Blog Archives




 

  • Courtesy Matters
    By Bob Hall - Friday July 8, 2011
    I understand that July is officially Cell Phone Courtesy Month. It hasn’t come a minute too soon. Just today I was nearly run off the road by a woman who was on her cell phone, treated to one side of an expletive-laced conversation in the Lowes checkout line, and nearly bumped off the sidewalk by a businessman who was walking and texting at the same time. (I’m just glad he wasn’t chewing gum too or he would have run me over.) Cell phone rudeness is all around us, from the dolts on the plane who refuse to power off when told to do so to the parents at the park who play Angry Birds while their children run amok. My personal pet peeve with cell phone users is being dismissed and subsequently ignored when a person with...

  • You Are Only as Good as Your Worst Employee
    - Thursday July 7, 2011
    I heard this from one of the attendees during my seminar at the Mid-Winter Conference. I thought it was so appropriate. There are many shops out there that will never be as good as what the owner desires, because they continue to put up with underachievers or bad-attitude employees. Even though finding a replacement for this type of individual is a top concern for owners throughout the nation right now, these employees must be addressed. The first recommendation is to “Coach Your Underachievers.†The second recommendation is to “Get Rid of Them.†Underachievers come in every shape, size, educational background and ethnic group. The only thing they have in common is that they are not living up to the potential that...

  • Digital Industry Eco-Facts: Not the Magic Pill We Hoped For
    - Wednesday July 6, 2011
    by Gale Grimmenga, principal, Creative Impulse (www.creativeimpulseinc.com) I don’t fault the electronics industry for marketing well—it’s what business is all about, promising a cure or at least an improvement of a problem. Marketing promotes the bright side, the strengths, the good stuff. It implies delivery of something better than the other guy. Every industry turns the conversation to its favor and, at best, educates us about the new innovation’s benefits. At worst, we jump onboard the trend, help promote the promise, and stay ignorant of the truth. As a citizen of Earth, I want an eco-magic pill for our polluting woes. I want to believe the positive claims of the e-industry: Paperless is nirvana...

  • Special Celebrations
    By Karen Hall - Tuesday July 5, 2011
    Note: This blog entry has nothing whatsoever to do with printing. It's just for fun! Until the papers reported her 13th birthday, I wasn’t aware that the President’s eldest daughter was born on Independence Day. Sharing your birthday with a major holiday can go two ways for a kid – I should know – my birthday is December 25. That can be either a very happy coincidence or a miserable one. Luckily, my family cared enough to treat my birthday as an extra special bonus of the Christmas season. When clerks or TSA agents look at my ID, they often remark on my birthday. Almost inevitably, they say something along the lines of, “You must get cheated out of a lot of birthday presents.†I always explain...

  • Wide-Format on the Web
    By Denise Gustavson - Tuesday June 28, 2011
    Each week we're all bombarded by so much. From television to radio to the internet, we're surrounded by news. I have the added benefit of being on the receiving end of various PR feeds and distribution lists, so my inbox is overflowing nearly each and every day. I also make it a point to look for interesting and unique stories and blog posts that make me think and/or make me stop and say "Wow. That's cool." I don't always have the opportunity to share these unless it's through social media. So, for this blog, I'm going to run through a few that really stood out to me over the past few weeks. 40 Dangerously Creative Billboard Ads via @SignsByTomorrow http://bit.ly/l1evqT Billboards are everywhere—we can all attest to that. But some...

  • Good Mood and New Technologies
    By Bob Hall - Tuesday June 28, 2011
    I’m writing this on the way home from the Franchise Services conference in Las Vegas. As usual, the conference was a first-rate event. Herewith, a couple of observations: Once again, I was reminded of industry consolidation since this single event takes the place of four individual conferences previously held by Sir Speedy, PIP Printing, Signal Graphics, and Multicopy. I recall the tensions at some of the earlier combined conferences in this and other franchise systems, but that is a thing of the past. There were a lot of new companies at the trade show – most in the Web-to-print and social media arenas. Coupled with the educational program in these areas, these newbies stirred a lot of interest among some of the old timers...

  • You Can’t Make This Stuff Up
    - Monday June 20, 2011
    In our last staff meeting, I told my staff, “no more eating at your stations.†This was particularly intended for my production team. I’ve got employees standing at their presses, printing and pounding down a super-sized burrito at the same time. Not only is quality in jeopardy because they are using both hands eating this thing, but there’s also a chance that the end product will have a little salsa on the side. Anyway, the very next day after issuing this edict, one of my operators grabs his lunch and his iPod and heads to the front office. He proceeds to find an account manager’s desk (who happens to be out on his lunch break), plops himself down, pulls up YouTube on the computer, plugs in his headset...

  • Doing Good Works
    By Bob Hall - Sunday June 19, 2011
    A couple months back I wrote about a little incident where a friend accidentally drove his car through our garage wall into our dining room. It was quite a shock – especially to the two dogs and the cat. At the time, I commented on the slap-dash way in which some contractors had worked up repair estimates. I also praised the folks who got the job for their thoroughness and professionalism in repairing the wall and the electrical wiring. I have come to realize such wide variances in competency and efficiency are more common than I once believed. First case in point: We needed a new railing for our front porch stairs to make it easier for a friend with an artificial leg to navigate his way to and from the house when he was critter...

  • More Reconditioned Equipment: Signs of Our Economic Times
    By Mark Vruno - Wednesday June 15, 2011
    A MyPrintResource.com exclusive By Mark Vruno, MPR Portal Editor Akin to automakers, press manufacturers face the sullen fact that not very many commercial printer budgets can withstand brand-spanking-new hardware investments. That explains why still-struggling OEMs are more warmly embracing the idea of selling their own used or “pre-owned” output devices, be they conventional iron or digital presses. Why fight the online auctioneers that are so prevalent these days? If you can’t beat them, join ’em, seems to be the revamped vendor thinking – thoughts seldom uttered just a few short years ago. Like the rest of us, they’ve done the math: zero percent of zero equals zilch. Six years ago, Graphic Partners (GP), a 50-employee...

  • Is My Phone Smarter than Me?
    By Karen Hall - Monday June 13, 2011
    The world may truly be coming to an end, although I won’t go so far as to predict a date. The sign that tipped me off was when Bob and I finally caved in and got smartphones. We put it off for a long time, but even in West Virginia you have to move with the prevailing technology sooner or later. I was reluctant to make the change because I was quite fond of my stupidphone. It did what I needed it to do and never made me use bad language – at least not until a few months ago when it began randomly turning itself off for no apparent reason. I had even managed to upload some of my music, and would sometimes embarrass Bob by talking too loudly in airports because U2 was wailing in my ears. The new smartphones allow us to go...

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