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Albert Einstein once said, “The only mistake in life is the lesson not learned.” Owning and operating an impactful and successful printing company doesn’t happen overnight or by accident. It takes years of passion, integrity, grit, and above all, intentionality. The Oxford Dictionary defines intentionality as: “The fact of being deliberate or purposive.” So, here’s the million-dollar question: Are you running your print company with purpose? When your purpose is clear, you can keep your print business on the straight and narrow and leave the legacy you’re dreaming of for your company. Keep reading to learn from the valuable lessons of others who are striving to run their print companies on purpose. Don’t Be Naive Jacqueline Maher, Owner of A-Link Printing and Marketing Solutions in Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania At the age of 22, I was full of confidence. Armed with my finance degree, a summer internship at a franchise headquarters, and two weeks of owner training, I thought I knew everything, or was at least ready for it. But looking back 33 years later, I realize there was MUCH to learn, and sometimes, we learned it the hard way. Simply being naive cost us time, money, and, sometimes, literally even the

What’s more fun: adding something new to the lineup of products and services, or taking something out? Ask that question to anyone, and they’ll almost certainly say, “Adding something new.” Ask any marketer, and they’ll say “ADDING SOMETHING NEW!!!!!” Expanding the lineup of products and services offered is fun, exciting, and just plain sexy. It’s the byproduct of doing business! Subtraction is Necessary However, while additions are sexy, subtraction is necessary. I had an excellent reminder of that recently when Rachel Nies, our Director of Marketing, brought to our team’s attention that we’re offering printing templates for print buyers to use for their CD and DVD printing projects. As part of Rachel’s cycle of regular content review, she correctly noted that CDs and DVDs aren’t nearly as relevant as they once were, giving way to cloud storage and distribution, flash drives, and high-speed internet connections that more readily supporting large file transfers. You can see those templates in context on the Layout Templates page of one of our public demo websites, but you have to get there before Rachel does because we’re going to remove those templates. When those templates are removed, that will mean we’ll no longer be able

Recently, I met a lady at a Chamber of Commerce event, and we hit it off. A while later, I saw her again, and she mentioned that she saw my banner on a fence at a local high school near her house. I asked her if she drives by the school often, and she let me know that she passes it every day, multiple times. She was shocked when I told her that the banner she mentioned had been there for almost a year before she had seen it. You may think that the lady lacked observation skills, and while that may be true, I bet we’ve all had similar experiences in our life if we really think about it. Recognizing Your Brand Think back to a time your printing company sponsored an event of some kind. When you went to look at the list of sponsors, it probably went something like this: You immediately saw your company first. Then, you glanced at all of the other companies you recognized. Lastly, there were the logos you didn’t recognize and didn’t even give them a second glance. Shallow? Not Likely. Does that order of brand recognition happen because we’re all shallow

How would you describe working in the world of print today? However you describe it, you can make your print company a great place to work when you focus on these key areas: Solidifying Your Structure Creating Positive Morale Improving Communication Within Your Company Here’s how: Solidify Your Structure Every print shop has some form of structure, but the critical question to ask yourself is, is your structure efficient and worker-friendly? In today’s print world, companies tend to have workers that wear a variety of different hats and do a multitude of tasks. While this structure may be cost-efficient, it also tends to leave those workers feeling overwhelmed by the weight of all the different responsibilities they’re carrying. Gloria Mark at the University of California, Irvine claims. “It takes an average of about 25 minutes (23 minutes and 15 seconds, to be exact) to return to the original task after an interruption.” Think about the impact of that on productivity and efficiency. It takes almost the length of one episode of a television show to regain focus and continue on the task that was originally meant to be accomplished. Even throughout one, single day, the effects of this lost productivity

