Despite some recent signs of slight economic improvements, the overall economic outlook remains gloomy. So it isn’t surprising that quick and small commercial printers expect 2011 sales to wind up flat, according to NAPL/NAQP’s most recent survey of this segment. Back in May, those surveyed anticipated a gain in the five percent range. Maybe springtime puts people in perkier moods than does late fall.

However, in looking more closely at the findings, we see that around 40 percent of respondents expect 2011 sales growth, compared to 31 percent who expect sales to decline. So, while the average of the group points to flat sales, a healthy chunk of respondents see sales gains.

The point is that averages are just that. Could the economy be better? Of course. Would that translate directly to sales growth? Maybe or maybe not. My read is that those printers who expect growth are not worrying too much about economic conditions. They are doing what they need to do to grow sales and profits—adapting their job mix to meet changing demand, running more efficiently, marketing themselves, and, above all, going out and selling something.

Some predictions are that it will take years for the economy to recover to pre-recession levels. That may be so, but it isn’t going to do anybody any good to sit around and wish that things were better. Things are what they are and it appears that some 40 percent of printers have figured that out and are dealing with it.

There are a lot of printers going out of business or about to go out of business because they can’t change their business model. Customers no longer walk in and ask for something to be duplicated. The day of commodity printing is over. People no longer need forms to collect information. It is now done on a computer. What print customers now need is help in finding the best way to communicate their message with their customer. The answer isn’t always ink on paper.A recent report by John Stewart for the National Association of Quick Printers found that the average age of a print shop owner was in the mid-50s. They opened their businesses when making a copy required expensive equipment. Today, everyone has a copier attached to their home and business computer. The print services people are buying have changed. Those services aren’t best served by having a walk-in location in a high traffic area.

Printers need to add new services that take advantage of the Internet. One area would be content development for electronic media. Adobe and Quark have released new software will help printers and designers turn their InDesign and Quark files into documents and apps that can be read on iPads, tablets, and smartphones. If the major page layout software developers are taking their businesses into a new electronic direction, printers might want to follow. Adobe has also introduced a line of apps to create content on tablets including a Photoshop type of app. If printers are going to survive and compete they must now learn how to create content that will work in environments other than on paper.

Website development, mobile marketing, QR codes, and other Internet related products can be integrated with print to make a message stronger. Printers will have to learn about and provide these services in some way if they expect to compete in the new electronic communications world.

Printers don’t have to go out of business. They need to evolve their business. That evolution needs to begin today.

I’ve mentioned before that we do our best to keep the printing presses rolling by subscribing to a raft of magazines from Time to Smithsonian to Bark. This time of year we double and triple our contribution to the printing industry when all of the holiday catalogs start showing up in our mailbox.

We returned from vacation Sunday and waiting for us after our short four-day jaunt were the following catalogs: Signals, PBS, The Great Courses, Nature’s Jewelry, Catalog Favorites, What on Earth, Smithsonian, Potpourri, Southwest Indian Foundation, Heifer, Wind & Weather, Wine Country Gift Baskets, Wireless, Old Durham Road, Personal Creations, and GaelSong.

These all went into the magazine box to join a couple of dozen of their brethren that had arrived earlier. No doubt this week will bring even more examples of quality 4/4 magazines and catalogs.

This catalog collection proves a few things. First, once you buy anything from a catalog you will be on their mailing list forever. Second, companies buy each other’s mailing lists, so one purchase can lead to many more catalogs. Finally, although you have the option to order by mail, by phone, by fax, or online, it is far easier to purchase online.

We do at least thumb through each of these catalogs and we often run across an item that strikes our fancy, but which we never would have gone looking for online. After all, when was the last time you went online to look for: a circle of cats, a personalized casserole dish, a hound dog pencil holder, a kinetic pinwheel garden sculpture, a wood weather station, a Zuni rattlesnake, a hippo collectable box, an Albert Einstein bobble-head doll, yoga frogs, a solar mosaic dachshund, handcrafted penguin earrings, or a flying witches tea light holder?

If you’re interested in any of the above, I can give you the details and the website you can access to place your order. They’re each in one of the catalogs that were waiting for us when we got home.

I have to say that I’m glad to be home. It’s been a long and busy trade show season and year. With the SGIA Expo as the last trade show for me for the year, it always marks the “end” of a year and the start of the next—with a little vacation thrown in before the new year officially begins.

I will be the first to admit that I’m not a huge fan of New Orleans. The heat and humidity generally around the majority of the year does a number on me—and my hair. I try to stay away from fried food as a general rule and Cajun food and I just don’t get along. The scene down on Bourbon Street isn’t my cup of tea, either. And no matter how many times I go to the city, I always end up eating some kind of fried or Cajun food down on Bourbon Street somewhere. Every time I go, I say I want to see something else besides the neon-lit Bourbon Street—like the Garden District or some of the plantations outside the downtown area. Something else, something different.

