Don’t Let the Post Office Put the Stamp On Your Small Business

Even during a good economy, starting a small business and building it into a success is a hard task. When times are tough, like they certainly are now, it can be almost impossible. The ironic part is, or one of them at least, is that small business growth is a common indicator used during a recession to determine how, or if, the economy is improving.

When you’re a small business, rising expenses that bigger companies find as an inconvenience may be what puts your profit margin in the red, for good. Sometimes little things such as an increase in gas prices at the pump, higher taxes or a few extra cents for stamps are things that can really make staying afloat difficult.

The United States Postal Service, who had already announced a stamp price increase of around $.02 beginning early 2011, just reported they were $3.5 billion in the red for the third quarter. This comes as the result of a variety of different economic and technological factors. This first being that people just do not use traditional mail nearly as much with the growth and popularity of the internet and mobile communications. E-mails, text and instant messaging and social medias have replaced, or are replacing and written correspondence.

From a business standpoint mailings have also slowed as direct mail marketing is giving way to e-mail marketing and customer contact has gone primarily electronic. Shipping as well has decreased because consumers simply are not purchasing as many items. So when all of these factors negatively affect the post office, how do they look to make up for the losses?

Well they look to cut costs by eliminating services such as Saturday mail, but they also look to increase their profits and it usually comes at the consumers expense. So if your business has a frequent mailing need, then that expense unfortunately becomes yours. A postal meter and postage scales are a couple of items that you can utilize to help you combat that increases in postal costs, at least a little. Now while they won’t reduce the cost of stamps, they will make sure you only pay the exact amount needed without having to travel to the post office to do so.

Another measure you can take, if you anticipate a long term need for mailing first class letters, is to purchase Forever Stamps. These are stamps that you can purchase for whatever the current rate for first class mailings are, and they will be good for as long as you have the stamps, regardless of any increases that may occur. So you if you have reasonable belief your business will be profitable in the coming months or years and heavy first class mailings is a part of your strategic plan, these forever stamps might be a worthwhile investment.

So while you cannot plan everything perfectly, as there will be unanticipated costs, one thing you can count in is that whatever the current postage rates are, they will likely not get any cheaper. So plan your business accordingly, eliminate your postal needs where you can and utilize the tools available to limit the costs cannot avoid.