Getting out of your comfort zone is never easy, particularly in business and especially if you’re not a natural risk-taker. Personally, I like my comfort zone. (Really, who doesn’t?) Comfort zones mean everything sits neatly in its expected spot. There are no unsightly bumps in the road, no unexpected waves to rock the boat, just the sweet solace of a beautifully executed, predictable routine. My husband, Jeremy, on the other hand, embraces risk way more quickly than I do. In fact, he told me when we got married that his last words would probably be “Watch this!” (Here he is in his kayak.) But as much as I might think he’s crazy at times, I get it. He understands what author and professor John A. Shedd meant when he wrote, “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are for.” While that predictable comfort zone might give the illusion that things will always remain the same, the truth is that even if we’re not changing, the world around us still is. I mean, think for a minute at how different printing looks today. Can you imagine how shocked Gutenberg would be if he saw what he

Whether you need inspiration, education, growth opportunities, or escape, podcasts are an excellent way to meet that need on your own time. I love listening to business podcasts on my alone-time drive time, and there’s no shortage of great podcasts out there. Here are a few of my favorites: Social Media Marketing Podcast Why I like it: Michael Stelzner always has top-notch guests that openly share their social media marketing knowledge. While the topics are specific to social media, there’s always lots of good knowledge that can be applied to other marketing channels as well. Podcast info… How I Built This Why I like it: Every entrepreneur has struggled with growing pains. This podcast features the stories of some of the world’s best-known companies, complete with all the struggles that come with the journey to becoming a “best-known company.” The stories are inspirational and encouraging. Consider this quote from one of the more recent podcasts, featuring innovative vacuum cleaner inventor James Dyson: When you feel like giving up is precisely the point everybody else gives up. So it’s at that point you must put in extra effort. If you do that, then success is literally just around the corner.

Have you ever heard of “Bacon’s Law” or “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”? This popular trivia game is based on the idea of six degrees of separation, or in other words, that “any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintance links apart.” After 30+ years in business, six degrees of separation for me has become more like two degrees of separation, where friends (or contacts of friends) have become clients, and customers have become friends. This two-degree network has never been as noticeable to me as it is now in my local area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Even though the population of Pittsburgh and the surrounding metro area reaches over 2.3 million people, every day I get to foster the connections that earn me the label “local printer.” The Mixing of Business and Personal After many years of building these relationships, I’ve begun to notice personal and business getting closer together and harder to differentiate. But, in my opinion, that is a good thing! It makes our professional lives as printers more enjoyable when our customers become our friends, and the people from our lives outside of work begin to ask us to help with their printing needs. Here’s

If selling doesn’t come naturally to you, it can seem like an impossible mountain to climb to try and sell more printing. But there’s good news. The best salespeople are the ones who are solely focused on helping others. If you can shift your mindset and learn empathy for your audience, you’ll be well on your way to not only growing sales but growing relationships as well. Here are nine ways you can change your sales mindset to be empathy-minded: 1. Change Your Goal Instead of putting your focus exclusively on making a sale, work towards evaluating if there is a good fit between what you’re offering and what your buyer needs. Look past the numbers, past your bottom line and, instead, learn what your audience is thinking to determine whether any products or solutions you offer will solve their pain points and be a good fit. Takeaway: Don’t assume others should buy what you have. Aim to connect with them and not force or persuade them for your own gain. 2. Ditch the Pitch Ever been to a meeting where the other person only talks about themselves? Yeah, no one enjoys that. The same idea applies to sales. Instead

With the release of Avengers: End Game this spring, many Marvel fans find themselves wondering how they even ended up joining this superhero bandwagon. Before Marvel released their characters onto the silver screen, they began by creating comic books that were seen as a unique art form appreciated by only select few. Which begs the question: how did Marvel become so popular amongst such a diverse collective? The answer is branding. What’s the Big Deal about Branding? Branding is a necessary (and ongoing) process that helps businesses thrive. As printers, it’s crucial for each of us to establish our own identity (or brand) to help us securely develop and grow our print businesses. It’s not uncommon for people (even printers) to think when it comes to branding, creating a logo is the only step. This is far from the truth. While creating a logo does help with the visual aspect of your branding, it’s important to think bigger. Many things encompass the idea of branding and what needs to be done to create the foundation of your image. Branding Means Culture Before jumping into logo creation every time someone mentions the word branding, keep in mind that good branding is

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