Home Office Safety Stories - Oct. 2001

Current news has small businesses in a quandary. We’re told that during slow economic times, marketing must not be sacrificed in the name of budget tightening. Maintaining contact with clients is essential to sustaining the business. On the other hand, with the spread of the bio-terror agent anthrax, one of the most powerful marketing tools we have – direct and promotional mailings to prospective and current clients – is nearing taboo status. Companies have destroyed thousands of dollars in promotional mailing material that they surmised would not have been opened by recipients fearing contamination. In late August, I created a SOHO Security Checklist, a 4 ½ by 7-inch plastic card that provides ways to secure a home and home office. The problem is, it was designed to be mailed in an envelope. While it was going to be sent to prospects and allies – most of whom would know me personally, I decided to delay the mailing until things cool down regarding postal deliveries and vulnerabilities – or at least until I could ask recipients’ permission via email before mailing.

HOW TO BE A GOOD BULK MAILER
Still, there are other alternatives to the U.S. Mail. Much of the information we intend to mail can be emailed. If we maintain current databases, we can effectively target prospects with powerful emailed messages. Be sure to stick to the rules of email etiquette:

• No spam. Don’t send your messages unsolicited, and offer to remove all recipients from future mailings if requested.



• Write a solid subject line. With email on the rise, cut through the clutter with a subject line that notes the contents in six words or less. If people know your name, include it. Familiarity will lead to “Open.”



• Beware using “attachments.” Many people refuse to download and open attachments – even from people they know. Therefore, try to design your message to not require an attachment. Instead, include a call to action for the recipient to reply if they’d like to receive the attachment or contents – by email, fax or traditional mail.



• Use email and direct mail together. Email recipients to ask their permission to send to them a solicitation through the U.S. Mail. Another option is to use DHL, UPS or other parcel company (FedEx is expensive by comparison to most). Because parcel companies are more expensive than even the USPS Priority Mail, you might have to target your prospects a little tighter to cut costs.



• Finally, no matter how you decide to send a parcel or letter, make sure it’s plainly and neatly marked with your name, company name and full return address. The absence of this information – or the inclusion of messy or sloppy information – has become a warning sign that mail could be suspect, and could result in its being thrown away without opening.

SAFE MAIL HANDLING PRACTICES
As a home officer, I receive a lot of mail. Handling these letters and parcels used to be chore. Now, it’s become an issue of safety as well. Follow these strategies to ensure your mail handling doesn’t make you vulnerable:

• Is a letter you’ve received bulky or lopsided, or does it have a strange odor, oily stains or discoloration or powdery or crystallization on the outside?



• Does the envelope carry excessive postage or the postmark of a foreign country?



• Does it lack a named recipient, and instead is addressed only to a title, position or company? Does it have a return address?



• Is it taped, wrapped or otherwise sealed, which could be an effort to keep contents in?

I’ve also instituted these practices at my office, which because it’s within my home, I’m wary of making my office and home susceptible.


• Open mail outdoors. I often get large parcels and packages delivered by mail – along with a significant amount of business mail (because of the amount of mail we get, my neighbors have come to lament our travels - and the resulting requests to fetch our mail for us). While I usually know the sender, I don't know them all - and I can’t know what mail touched each parcel en route to my home office. Therefore, I now open my mail outside, throwing away junk mail unopened and immediately tossing all opened envelopes and unnecessary contents into the garbage can outside my home. Besides, as the weather turns cooler in South Florida, it's refreshing to spend a little time on our bench outside - even if it is only to open the mail.



• No kid zone. My kids used to race to see who could fetch the mail first. Until this subsides, the mailbox is off limits. They'll have to be content racing to put outgoing mail in the box and raising the flag.



• Wash the hands with soap after opening the mail. It was a good practice anyway. Now, it’s even more prudent.

Jeff Zbar, the ChiefHomeOfficer.com, is a speaker, writer and expert on alternative officing. He is the author of Teleworking & Telecommuting: Strategies for Remote Workers and Their Managers (Made E-Z Products, 2002); Safe@Home: Seven Keys to Home Office Security (FirstPublish 2001) and Your Profitable Home Business (on CD-ROM from Made E-Z Products). Visit his Web site to subscribe to Home Office Success Stories, his free electronic magazine on home business and teleworking.