16 Beers Ave: print, promote, and profit

Back to where I started

2011-01-25T22:39:00.001-05:00

By far, the most influential leadership experience of my life ocurred at Fairfield University my junior year. Through the help of many close friends I was elected to serve as student body president. It was an extraordinary experience on so many levels and one that I think about often.

After graduating from Fairfield, it was an easy decision for me to begin my professional career at Fairfield Prep, the Jesuit high school located on the very same campus that was my home the previous four years. My title was Director of Alumni and Public Relations and encompassed nearly every aspect of Advancement (more commonly referred to as Development or Fundraising).

I spent nearly seven years in the Advancement world and enjoyed every minute of it. Advancement incorporates the best of sales, marketing and communication, yet the end result, the so called "bottom line" goes back into the organization and ultimately, benefits students. Students like me, who would otherwise not be able to afford private school tuitions - yet more importantly, students like me who experienced things they didn't even know were possible.

Although I didn't realize it at the time, it was also the perfect background for my current occupation - sales and marketing. If you're like me, you sometimes cringe at the sight or sound of "salesmen" - pushy people pushing products that very few of them believe in. Raising money for schools was anything but easy yet it was genuine; I not only believed in what I was "selling" but supported it personally and financially to the places I cared about (even though I was still paying off student loans and would be for over ten years).

My friends and customers know that I am not pushy, aggressive, tacky, or insincere. That's not how I am wired (thankfully). Had my Dad not invited me to start a business together I'd still be raising money for schools (and getting paid for it). Instead, I keep the drive alive by volunteering my time and resources as often and consistently as time allows.

...

On Thursday, Proforma Printing and Promotion will be exhibiting at the Northeast CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) annual conference in Boston. Ah...back to where I started indeed! The reality is, since leaving advancement, almost 70% of my customers are private colleges, universities or private schools. We are very excited and proud of our Platinum Sponsorship and look forward to connecting with existing customers (friends) and many new CASE members as well.

There will be plenty of other marketing companies in attendance competing for time and attention of the nearly 700 attendees...yet I am not the slightest bit bothered by the "competition". Very few of my peers come from the Advancement world and while they have experience in servicing CASE members, most haven't lived and breathed it like I have.

It feels good to be back where I started...it feels even better to know that I can use my experiences to better serve them; to listen to their challenges, to ask the right questions, to present creative-efficient-and result-driven solutions...and not "sell" them anything I don't personally believe in.

I was president number 48 at Fairfield and tomorrow we'll be at Booth 49. I've attached a link about the CASE conference and a photo of our creative marketing collateral we'll be presenting at the conference.

Mark

The dragon inside each of us

2010-10-05T21:37:00.000-04:00

I finally did it. The other day while in OfficeMax I noticed that the Dragon software was on sale for $29. For $29 I have nothing to lose if this speech recognition software does not do what I think it will do for me. If you happen to notice any typos or spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes please forgive me if I am trying to use this Dragon recognition software to write this blog.

I will admit it is strange to speak very slowly into articulate my words. Like most married men I tend to mumble my words whenever I am not a professional setting. So, I am staring at the computer screen waiting for the words to catch up to my voice. It's not necessarily slow it's just that I'm not really sure exactly what I want to write.

As a salesman, I do a lot of driving in the car, and DOS, I do a lot of thinking. I am not one of those individuals who likes to blast the music and just chill out. In fact, I enjoy the quiet time and often do some of my best thinking. Is it me, or do I really have all the answers when I am not behind my desk in my office? It's when I get back to the office and try to implement the many thoughts I had while driving, not a hit the roadblock.

You matter how well I prepare for my day, Frey or a tight thing my action steps, phone calls, and other tasks, I him immediately stumped after reading the first several e-mails in my inbox. And then I curse to myself. If only somebody else could read my e-mail and respond for me. For me, reading e-mail is the number one obstacle in accomplishing all of my tasks in a day. I am willing to bet that the same is true for most of you reading my blog.

What is the number one obstacle in your day? Is it reading e-mail? Is it spending time prospecting for new business? Perhaps it is the challenge of finding the right marketing or promotional item to help increase your sales, revenue, and profit? Whatever obstacles you face, you are not alone. There are very few shortcuts in life to deal with distraction and clutter and time management. I am very intrigued by this speech recognition software. Yet speaking from experience in writing this blog, I know that it is not technology that will help me overcome interruption and increase productivity.

No matter how many great thoughts I have in the car, it is up to me to execute or implement those ideas. There's definitely a dragon inside each one of us, ready and willing to conquer just about anything that gets in our way. E-mails, cold calling, writing reports, meeting after meeting after meeting. The good news, is that you don't need a dragon or a castle or a marketing army to successfully promote your brand, product, vision, or your company/organization. Your marketing obstacles are opportunities for others, so let us do the heavy lifting.

Thank you for putting up with my spelling mistakes and incorrect grammar, as I get more familiar with my new speech recognition software. I'm just hoping that none of my Fairfield professors come across this blog post!

