Labels for LifeLabels for Life will give tips for organizing your life, home and office.

Company I.D.s don’t sound like the most interesting topic. But let’s talk about this for a moment. You really should know exactly who is entering (and exiting) your building. Without company I.D.’s it is easy for literally anyone to slip in undetected.

You may think that your security staff is top-notch, that company I.D.’s are unnecessary and a waste of money. We’re not going to dispute your security team’s talents. Having company I.D.’s however can often make their jobs quite a bit easier.

Company I.D.’s can quickly be noticed on people’s cars before entering your company’s headquarters. One glance can tell your security staff is that person is authorized to be in your buildings. A company I.D. as a weatherproof label on their car is an easy protection system to have in place for your business.

A company I.D. should have your company name, an expiration date and some way to identify the employee. First initial and last name can be a quick way to do this. Or you can use a numerical system. Choose something that works well for your security staff. Most important is to have your label well-organized so it is easy to read and quick to scan. Many of your employees will be rushing into work, not thinking about the security staff trying to read their company I.D. weatherproof label. Make things easier on your security staff so when a problem arises, they can focus their full attention of this – instead of minute details.

Don’t think that company I.D.’s can be done “once” and then forgotten about, the trick is constantly monitoring them. Put someone in Human Resources in charge of maintaining records and keep them in close contact with your security staff. This simple precaution can keep a disgruntled former employee (or soon-to-be former employee) from stealing priceless company secrets and taking them to the competition. This monitoring system can also keep a former employee from giving their weatherproof label to someone else to enter your company headquarters.

In today’s day and age security is critical for every type of company. Fortunately putting security measures into place is often easier and more practical than many companies think it will be. Most employees adjust quickly to security measures – and quite often they appreciate the company that keeps its corporate location safe and secure. This also means the employees’ personal safety is protected as well.

With company I.D.’s on cars always use Weatherproof labels. No matter your climate, this will encourage the labels to have great durability and be long-lasting. It also means the Weatherproof label will stand up to that ice storm, hurricane or hot summer days you are facing.

Written by ID My Stuff.

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Our gift shop opened this September and while owning our own business has been exciting, I’ll admit that there have been some learning lessons along the way. This very first holiday season certainly brought a very hard learning lesson when it comes to tracking labels. We didn’t use them at our gift shop – and quite a few gifts were not delivered or returned to us. This has been a very frustrating time at Cyndi’s Adorables Gifts!

Tracking labels tell you where a package is at all times. I never really thought about this – and I certainly wasn’t thinking about this as I mailed out holiday packages. Quite frankly, I just wanted to get them in the mail. My gift shop hasn’t done a lot of mailing – and I was excited to see our business pick up. I was expecting to see a lot of gift business because we are a gift shop – but I was not expecting all of the challenges and heartbreak that came our way because of these tracking labels – and our packages not having them.

Tracking labels are easy to attach and scan into a computer system. Using tracking labels in many ways reminds me of going to the supermarket. You know how every item “beeps” as it goes over the conveyer belt as its UPC code is read? That’s just like a tracking label! When your tracking label is read along the way as the package is shipped and delivered – you’ll be able to see where and exactly when your package was there. It’s that easy.

Not having tracking labels is not just careless – it’s very expensive. I did not realize just how much I was going to wish I had tracking labels on my packages. You would think that people mailing gifts to family and friends for the holidays would know the address they are sending things to – but sometimes they don’t have the correct address. This means your package can be undeliverable and wind up sitting somewhere in package limbo. If you have a tracking label – then you know exactly where it is. If you don’t – then you just have to wait for the package to be returned to you. It’s January now and I’m getting all kinds of returns from holiday packages people sent out. That’s not counting all of the angry calls I received from customers who wanted a gift sent to a family member or friend that didn’t make it there on time.

If you have a business – learn from my mistake and don’t make one of your own. Get tracking labels now before you get shipping orders. Your customers will be pleased even if they don’t realize the difference. Best of all, you’ll realize the difference. The cost alone makes it well worth the price. Tracking labels are so small many people don’t think about them. But they hold very important information that can really save the day. Order your tracking labels today – and make your customers happy. Or they may find another business that does!

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Beer enthusiasts usually end up collecting labels from their brews at some point in their drinking career and some collections have been generating interest from a commercial aspect as well; these collections do acquire a value over time and some collections are also extremely large!

