Postal Partners

The first thing he did as supervisor of mail and reprographics was roll up his sleeves and figure out what kind of equipment he needed.

"We invested in extra equipment—mostly inserting and addressing," says Johnson. "It cost us $60,000 to get into this business."

But it was a price well worth paying. By offering mailing as part of the six-employee in-plant's list of services, not only have customers seen substantial savings, Johnson's in-plant can counsel clients on economical package design and can help them avoid getting on the U.S. Postal Service's bad side—by catching potential mail problems before an envelope is even printed.