Contributors Archives - Marketing, content, & technology to help printers sell more printing

Blessings. Joy. Thankfulness. Gratitude. These are the words of the season. They are also the words from many print owners who have dedicated their careers, their lives to this industry. As you take time to count your blessings this week, don’t forget the incredible joy that can be found through print. Giving Thanks for the Print Industry We asked several printers what they’re most thankful for about being a part of the print industry. Here’s what they had to say. Tri M Graphics “I am thankful to be in the Print Industry because we can make a difference. We have the opportunity to partner with our clients to help them achieve results. Communication is such a vital part of what we do; through our printed material, we can help to build and/or strengthen relationships. Printing can be so much more than a transaction if you open your mind up to the possibilities.” – Michael Jensen Tri M Graphics, Owatonna, Minnesota “I am thankful for the Printing Industry because we make the world more colorful! Imagine how boring everything would look with no printing!” – Derek Brooks Brandywine Printing, Cumming, Georgia “Although it can be a stressful, deadline-oriented business, I can’t think

I have kind of an odd question for you: Who’s the biggest jerk in your sphere of influence right now? Does your mind immediately picture a recent bad-tempered customer or an unrelenting vendor? Or maybe it’s an employee, neighbor, or that “blast from your past” on social media? As I pondered this question myself recently, I came to an eye-opening realization. The biggest jerk in my sphere of influence is ME! Surprised? Trust me. I was too. But, let me explain how I came to that conclusion and some valuable things I learned, particularly one word that is changing everything. Don’t You See What I See? I’ve had a series of marketing consult calls lately with some printing business owners. All of these conversations have included statements from incredible men and women that sounded similar to this: “I know this marketing stuff is important, but I’m just not good at marketing.” “I really see a need from my print buyers for _____, but we don’t sell _____.” “We just put up a new website, but no one is coming to it.” On each of these calls, I listened to these printers adamantly express what they weren’t good at, what they

The new year brings with it a chance to start again. It’s a time to let go of the previous year and look forward to a fresh start. For me, cleaning and organizing are an annual goal of mine at the beginning of each year. Sometimes the goal is obvious to others (and they can tell the OCD fairy has arrived); other times, not so much. Uncovering a Print Treasure This year in my organizing, I uncovered something that my dad had produced for a customer roughly 35 or 40 years ago. My dad had liked the end product so much he produced a bunch more to use himself. What was it? A simple, classic thank you note. Produced on an 80# Classic Laid Baronial Ivory Cover, this type of printing project was a staple in most shops in the ’80s, especially for raised letter business cards. To produce this modest note, we used a Heidelberg Windmill press, and a blind embossing technique using a brass die with a counter die. Back then, we didn’t have the luxury of a heated platen, so we used dry gum built up in layers to make the counter die. It was softer and

Man, that’s a blog title I never thought I’d write. But sure enough, here I am on the other side of an incredible life valley with a better understanding of what the late Philip Roth once said, “Nothing bad can happen to a writer. Everything is material.” In early May of this year, I was diagnosed with a rare, chronic neurological pain condition called trigeminal neuralgia. At the beginning of August, I underwent a successful microvascular decompression brain surgery. While spending six weeks in recovery, I was able to sit, to think, and to see things differently than the go-go-go of my normal, everyday life. I quickly came to the realization that there are easy things in life, and there are hard things, but ALL things can teach us something if we’re open to it. So, if you currently find yourself in a tough spot (as so many have in 2020), here are three of the lessons I learned that could help your print business weather any current or future storm. 1. There’s Always a Choice Did your print business have to shut down during the pandemic and you’re still struggling to recoup lost print sales? This pandemic has truly been

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

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

print owner, success, traits, Marketing Ideas For Printers, Leadership

The print industry has some of the hardest working and committed individuals on the planet. So much so, that I am continually inspired to be a part of it as the Marketing Director at Marketing Ideas For Printers. But as with any industry, I’ve also witnessed the flipside of that coin with printers who are stuck in their ways, who seem content to let the world pass them by, and would rather wait things out until retirement or they’re bought out. As time wages on and I continue to work with printers more directly, I’ve come to recognize that printers who are most successful share some common traits. Here are five of those traits that are pretty consistent: 1. An Undaunted Passion Across the board, the number one thing that stands out to me among these successful printers is passion. Apathy and complacency? These words aren’t even in their vocabulary. These are the guys and gals that wake up and hit the floor running. They don’t stand for good enough, and they’re in constant pursuit of refining, of growth, and of being better today than they were yesterday. This passion seems to keep all discouragement at bay, and it ignites

Have you ever heard the saying, “Never do business with friends.”? Maybe you’ve even said it yourself, or it’s a rule that you live by. No matter the case, for some reason doing business with friends can feel like we are giving more than we are getting. Because of that feeling, it can tend to put a strain on the relationships with those friends. In reality, that feeling is just a trap that we set for ourselves. I’m sure we all have those friends or acquaintances who are looking for a deal and want to leverage your relationship for their gain. However, I believe that in most cases, our friends are merely trying to help us out. They need the product that we produce, so they ask us to help them with it. We’ll see to it to create whatever it is that our friend needs, but then for some reason, we feel like we need to treat them differently than our regular customers. “Different” can mean a lot of things. Maybe we think that because it’s for a friend, we aren’t going to charge them full price (or maybe not charge them at all!). Maybe we decide that this

I’m a small business owner. I don’t have a million dollar budget. And I don’t have cherry conference tables either. I used to, though. When I worked in the corporate world, I was a Marketing Director for a multi-billion dollar international corporation. It was good, and the perks were even better. I had a fat expense account that was used to entertain customers. The first time I went to my favorite steakhouse and had to pay with my own greenbacks, I was shocked at the prices. I couldn’t believe it. I immediately became green with envy for the “good old days.” Such is life. Today, as a small business owner, I know where my company is, and I know who my customers are. In my industry (print), the competition is everywhere, and the “good old days” are long gone. Here’s How to Stay Ahead 1) Divide and conquer. Understand that there are multiple aspects to your business and make each one a functioning profit center. Most business owners come to know this by their second or third year. It’s important to realize that each of those profit centers will, at some point, be experiencing pressures that they haven’t had before. It could

Communication has been one of humanity’s greatest feats since the beginning of time. The learned ability to communicate has been instrumental with everything from hunting during the early ages of man to producing the world’s greatest inventions. If communication has been such a valuable asset in the past, it’s even more critical today, especially for the life of your business. “Good communication can be the deciding factor for keeping and acquiring customers for your business.” Creating a Smooth Process When customers engage with your business, they want a painless process, not an aggravating one. A typical speed bump that anyone in society has experienced is miscommunication. The unfortunate truth is that our brains are not all connected within society. We all need to communicate with each other to exchange ideas or instructions in order to receive a full understanding. Being that you work in a professional environment, your customers expect you to understand what they want and execute it as such. To ensure that you avoid miscommunication, here are a couple of things to remember: Become an active listener to your customers. “Slow to speak. Quick to listen.” Make this your mantra. Ask questions and confirm what your prospects and