Mailing Services -- Check's in the Mail(ing)

So much of the work involved in variable data output involved addressing and working with customer databases that it made no sense for customers to split the job among vendors, according to Weiss. "If we were going to image something digitally, we might as well mail it," he explains.

As Weiss' experience indicates, moving into mailing services isn't that big a jump for most printers. "Mailing is fairly simple to get into, with simple software," agrees Frank McPherson, president of Custom Data Imaging in Markham, Ontario. His company made the move about six years ago and did $60,000 in business the first year. That volume is now approaching $400,000 per year. It's vital, though, to invest the time in learning some fundamentals.