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  • Use Your Resources
    By Bob Hall - Monday June 29, 2009
    As the pilot picked his way between airplane-eating thunderheads that towered above 40,000 feet, I started to question the wisdom of boarding the flight from Rochester to Cincinnati. The weather forecast had been dicey at best, but I wanted to get home after almost two weeks on the road. My most recent stop had been to keynote the Xerox Thought Leadership Workshop for quick and small commercial printers. The event had been very informative, but I was surprised how little the attendees knew about the sales and marketing tools Xerox could provide. As I thought about it later, I probably shouldn’t have been that surprised. Far too many printers I have run into are either not aware of or not inclined to take advantage of such useful tools...

  • Rest Stop
    By Bob Hall - Monday June 22, 2009
    I just got back from a week on the road at the Media Days event for Print ‘09 in Chicago and the ICED annual conference in Houston. I’m home long enough to do laundry and then out again to do a keynote at a Xerox Thought Leadership Workshop in Rochester, NY. A couple of random thoughts as I wait for my dress shirts to dry. I completely understand the rationale behind Media Days. Gather together as much of the worldwide trade press as possible so that Print ‘09 vendors can make their show pitches just once to the gathered media multitudes. (Actually, there were only 50 editors there.) Eight presentations a day for two days might sound like death by PowerPoint, but there was actually some interesting stuff. While a lot of the vendors...

  • 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...

  • To Serve and Survive
    By Bob Hall - Friday May 22, 2009
    With the economy making for tough business times, printers are looking for ways to differentiate themselves from their competition in order to stay above water. Sadly, some are cutting prices to unhealthy levels. Others are cutting staff or reducing costs. Some are cutting back on marketing, which really is something they should be increasing. However, the one area of differentiation that doesn’t require a great deal of expenditure is service. Good customer service has become such a rare commodity that when you receive it, you are usually a bit surprised. The basics aren’t that hard. Be nice. Be polite. Be responsive. Do what you say you are going to do. Help find solutions to problems. Resolve complaints, etc. Is it...

  • Pre-Show Promos
    By Bob Hall - Monday May 18, 2009
    I must admit that after a couple of days, trade shows can get pretty tiresome. All that trekking from booth to booth and from press conference to press conference is hard on the feet and other body parts. With Print ‘09 on the horizon, I can already feel the aches and pains gathering for their pre-show warm up exercises.   So, one might think that I would welcome the idea of being able to sit in one place while the vendors bring their trade show presentations to me. For the most part, you would be right—although that might well cause a different sort of system overload.   Well, next month the Graphic Arts Show Company (GASC) is doing just that. Industry trade press editors will be flown to Chicago for a two day series...

  • A Demo Center With a Difference
    By Bob Hall - Monday May 11, 2009
    I trekked to far away Cincinnati last week to see the new xpedx Technology Center. It features three Ryobi presses, including a five-color Ryobi 525 two-up press, along with a wide variety of prepress, digital, and post press options from such companies as Kodak, Epson, Morgana, C.P. Bourg, and Secap. Other equipment and technologies from these and other manufacturers will be added in the near future. The aim of the center is to attract some 250 printers annually to see how these various offerings can be mixed and matched. xpedx claims the center is the only one in the U.S. devoted to demonstrating and selling equipment from a wide variety of manufacturers for both offset printing and digital printing markets. I think the xpedx approach...

  • 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...

  • Business Success
    By Bob Hall - Monday April 27, 2009
    I SPENT two days last week at the AlphaGraphics headquarters in Salt Lake City observing the monthly Discovery Days event for folks considering an AG franchise. Some were looking to start a franchise from scratch while others were considering converting their existing printing operation or buying an existing AG franchise. I don’t know if any of the people who attended will actually pull the trigger but they certainly got what I think was a full measure of candor and openness. Now let’s be clear. I’m not a cheerleader for AlphaGraphics or any other particular franchise system. I am, however, a cheerleader for this industry and I found the attendees’ interest in the industry encouraging. The days of go-go...