Tag Archives: slb printing

Here We Grow Again

Here We Grow Again

It’s been 39 years since we started SLB Printing. Wow, time flies! Moving forward we want to continue growing while maintaining our excellent service and quality to our customers. We looked at several methods of how to attain both goals. The logical choice was to find a partner with experience, top quality printing, exceptional customer service and expanded product offerings. Here we grow again!

We are proud to announce SLB Printing has merged with Minuteman Press. MP is 40 years old.  They are aligned with our business model while offering a broader range of services now available to SLB’s customers. SLB Printing – Minuteman Press will stay true to the core principles of high-quality service. We provide additional marketing and business services going forward.  We offer digital marketing campaigns, graphic and web design services, integrating print and online strategies, direct mail, advertising programs, promotional products and a whole lot more.

Your New Partner in Business Printing

SLB – Minuteman Press is here to be your partner in business.  We help you market, advertise, and promote your products and services to your target audiences to increase your sales. The power of print is stronger than ever before. Printed marketing materials are tangible pieces that consumers hold in their hands. Print engages the senses and reinforces your brand on a more personal level than any other form of advertising.  Promotional products are experiencing booming growth thanks to their usefulness and staying power with customers. Now, we can help you use both print and promotional products. Our combined offerings bring your marketing strategy to a whole new level of success. At SLB Printing – Minuteman Press, we will design, print and promote you.

We know that our existing SLB Printing team together with our new partners from Minuteman Press will continue to serve you well. We look forward to a new beginning for our continuing business and know you will continue to be impressed by our print, design and marketing services at SLB Printing – Minuteman Press.

SLB Printing and Minuteman Press logo

Our Direct Mail Clients Are Taking Advantage of EDDM

USPS EDDM Postcards for your Direct Mail Marketing Needs

If you utilize direct mail, you should compare the advantages of using the USPS EDDM Retail service versus a compiled list. Our direct mail clients are taking advantage of our USPS EDDM Postcards for mailing services to canvas small geographic areas. Best of all, they are saving big money by doing this.

I don’t want to ignore the necessity for a mailing that uses a complied list. My objective is to show an example of how you can save money when your goal is to hit every address within a small portion of a postal carrier’s route. Let me give you an example of the various industries we work with that are taking advantage of the USPS EDDM mailing service. They include Real Estate Agents/Realtors, Restaurants, Attorneys, Gyms/Fitness Clubs, Construction Contractors, Roofers, Plumbers, Politicians, Neighborhood Councils, Doctors/Dentists, Local Retailers and Dry Cleaners.  In conclusion, any business that relies on selling to a local clientele of homes and businesses can successfully save money by using Every Door Direct Mail from the Post Office for their direct mail marketing needs.

Cost Savings Example:

Here’s a quick comparison between a small postcard, mailed at the 1st class presort rate compared to a jumbo card mailed using EDDM. (Rates based on printing & postage costs as of 1/23/23)

Service 6″ x 9″
1st class postcard		 6.5″ x 12″
EDDM postcard
Quantity to mail 500 500
List Rental of “Consumer” or “Occupant” list $125.00 $0.00
Printing 2 sided on 16 pt cover $327.00 $397.95
Presort Mailing Preparation Cost $190.00 $0.00
Postage Cost Estimate $190.50 $94.50
Total $832.50 $492.45
Days to deliver 1 to 4 days 2 to 4 days
Please note that these figures are for illustrative purposes only.
Printing and mailing costs are subject to change.
Exact quotes with terms can be emailed to you once your specifications are received.

As you can see from the chart above there is a cost savings even on a small 500 piece mailing. Imagine this sample instead as a 5,000 piece mailing and the savings really begin to add up.

This is how EDDM Postcards are different from a regular postcard mailing.

First of all, size matters, right?  With USPS EDDM postcard sizes, your mail piece is larger then the letter size classification.  You can review our EDDM product page for a list of sizes we commonly produce. Anything over 6.25″ tall or 10.5″ wide that is considered a “flat” by the Post Office is what you can mail with USPS EDDM Postcard discounts. Just as long as the piece is designed properly.  This is without question a major advantage. Your large postcard stands out from the rest of the mail in your prospects mailbox.

