From V.T., Olympia WA

 

 

"Hi DJ,

 

I just got off the phone with Chris & he said that everything was great.  He raved about the plate with the tall boxer a lot & himself & the crystals & the pens. 

 

He told me that he & Pat both thought it was really very professional how you put a letter explaining what happened & the big Happy Birthday note in the box.

 

Thanks again for making this such a great day for them.  And they are looking forward to the other items as well."

 

 

 

From Lobb, Jason, J. USN
Recruiter-in-charge, NRS Fremont, CA

 

"Thank you very much for the wonderful (business) cards. The large variety of colors
and designs made it hard to find a choice that would suit our business, but
your expertise and professionalism helped us choose the card that would fit
our needs. I am very pleased with the quality and final outcome of your
product. The expedited shipping and profesional attitude of Getting
Personal Imprinting is going to keep me coming back for a long time."

 

From Anne P., another of  our recent customers...

 

I picked up the invitations on Friday evening.  They are wonderful.
We appreciate the great service, and fast service too.
Take care and thanks again for everything!
You made this a whole lot easier and less stressful for us.

 

 From Sharon E., Shear Style LLC

 

 "I love your product & your customer service is exceptional! I have honestly received all kinds of compliments on my new cards."

 

 From Sandra V.

 

"I am so sorry I haven’t gotten back to you to let you know that I received (my invitations) on Friday afternoon and WOW did they look great.  I was pleasantly surprised that the address was printed on the return envelopes and mailing envelopes in red print!!!!  Once again thank you for all your help." 

 

 From Lisa S. (Milwaukee, WI)

 

"Getting Personal Imprinting" was easily searchable and answered my email inquiry immediately. I needed personalized napkins for my mom's 60th birthday party, and I needed them quick, in less then a week! Not only did they get my order to me with time to spare, they looked great, the emails were friendly, and I ended up paying less then had I ordered them locally! I'm very impressed and would definitely return for all of my personalization needs!!"

 

 From Kathy K. (Burien, WA)

 

"Thanks so much! Beautiful! Professional!"

 

From Carol H. (East Wenatchee, WA)

 

"Thank you so much for the beautiful job you did on the napkins for my parents' 50th anniversary! They really finished off the tables with class. I'll be in touch for the next 'big event'!!"

 

From Heidi G. (South Carolina)

 

"The invitations are GREAT!! Thank you for your help. I'm sure the party will be great because it will be so inviting!!"

 

 From May (Washington)

 

 Just wanted to let you folks know that the photo blanket I ordered turned out beautiful. It was worth the wait. My husband received it in three days after I had mailed it to him in Kuwait and he loves it. He mentioned to me that it almost made him cry. Thanks so much for having it turn out perfectly. Thanks.

From Laura (New York)

 

WOW!!!! Thank you so very much. My husband and I were/are very impressed by the products we just received!

Thank you! I wasn't so sure my husband would like the platter, but he was shocked he had never heard that poem/verse before and we both are very pleased.

The pens, napkins and platter are just fantastic!

Thank you again. I wish I had a business so I could order business cards. :) Very nice!

I really like the pen you made also, very impressive.

Thanks again, I'll keep you in mind if we need anything else or I know of anyone.

Good luck and God bless.

 

 

We accept cash, checks, money orders, all major credit cards and PayPal payments.

Gift cards are also available.

 

Keep up with us on our Blog...

March 07

Real Life Warnings About Online Invitations

Within the last week I had three brides contact me after they ran into issues with online wedding invitation companies. The first was a bride planning a multi-cultural ceremony. She actually had invitations already printed by a vendor that specializes in Asian invitations. Unfortunately, the invitations she received were full of mistakes. She had no recourse to have them reprinted correctly. Her only option now is to pay for another complete order of invitations – essentially doubling her invitation expense.

The second bride came in after finding her perfect invitation online. She started placing her order, but then hesitated when she saw the company’s policies about refunds – there were none, even if the company made the mistake. She then checked out the company on the Better Business Bureau website and found out the company had a F rating and plenty of complaints. She came to me and is in the process of ordering invitations.

The third bride placed an order online, and several days later received a call from the company in which they told her they weren’t going to be able to fulfill her order.

There are a lot of good, reputable online invitation printing companies. And there are a lot of local invitation vendors who can help you make sure you won’t encounter issues with getting your invitations printed correctly and in the time you need them. Be smart about ordering invitations, or you might be sorry.

2:26 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

February 28

Start of an Upward Trend?