This year I did finally made it to Café Du Monde over in Jackson Square on Friday morning for a very early breakfast of beignets and café au lait—and even managed not to get powdered sugar over my black suit. Yes, I am just as impressed with myself as you probably are. Yes, the doughnuts are fried. Yes, they are covered in sugar. I don’t want to know how many calories they were, but they were absolutely divine. And Jackson Square—with its art galleries and quaint storefronts and architecture was very cool. I only wish I had been able to see more of it.
So, enough about the food, you are probably saying, how was the show? For me, trade shows are always very hectic and rewarding at the same time. I have the opportunity to meet new people, put faces to names and emails, and renew friendships with industry folks who I only ever get to see at industry events. This year was no different. (For details on some of what I saw, you can see my highlights of the first two days of the show in my two previous blog entries.)

Overall, it felt like attendance was a little light and the numbers SGIA reported on Monday bore out my feeling. Total registrants for the 2011Expo was 16,006, which was up 12.4 percent from 2009, but down from 2010 numbers (21,956). Exhibitors were down 31 companies from 2010 to 456, but up from 2009. Interestingly, the first-time attendee number was pretty close: 36 percent in 2011 compared to 39.8 percent in 2010.

The exhibitors I spoke to throughout the show were positive, even with the lower attendee numbers, saying that those visiting their booths were highly qualified and interested in buying. Several manufacturers reported sales of printing and finishing equipment on the show floor and there’s a lot of positive energy—and comments—as evidenced by social media. Check out my Storify story about the Expo here (http://storify.com/denisegustavson/sgia-expo-2011).

So how was the show? Good, overall, I would say. There were a number of new product introductions and good energy in the booths. If I were forced to pick my top three things of interest, I would have to say: Novus Imaging/Printer Evolution’s new and re-imagined products; Ilford’s debut of BioMedia substrates and laminates (after its acquisition of the company BioMedia); and the sheer size of the Durst Rho100 with the automation equipment attached to it. Attendees were looking to buy more than just kicking the tires. And my order of beignets provided a sweet end to a good trade show year.

"So, what did you see on the trade show floor that stood out?"
At every trade show, without fail, I get that question—or a close approximation—from just about every appointment. And it’s not surprising. I’ve spend several hours meeting with exhibitors and learning about the latest products they’re bringing to market. And in many cases, many of these people I’m meeting for appointments have not had the chance to walk around to see what was on the show floor yet.
So, what did I see today that stood out? There were a few things that certainly come to mind.

1. New Ilford Media Lines
While Ilford has primarily been known for its photographic media, at SGIA they announced two new product lines: Bio Media and OmniJet. Bio Media is a unique series of products—display films, rigid boards, and laminates—that offer PSPs a green alternative to vinyl. This product uses an enzyme to accelerate the breakdown of the product under anaerobic conditions—i.e. in a landfill—where it is reduced to dust. According to Paul Willems, CEO and director of sales, this new green media if "comparatively priced" to other products in the market with a "minimal premium" for the Bio Media over vinyl products.
Ilford also debuted the OmniJet photo realistic media line without a resin coating. It is FSC certified and can be used with dye, pigment, and Latex inks. Plans are already underway to extend the product offerings to include double-sided and proofing media, as well.

2. Fuzzy laminate
One of the most unique laminates I’ve seen has to be the one just introduced by MACtac. It’s new PermaColor PermaFlex DecoLam Textured Laminates (yes, that’s quite the mouthful) features six new finishes including fine and coarse wood grain, brushed metal, carbon clear, leather, and flock. Yes, this laminate is FUZZY. Think peach fuzz. Now I just need to figure out a way to use the flock somewhere…maybe a kid’s bedroom with a spot laminate on a digitally-printed animal-themed wallpaper or as a spot laminate on a label of a peach-flavored beverage.

3. Eye Tracking Alternative
One of the more interesting apps had to be 3M’s launch of its Visual Attention Service (VAS), which introduces video capabilities and sequencing features to the scanning tool that is an alternative to eye tracking. Previously offered only for still images, 3M VAS can analyze video to illustrate how people are most likely to visually interact with any scene or setting, and identify where the average human eye will focus at any given moment. The software analyzes images, graphical and text elements of digital and print content through a series of algorithms that process important visual cues, such as colors, edges, faces, shapes, and contrast.

4. Inca Ideas
Inca Digital launched it second Inca Digital Excellence Awards (IDEAS 2012) which celebrates the creativity of its customers. The IDEAS recognize the power of digital print and showcase the effects that are possible using Inca’s inkjet technology. There are six categories: Display Graphics, 3D POS, Retail Interiors, Decor and Furniture, Product Decoration, and Interactive Display (i.e. QR codes, digital signage/print integration). The six category winners will receive an IDEAS Trophy and an expenses-paid, two-night trip to Las Vegas to attend next year’s SGIA Expo (October 18-20, 2012). All jobs must have been produced between May 1, 2011 and April 30, 2012, and the closing date for entries is July 31, 2012.For more info check out: http://www.incadigital.com/ideas2012. I know I can’t wait to see what projects are submitted and what the winning entries will be.

