The inane ramblings of a leaflet & flyer distributor.

Weather wise, April was fairly good for delivering leaflets and flyers across Worthing, plenty of dry days, lots of sun and above average temperatures – a result!

The main project this month was to source a new additional shed, sort out a base for it and get it erected, somewhere to store client’s leaflets and flyers, as the volume of boxes building-up in the conservatory was getting out of hand. There was pressure on to get the situation sorted and under-control before the summer arrives, so we can re-claim the conservatory for its intended use.

I had no idea just how expensive sheds were until I started to look around locally, so I ended-up finding a 12’ x 8’ monster on Amazon for about £400 from a company called Walton Garden Buildings, which seemed reasonable. Then I checked on their own website and found it was even cheaper, coming in just under £370, which as with the listing on Amazon included free delivery – bargain!

They also offered an erection service for £170, but as I am always looking to keep expenses down, I roped in my brother to help, and between us we had the thing up & finished in about 6 hours. It was hard going, and subject to some swearing during the operation, but what the hell, it saved me £170, and it was payback for me helping him with a new patio.

Two clients, who will remain nameless, had problems with their campaigns this month.

One had a great idea to include their leaflet inside a little party bag, and seal the bag with a little promotional sticker. The idea being that anyone finding a party bag on their doormat would, of course, open it to see what was inside – increasing the chances of the client’s message being seen and getting attention.

What they didn’t consider was how long it would take to stuff & seal 10,000 party bags! So, when I was due to pick-up the first lot for delivery only a fraction of the number were ready, roping in friends and family members to help, they were just able to complete enough in time to meet the delivery schedule.

It was a bit of a pain having to pop into their offices every few days to pick-up additional batches as they were ready, so I could get them to the lady that makes-up the bundles of leaflets & flyers for me prior to me delivering them, but we managed to work around the situation to help the client out.

Somehow, I think they will be having nightmares about that little operation for some weeks to come!

The other client wasn’t so lucky, and their problem was unfortunately something beyond what I could help with.

They had had a great idea to change their flyer design for a new offer and make it a bit quirky, and they did a great job – it was very eye-catching and I am sure it would have resulted in an increased response.

However, there was a wee problem – they had taken an image off the Internet and used it without permission from the copyright holder! Oh dear, the proverbial hit the fan when someone I delivered to raised a complaint, and I got a panicky call from the client asking me to cease delivering the flyers straight away.

Seems easy enough, apart from the fact that over 3,000 more flyers had already been made-up into bundles ready for delivery, so I spent the best part of 5 hours unpicking their flyers from all the bundles – something I could have done without.

When they withdraw the delivery, I didn’t think to say that I would need to charge them for the time taken to unpick their flyers from the bundles, because I didn’t expect it to take as long as it did. So, although I suspect I would be within my rights to charge them, on this occasion I decided not to, however, I have added a paragraph to my terms & conditions to cover any such eventuality in the future.

So, what should be an extremely simple business operation has thrown-up a couple of very odd situations this month!

Anyway, onwards and upwards, with fingers very firmly crossed for another great summer this year.