Second is the cost of postage.  As of July 22, 2023, USPS EDDM rates are only .198 cents per piece. Compare this to the best automation rate you can achieve for a flat piece at .831 cents per piece.  This is unless you try to mail a large amount and qualify for carrier route rates. But keep in mind, with any type of presort mailing their are other mail preparation costs involved too.

Last thing to know is that you can mail up to 5,000 pieces of mail per day or as few as a single carrier route (usually about 350 to around 1,100 addresses) when you use the USPS EDDM Retail system.  You can’t mail less than 500 pieces with first class presort and on a small 350 to 500 piece mailing it’s not worth all the preparation costs you will incur for standard mail presorting.

Key Points to Consider with EDDM mail:

  1. Pick the area and the post office locations that best suit your needs. You can use the USPS EDDM tool to easily show you this.
  2. Pay for your postage on line or in person at the post office with a check or credit card.
  3. Choose when you’re going to drop your mail. You can expect it to be delivered in as little as 1 to 3 days.
  4. You are allowed to mail as little as one carrier route or as many as 5,000 pieces per day.
  5. Bigger is better!  With the larger USPS EDDM postcard sizes, you’ll stand out in the mail box.

Some other things to consider:

I would never advise using an “all in one service” to pick the USPS EDDM routes for you.  You give up too much control over picking the area you wish to mail to and the timing of your project.  The additional costs you pay to the “all in one service” could be better used to buy more addresses and postcards.  In other words, don’t be lazy, invest some time in marketing your business or service and learn about the USPS EDDM tool  It’s not that hard and you can always call us for FREE advice.

As I said before, USPS EDDM is all about mailing to small local areas. You must consider how this compares with your need to only find homes with children or singles or seniors or any other type of demographic that can only be sourced with a compiled list. Compare the USPS EDDM cost for the entire area you are mailing to with the postage costs for the compiled list.  You are looking to see how many cards may be tossed out with EDDM compared to that targeted list for the area.

What YOU Need with EDDM Mail to be Prepared to do:

You are going to have to do a little work in order to achieve your savings.  This means picking up your mail from our store, driving to your local post office and waiting in the retail line to see a clerk. It’s always helpful to assign this task to a staff member and shouldn’t be too time-consuming.

I feel that for certain types of industries and ad campaigns, mailing postcards with USPS EDDM is all well worth the effort. Your marketing dollars need to stretch as far as they can.  You also need to keep your message in front of as many people as you can.  Every Door Direct Mail from the USPS and SLB Printing can help you do this.

EDDM from SLB Printing in Los Angeles - FREE Consultation for your EDDM needs

Customer Service at SLB Printing, Over and Beyond!

Always Coming Through For Our Clients! – It’s 9:15 p.m. and Nancy’s cell phone starts ringing.  We see by the caller I.D. it’s one of our Motion Picture and Video Production clients.  Frantic voice on the phone gets right to the point, “Got a meeting in the morning and we need 50 of these proposals done tonight and I have the press ready PDF files ready…can you do this?”  What do you think we said?  So we get on the phone and see who on our staff is available to help with the printing and binding.  By 9:45 p.m. the digital press is running and we’re preparing to bind.  By 11:30 p.m. the job is done, the client is already at the store (with a very relieved look) relaxing in customer service and the “emergency” is handled.

How often have you had your own “emergency” that required a Printing Miracle?   Now, not everyone has our personal cell phone numbers.  So the question becomes, how do YOU get on this select list of demanding clients that count on SLB Printing to open the store at any time for them?  It starts simply by asking us to help and letting us know what your annual requirements are.  It’s really that simple to get the private cell phone numbers for SLB Printing into your contact list. After those numbers get onto YOUR contact list you can count on SLB Printing to do everything we can to make that Printing Miracle happen for you too.  You don’t need to take my word for it, the proof is in our reviews. Our reviews are Proof Positive that there is NO ONE else that provides this type of service to highly appreciative clients with equally high recognizable names.  SLB Printing is Always Coming Through for our clients!

When you need a printing company in Los Angeles that Gets It Done, call the shop to speak with one of our dedicated customer service staff members.  And if you don’t have our cell numbers in your contact list yet, just email us your request and customer service will get right to it bright and early when we open in the morning.