While stripping off a beer label from a cold one is a traditional bar pastime, getting the collection arranged and displayed to best effect is not as simple as you may think. Some beer aficionados believe your beer label collection should be a personal history tour and take the reader on a personal pilgrimage through the owners introduction and education in the delights of this ancient brew (beer was originally invented by the ancient Egyptians). Others, with a more librarian bent of mind, believe any collection should be organized so it is easily searchable and arranged in a logical form which flows easily from one section to the next.

Believe it or not, there is quite a debate raging amongst collectors over which is the best method! Yes, believe it or not, George isn’t at home! This debate is alive and well and celebrating a night on the town.

Whether you go for the two-dimensional, Dewey decimal version of the personalized, scrap book style presentation, there is no getting away from the attraction collecting beer labels has for many people. Microbreweries have been cashing in on the growing trend as well by bringing out increasingly changed labels to celebrate their brews. The larger breweries have a brand image and stick to it pretty rigidly but smaller ones such as Saranac in upstate New York, change their labels almost monthly specifically for collectors.

Whether you like beer or not, collecting beer labels is fun and interesting but despite being essentially the same product – alcoholic, liquid refreshment – the labels used on bottles is extremely varied, often funny, frequently artistic and like the real thing, once you pick up a collection you are going to find it hard to put down again. Especially if you end up adding the infamous “Santa’s butt” label to your collection.

After you’ve begun collecting beer labels, you can expand into collecting and even printing wine labels.

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While the holidays are a few weeks away, most companies are starting to think about what gift they’ll send to clients, vendors and others. You want to send something great that your clients and vendors will enjoy. But no matter what you send – now is the time to really “wow” your clients with a great holiday message.

Personalized labels are an excellent way to send out holiday greetings to everyone while giving a nice gift. The labels can be attached to the gift. By not sending out cards, the money you save on cards and stamps can be put in your budget towards a gift. The best personalized label is one that sends out a holiday greeting that matches your company’s personal style. Some companies are very corporate and others are more buttoned down. So a formal message may appeal to one company and a more approachable message may appeal to the other one.

One of the best things about choosing personalized labels is that you are almost guaranteed to have everyone see your greeting. Whereas with a card, just a few people in the office will see it – a personalized label is seen by everyone enjoying the gift. So if you send a food related gift then everyone enjoying the gift will see the personalized label reminding everyone to have a happy holiday season.

A favorite thing with great personalized labels is that this is an easy way for everyone to know who a company holiday gift is from. Where a gift can get separated from a tag or card quite quickly, a label sticks to your food related or other type of gift. This way everyone will know the gift is from you. This lets them enjoy your sense of friendliness and goodwill towards them. And they also know this gift is from your company. Many times you deal with quite a few people at a company yet only send one company gift. By choosing personalized labels, you’ll know that everyone sees this label.

There are many holiday themed accents you can choose for your personalized label. Trying fonts in holiday colors like red, green, blue, gold and silver are all ideal choices. Adding accents like snowflakes, snowmen, Christmas, Hanukah or Happy New Year items are great.

Holiday Personalized Label Tips:

Take some time choosing the best greeting. Think first who your gift will be going to. What would be the best greeting to say to them? Try to come up with several to choose from.

Choose fonts that are easy to read like Arial, Courier and Times New Roman. Fancy script fonts look pretty but often are hard for many to read. If you are getting personalized labels, you want everyone to be able to read the greeting.

Always add your company logo and try to add a few holiday accents. Try to ask the art department to make a very small and simpler version of your company logo ideal for the label. Anything representing your business should have your company logo on it. Add some fun holiday accents like snowflakes or a snowman to celebrate the holidays if appropriate.

Best tip: your label should always represent your company well. Take the time to create the best greeting and select the other accents that represent your business. A food gift will likely be put in the employee break room for everyone to share and those feelings of goodwill for your company will be felt for a long time. You want your personalized label to look attractive and represent your company well.

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Goods shipping are hollering on the phone that they have run out of shipping labels and the re-order for the new ones has not arrived.

Do you:

(a)    Tell them to write them out by hand on sticky labels;

(b)   Tell them the person who usually does the ordering has fallen into the Grand Canyon and not done the re-order;  or

(c)    Get online and find a supplier who will deliver the new shipping labels at the right quality, right price and right now!

Pretty obviously the answer is c., but when you get online you will be confronted by hundreds of thousands of print stores offering you shipping labels yesterday!

So how do you choose which supplier to fulfill the order?

To get the labels on time and looking as they should follow these tips when ordering online.

