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

It was a long year last week at Marketing Ideas For Printers. Our whole leadership team (including myself) plus one other team member tested positive for COVID. I’m thankful we did the hard work ahead of time to be able to survive such an interruption. Well-Defined Processes “Well-defined” doesn’t mean “lots of words.” It means others have a clear roadmap on how to keep things moving when “the regulars” can’t. Build a Team That’s not adding more people to your payroll, it’s training the people already on your payroll to operate as an efficient team working towards the same goal. Team-Focused is one of our core values. What a beautiful feeling of peace knowing that someone’s got your back! Focus on Your Vision You’re going to face distractions and interruptions, but as long as you have a clearly defined vision, a True North, you have a path to get back on track. The journey may look different than you expected, but the destination won’t change. Hard Work Worth Doing You don’t want to do the hard work when everything else around you is hard, you want to do the hard work when you’re not distracted by emergencies. Do the hard

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

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