Nailed It!

Holidays are Here, Let’s Get Festive!

Recently our customers have found our posters, many oversized, effective. Announcing sales, specials or promoting your products or services with a Holiday flair can be fun and productive at a great cost with quick turnaround. With our digital graphic capability let your imagination run wild! Check out our special for this month: Posters, 15% discount!

Customer Communication and Service

Ever had an existing good customer walk in your store or check out your website and say, “I didn’t know you offered those!” Shocking, right? Drives me nuts – good customers, happy with service, product, etc and they don’t know one of your major product lines. There are many ways to remind our customers of our widgets and services: web site updates, announcements, direct mail, and of course in store posters, banners, counter mats, signs and decals to do the silent selling and gentle reminders.

Inspiration for any time of year

Follow up to our blog “Inspiration” on Dawes Eddy who at 66 climbed Mount Everest last spring and who for several days was the oldest American male to do so. At a recent presentation of his feat, he reminded us that if nothing else, keep your “choices” of activities open by taking care of yourself, young or older. He said there are three things most of which we control, that can improve our quality of life:

Good genes – okay, not much we can do about that
Good diet
Regular exercise

No surprises but obviously helped Dawes accomplish his dream, quite a testimony for those wanting to keep “choices” plentiful.

Good Selling!

Recovery? Recession Over?

We’ve all heard the play on words lately! Is the “recovery” in sight or is it as elusive at that almost forgotten word “retirement”. Most businesses have had “survival” as their mantra the past two years and will continue as long as “uncertainty” reigns. Have we “bottomed out” or as Warren Buffet said recently mired at the “plateau at the bottom” not knowing if we’ll be here a day, weeks, or months.

To those of us as business owners or decision makers working in the trenches every day, our outlook will continue to be “cautious” with “restrained optimism”. So as we go forward with the newly defined “business as usual” we need to take advantage of the reported “green shoots” and up tick in the marketplace.

Businesses and consumers have been “hoarding cash” due to the “cloudy horizon”. But as confidence slowly increases and the businesses replenish “depleted inventories” which are at “historic lows” we should be in position to “reap the benefits”.

Those who are consistent with their message and exposure will be the first to have their phones ring and have increased activity on their website – both leading hopefully to sales!

Blogs, direct mail, specials, signs, vehicle graphics, decals, banners, window graphics etc – it’s inexpensive exposure and effective. “Stay on task” for there is still “rough sledding ahead” and we’re definitely not “out of the woods”!

The “good news” is that we have “weathered the storm” and that there is “daylight ahead” and that is exciting!

“Good Selling”

First quarter review – yikes, are you kidding! It’s two weeks short of ending first quarter. It wasn’t too long ago that I was figuring out how to navigate the rocky shoals of this whole year.

Did the ground hog, or was it Adam Smith just see his shadow? Where do we look today for credible economic information – what can or should we expect? The consensus by those in the know or in the “should know”, including your local banker project slow recovery. Probably no discernable change to most of us until late this year or as late as 4th quarter 2010. It’s as your instincts suspected, a continuance of business “not as usual”.

We all need to review our business model even after we adjusted it late last year, and see if it still applies to this market. Shortly, you will have a three month history to weigh and analyze your situation – expenses, revenues, margins, etc. Chose a strategy that is realistic and tough. It’s always a nice problem to deal with increased production and hiring, but we should wait to see the “whites of their eyes” for the up tick in our business before we slip on those rose colored glasses. Continue Reading »