Often, when we give a price or an estimate people ask, “Can you do better?” It’s a common question and in today’s economy, an understandable one.

Like everyone in business, our pricing is determined by our costs, the market and the need to make a profit. Indeed, our product and service line is set by our customers’ needs and our ability to make a profit.

We can’t base our prices on a competitors’ prices- no one could, long term. Big box stores can afford to lower prices beyond what a small business could stand. That’s why they thrive. And we certainly won’t set pricing by the countless “deals” available on the internet. To be sure, there are great niche businesses on the web, that give fast and/or cheap service but there are also countless risky, anonymous and questionable sites out there. The old saying is true online and off- you get what you pay for.

So, when someone asks, “Can you do better?” we tell them, “We give better service, and better quality, but there is always someone out there who can give a lower price.” Our goal is always to offer great service at a fair price, but we can only set our own prices.

We absolutely understand that there are situations when a consumer has to shop by price, but our goal is to sell by value.

Payment Options

We accept payment in many different ways. By allowing for different payment options, we hope we make it easier for our customers to use our services.

Cash & Check- We can accept payments at order or at delivery. (For some sign and print jobs, however, we require half on order.) Cash and check are the quickest, easiest way to pay.

Credit & Debit Cards- You can also pay with your credit or debit card. Our credit and debit card transactions are processed using PayPal’s virtual terminal. Learn about PayPal’s security features here.

Online- We can accept payment to our PayPal account online for Sparta Store orders as well as invoiced jobs. You do not have to have a PayPal account to pay via PayPal.

Pay Over Time- For websites, we allow for payment of the authoring fee over the course of your first year online, added to the hosting fee. It’s less of a burden on our customers and allows us to have recurring income each month.

Pay In Advance- We can charge hosting fees for 3, 6, or 12 months at a time, or at another monthly interval you would prefer.

Talk to us about what we can do to make our pricing clearer or your payments easier.

75 tips make a big list - so, here we go…

1. Update and print new business cards.
2. Have an easy-to-navigate, user-friendly website.
3. Sponsor programming on Alleghany Community Television.
4. Use keywords on your site to raise your visibility online.
5. Advertise in publications your customers read.
6. Get a professional, vector graphic of your company logo. Nothing looks worse than fuzzy graphics.
7. Keep a uniform look across all marketing materials.
8. Post banners with your logo and contact information.
9. Market with postcards through direct-mail.
10. Draw coloring pages (include your contact info and web address). Let web visitors print them out.
11. Have good-looking signage inside and out.
12. Use professional letterhead and stationery.
13. Sponsor a ticketed event at the Silver Dollar Music Park. Ask them to use a rubber stamp of your logo to allow readmission.
14. Link to complementary websites and have them link back.
15. Take advantage of local pages on google, yahoo, and bing.
16. Publish attractive rack cards and position them around your area at racks like the Alleghany Inn.
17. Keep your site up-to-date. Change home page information regularly.
18. Email newsletters to your clients and potential customers.
19. Run month-long promotions on specific products.
20. Send printed newsletters to clients without email.
21. Give demonstrations at group meetings, events and festivals.
22. Send introductory letters and include your business card.
23. Start a rumor about yourself. Folks will come in just to see if it’s true.
24. Use customer testimonials in your marketing materials and online.
25. Put your company name and contact info on your car.
26. Be involved with local celebrations.
27. Give free consultations and work to get an order before the meeting ends.
28. Network with others in your industry.
29. Attend meetings of professionals in the community. Don’t be afraid to join a board if asked.
30. Publicize what makes you stand apart from the competition.
31. List your business at yelp, merchant circle, and other area-oriented websites.
32. Give talks to local clubs. Sparta Women’s Club, Newcomers and Friends of the Library are sometimes looking for speakers.
33. Print bookmarks with your contact info and distribute them at colleges and libraries.
34. Write articles related to your industry. Submit them to regional publications.
35. Allow for alternative forms of payment including credit cards, PayPal or Google Checkout.
36. Give samples to prospective clients.
37. Ask your vendors to recommend you.
38. Supply informational brochures to potential clients.
39. Get listed in industry directories both online and in print.
40. Post flyers for events you sponsor or are involved in.
41. Hold give-aways and promotions like the Possum Queen Contest.
42. Contribute to online messageboards with links to your site in your signature. Your expert opinion will add to their site and help you in the process. More people read these types of pages than you might think.
43. Promote events you support. Don’t just tape up a flyer in the window, add a thumbnail image and a link to your website.
44. Advertise in the local high school yearbooks. Ashe, Alleghany and Grayson each could be a great way to contact potential customers.
45. Put up a billboard.  A good time to have your logo in a vector format. It can be enlarged without losing resolution (sharpness).
46. Get listed in online and printed area directories.
47. Take advantage of free advertising opportunities.
48. Include your web address and contact info on every piece of printed material.
49. Become a Sponsor in events like the Mountain Heritage Festival.
50. Ask visitors to bookmark your site.
51. Go on local and regional talk shows. Contact Clark Hunter, host of Mountain Topics, at the Blue Ridge Business Development Center.
52. Boost sales with reduced pricing for repeat customers.
53. Provide support for your products.
54. Leave business cards with tips, in books and magazines that focus on your industry.
55. Market jointly with another company and share the cost of the promotion.
56. Send out a yearly Christmas Thank-You gift to loyal customers.
57. Link to your site in your email signature.
58. Contact opening businesses. Give away your promotional items with theirs.
59. Sponsor clubs’ projects. Alleghany 4-H is currently looking for show ring section sponsors.
60. Start a blog. Add interesting graphics and useful information and they will come.
61. Advertise on Hillbilly Wes‘ overalls. Any publicity is good publicity.
62. Give your products as gifts. Show off your quality to friends and family.
63. Co-sponsor a concert, promotion, or other event with other local businesses.
64. Donate to charities.
65. Set up displays at community fundraisers.
66. Give out free bookmarks, magnets, or buttons.
67. Contribute to community fundraisers.
68. Be easy to contact. Give your customer several ways to contact you including phone, cell, email,  facebook, twitter, etc.
69. Encourage employees to volunteer at the Rotary Club of Alleghany County or Sparta Lions Club.
70. Send out press releases when your business or employees do something newsworthy.
71. Sponsor a feature in the Alleghany News.
72. Add your products and information to a community Welcome Wagon gift basket.
73. Mark your products Made in USA or Made in the Blue Ridge Mountains by… like John Brady at Blue Ridge Woodcrafters does.
74. Sponsor a band at the Blue Ridge Craft Fair.
75. Come up with a list of 75 tips and publish it on your blog.