The last day of February. We’re ending the month with mixed feelings. February was a good month for us. We had strong sales, we made some new connections that could result in ongoing future sales. But as we begin a new month we start with a clean slate. We have some receivables still outstanding, but beyond that we don’t know where or when the next sale will come. Coming off such a good month we are optimistic that we’ll continue to see good traffic through the store, an increase in online inquiries and that we’ll be able to capitalize on an opportunity to display our work in the community. We have two events already scheduled – the Spring Flea Market at the American Lake Community Center on March 20th and the Metro Parks Tacoma Point Defiance Bridal Show on March 21st.

Yesterday was the last day of business for one of our neighboring businesses on Garfield Street. The European Tailor has been in business on Garfield Street for about 3 years. She closed her shop because her landlord raised her rent. She saw spaces in the area, similar to hers, rent for $600-$700 per month; she was already paying more than $800. And her landlord is now increasing it to more than $900. We can’t blame her for leaving, but we’re sad to see her go. We bought her check out counter and display cases and think it will improve the appearance of our showroom.

8:47 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

February 21

Recharging with a weekend (mostly) off

It’s rare that we have the opportunity to stay away from the store for an entire weekend, but this weekend it happened. That’s not to say we didn’t work; DJ is in his wood shop now making more pens to replenish the inventory. And I did work on our taxes yesterday. Early this morning we received a call from New Jersey, a customer looking for a special wedding gift, that we will create. But we didn’t spend any time at the store, and it’s been a nice break.

The weekend kicked off Friday with two high points. We received a phone call from a new client of ours for whom we had created crystal awards earlier in the week. He was calling to tell us that the awards were the best he’s ever presented to his association of churches. Of course we always love to hear those kind of testimonials.

We received that call as we were entering the parking garage across the street from Seattle Center; we were there to attend the opening night show of Bon Jovi’s Circle Tour at Key Arena. A Bon Jovi fan since I first heard Runaway in 1982/1983, I was giddy about being at the concert. This was the second Bon Jovi concert we’ve attended; we saw them on the Bounce Tour in 2003 in San Jose. That first concert fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine; this second concert was pure magic. My throat is still sore from my screaming and singing along to every song. What a night!

A few weeks ago I wrote about the possible sale of the property where we rent our store. That sale is going through. We met the new owners. They tell us that eventually they want to convert the whole building to apartments. We don’t exactly know how far down the road they intend to make that change and just hope we’ll be able to make the most of the time we do have left in our current space.

10:38 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

February 14

A Great Week

We just concluded a week working as vendors at the American Lake VA Hospital. In five days at the VA we registered more sales than we’ve had in recent entire months. We, of course, hope that this good week might signal the start of a new trend; we have seen an uptick in walk-in customers at our store. We have debated whether we should resume a concessionaire relationship at AAFES to supplement our store sales, just as we do with the VA. The biggest drawback to doing this is that we need to close our store for the time we are working remotely as we have no paid employees who can manage the store in our absence. This is a subject we’ve discussed.

The potential buyers of our building visited us during the week as well – time will tell, if the sale goes through, what the new owners have in mind for the property. They gave no indication during our brief conversation that they intended to make any changes.

7:54 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

February 07

And the hits just keep coming

So, February has started out pretty well. We finished getting new signage on our store windows and we’ve already seen walk in traffic as a result. Sales seem to be up; we have money in the bank. We’re spending a week at the local VA Hospital, where we typically leave with good sales and profits. If all months went as well as this, we’d have no reservations about signing a longer lease with our current landlord.

Things are going great…or were…until our landlord called last Thursday. She told us that “investors,” “potential buyers” of the property where our store is located will be coming through this week to look a the property.  Possible new landlords?

We’re trying not to prematurely jump to any conclusions, but if the property sells, we already expect it will mean changes. Higher rent – likely. More rules – possibly. Kicked out of current space – also possible…and if that happens, then what?

I read a lot of online discussions about small business and it seems there are always people advising small businesses to write a business plan. I’m not against writing a business plan. I started writing one once – then lost all the work I had done when my computer’s hard drive died. That was really a metaphor for us and a a business plan. You can make all the plans you want based on the knowledge you have at that time. But you can’t know what you don;t know. You can’t know what opportunities are going to be available. This latest possibility is just one example…we couldn’t plan for our landlords to sell. We couldn’t plan for our trusted minivan to lose its transmission. We couldn’t plan for our association with the VA or AAFES or the ups and downs of those relationships. Instead, we just react to what happens; we roll with the punches – and when I give advice to small businesses I tell them to just be prepared for the unexpected and the unimaginable.

2:51 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)