Here at SLB Printing, each of our customers can be assured that the printing is high quality and our customer service, top-notch.

SLB Printing – Your SoRo (South Robertson Blvd) Neighborhood Printer

Being a well-established business that began in 1984, SLB Printing relocated to SoRo (South Robertson Neighborhood) in November of 2012.  Since that time, we have seen the improvements that the SORO Neighborhood Council has worked very long and hard to accomplish.  I’d also like to think that SLB Printing has helped too.  Elevating the appearance with fresh paint, cleaned up windows, trimmed trees and quick graffiti removal I feel we have brightened our section of South Robertson and have helped to attract new, upscale businesses to the area too.  A quick look up and down Robertson now shows new businesses that include Pilates on Robertson, UnderGrind Cafe, LetterPress Chocolate, Wonder Kids World and Hang Steady Frame and Design.

But what exactly is SLB Printing?  We’re not a Kinko’s or Staples copy center although we certainly handle all the small jobs that those business do.  We’re not a web to print on-line print shop like Vista Print either – we answer the phone with a live voice all day, every day, during business hours.  I’d like to say that SLB Printing is a vastly superior print shop in the methods we use to provide a broad range of products to our clients, both large and small.  We cater to the “just in time” manufacturing needs of individuals and corporations of any size.

SORO Printing Facility:

If you walk into our store for a self-service copy, we have that available to you. If you’re a large national company and need hundreds of manuals with fast turnaround, we have that ability too.  As the list of products and services in the column to the left shows, we do a lot of different types of jobs.  What you can’t see is that our little shop on South Robertson Blvd in SoRo has a National and International client list.  This doesn’t happen by accident.  It is the result of a commitment to quality and on-time performance that is written about in 5-star reviews that now number over 200 combined on Google and Yelp.

Do you need 100,000 three part forms?  We can do that.

Do you need 1,500 perfect bound training manuals with 80 pages?  We can do that too!

How about 100 posters, 18” x 24” printed for your bands Nation Wide tour?  YES

Retractable pull up banners produced in a day going into stadium and convention centers?  YES

How about 400 perfect bound show guides, in 3 days, 104 pages.  Get them to New York during the middle of the worst snow bomb cyclone the Country has ever seen?  YES

15,000 Newsletters for a non-profit, printed and mailed with appeal envelopes inside? YES

50 Saddle Stitched catalogs and lookbooks with 36 pages?  YES YES YES

And if all you need is 10 copies of your resume, feel free to drop in and use the self service machine to get that done in no time too.

Whether you need a self-service copy, a short-run print job or large-scale orders, SLB Printing can do the job.  While we are a local LA printer, our clients range from small, medium to large businesses that are local, out-of-state and even international.  Check out our online reviews!

So welcome to SoRo where SLB Printing along with a bunch of other great, small businesses know how to Get It Done!

South Robertson Great Streets Plan:

To learn more about the South Robertson Great Streets plan and grant, click on this link: http://www.soronc.org/programs/greatstreets

South Robertson Neighborhood Council:

To learn more about the South Robertson Neighborhood Council, you can visit their web site here: http://www.soronc.org/

SLB Printing has been a big supporter of the Great Streets plan and I hope we can see more improvements and more new small local business on South Robertson in the coming years.

Culver City Businesses Find SLB Printing

With our new location on Robertson Blvd., Culver City businesses find SLB Printing to be a great benefit for several reasons.  Being so close, it’s only a 5 minute drive from downtown Culver City to our store in the South Robertson Business District. Because of this, we are getting more and more jobs and phone calls from the production companies located at Sony Studios, Bluff Creak, YouTube Space and many other types of businesses and restaurants in the surrounding areas as well.

Here are a few good reasons for Culver City businesses to print with us:

  • The main benefit to these Culver City businesses is in our capabilities as a reliable supplier with 3 digital presses, 2 wide format presses and an impressive list of bindery, mounting and laminating equipment.  These machines allow us to produce a wide range of printed products for you with same day printing service.
  • Support your Local Business (SLB). Coincidentally we share the same acronym and support this campaign wholeheartedly. There are a ton of benefits to supporting local establishments, for both the consumer as well as the business, that’s why we see a lot of campaigns encouraging us to do so. See this Entrepreneur article as an example. And while we are a small business, SLB Printing is one of the largest digital shops in area.
  • We have an outstanding reputation for getting jobs done on time.
  • We’ve been around since 1984 and in that time we have developed substantial resources and knowledge that can help solve almost any print related issue.

