What Is Your Reception Area Saying About Your Business

We’ve all heard you only have one chance to make a first impression.  This usually is in reference to a job interview or a first date, but your business makes a first impression everyday through your reception area.

Like it or not the quality of your business is judged on that first impression.

Take a minute to look around your reception area.  Are you thinking, “This looked great in 1985 when wall paper and big hair bands were totally in what happened”?  Or are you thinking, “Geez, someone needs to clean this place up!”  Maybe your furniture is too stuffy for the creative business you’re in.  If you’re seeing things you don’t like, so are your potential customers.  Outdated, cluttered, damaged are all big signs you need to make a change.

 The good news is Great River Office Products can help with all of it right down to replacing your dirty floor mats.  We are more than just your resource for office paper, cleaning supplies, and coffee.  We are your first impression rescue squad.

Designing office furniture for style, comfort and function is one of our main specialties.  Unlike a big box store where you can find new office furniture, but you’ll still need to design your space and assemble it all, Great River Office Products is your design consultant and your put-it-together-save-you-time-and headache answer. 

Our trained consultants will help you find the right style furniture to compliment your brand image.  We’ll work with you and your employees to find the chairs, desks, and work stations to fit ergonomically.  We’ll also be on-site to assemble your new products and place them for you. 

Let us help you make a right first impression.  Call us today for your office furniture consultation.

Oh Monday, How We Love to Hate You!

It’s the start of a 5 day work week.

You have to get up early.

Your time is not your own like it is on Saturday and Sunday.

The project you left on Friday is still there on Monday.

The reasons we hate Monday are almost limitless.  For the majority of working adults, Monday is the least favorite day of the week! 

We all love Friday though because it is the start of the mini-vacation called “THE WEEKEND”.  Even Geiko jumped on the “We Love Friday” vibe with their smart phone commercial, “Do People Do Dumb Things with Their Smart Phone?”  It goes like this; And that’s the weekend.  Yeah Dawg. Crack the Bubbly. Can a man with a brostache join this party?, if you don’t know the commercial you really should check it out on YouTube.  It may make Monday a bit more tolerable.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe-Y-zSd5gs.

For all of you Monday haters out there, Great River Office Products has your back.  We’re bringing a little bit of Friday to Monday with our new Monday promotion.  The first is M & M Mondays.  The concept is simple, place your office supply order with us by 3:00 pm on Friday and we will include M & Ms with your Monday delivery.

M&Ms are fun!  They’re happy!   They remind us of carefree youth when we didn’t have a 5 day work week staring us in the face.  They also have a fun Facebook page.  http://www.facebook.com/mms.  So, join us for some Monday fun.  Have your products delivered Monday and our happy delivery folks will bring you a little treat to help you through your Monday.

And remember, Friday is coming soon!  Remember to order your supplies again this Friday so next Monday will be a bit better.

Say good bye to old, bitter, nasty, office coffee!

Keeping a fresh pot of coffee available for employees and clients all day long can sometimes be a real challenge for small businesses.  Simply put, there are not enough people drinking the coffee to keep it fresh.  Dumping out coffee that has been sitting for a couple of hours seems like such a waste, but who wants to risk offering a bitter, gross cup of jo to their best client who happens to stop by for a visit? 

Keurig’s coffee maker model B150 seems to be a perfect option for many small business break rooms.  The machine accommodates offices up to 30 employees.  There are five brew sizes and works with most travel mugs!  The smaller capacity allows you to brew just what you need to eliminate waste and ensure the coffee in the pot is always good.

We also like the small, compact size.  It fits just about anywhere which is great for the smaller office where a large machine can be very cumbersome.

Some of the features and specifications of this machine are:

Features:

·        5 brew sizes: 4, 6, 8, 10, & 12 oz.

·        Full-color Interactive Touchscreen Control

·        Drainable Internal Hot Water Tank

·        Direct water line plumbing option for high capacity brewing.(NOTE: Plumb Kit Needed)

·        90 oz Removable Reservoir for Manual Pour-Over

·        Travel mug friendly - drip tray is removable

·        Quiet Brew™ Technology

Specifications:

·        Weight: 18 lbs. Empty; 24 lbs. Full

·        Dimensions: 13 3/4 in. H x 10 1/7 in. W x 14 in. D

·        Power: 1400 Watts

·        Voltage: 120 VAC/60 Hz 15A minimum

·        UL and cUL approved for commercial use

It also comes with an awesome rack to hold coffee, tea, and hot chocolate packets.

