Blog Archives




 
First 1 2 3 Next » Last

  • Overwhelmed
    By Karen Hall - Wednesday June 2, 2010
    People are so adaptable...up to a point. Speaking strictly for myself, I usually discover that point when I'm about two steps past it. Business requirements today are such that we feel the need to do more and more just to stay in place. For anyone in the media, the world we once knew so well and traveled so easily looks like an alien moonscape these days. The situation is much the same for printers, too. Everyone's talking about inkjet, you have to consider the environmental impact of your work, and labor laws are something else to contend with. There is confusion about what the new healthcare legislation will require of employers, and there are plenty of people who want to give you the answers. The problem is their answers are all...

  • Top 100 Observations
    By Karen Hall - Tuesday May 18, 2010
    I just finished crunching the numbers for this year’s Top 100. As expected, the totals and percentages are pretty scary. 2009 was a pretty scary year by any standards. But there are some intriguing details that might go unnoticed if you just look at the statistics. One of the things that impressed me was that a number of printers who, despite a decrease in overall sales, were actually able to increase productivity last year. When sales fell off, they also decreased the size of their staffs, which resulted in a higher sales per employee (SPE) on the year. That’s indicative of how they got to be in the Top 100 in the first place, and how they remain in the list year after year. They operate their companies using sound business...

  • Not So Hidden Treasures
    By Karen Hall - Monday June 15, 2009
    In tough economic times such as these, everyone is looking for an edge. Printers are lucky because they have so many tools and resources that are readily available. The problem is many printers seem to be more interested in griping about their problems than in actually using the very tools that could help them solve those problems. The majority of printing companies are using some type of estimating software package, but very few of them are using all of the business tools that those programs offer. The pricing function is still primary, but today’s versions have morphed into full fledged MIS systems that can track workflow, equipment depreciation, and inventory, keep you in touch with your customers, and handle all manner of accounting...

  • Is Recovery in Sight?
    By Karen Hall - Monday June 8, 2009
    During a group conversation today, an optimistic salesperson said, “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I feel like things are starting to turn around.†Another party said she didn’t really get that feeling, but was glad that someone could say they did. Still another member of the group offered that he’d heard a couple of printers saying that they felt like the economy was starting to show signs of recovery. Last week, NAPL sent out a press release titled “Despite Signs of Recession Bottoming Out, Industry Sales Continue to Nosedive.†It delivered the glum news of the first quarter had shown the worst quarterly sales declines since the association began tracking these figures more than 20 years...

  • Unplugged
    By Karen Hall - Monday June 1, 2009
    It seems like everyone has an iPhone or a Blackberry. We IM, and Tweet, and stay in touch 24/7. We seem to be doing a whole lot more work than we ever did before, but I’m not at all sure what we think we’re accomplishing. I find myself wondering how much of that constant communication is useful and how much is just background noise.   Have you ever paused to think whether your life is better now than it was before you were “connected†every minute of the day? Are you happier or more content? Do Tweets really enrich your relationships? Has this constant activity made the world a better place?   Or are you too tired to even think about the answers to these questions? I seem to hear that complaint from a lot of...

  • The Great Flood
    By Karen Hall - Monday May 4, 2009
    Monday morning I walked into the office that Bob and I share only to discover a soggy mess. We’d had steady rain for five or six days and Sunday night brought a veritable frog strangler. All the waterproofing and precautions that we took to correct this situation 10 years ago have held the rains out of the office until now. My first thought was, “I hope Bob backed up those files he was working on.†Sure, all of the electronics are well off the floor, but you just never know. You know? I wasn’t worried about my own files because I knew I’d backed up everything before leaving the office Friday evening. As it turns out, all the information was safe—no need to rewrite entire articles or any of the other...

  • QP is Mobile
    By Karen Hall - Monday March 9, 2009
    Do you own an iPhone? If so, there's a cool feature on the Quick Printing website that can keep you connected to all the latest information no matter where you are. On the QP homepage, scroll all the way down to the bottom and you'll find three buttons. The first one lets you sign up for QP's RSS news feeds. The second one is +My Yahoo, which lets you add QP to your Yahoo homepage. And the third one is +Add to Google, which adds QP to your Google homepage. When you land on the QP website, there's so much to see that you can easily get distracted before you make it all the way to the bottom of the page, so I just thought I'd let you know. Cool, huh?

  • Can the Scam!
    By Karen Hall - Thursday February 26, 2009
    I've heard several printers talk about a scam that's been making the rounds lately. It has also been a frequent topic of discussion on a couple of print related listservs and chat sites. The thing about scammers is they don't bother to research the companies they target. I guess that's how the email wound up in my mailbox. The email, which also included a PDF attachment titled "20571 LIVING BREAD MINISTRIES," read: Good day, Please i need an estimate on this print work. Fliers:QTY: 69,000 pieces of 11X17, printed on 70lb Gloss Text printed one side only in 3 colors on ink with the attached artwork, no bindery/folding.Exclude shipping/delivery charges. Please let me know the quote or any questions, look forward to working with you on this...

  • Talking to Myself
    By Karen Hall - Wednesday February 18, 2009
    I seem to have the same conversation over and over. Someone — usually an outsider or a person who isn't familiar with our market — will make some dismissive statement about quick printers being too small for their interests. This is my cue to launch into a litany about the wide ranging capabilities and sophisticated services offered by QP's readers. I explain that our readers may call themselves quick printers, small commercial printers, digital printers, or even marketing specialists. All the labels are self applied anyway, and what they choose to call themselves in no way limits their business. From the magazine's standpoint, we figure anyone who signs up for a magazine called Quick Printing is probably operating the type of...

  • The Sinister Side of Extreme Personalization
    By Karen Hall - Tuesday March 11, 2008
    There is absolutely no question that personalized marketing is here to stay. The technology that puts VDP within reach has the potential to revolutionize the printing industry. So before you read this, please understand that I'm not calling the industry's new baby ugly. VDP is only one small, and comparatively benign, part of a much larger trend. That said, listening to the On Demand keynote by David Pogue, the personal technology columnist for the New York Times, gave me a bit of a chill. Pogue focused on the benefits of personalized marketing. He said that soon we'll be able to receive an online newspaper that is totally customized to our interests. It will have feature articles about subjects that interest us and ads for...

Directories & Guides

Featured Links

Industry Events

More
Register

  • Enhanch Your Experience.

    When you register for SDCExec.com you stay connected to the pulse of the industry by signing up for topic-base e-newsletters and information. Registering also allows you to quickly comment on content and request more infomation.

Click here to Register for MyPrintResource.com
No Thanks