(BPT) – During your first few weeks with baby, your lives were intimately entwined: eating, sleeping and eating some more. All occurring at erratic, irregular times, and around the clock, might we add.As the calendar on maternity leave begins to run ou…

(BPT) – During your first few weeks with baby, your lives were intimately entwined: eating, sleeping and eating some more. All occurring at erratic, irregular times, and around the clock, might we add.  

As the calendar on maternity leave begins to run out, it’s hard to fathom how this intensive baby schedule is going to fit in with your working life. Now is the time to start planning for your return to work, especially if baby will be eating from a bottle for the first time.

It’s a scenario that will be familiar to many moms. About four-fifths of U.S. infants are breastfed at some point, according to a 2016 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When babies reach 3 months old, 44.4 percent are exclusively breastfed, and that percentage dips to 22.3 percent by the age of 6 months.

Whether you plan to pump or switch to formula, preparation is the key to ensuring a smooth transition.

Pump and freeze: Two weeks before you return to work is the ideal time to start pumping and freezing extra milk so you have plenty in your supply. Set aside time after one feeding per day to pump, and store the milk in the plastic bags that are designed for use with the pump. If baby is going to a daycare provider, be sure to label them with your last name and the date.

Practice with a bottle: In this two-week period before work, start offering breast milk or formula from a bottle so baby becomes accustomed to this new approach to eating. Some babies aren’t picky, while others will protest. In the latter case, that might be because your baby strongly associates you with food! Before a regular feeding, try leaving for a brief outing while another caretaker stays behind with baby and offers her a bottle. Many parents have found that eventually, with practice, baby will accept a bottle.

Have a supply plan for your child care provider: Talk to your child care provider about what they need from you. If you are providing breast milk, have a conversation about what happens when the supply runs low. Some provide formula, while will require that you send a container or two they can keep on hand for backup. With that in mind, a test feeding at home with formula is a good idea, so you can confirm baby does not have any allergies.

Pumping at work: If you plan to pump, set up a meeting with your boss a couple of weeks before you return to work to plan on how this will fit with your work schedule. One way to do it is to break up your lunch hour into three 20-minute segments, pumping once in the morning and once in the afternoon, which leaves a 20-minute meal break for you. Also, talk about where you can pump, preferably in a clean, private lactation room not far from your work space.

Keep formula on hand: Over the next few months, your baby’s eating habits will emerge and change. Even if your workplace is generous with time and resources to help you stay on your pumping schedule, a busy week can collide with a hungrier than usual baby, which can tax your supplies. Have a couple cans of powdered baby formula on hand so your family is ready in any situation. Consider store brand infant formula, which is just a nutritious and safe as the nationally advertised name brand versions, because all infant formulas sold in the U.S. must meet the same Food and Drug Administration standards and offer complete nutrition for baby. Store brand formula can save families up to 50 percent, or approximately $600 per year. Even if you are already feeding baby with a certain brand formula, switching to store brand formula is safe and well-tolerated in infants, according to “the Switch Study,” a clinical study conducted by researchers at the University of Virginia.

(BPT) – Technology evolves and improves seemingly every time you blink. From apps to virtual reality and voice assistants to robots, technology affords us the ability to make life easier so we can enjoy what matters most to us. And when it comes to man…

(BPT) – Technology evolves and improves seemingly every time you blink. From apps to virtual reality and voice assistants to robots, technology affords us the ability to make life easier so we can enjoy what matters most to us. And when it comes to managing finances, digitizing your life can actually have a bonus effect on your wallet.

Digital Lifestyle Expert Katie Linendoll teamed up with Capital One to share simple tips to digitize your life and save even more. “We live in a day and age where new technologies afford us the ability to improve our lives in new, offbeat ways,” Linendoll says. “By applying that same principle to our personal finance routines, we’re better poised to cut unnecessary costs while saving precious time and hard earned money, too.”

Whether you’re budgeting for back-to-school season, saving for your next vacation or simply just “tech curious,’” Linendoll’s tips offer a great way to employ modern technology to aide your bottom line.

1. Make your home smarter. Strengthening your financial IQ begins at home. Enhancing your home life with smart products can save you time, energy and money. By switching to a smart thermostat, which can turn on and off when you need to, you’ll save up to $145/year.

2. Cut the cord. The average cable bill per household is around $99 per month, and most people only watch a handful of those channels. A one-time purchase of a media streaming device costs about the same as a single month of cable. Subscribe to your favorites and you can save around $1,000 a year.

3. Leverage cutting edge technology. Voice-activated technologies hold a lot of promise to make our lives easier. For example, with the Capital One Skill for Amazon Alexa, you can use any Amazon Alexa-enabled device like the Amazon Echo to access your Capital One accounts and check your balance, make a payment and manage your account — all using just your voice.

4. Trade in your old tech for cash. Have some old phones and tablets lying around? They could be worth a couple hundred bucks. Many internet trade-in sites and retail stores will offer gift cards and even free shipping for your old tech through something called “recommerce,” aka reverse commerce. If you can make money off old things lying around, do it!

5. Take charge of your spending (and saving). Many Americans struggle to come up with emergency expenses, which makes having the flexibility to bank more ways all the more critical. Enroll with a bank like Capital One, which offers great digital tools and services — such as Online BillPay, Enhanced Transactions, Mobile Check Deposit and Personalized Alerts — which ultimately work harder for you and your bottom line.