Because of the same reasons above, companies all over the United States, as well as many other cities across the globe who recently set up offices in Culver City or nearby Century City end up calling with printing requests for a real cross-section of products.  From labels and stickers, press kit folders and pull up banners to Q-cards and award results on many different Television shows, catalogs, flyers and post cards – these are just some of the items our high speed digital equipment can crank out.  We have literally saved Red Carpet openings when a logo on a step and repeat (printed elsewhere) was wrong and needed a cover up label or the show needed a microphone cap with a new logo printed in hours of the show going live.  Instruction sheets for theatrical displays, 1 sheets, movie posters mounted on foam core, you name it, we’ve been asked to get it done.

The close proximity to Culver City and Century City means that we are no more than a 15 minute drive from your office, stage or studio.  Every member of out staff really takes a personal interest in your success and the products we produce.  If you’re reading this blog, it’s probably because you’ve encountered problems with getting your printed products done on time recently.  Now you know, SLB Printing is the place that’s going to Print Miracles for you too and the reason why other Culver City businesses find SLB Printing their only choice for printed collateral.

Anime Expo Week in Los Angeles – $25 Off Comic Books Printing

Anime Expo week in Los Angeles has kept us pretty busy. SLB Printing cranks out the Comic Books, flyers, special event tickets, retractable banner stands, and show booth banners. Over 5,000 Comic Books were produced for various exhibitors and resellers. The largest of these orders was only 600 pieces.  The hard copy proofing process has been critically important to all the Anime Expo clients to make sure their products look their best on our digital presses.

Our 3 high-speed digital presses have been cranking out the comic books and the bindery room has been busy with perfect binding the books. Wire-O, spiral binding, and saddle stitching departments have all had their share of rush work this week too! Wide format jobs for the retractable banners and show booth signage has also been busy. Deadlines as tight as 24 hours have been met and we are so thankful for all the new clients from all over the world who have found out just how quick and easy SLB makes the entire printing, color correction, and proofing process.

Thank you to all our current and new Anime Expo clients for making this the busiest year ever for producing comic books!  SLB Printings impeccable reputation on many of the popular online review sites helped out of town exhibitors feel comfortable coming to our store and trusting us with their last-minute Anime Expo Week in Los Angeles printing needs.  But Comic Books is just part of the Anime Expo Week printing that SLB Printing produced.  Posters, Retractable Banner Stands, Backdrops, Special Event Tickets, Flyers, Postcards and more were all part of the many requests that we were given with impossible deadlines that our print shop made possible.

SLB Printing was established in 1984.  In November of 2012 we moved into our new location at 2818 S. Robertson Blvd.  Plenty of on-street parking and in back of the store is available too.

Call SLB Printing today at 310-558-4752 and let us help with your Anime Expo Week in Los Angeles printing needs. Mention you read this blog and receive $25 off your next order for Comic Books during all of the 2016 year.

For more information on the Anime Expo Show in Los Angeles, visit the show site at http://www.anime-expo.org/

Print Job for a Marine Going to Afghanistan

On this Veterans Day holiday, I wanted to share this blog post again from 2014 when we printed 4×6 note cards for a Marine going to Afghanistan.  We must NEVER forget our men & women fighting for our freedom all over the world.

I wanted to share an experience that took place in the store in February of 2014 that made every one of us smile with pride.

A man and his mother walk into the store (this isn’t a bar joke), and ask us to print and laminate a series of 4″x6″ note cards. No big deal, right? Sounds simple enough. But the man is a United States Marine Corp Officer and he needs these made for each of his men who will be leaving soon for Afghanistan.  The note cards are something his men will need to help them do their jobs and to also help keep them alive.  They are printed with text on both sides, encapsulated with clear lamination and we punched a single hole in the upper right corner. None of us can really see the significance of how these cards are so vitally needed.  I suppose it’s just one of those things like needing a bucket to carry water.

