicing into his late 80’s. He believed in helping others, regardless of social standing or skin color, whether they had the means to pay, it didn’t matter. I had the good fortune to work for him as a lab technician as a teen. Though I wanted to follow in his footsteps, there was one slight problem: I didn’t have the “science genes” in me. So, I did the next best thing – Accounting. I promised him I would pass the CPA exam even though joining a CPA firm wasn’t an aspiration. I passed the exam because it was a promise I wanted to keep but was quite satisfied working in a corporate accounting or finance position in the wireless industry. Then came mergers and more mergers and ultimately, I became a corporate refugee looking for the next adventure. For a couple of years, I worked as a solopreneur preparing lots of income tax returns and a few sets of books for small businesses. Nine years ago, I started looking for something different, ventured into a Minuteman Press franchise, and here I sit, wondering how I can help our clients and customers get through an unprecedented business “red flag” (to coin an auto racing term) while preparing for the restart that is sure to come.

Another trait I took from my father was ethics. He believed strongly in doing the right things for the right reasons all the time. That is why I have been conflicted with the idea of staying open for business, because my staff and I are going to work while so many others are unable to be at work. However, government believes we should be at work so we are. We would like to help you with communications, whether it is by your reaching out to provide a status to your customers or preparing them for what’s ahead when the crisis ends. Maybe you need more signage inside and outside of your building. Maybe, like us, you think hand sanitizer will make a useful promo product going forward.

We will not take advantage of the situation; like you, whether a fellow business owner or a valued employee of a business, we are in survival mode. If we can keep the presses running, or work with our signage partners to keep their machines going, that is what we hope to do. Most of you know that I operate my shop unlike most other print shops: we practice what we preach when it comes to quality by insisting on “2 sets of eyes” when proofing artwork, and not cutting corners when it comes to the finished product. That process takes a bit longer and costs us more to produce; that’s why we don’t have frequent sales or discounts to drive volume (We do believe in the benefits of membership in local chambers of commerce so we offer a 10% member benefit for members of the chambers we belong to.). If you want to bounce some ideas off us, or want our help to come up with ideas for marketing now or the future, please don’t hesitate to call or email us. We are still baking cookies (still yummy despite my doing the baking) and making deliveries. During this unprecedented situation, we will help you by reducing our prices significantly because you will be helping us keep the presses running and keeping a small staff of dedicated workers on the payroll. Speaking of small staff, I have made some recent adjustments, two through attrition. Zach and Arona voluntarily left 4 and 2 weeks ago, respectively, both leaving for excellent opportunities elsewhere. I could not be happier for them, but as two nice people who excelled at their work, they will be missed. Jennifer is no longer here and will be replaced as business conditions improve. She too will be missed.

Times like these call for outside the box thinking. Kyle, Ty and I want to help any way we can. Please let us know if we can help you. Be well. We all look forward to better times ahead.

Jon Wittenberg, owner 3/30/2020