Proforma launches Holiday Catalog on www.proforma.com/boston

2010-08-26T21:31:00.000-04:00

Promotional Items. Creative Marketing Solutions. Boston, MA

Some of our customers will be receiving holiday cards in the mail from us in the next two weeks. Already? While it is certainly too early for card giving, it is definitely not too early to order your custom or stock holiday cards. In fact, many companies have already ordered them. Some vendors offer "early discounts" if you place your card order by August 1.

Truth be told, many businesses and organizations don't pay enough attention to the overall quality and manner in which they send holiday cards. My children look forward to receiving them, not because they are interested in the sender, message or style of the car, but rather because they get to put them in our Christmas Card Mailbox - an antique mailbox that holds every card sent to the Resnick home.

Lydia Ramsey, a business etiquette expert and author of "Manners That Sell - Adding the Polish That Builds Profits" has some straightforward advice for business owners. Click on 8 Rules of Business Greeting Card Etiquette to read the article and I definitely recommend subscribing to her blog.

If you don't receive your card in the mail shortly, give me a call and I'll make sure you get one! This year's Holiday Gift Catalog has been added to to our website

As for Lydia Ramsey, check out her web site ...you'll thank me later!

Mark

Esprit Hits 34th Street

2010-08-25T19:25:00.000-04:00

One of our larger accounts is The Rice Company. For one of their ad campaigns for ESPRIT, they had us create the ESPRIT branded tanks, tees and shorts shown in this very cool video! Check it out and share with your network.

ESPRIT video link: www.youtube.com/proformaboston.

To learn more about our custom print and creative apparel solutions, visit our website: www.proforma.com/boston.

Mark

Innovator of the Year award recipients

2010-08-25T14:14:00.001-04:00

pdf155
Originally uploaded by Proforma Boston

NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release
For more information, contact: Barry, John, Mark and Bill Resnick
Co-Owners
Proforma Printing and Promotion
(800) 951-6607
Mark.Resnick@Proforma.com

Proforma Printing and Promotion Receives Innovator of the Year Award at Convention

BOSTON (August 13, 2010) – Barry, John, Mark and Bill Resnick, Co-Owners of Proforma Printing and Promotion (PPP), recently received the Innovator of the Year Award at the 23rd Annual Proforma Convention and Family Reunion in Las Vegas, NV.

The Innovator of the Year Award recognizes Proforma Owners who have worked tirelessly to provide creative solutions for their customers while developing and executing the most innovative campaigns in the print and promotional product industry.

“Being recognized as Proforma’s Innovator of the Year is something we are truly proud of,” said Mark Resnick, Co-Owner of Proforma Printing and Promotion. “We are dedicated to finding the just the right products for our customers, and look forward to maintaining the same level of service in the future.”

In the past year, Proforma Printing and Promotion has provided one of its largest clients, The Rice Company, with several promotional items that solved their every need:

•Custom branded laundry bags were delivered within 72 hours of the order being placed.
•For one high-profile event, PPP printed fashionable apparel for models to wear on the streets of Manhattan (visit www.youtube.com/proformaboston to view the video).
•PPP helped The Rice Company meet the needs of one of their largest accounts, a leading software provider, using laptop skins and an interactive survey to track and measure the effectiveness of the campaign.

“With so many innovative ideas to share with their customers, it’s no wonder that Proforma Printing and Promotion, a four-time member of the Proforma Million Dollar Club, has been able to secure a long-standing relationship with The Rice Company,” said Greg Muzzillo, Founder of Proforma. “Barry, Mark, John and Bill have embraced the power of Proforma, helping to position us as a leader in the print and promotional product industry.”

Proforma Printing and Promotion was established in 1999. Proforma allows clients to “one-stop shop,” as a network of more than 600,000 products and services are available at any given time. State-of-the-art technologies enable clients to grow with innovative marketing solutions such as direct mail, promotional products, and business document printing.

About Proforma
With more than 30 years of experience, Proforma remains clearly focused on providing solutions to North American businesses for their graphic communications needs. A leading provider of promotional products, printing services, business documents, and eCommerce solutions, Proforma has received numerous awards and is recognized as one of the top five largest companies in our industry. Proforma serves approximately 50,000 clients through more than 700 member offices in North America. The Proforma Worldwide Support Center is located in Cleveland, Ohio.
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Location Location, Location....

2010-08-21T11:27:00.000-04:00

Summer days on Beers Ave started early and ended late. There were intense street hockey, capture the flag and kick the can games, adventures in the woods, bike-riding to the Woodworth Memorial Little League Complex, nightime flash light tag and ding-dong-ditch, and many long, hot evenings with no air conditioning.

There were tons of kids in the surrounding neighborhoods and the ages were pretty widespread. Often we'd cross Rt. 53, a fairly busy road, to play street hockey and other games in the Washington Park neighborhood. In the winter, we could cut through the woods and carefully edge our way to Jacobs Pond for ice skating.

Beers Ave was a perfect location for three adventurous boys growing up on the South Shore.