Ryan Hanley is the Vice President of Marketing at TrustedChoice.com and the Managing Editor of Agency Nation. He is also a speaker, podcaster and author of the Amazon best-seller, “Content Warfare.” Ryan has over 12 years of insurance expertise and … Read More

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(BPT) – When it comes to marketing your small business, a digital strategy is vital, but so are traditional marketing and advertising tactics like print advertising and direct mail. In fact, nearly a third of all small business owners still use those formats, while one in five say they don’t plan to use digital at all, according to the 2016 Small Business Marketing Trends Report.

Small businesses aren’t ready to entirely replace traditional marketing modes with digital channels, possibly because familiar methods still work. MarketingProfs points out that the growing rarity of direct mail and print advertising may actually make your printed marketing pieces stand out. The marketing resource website cites research indicating 73 percent of consumers prefer mail over other advertising methods, and 40 percent will try a new business after receiving a direct mail from that business.

Making the most of your marketing

With the majority of small business owners shouldering full responsibility for marketing their companies, time and cost are major factors in the migration toward digital marketing channels. However, savvy small business owners know that by holding down production costs and minimizing their time investment, they can boost the cost-effectiveness of their traditional marketing tactics. They’re turning to resources like Staples Print & Marketing Services, including full-serve and self-serve services to create quality materials for a reasonable investment of time and money.

Self-serve tools make smaller jobs such as printing, copying, faxing, scanning or shredding quick, easy and low-cost. Larger projects such as big printing jobs, lamination, binding, specialty paper or large copies can be handed over to Staples Print & Marketing Services professionals, who process the work and free small business owners to focus on other things.

“You can bring your presentations, copy and print jobs and have them professionally and quickly done without taking up the time (and resources) required to have someone do it in-house,” says Gene Marks, small business expert and author. “You can cost-effectively accomplish the kind of marketing that would cost significantly more if you were to do it yourself.”

Tangible marketing, tangible results

While digital marketing channels offer ease of access, speed and convenience that appeal to many consumers, traditional marketing tactics that produce tangible materials still have a special kind of power, research shows:

* Direct mail — which can encompass flyers, postcards, brochures and catalogs — is the preferred communication channel for nearly 50 percent of consumers, according to research by MarketingSherpa. 

* Everyone likes a deal or discount, which could be why multiple studies indicate the majority of Americans use coupons for purchases at least some of the time. In fact, 96 percent of Americans use coupons and the majority of those are printed, according to research by RetailMeNot. 

* Promotional items like T-shirts, mugs, calendars, stress balls, key chains, pens and more are effective at helping consumers remember a company, research shows. A Promotional Products Association International study found 83 percent of Americans like getting promotional products with advertising messages, and more than 76 percent can recall the product, advertiser and message related to promotional items.

Minimizing the cost and time investment of traditional marketing tactics can help small business owners maximize the value of their marketing efforts. To learn more about how Staples Print & Marketing Services support small businesses’ marketing programs, visit staples.com/businesscenter and documents.staples.com.

(BPT) – When it comes to marketing your small business, a digital strategy is vital, but so are traditional marketing and advertising tactics like print advertising and direct mail. In fact, nearly a third of all small business owners still use those formats, while one in five say they don’t plan to use digital at all, according to the 2016 Small Business Marketing Trends Report.

Small businesses aren’t ready to entirely replace traditional marketing modes with digital channels, possibly because familiar methods still work. MarketingProfs points out that the growing rarity of direct mail and print advertising may actually make your printed marketing pieces stand out. The marketing resource website cites research indicating 73 percent of consumers prefer mail over other advertising methods, and 40 percent will try a new business after receiving a direct mail from that business.

Making the most of your marketing

With the majority of small business owners shouldering full responsibility for marketing their companies, time and cost are major factors in the migration toward digital marketing channels. However, savvy small business owners know that by holding down production costs and minimizing their time investment, they can boost the cost-effectiveness of their traditional marketing tactics. They’re turning to resources like Staples Print & Marketing Services, including full-serve and self-serve services to create quality materials for a reasonable investment of time and money.

Self-serve tools make smaller jobs such as printing, copying, faxing, scanning or shredding quick, easy and low-cost. Larger projects such as big printing jobs, lamination, binding, specialty paper or large copies can be handed over to Staples Print & Marketing Services professionals, who process the work and free small business owners to focus on other things.

“You can bring your presentations, copy and print jobs and have them professionally and quickly done without taking up the time (and resources) required to have someone do it in-house,” says Gene Marks, small business expert and author. “You can cost-effectively accomplish the kind of marketing that would cost significantly more if you were to do it yourself.”

Tangible marketing, tangible results

While digital marketing channels offer ease of access, speed and convenience that appeal to many consumers, traditional marketing tactics that produce tangible materials still have a special kind of power, research shows:

* Direct mail — which can encompass flyers, postcards, brochures and catalogs — is the preferred communication channel for nearly 50 percent of consumers, according to research by MarketingSherpa. 

* Everyone likes a deal or discount, which could be why multiple studies indicate the majority of Americans use coupons for purchases at least some of the time. In fact, 96 percent of Americans use coupons and the majority of those are printed, according to research by RetailMeNot. 

* Promotional items like T-shirts, mugs, calendars, stress balls, key chains, pens and more are effective at helping consumers remember a company, research shows. A Promotional Products Association International study found 83 percent of Americans like getting promotional products with advertising messages, and more than 76 percent can recall the product, advertiser and message related to promotional items.

Minimizing the cost and time investment of traditional marketing tactics can help small business owners maximize the value of their marketing efforts. To learn more about how Staples Print & Marketing Services support small businesses’ marketing programs, visit staples.com/businesscenter and documents.staples.com.

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