Our staff proceeds to get the job done. Nancy shows me the job ticket and asks what we should charge him.  It’s Friday afternoon and this was our basic rush job that happens all the time so everyone was working on getting these note cards done before we closed.  I told her to give it to him.  “Really?” she says.  “YES”, I replied.  As I was watching the progress of the trimming and finishing, I told our staff that we weren’t going to charge for this job and they were all surprised as well.  I commented that the U.S. Marines aren’t sending me a bill for defending my freedom and I’m not about to give them a bill for something they tell me they need.  I instructed Nancy to ask to see the man’s military I.D. when he comes to pick up the job, hand him the job and say “Thank YOU for your service!”

Needless to say, everyone had a tear in their eye and a bit more pride with the thought our little print shop was actually going to be able to make something so vital and useful for our soldier. When he shows up, Nancy does as we discussed, asks to see his Military I.D., checks it out, hands it back to him with his job and says “Thank YOU for your service.” He hands Nancy his credit card and she says NO, this one is on us.  Well, hugs all around and I get a firm handshake with a big thank you from the man dressed in civilian clothing.

Print Job for a Marine

The mom brought us Flowers and Brownies as a thank you

Fast forward 3 weeks, the Marine’s mother shows up at the store with flowers, brownies and a 2 page hand written letter.  Her son is in Afghanistan now with his men, using the 4×6 laminated note cards we printed for them.  She wanted to let us know how much our efforts were appreciated. Really? I was floored! Our efforts? I’m standing here thinking this man is putting his life on the line to defend my country and I’m being thanked? I’m sure you can see the irony here.  Nancy and I opened the letter and read a U.S. Marine Corps Mother’s words on how important it was to her to see people outside the military be genuinely concerned and still care enough to do something like what we did. The flowers were beautiful and the brownies were devoured by everyone before the end of the day too.

I just have to say how grateful I am that this man found SLB Printing for this job. In this highly competitive industry, with margins so thin, I’m not sure any other printing company would be willing to do something like we did.  I also need to say THANK YOU to all of our existing clients who make it possible for us to do a job like this and proudly give it away for free. Each and every one of our clients should share in the pride that my staff and Nancy and I now feel about the job we just did.

Update: 6-6-14  This picture arrived today via email from Afghanistan:

We are displaying this image printed at 36″ x 48″ proudly in our lobby area along with copies for the above story.

Counter Cards in Less than 1 Day

SLB Printing counter card

SLB Printing can now make Counter Cards in less than 1 day. These are great Point of Purchase (POP) sales boosters for new product announcements and sales specials.  Or they can be used to make notices and warnings too.

They say necessity is the Mother of Invention.  Well, we didn’t invent the counter card but a client of ours who was using a more durable product produced with 3/16″ white foam core was doing a Pop Up Show for a Charity Event and needed something cheap and in a hurry.  When we were discussing the options for how to make these quicker and for a lot less money, a test was ordered up to print on our 16 pt C1S cover stock to see how it would hold up.  250 Counter Cards later, everyone loved the product and they ended up being much more durable than our client ever expected.  Production of all 250 took us only 2 work days.

SLB Printing can produce these light weight, durable, counter cards in less than 1 day in quantities up to 50 pieces.  Longer runs should be planned out with a little more time allotted but if you’re in a time crunch, SLB Printing will always go above and beyond to do what we can to make your deadline happen. The single wing easel backs are 8″ tall and are able to accommodate cards up to 18″ in height if needed.  We use a heavier weight white easel back instead of the cheaper and thinner natural color easels to ensure a stronger and more durable Counter Card.

Larger sizes with larger easel backs can be made given more time for the customization.  We also offer Counter Cards with 3/16″ white or black foam core backs for an incredibly strong and long-lasting product with more depth for certain applications.  We even have an option for Standee Size 8′ tall lobby displays with extra heavy duty double wing easel backs.  So remember SLB Printing for your next Counter Card (or Lobby Card) print job.  SLB Printing is the place to go when you need Counter Cards in less than 1 day.

Call SLB Printing to discuss the details at 310-558-4752 or email your press ready art files to slbprinting@gmail.com and we’ll get your job into production.

