What You Missed at Print 17
What’s that you say, my friend? You didn’t make it to Print ’17? You were too busy to make it? You didn’t want to spend the money? Hmmm. Well. All I can say is, in the eternal words of Vivian from Pretty Woman, “Big mistake. HUGE.” I am sorry to tell you this, but you […]
How Many Printers Does It Take to Print a Light Bulb?
Q: How many Printers does it take to print a light bulb? A: You don’t know, you don’t print light bulbs… right? Because anyone can print a light bulb. You don’t want to be in the light bulb business. If you are, then you compete with everyone – including online discount light bulb printing factories. […]
Understanding The Magic Inside Your Digital Front End
If you own a digital print device, somewhere in your life is a Digital Front End. The Digital Front End (DFE) is the workflow touchpoint that accepts a print file, commonly a PDF or PostScript file in today’s print environment, and turns that file into a format that the print engine (toner or inkjet) can […]
Embracing The Freedom and Power of the Terrible
A lot of people have a lot of opinions on fear. Some say it is a great motivator. Others will say that you should never let it guide you. There is no denying, though – most of us do experience fear of SOMETHING at SOME point in our lives. Being afraid, or worried, about something […]
What an Arcade Game Can Teach Us About Printing Sales
Remember Pole Position, the popular video arcade game of the 1980s? I loved it. Amazingly, the things I learned while playing helped me in the print sales world. Pole Position is a classic auto racing game. You have to be able to predict and control the timing and placement of other cars on the track. […]
Shaking Up The Status Quo: Are Your Services Standing Out?
In the world of artificial sweeteners, I am team Pink. I have always been team Pink. I know Pink. I know what taste I can expect when I tear Pink open and pour it into my coffee. I know how much Pink I need to get the result I desire. I know that I can […]
The Day the Workflow Stood Still
The print hardware often gets the blame when there is a shop slowdown. Misfeeds, wrong stock loaded, paper transport issues, and even finishing equipment glitches can pose some challenges. But when the workflow has a problem the challenges can be greater because sometimes no one notices until nothing is flowing. You never want your workflow […]
2017 Survey Says: Print Buyers Need Time and Have Money
Greetings Citizens of the Printerverse! This post is about results from my 2017 Print Buyer Survey. The survey background info can be found here. If you haven’t read it please do that first, it will be helpful. Additional results can be found in this post: 2017 Print Buyer Survey Says: When it Comes to Driving Print Sales, Stay in […]
Alexa! Where’s My Print Job?
When you think about workflow (and I know you do!), how much do you think about automation? The two should go hand-in-hand. But what is a reasonable amount of automation? Should you be waiting until there are Alexa and Echo devices throughout your shop so that you can ask them the status of jobs? Despite […]
5 Ways to Interact With Clients and Sales Prospects Outside of Their Office
For as far back as I can remember, I almost always met clients and prospects in their offices. It just seemed to be the way things were most often done. It was convenient for them, and the onus always seemed to be on the one doing the selling to be the one to travel. After […]
Order Up! 3 Ways to Serve Fresh Digital Print to Local Restaurants
I recently spent some time with HP at Interpack 17 in Germany (watch the videos!). As usual they had a plethora of products and services that are wowing the packaging industry and pushing the packaging envelope way beyond the corrugated box. It’s really cool to get a glimpse of where the “package” is heading, and the huge […]
The Way for Smaller Printers to Make Workflow, Work
A question came up over in the Print Production Professionals Group on LinkedIn that came down to this: there is a lot of guidance for larger companies and corporate printers when it comes to workflow, but what are smaller printers supposed to do? What workflow automation solutions are in the market that are right-sized for a […]