As the only Boston-based Proforma business, we feel we have the perfect location to run a creative marketing and print business. We certainly have some key Boston accounts yet we also learned from our days on Beers Ave that it was important to remain mobile. We never hesitated to branch out to other streets and neighborhoods to play games, ride our bikes or even setup our lemonaide stands to expand our marketshare.

Having a good location is important, don't get me wrong, yet in today's mobile world, the physical location of a business is less important. Instead, what truly matters is our ability to reach out to clients in a manner that is best for them. We always prefer stopping by to visit or picking up the phone to call upon our customers, howeever, we know that some people prefer email, texting and Go-To conferencing. Regardless, we do a good job staying connected to our client base.

The world of "new media" is here for the long haul. If your business, school, or organization is ready to capitalize on this new media, including: mobile marketing, QR codes/tags, integrated marketing, Personalized URLs, social media (twitter, facebook, youtube, flowtown, digg, linkedIn), custom web videos, search engine optimization, engaging digital publications, and ecommerce...Proforma is ready to take you to that next level.

My brothers and I realized early on that a great location alone isn't enough. We never limited ourselves to Beers Ave to meet new people, find better competition, explore unchartered territories, and even grow our profits.

Let us help you do the same with your business.

University Athletics Recruiting Moving Online

2010-06-23T23:30:00.000-04:00

University Athletics Recruiting Moving Online

The signs are all around us...

2010-06-19T16:00:00.000-04:00

There were so many things I loved about living on Beers Ave as a kid, and especially as a teenager. "Beers" Ave as a college student, is there a better street name on the planet?

One summer night with a few Fairfield University buddies, we had the brilliant idea to steal the Beers Ave street sign. The sign would fit perfectly with our townhouse decor on campus. So we took the ladder from the shed and quietly walked to the sign, which hung high up on the telephone pole about fifty yards from my doorstep. There was no plan in place, just a ladder and a hammer. One of us climbed the ladder and immediately began to bang away. Keep in mind it was very late and Beers Ave was a small street. The noise from the hammer was extremely loud and the sign would not budge. Of course within minutes, a neighbor stuck his head out the window and threatened to call the police if we didn't stop immediately.

...

Our clients often ask us, "What's the hot promotional product right now?" I hesitate to answer right away because I inevitably know where this is going. After sharing some of the newest trends (laminated reusable grocery totes, egrips, personal concierge plastic cards, custom sillybandz, eMag digital publications, skinit covers for laptops and cell phones, to name a few), the customer gets very excited and immediately wants pricing on one, a few, or every item.

Years ago I would have been thrilled at such a response and attempted to end the meeting as quickly as possible so that I could start working up a quote. Yet the reality is that even the best intentions, best ideas, or hottest trends can seem too good to be true without a well conceived marketing plan or clearly defined goals.

We never did manage to get the Beers Ave sign, not once in all my years living on the street. It's obvious to me now, nearly twenty years later, why we failed miserably that night: we didn't have a plan, never mind a great plan for accomplishing our goal.

To help you get the most out of your marketing budget, I need to ask the right questions - listen attentively - and fully understand your mission, goals and potential obstacles. Rather than selling you what's "hot" I want to provide the best solutions for your specific marketing goals.

Most importantly, make sure your plan is rock solid. Don't get stuck swinging a hammer high up on a ladder with little support from your friends below (ok, it was me on the ladder, and yes, I'm still mad at those guys for bailing on me)!

The signs are all around us - just be certain you know which ones to avoid!

-Mark

Home is where your story begins...

2010-06-08T22:24:00.000-04:00

Welcome to 16 Beers Ave: print, promote, and profit.

As Co-founder and CEO of Proforma Printing & Promotion (Boston, MA), I spend the majority of my time building relationships. By this I mean getting to know people on a personal and professional level, so that I may better understand where they are coming from, what challenges or obstacles they need to overcome, and what goals are they trying to accomplish now, next year, and five years from now.

I created this blog to share our company story - but more importantly, to share ideas, success stories, and to create win-win opportunities for our clients and friends. You can also follow us on the web, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

The words, 'home is where your story begins..." are prominently stenciled on my kitchen wall. I know my three children barely notice the words, but not a day goes by without at least a momentary pause, memory, or reminder of my first home on 16 Beers Ave in Norwell, Massachusetts. It was here that our story began.

My father, Barry Resnick and I started Proforma Printing & Promotion in 1999. A few years later my two brothers, Bill and John, joined the family business. I think I speak for all of us in saying that none of us ever imagined that we would work together, never mind in the same business, with our father, doing the exact same thing that he has been doing his entire professional life.

16 Beers Ave was so much more than a single home on a small street in Norwell. It was the beginning of our story, the one we call Proforma Printing & Promotion. We learned a lot about each other over the years - and we learned even more about the printing and promotional products industry from our Dad...

The most important thing we learned from our time together on Beers Ave, and specifically from Barry, was how to build relationships over time. Our primary goal isn't to sell you anything; but rather, once we get to know you, your business, the challenges you need to overcome, and your goals, we can identify and execute creative and effective marketing solutions.

I encourage you to check back often and to visit us on the web.

Mark Resnick

800-951-6607, x2

mark.resnick@proforma.com