First, deal with established print and design outlets that have a physical base in the country.  Many of the internet sites are glossy fronts for overseas print companies with many offering very cheap pricing because they are based in the Far East and especially China.  Your delivery will not be seen for possibly several weeks and certainly not this week.  You can check this by looking for a physical mailing address and a landline telephone number; if the web site you have selected shows neither, avoid them and move on to the next potential supplier on your list.

Second, online purchasing is becoming more the norm than the exception.  Modern online security is very safety conscious and you are fully protected in the event of mishap.  But you do need to make sure you are dealing with a print provider who is operating a retail website and has the necessary “back-end” to provide the security.  When you are looking at a payment screen on your computer, look in the browser bar where the website address is entered – you are looking for https://websitename.com – note that little “s” after http; that means it is a secure and protected section of the site which is safe for you to use with your banking and credit card information.  If it doesn’t have this – move on to the next supplier on your list.

Third, look for customer reviews elsewhere on the internet.  Once you have found a potential supplier, simply put their name into your search engine along with something like, “customer reviews” and see what comes up.  Bad news travel fast and furious especially if the company behaves unscrupulously or badly towards customers, so in this instance, treat no news as good news though it is always assuring to read positive comments.

Fourth, if this is truly a rush order, call the company up and explain the situation to them.  Be prepared to pay a little extra for the privilege but you can also negotiate with other business that you have too.  Shipping labels are something you are going to use again and again, so be sure to ask the supplier questions such as will the price be the same for re-order and what are the minimum (and maximum) order quantities they are able to handle as well as typical turnaround times.

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Winemaking became a passion when I got out of college. It was something I did for fun and friends and family really looked forward to a glass of my homemade wine. When the opportunity came to own a vineyard with my brother in law David, I jumped at the chance. We called it “Ruby Vineyards” because his wife’s name is Ruby. It’s only fair after all; he did find the vineyard and owns more than half of it.

Having our own vineyard has been exciting and we’ve just passed the first year mark for our business. We wanted to do something nice to thank our customers. We started looking at all of these elaborate thank you gifts like gourmet food baskets or engraved wine glasses – when my brother-in-law said, “Let’s make a special batch of wine, just for this one year anniversary.” That sounded really perfect. But we wanted the bottles to look different, not like our other bottles. So David found personalized labels for our wine bottles. We could add a message along with our logo and company name. It was all in full color and looked very professional. It was the perfect touch and the ideal way to say thank you to all of our customers who have stood by us for this past year.

The wine came out beautifully and David and I both knew right away this was a very special wine. We added the labels and started sending it out. On the labels we said, “Thank you for your patronage, celebrating our 1^st year. Ruby Vineyards.” Right away we started to get response. Our customers loved the wine! I actually had customers begging me to order cases of this special vintage of wine we’d created just for this purpose, something we hadn’t thought about.

The response was so strong from our Thank You wine that we’ve decided to add that vintage to our regular offerings. We call it our Anniversary Wine. I think we’ll make a different one for each year to thank our customers. From what started out as a simple idea, thanking our customers for their business has grown into an even bigger idea we hadn’t even thought of.

The personalized label was ideal because we could add a message without bothering with the fuss of a card. Both David and I were worried about what would happen if the card dropped off the bottle or somehow got lost. Then out customer wouldn’t understand why we were sending them a bottle of wine. We wanted to be 100% sure they knew we were sending this as a thank you. We also wanted to be sure they knew this was to celebrate our 1^st year in business. Both ideas worked successfully with the personalized labels that were so easy to attach to our wine bottles. They looked professional, and in full color we easily got the style we hoped to achieve.

Ruby Vineyards may be small but we are dedicated to making fine wine that people enjoy. I think that passion and enthusiasm shows with every glass. Salut and to your good health!

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St. Matthew’s Church likes to help out the community. This year they decided to hold a spaghetti fundraising dinner. The funds would help their nursery school and several community charities. A spaghetti dinner is a low cost event but appeals to many hungry appetites. So the spaghetti fundraising plans were underway.

Our tickets were reasonably priced. Adults were $5 and children were $3. You could eat as much spaghetti as you wished. We felt that was a good price. Sodas and drinks were an extra cost as those can get pricy. Dessert was included. A local restaurant stepped up to donate the spaghetti, dessert and even the soda pop!

After a few weeks, the ticket sales were low. Pastor Greg was concerned about the event and wondered what else could be done. The Church Secretary Betty suggested we get bumper stickers to promote the event. The Pastor budgeted for them and realized they were low-cost and an ideal choice for the fundraiser. Best of all they came in many colors and lots of font and graphic choices – so we really could create a top quality bumpersticker that would get lots of attention.

