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

printers, marketing ideas for printers, small business, passion

Have you ever been called a “People Pleaser”? I have. Early in my career in the printing industry, I had aspirations of my company being the largest printing establishment in the Universe! To accomplish this monumental task, I had the mindset that I would never use the word no when a customer or prospect asked if we could produce their product, no matter how ridiculous the request was. In those days, printing 50 wedding invitations were just as important to me as printing 5,000 full-color sell sheets. Circling the Energy Drain It was evident to me that some customers were more profitable than others. However, I couldn’t help but think about those I would help with their tiny little jobs may eventually turn into something bigger. You never know who someone knows that may be the decision maker of the big insurance company down the street, and we know that they do a lot of printing! Therefore, I would spend a lot of time and energy on tiny little projects for “consumers” hoping that one day my ship would come in as a result. Taking A Hard Look at Our Customer Base One day a couple of decades into my

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

Ever Eaten a Beehive? Have you ever gone out on a limb? You know, scooching a bit too far, feeling the limb start to sag, but reaching…stretching your fingers until your joints hurt? That honey is all you want. It’s all you dream about. Right? That honey is your Holy Grail. But, no matter how far you reach, that hive of honey is just too far, too elusive, too hard to grasp. The Business of Bees Stretching for the unattainable is what being a small business owner is all about. All small business owners dream of that honey, of hitting it big. We think that when we open our doors, life will be a vacation, but that’s not how it works. Small business owners get “stung” by a million problems every day. It can be relentless. How can anyone manage through that? Execute, Execute, Execute If you want to learn to push through to reach the impossible, there are three really easy steps. Although these steps will help you, remember, it’s always about the execution. Execution is the key to success. Don’t tell me how you are going to be successful, SHOW ME. Everyone wants to sell their company for millions, but in reality,