2016 American Express Member Favorite

AMEX-2016 Fav Bus

SLB Printing is not only loved and admired by our clients with over 100, five star, reviews on Google+ and Yelp!, we are very proud to now have the very selective distinction of being a 2016 American  Express Member Favorite business too.  We received notice of the distinction on April 1st, but this was no April Fools Day joke.

The award says several things about SLB Printing.  The most significant points are:

  1. A wide variety of AMEX users prefer SLB Printing over other Small Local Businesses in the printing field.
  2. A growing number of AMEX users are coming to SLB Printing for the first time.
  3. There are a substantial number of repeat clients that use an AMEX card to make purchases from SLB Printing.
  4. We get to display the 2016 Member Favorite logo and badge along with using the hastag #MemberFave

SLB Printing participates in the AMEX Small Local Business Program and I am very happy to see the positive results from our efforts. The award and acknowledgement from American Express was a very big surprise and I am proud to be able to hang the award on our walls and post the special logo on our web site’s main page.  Even though I know SLB Printing continues to grow and service a wider range of clients with a broader offering of printing products year after year, it’s nice to see how a partner in that growth, American Express, can quantify this with actual hard metrics that I never though to look at on our balance sheet.

This is the first year that SLB Printing has been awarded the 2016 American Express Member Favorite designation since beginning to accept AMEX for payment and hopefully, it won’t be the last time.  I’d like to thank all our clients who have found us through the AMEX Small Local Business program and who keep coming back month after month with bigger jobs that help SLB Printing continue it’s growth.  I’m looking forward to being able to say in 2017 that we are once again an American Express Member Favorite company.

If you don’t already have an AMEX card and would like to know more about the benefits of card membership, please go to https://www.americanexpress.com

 SLB Printing AMEX MemberFav

Helping Your Business Grow More Profitably

SLB Printing is very skilled at helping your business grow more profitably.  We accomplish this in a number of ways without taking shortcuts.  Our employees know they need to make each order they work on their top priority and that by always doing their best, it helps your business grow more profitably.

Just think about how each of the following is helping your business:

  1. Higher quality printing using the same or more advanced machines than our competitors
  2. Faster turn around times
  3. More evaluation during prepress
  4. Lower minimum quantities
  5. We overstaff so you don’t have to

Lets break the above list down a bit more.

1.  We spend hours fine tuning and calibrating our digital equipment in order to provide you with the best quality images.  This makes your message more vibrant, inviting and more appealing to buyers of your product in order to get them to make the purchase.

2. Faster turn around means you get what you need when you need it.  This helps you by reducing the time you could have WASTED sourcing out to less reliable vendors.  “Need it now?  Just ask!” is our motto.

3. When one of our prepress staff members look at your files, they are making sure your job will look as you intend it to be once it’s printed.  If they find a problem, they stop and email or call you to discuss what they have found.  This saves you from poor quality jobs that contain low resolution images or margins that have not been set up properly along with a variety of other items we look for that could make your job look less than perfect.  When’s the last time your “On-Line” printer called you to discuss a problem they found with the file.  At best, you can expect a polite letter rejecting your job and leaving it up to you to figure out how to fix it.

4. Lower minimum quantities means that you don’t need to order 1,000 copies when only 150 will do.  Our digital presses will handle your short run job, even if you only want 1 copy of that perfect bound book you need for your Kickstarter campaign.

5. We overstaff in order to make sure your jobs get done when you want them.  Again, this frees up the time you would spend stressing over where to go and “IF” the job will be ready on time.  It’s unbelievable how many times a new client calls us to ask for updates on their job because they’ve had such horrible experiences with other print providers.  It’s also comical to see how often we’re asked to have a job ready on Wednesday only to find out the client really didn’t need the job until Friday morning but just wanted to make sure the job would be ready for pick up on Thursday.  We get it.  It’s all about making sure you get what you need when you want it.

SLB Printing wants to understand your challenges and figure out how we can reduce the issues and eliminate the challenge.  Give  us a call to discuss your next project today. Helping your business grow more profitably is our job.  The skills of our staff and the high quality equipment we have available are the methods you can count on from SLB Printing.