At church, the next Sunday bumper stickers were passed out during the coffee hour. It wasn’t long before then that the phone started to ring with people wanting to reserve spots for the spaghetti dinner. Best of all, lots of people who bought tickets also asked if they could have a bumpersticker – which promoted our event even more! We ran out of the first batch of bumperstickers and had to have a second batch printed up. But they came quickly and we could easily hand them out to new dinner ticket buyers.

Three weeks from then it was time for our spaghetti dinner. Pastor Greg smiled as the Parish Hall was filled to the brim with people. I don’t think we’ve ever cooked that much spaghetti before in our lives! We raised $6,000 and with half of it going to the nursery school we can afford to get a new computer and library of books for the children. The other half goes to community based charities.

Our favorite thing about the bumperstickers was that they were fun. They made fundraising easy. A flyer can also be easy and convenient but they blow away. Many people think a flyer can be a real nuisance to their business. With the bumpersticker people who took them and added them to their cars knew they were supporting a local community event by putting one on their car.

It was also very helpful that the bumperstickers offered very attractive fonts, graphics and many colors for us to choose from. We were able to create a good looking bumpersticker and one that looked quite professional.

I would recommend a bumpersticker to any community fundraiser. It just makes things easier. Bumperstickers help you get the word out. They help to get people excited about what you are doing. Choose bumperstickers and watch your ticket sales explode!

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The flood of counterfeit goods into the United States from the Far East, and especially China and India, has reached all time highs and is creating significant economic damage at home.  This incredibly damaging, criminal activity is spurring the development of IP protective measures, such as security holograms.

No-one wins when counterfeit products reach the market – the consumer buys goods which are not what they thought they were, while there may be serious consumer safety issues involved. Meanwhile, the manufacturer reaps the adverse reward of negative press and consumer comments because the counterfeit clings like a parasite to their brand image and reputation.  The retail distributor finds they have goods they cannot sell and quite possibly, legal consequences of holding counterfeit products they ought not to have in the first instance.

The issue is how to protect your own brand and intellectual property in a cost effective manner, and at the same time, ensure security measures are in place which will deter counterfeiters from using your product as the basis for a counterfeit operation.  The analogy of a homeowner ensuring all the doors and windows are locked, whilst fitting a highly visible alarm system to deter opportunistic thieves, is very appropriate in this context.

By applying a low-cost security device, design detail or production element to your product, you are making it harder for counterfeiters to profitably reproduce your goods.  Security holograms provide an excellent method for separating your product from the competition, and counterfeiters will be assessing a range of products to see which is simpler, cheaper and most profitable for them to replicate.  Making it more difficult to create a good imitation of your product by the counterfeiters, reduces the risk your product will be targeted by to begin with.

Security holograms can be produced as 2D or 3D images, the design of which is extremely difficult and costly for a counterfeiter to copy.  You can use the hologram on the packaging (where it can act as a tamper evident safety feature) or place them on the actual product themselves.  The presence of a security hologram acts in exactly the same was as a homeowner’s alarm system – it warns potential thieves to steer clear and try their hand at another product which is easier (and cheaper) to counterfeit.

The reasons why security holograms are highly effective in acting as a deterrent to counterfeiting, are because they are cost effective, deliver multiple security functions and can be easily customized and applied to your products or to protect other intellectual property you own.

Security holograms provide a highly visible guarantee that the goods are genuine and are not seeking to hoodwink customers with fake branding; in this regard, holograms are powerful components of your brand identity if you include them.  Further security functions they perform include providing evidence the goods have not been tampered with and where they are used in conjunction with the brand image itself, they serve to protect the intellectual property which a brand represents.  The hologram itself can be subjected to fast and effective optical validation, which provides an additional layer of protection for your goods and reputation as well as being an additional mechanism to convey data such as stock and handling information.

Security holograms cannot be copied using photocopiers or computer scanners, which is a favorite technique utilized by counterfeiters.  It is also apparent when a hologram is real or not, given the ability to present a moving image to the viewer – the only way a counterfeiter can get around this security barrier is to source counterfeit holograms.  This is prohibitively expensive to do, or the alternative, to leave the hologram off their counterfeit products, quickly serves to mark them out as not genuine.

As counterfeit products rise and the ability of the fraudsters to deceive the consumer increases, it is vital for companies to protect their brand and reputation.  Security holograms are cheap to produce, and very simple to apply and manage through the distribution chain.  The simple presence of a security hologram is enough to deter many counterfeiters from even attempting to replicate your product, which makes it easier to target those counterfeiters who are attacking your intellectual property rights and reputation.

