Find out how commonsku has helped Paperclip Promotions double their sales in one year.

We started Paperclip in the fall of 2007 and currently operate with 2 owners and 4 employees. Our largest customers come from three very different areas: US manufacturing, technology, and retail. Our niche has been tradeshow giveaways and safety incentives.

The system we used before commonsku were dated and not giving us what we needed. It was slow moving and cumbersome and was embarrassing to show new employees. We knew we needed something different but found that many of the products in our industry similar to what we already had… until we found commonsku.

Our biggest pain points were that we couldn’t keep up with the workload because things took too long. It would take forever to enter an order and send off to the factory due to all of the steps, and that was if we were in the office. If we were at home and had to work through the VPN, it would take about 50% longer due to the connection. Since the software included an accounting feature, we didn’t use Quickbooks and were forced to use their format. Each month we were held hostage because we couldn’t move forward until the previous month was closed. In addition, since it was a paper based system, our orders would be printed and stored in a filing cabinet. Paperwork would have to be attached to the orders and then filled away and kept for years. One year would require 6-7 file boxes of storage! Our old system was a huge waste of time and space.

commonsku is a huge time saver from idea generation to bookkeeping. Getting orders placed and staying on top of the production is incredibly simple. Seeing the operations screen (and knowing it replaced a clunky file cabinet w/ order paperwork) is awesome. Our storage needs have been reduced by 65% because now we only have to store the supplier invoices. Additionally, our customers love the simple layout and approval system which makes us stand out as a preferred vendor.

As a business owner, I love the dashboard and operations screen. The dashboard is a great tool to see how busy things are and what types of projects are in the works. The operation screen quickly gives me the big picture of the business so I know how many orders have shipped recently and how many are in production. It helps me to determine the ebb and flow of the work and predict potential work and cash flow predicaments.

The portability of the program is another favorite. Once I was in line at the grocery store the day before Thanksgiving and received an email from a client saying her event date was moved up. I knew we needed to proceed with her order immediately and placed the order while in line from my iphone. It doesn’t get any easier than that!

There is no doubt that signing up for commonsku has been a game changer for us. Our overall productivity and efficiency has increased and new employees seem to grasp onto the program right away. Orders practically enter themselves. Because of the search feature, we can easily find presentation or estimates that are similar to what we need. We simply copy them and then quickly adjust the file to send to a different customer. Uploading data to Quickbooks is very fast and using Quickbooks for our accounting system saves us a lot of time on the backend as well.

Since starting with commonsku our sales have doubled! Customers enjoy the interface so much that their Paperclip experience has improved. I believe it’s given us a real competitive edge.