Kingsport Press

We were able to talk about the book, and our history in the printing industry. My dad told about his career in printing- in Roanoke, Bristol and in the photographic department at Kingsport Press. He eventually went to work for Opti-Copy, Inc. in Kansas City, traveling all over the world installing equipment and working with dealers. I went to work with Opti after school and traveled extensively in installation and service of the step-and-repeat cameras we built.

Opti-Copy, Inc. in Lenexa, Kansas in the eighties.

When the Japanese company, Polychrome, bought the company, Dad and I  moved to Greensboro where he co-founded Imaging Specialists, Inc. with partner, Gerry Foss. ISI was a prepress trade shop supplying printers with one piece, plate-ready film. We produced film for books, publications, ads, and labels and worked with offset, roto-gravure, flexo and even silk screeners.

Since we had contacts at printing companies across the country, we were well positioned for farm-out and overflow work. My brother, Alan, (also an ex Opti-Copy employee) and I redesigned the drive systems on our cameras and successfully marketed that idea and imposition software to other Opti owners. Eventually, we were able to buy out Mr. Foss’ half of the business and the company was truly then a “Mom & Pop” organization. My mother, Eloise, had been working with us since we started in Greensboro and my wife, Sharon, had joined us in 1994.

Ron Halsey with one-piece, plate-ready, final film, Imaging Specialists' main output for years.

Desktop publishing and the digital revolution finally killed our part of the prepress work flow and Dad decided to retire in 2000. We knew we had to reinvent ourselves, so Sharon and I also moved the business to the mountains in 2003.

Our experience in graphics and printing has helped us in the digital age. We run Adobe Creative Suite on Mac and PC platforms. We have expanded into the internet and now build and host websites. Our daughter, Claire, has joined us, now, and handles the web work.

We think our prepress experience coupled with on-demand printing makes a perfect fit. We offer services that include page layout and design, photo optimization, illustration, and e-commerce and marketing websites.

These turn-key book assembly services we perform are much like the days when we would accept a stack of pages (literally, a basket-case) correct and assemble them into what the printer needed to produce a book. And with on-demand, self-publishing is very reasonable. Contact us if you have an idea or a book that you want to discuss.

And check out our story on television, next week. Thanks Roy and David. I can’t think of a better way to wrap up Dad’s birthday present.

Recently, we’ve been working on a (surprise) family history book for my dad, Ron Halsey, for his birthday in August.

We compiled a photographic family history of Eli Hamilton Halsey and Lillian Blanche Smith, Dad’s grandparents. It is 102 pages hardcover, 8.25″ x 10.75″ and can be ordered print-on-demand. It takes about two weeks for delivery.

We think this will be a great, affordable service we can offer writers for small runs or print-on-demand type books (like family histories!)

Using family photographs, tintypes, genealogies, stories, and some recent images, we have made a chronological photo history of the lives of our Alleghany ancestors.

We also drew a map of the northwest section Alleghany County where Eli & Lillian lived and marked important family homes, churches, and schools.

While it’s not a complete genealogy, we have traced some of our family lines back to the Mayflower, to President James Madison, area settlers Andrew Baker and Moses Halsey, as well as early immigrants to America Thomas Halsey and Thomas Avent.

The Halsey Family Arms is also included with a detailed explanation of the language found in Burkes’ General Armory describing the Halsey blazon, crest, and family motto.