When Beth wanted to run for Town Council, she simply didn’t know how to get started. While she wanted to help her town, she hadn’t thought very much about the process of getting her name recognized in her community. Beth was known well in her local schools because she was active helping with her three kids’ class activities and various projects.

Beth really decided she wanted to run for Town Council because she wanted to make changes in the schools. The expenses for class trips were exorbitant and parents didn’t really have much of a say. While there were several tutors available at school, it was very hard to get an appointment. In some ways, she could see that her school was working hard to help her kids get a good education and then other times the things they did just didn’t make sense. That’s when she threw her hat in the ring for Town Council.

Her husband Tom came up with the bumper stickers. Tom owns the town hardware store and thought if they created a bumper sticker saying “Back Beth Smythe, Town Council ‘09”, it would get some attention. He was right. Tom kept the bumper stickers right by the register and before long they were flying out the doors, right along with the hammers and the nails. Then people were coming in just to get a Beth bumper sticker! That’s when Beth knew things were getting successful.

Beth is a lot like you and me, she isn’t the type of person who likes to attract a lot of attention. But she really wanted to make a difference. And the best way to make a difference was to get out there and meet people – and to pass out her great bumper stickers! She went to the town senior center and shook hands and passed out bumper stickers. She went to the library for a coffee meeting and answered questions about her positions and passed out bumper stickers. Soon Beth had to order more bumper stickers to keep up with all of her appointments.

It turned out Beth wasn’t the only one who wanted change in the schools. Others were tired of paying so much for class trips. They were frustrated by the tutoring situation. There were other things they wanted to see changes. People liked Beth, they liked her ideas. Beth passed out bumper stickers and shook hands as fast as she could. Her picture was in the newspaper all the time. She was running against a popular woman who had been successful as a Town Council member. Beth thought she had a chance….but she really didn’t know how good a chance she had.

The election day came and Beth gathered with her supporters. They’d worked hard to get her there. More than five hundred bumper stickers had been passed out in all. Beth had gone earlier that day to shake hands at the local supermarket to remind people to vote. Many said they were voting for her. She smiled and hoped for the best. Beth noticed lots of cars in the parking lot had her Beth bumper stickers on them.

The results came in…..and Beth won by a landslide! By more than 200 votes Beth was the new Town Council member. She’s making changes for her town and the schools. It all started with one little bumper sticker.

Let me tell you a story. Some family members are simply harder to shop for than others. Is it like that for you too? In my family, my Grandma is very difficult to shop for. To be fair, my Grandma is not a difficult person by nature or personality. She simply knows what she likes and what she doesn’t like. So when Grandma’s birthday comes every year it can be a challenge to find that terrific gift.

We all want to find that perfect gift. You know the one. The one that makes someone smile so wide you see the tops of their gums and they look like a little kid. It makes you realize you’ve found something they would have thought of if only they knew it existed. That gift. That’s the one we all dream of buying for our loved ones in a perfect world. Well for once I’d actually found it!

I found something I knew my Grandma would love. You see she is an enthusiastic needlepoint artist. I found some patterns inspired by stained glass windows. The patterns were exquisite. Grandma had often complained she simply can’t find “interesting” needlepoint anymore. So the very moment I saw these unique stained glass window needlepoint patterns – the tiny hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

I gave the little shop my Grandma’s address to send them and thought all was taken care of. Until I called Grandma for her birthday. Then the floor fell out of my plans:

“Happy Birthday Grandma!” I said

“Thank you dear,” Grandma replied

“Did you like your birthday present?” I asked

“No dear? I haven’t received a present,” Grandma said. There was silence on the end of the telephone.

I ended our conversation and called the little needlepoint shop. They had to track the package and it turned out it was on the other side of town! Grandma had moved to a very large town and the zip code number had been transposed. I was both relieved and frustrated, but at least the package would be on its way. Grandma would get her birthday gift on her birthday. And yes, she did smile one of those big kid gum smiles.

That tracking number really saved the day. I don’t want to think about what would have happened if I didn’t have one. There was only one set of those special stained glass patterns at the shop – I don’t think I could have gotten another one had I hoped for it. Without the tracking number, I would have needed to come up with a super idea for Grandma’s birthday in a jiffy.

But it makes me wonder what happens to packages without tracking numbers. I think we’ve just gotten so used to packages having them today that we don’t think about them. That tracking number truly can save the day – I know it saved Grandma’s birthday. It could save a special day in the future for you too.