October Surprise

Most of our employees have no electricity after the 12-36 inches of October (!) snowstorm we just got. There are trees and electric wires down on lots of roads. But everybody made it in! Simon’s Stamps has electricity, internet, phone and gas – we’re 100% up and running. That’s good, since we have lots of orders from over the weekend. Thanks everyone!

Simon’s Stamps is hiring

Job Offered: Simon’s Stamps is hiring 2-3 production workers for our shop in Turners Falls, MA. If you know anyone smart, hard working and balanced, please send them our way. The job is posted at http://westernmass.craigslist.org/med/2370479577.html

Simon’s Stamps employee wins prestigious award

Congratulations to Geoff Blüh, winner of two Associated Press photojournalism awards. When he’s not making stamps, Geoff takes news photos for the Greenfield Recorder. His spectacular work won two AP News Executive awards, announced at a ceremony today.

“Compact” car

Simon’s car, “Dolly” got crushed by a tree in the recent thunderstorm. Fortunately, Quincy Mutual has proposed a very good settlement.

Dolly with cute girl

Electricity Back On!

The thunderstorms knocked out power, telephone and internet to our shop yesterday. But everything’s back up now, and we’re shipping two days’ worth of stamps out tonight.

Our first sale to Nunavut!

A coffee shop in Iqaluit, Nunavut ordered a rubber stamp and an ink pad today. It appears to be tri-lingual – English, French and Inuktitut. We have now shipped to every Province and Territory in Canada. Thanks Northerners! We hope you’re enjoying our service, not just our low US Dollar prices!

Nunavut is located in the extreme North of Canada. It is about the size of Mexico, but the population is about 1/30th that of Rhode Island.

March Sales up 23%

If you were one of our customers in March, thanks so much!

February sales up 30.1%

Thanks to all our great customers around the world, our February 2010 sales are 30.1% higher than February 2009!

Simon’s Stamps recommends local banking

GCB Main office

The other day there was an article in the Daily Hampshire Gazette about President Obama’s new SBA ARC loans. Apparently only 80 small businesses in the entire state of Massachusetts had gotten one. The article quoted several local business owners who complained that their bank was not interested, the paperwork was confusing, the loans were practically impossible to get, etc. Wow!

I had to wonder what bank these business owners went to. My experience with Adam Baker at Greenfield Cooperative Bank was very different from what the newspaper portrayed. Yes, there was paperwork involved, but it was nothing a good bookkeeper or business owner can’t handle. Yes, it was sometimes hard to understand the Small Business Administration’s requirements, but our friendly banker happened to be an expert on the subject, and explained everything.

Our loan closed, and Simon’s Stamps is very happy to have the money to expand and increase hiring – just what the loan program and GCB are for. Thanks!

If I have any complaint about our small local bank at all, it would be that they need to do a better job getting the word out to the local business community. Really, they’re great! Smart, experienced, faster than a speeding bullet, able to return phone calls in a single hour! Why do the Bank of America guys even bother getting out of bed in the morning?

Are you Krafty?

Check out this video by J-Krafty, the original crafta. Notice the cameo by Simon’s Stamps!