Dad spent his career in prepress photography and has copied old family photos for years. He was the “camera man” for most gatherings. Now we are able to scan his negatives and prints and can share these images with everyone.

And thanks to the photographic process, today we can see farther back in time than anyone in history. We can look right into our great-great-grandmothers eyes.

Mystery Solved?

The tintype, above right, was with several others whose subjects aren’t identified. The child is obviously James Kenney Halsey, older brother of Eli Hamilton Halsey. This image was surely made the same day as the one on the left, where little James is with his parents, Elizabeth Frances Halsey and Robert Franklin Halsey. (His clothes and the backdrop are the same.) Since Robert Franklin Halsey had only one brother, about 3 years younger, could it be the man holding James Kenney Halsey is his uncle, James W. Halsey?

The entire project reminded us how important it is to identify your photographs. It is heartbreaking, but common, to have a good, clear photographic record of a person that no one can identify any more.

The collection would not have been possible without the cooperation of cousins and family friends. We appreciate each and every one who shared their photos with us.

Check out the album at The Sparta Store. But don’t tell my Dad!

Promote your big summer event!

Churches, Corporations, Civic Groups! Get beautiful, reusable weather-proof vinyl banners at Imaging Specialists. Great graphics and tons of fonts available! Bring your idea and we’ll design your one-of-a-kind banner.

14 oz. vinyl banner material. Double metal grommets every 2 feet. Cut vinyl installed on white, black, red, blue, yellow, or green banner. 22″, 34″ or 46″ high by whatever length you need!

Contact us for pricing or call 336-372-3002.

Also ask about our rates for corrugated plastic yard signs.

Alleghany 4-H Sponsor Signs

We’ve gone cowboy around here this week! Alleghany 4-H asked us to design and print sponsor signage for new panels that replaced their old wooden show ring.

We printed weather-proof, FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) signs with an old-timey embossed leather look. The design features pastel colors that give the leather a stamped and painted look. If cowboys didn’t have gear that looked this cool, they sure should have!

We’re really proud to be able to support the Open Horse Show this weekend co-sponsored by Alleghany County 4-H, Young Riders 4-H Club and Horse Whispers 4-H Club. Gates open Saturday at Alleghany Fairgrounds 7:30 am, registration begins at 8:00 am and the show starts at 9:00 am. For a copy of the program and class list, click here.

Get more information on Alleghany 4-H here.

Get more info on area activities from the Alleghany News, here.

Imaging Specialists can make your event look great with signage, posters, flyers- whatever graphics you need! Give us a call today at 336-372-3002.

We’ve got a unique selection of local themed gifts and graphics that will interest the local folks and those passing through. From Alleghany Genealogical-Historical Society books, to area photographs to postcard sets, there should be something for everyone here.

If you’d like to get our new Newsletter that outlines sales and highlights authors, artists and their products, just register by clicking the Log In link in the upper right hand corner of the home page.

Local artists and craftsmen are invited to sell their products at the Sparta Store and online at www.spartastore.com. We are pleased to be able to offer the site as a service to our smaller customers that might not be ready for their own website. If you’re interested, you can find more information here.

]]> http://www.imagingspecialists.net/news/?feed=rss2&p=436 http://www.imagingspecialists.net/news/?p=416 http://www.imagingspecialists.net/news/?p=416#comments Thu, 06 May 2010 15:25:33 +0000 Claire http://www.imagingspecialists.net/news/?p=416 Get your marketing materials for the Memorial Day Business & Tourism Expo at Village Park in Sparta, the kickoff event for the 2010 Summer Jamboree at Imaging Specialists.

If you’re planning an exhibition at the Expo, there is still time to get your signs or banners, flyers, sales sheets, or any other handouts you need. Place your order before May 14 to ensure you get everything in time for the Expo.

Call Today- 336-372-3002 or email claire@imagingspecialists.net for pricing and availability.

Wreath photo by Stewart Royall of Studio Roxie for Reeves Ridge Tree Farm.

Alleghany Historical Museum Logo

As you know Imaging Specialists can help with your logo but you might not know we can help with your entire corporate identity.

Businesses and organizations alike benefit from a consistent, standard image, defined by a comprehensive style guide. A style guide contains regulations for everything from color usage to correct logo versions to letterhead layout that you set. It guides designers and printers in the proper way to graphically represent your company.

A style guide protects your company or organization’s brand- an essential element in marketing. It assures a proper, professional look, in print, signage, online or any other medium you need for your business.

It also solves graphic problems before they arise, because you are always prepared for your employee’s or vendor’s needs. Changes in policy can be made in one place and are applicable to all.

Museum Style Guide

The Alleghany Historical-Genealogical Society unveiled its new logo for the Alleghany Historical Museum at its March 2010 meeting. The logo, designed by Imaging Specialists, includes a county outline with patriotic red, white and blue elements and features a line drawing of mountains taken from the Society’s logo.

To see a PDF of the sample Style Guide we developed for the Historical Museum, click here.

For more information on AH-GS, go to ahgs.org

Let ISI help with your organization’s branding.
Call Claire today at 336-372-3002.