We recently installed this system for a client.  Check out what he had to say about the Keurig B150.

“Greg approached me a few weeks back to let me know that Great River Office Products is now offering the Keurig coffee system.  I was excited about the ability to offer our clients fresh good coffee ANY time of the day without worrying how long that pot of coffee sat there or if the quality was any good.  With this new coffee maker, I'm guaranteed to have great coffee any time and I'm not embarrassed to offer it to my clients.  In addition, it gives us the ability to offer our clients a wide variety of coffee, as well as tea and hot chocolate.  The Keurig system and display rack looks professional and makes our lobby more inviting.  I'm extremely happy with our decision.”

For more information on this or other office break room supplies, contact Great River Office Products at (651) 293-1135.

Is Your Office Chair a Pain in the Neck? Armrest Height May be to Blame.

Frankly, not many people think about the height of their chair armrests very often.  They either work, or work well enough that it’s not the first thing you tend to think of when you’re uncomfortable in your chair.  However, your armrest height is a factor that greatly contributes to your health and comfort, especially in the neck area.

Too high, too low, too wide, too small, or too big can all cause unnecessary fatigue at the office.  Below are the factors for each situation that make a difference. 

Too low.  The armrest that is too low could cause you to lean to one side to rest on a forearm thus creating an awkward position and posture.  With this situation you will typically feel the fatigue in your neck, shoulders, and back.

Too high.  A too high armrest causes you to raise your shoulders and leads to muscle tension in the neck and shoulders.

Too wide.  When chair armrests are too wide it causes you to reach with your elbow and also bend forward for support.  The reaching action pulls arms away from the body and can result in muscle fatigue in the shoulders and neck.

Too small.  Too tight, too small armrests make it difficult to move in and out of your chair.

Too big.  The too big armrest makes it so you cannot get close enough to your keyboard thus causing you to reach further than necessary.  Reaching causes strain in your low back, arms, and shoulders.

Not all chairs come with adjustable armrests.  A good quality ergonomic one will.  Finding a chair that fits your body, or is adjustable enough to make fit your body is important to keep neck, shoulder, and back pain at bay.

There’s more to loading the printer with paper than meets the eye.

Copy paper seems like a pretty straightforward concept.  Right?  We’ve probably all grabbed a stack of paper at some point in our careers and reloaded the machine without giving the project too much thought.  Did you know there is an up and a down side to the paper?  Laser copy paper especially is slightly curled to help it go through the fusing process and then heat dries flat as it comes out.  Loading the paper incorrectly can cause excess jamming.

There’s also an optimal temperature for storing copy paper.  Also, once a ream of paper is opened, you optimally will want to wrap it back up if you’re not going to use it right away. 

Sometimes it’s the little things in life that make the most difference.  Because of this, we’ve compiled a quick list of things you may want to think about the next time you go to the copy room.  Happy copying!

Our top tips for copy paper:

·       Always store cartons so the paper is flat. Do not stack on end or on the side.

·       Do not store paper near a heating or cooling unit.

·       Do not store paper cartons on a cement floor.  Store on shelving or on a pallet.

·       Do not store paper in direct sunlight.

·       Always store paper in the sealed ream wrapper in the carton. Never leave loose paper around or stored unwrapped or with an open wrapper.

·       Try to store paper in a place where the temperature and humidity are the same as the room that you are using it in.  If this cannot be done, then move the cartons into the copier room the night before and let them sit and acclimatize overnight.

·       Never open up a carton or ream of paper before it reaches the same temperature as the room it is to be used in.  If you use part of a ream be sure to seal the rest of the ream with tape.

·       Use the oldest paper first. To help facilitate this mark on the carton or ream wrapper the date it was received.

·       Do not leave paper in copier trays over the weekend or for an extended period of days. Remove this paper and seal it back in its wrapper or in plastic wrap.

·       If you’ve just replaced the paper in your machine and you are now experiencing multiple paper jams, flip the stack over.  You may have loaded it with the curl side up.  This will increase the curl and create jams.

·       The perfect storage temperature for paper is 72° Fahrenheit with 45%RH

·       Today’s high speed copies process at high temperatures and speeds.  Equilibrium with the environment around the paper is important.  Remember to allow your paper to come to room temperature before using.