5. Oce Poster Printer
The Oce ColorWave 600 Poster Printer has finally made its way across the pond from Europe. Released earlier this year by Océ NV, the ColorWave 600 Poster Printer is now available in the US. This system produces short-term, retail-quality, color prints at production speeds. Designed for cost-effective, high production poster printing, the Océ ColorWave 600 Poster Printer uses Océ CrystalPoint imaging technology to produce instantly dry, water-resistant prints that are cut-to-size and ready for immediate use. Up to six rolls of media from 11 to 42 inches wide can be loaded into the printer at one time, so the system is ready to produce posters of varying widths or media types, eliminating the need to change media between jobs and the need to manually trim standard sized jobs.

While unseasonably cool temperatures greeted me on my arrival to New Orleans for SGIA 2011, bundling up a bit it certainly didn’t slow me down when it came to the first day of the show.

A few notes from my meetings over the course of the day…

SGIA Opening
SGIA opened the first day of the Expo with a press breakfast and overview of the show. Michael Robertson reported that 36 percent of attendees registered for the show were first-timers. It makes me wonder 1.) what is different about New Orleans and SGIA this year to warrant such a high number of first-time registrants and 2.) what market segments these folks have come from. I didn’t get the chance to ask Michael, but it’s on my list of questions I need to follow-up on with SGIA.
Dan Marx continued the morning with a show overview—450 exhibitors, 30 educational sessions, and 6 demo "no sales" educational zones—PDAA, Narrow-Format, Digital Apparel Production, Screenprint Apparel Production, Industrial and Printed Electronics, and Digital Signage. He also went into some of the results from the recent Market & Product Trends Survey. Top three markets:

1. Retail
2. Corporate branding
3. Non-profits.

Top three applications

1. Banners
2. Window Graphics
3. POS/POP Signage

"SGIA is very optimistic about the show and the industry," said Marx during his remarks this morning. "This segment continues to grow and SGIA offers the widest view of the industry."

A New Take on Old Printers
One of the more interesting concepts I’d seen in a long while was the one offered by Printer Evolution. Former EFI VP of Sales Kevin Sykes mans the reigns as CEO and co-founder along with Mike Mills (another former EFI VP on the engineering side). Greg and Tara Lamb (Global Imaging) are on-board as equity partners—and provide exclusive distribution for new printers released by Novus Imaging (another new company co-founded by Sykes and Mills).
With Printer Evolution, they are giving new life to old printers. With the Vutek 3360 as the base—for the frame—Printer Evolution provides a full field upgrade kit, changing over these older printers into something new with brand-new technology. The new Evo33 printers have completely upgraded electronics and motor control systems, along with new printheads and a "wrapped" or skinned printer which provides the final make-over for these older printer models. This model was originally conceived by the Lambs with the help of their other companies including Global Garage and Panoply Supplies.
Through Novus Imaging, two new printers are entering the market. The Synergia H/UV (in beta beginning 11/10/11 and shipping by the end of the year) is a UV printer priced at $525,000. The Synergia H/AQ (priced at $649,000) is a aqueous resin printer with a unique AquEpoxy ink. This binary epoxy ink is a two-part solution (colorant + reactant agent) that, once combined on the substrate, mixes to form an ink that is "glued" to the substrate. Both printers feature Spectra grayscale printheads, use Caldera RIPs, and are available through Global Imaging.
An upgrade path is available for PSPs purchasing the Synergia H/UV to upgrade to the AQ model when it becomes available in 2012. The beta for this unit is set for January 2012.
Look for additional products in this line at ISA and a European introduction at drupa 2012.

EFI
During EFI’s press conference, Scott Shinlever (Sr. VP/GM of EFI Inkjet Solutions) talked about how EFI was the "little big company" and how its GS series has matured over the years, aiding in the industry’s move from screen to digital.
New products on the show floor include: GS3250LX (hybrid printer), GS5000r (roll-to-roll 5m), GS3250r (featuring a "money mode" of more than 1,000 sqft), TX3250 (3.2 m direct-to-fabric or transfer paper textile printer), Rastek R3200 (a 3.2m eco-sol printer under $150k), and the Jetrion 4900 digital label printer (recently released at Label Expo).

Onyx
Over at the Onyx booth, I had the opportunity to sit down with Keven Murphy (new president, moving over from Oce) and Danielle Mattiussi (director of product marketing) to see what was new. Most of our discussion revolved around JDF and the new JDF standard that was under development with the CIP4 wide-format subgroup. It will be interesting to see this standard finally take hold in the wide-format market—a market that has traditionally not had any standards in regards to color management or workflow. For the commercial printers, the JDF standard is something they’ve been looking for since it has already been in place in the market there for many years.
I see this as another step in the maturity of the wide-format industry as it moves from a craftsman mindset to one based on manufacturing (marked by the moves to automation and more efficient production). Look for more on this in the coming year.

Durst
Durst’s VP of marketing Chris Howard took us on a brief—but very interesting discussion—about the Durst Rho 1000 and how Durst was positioning itself as a "boutique industrial printer"—building printers to order and providing digital solutions to industrial markets (i.e. ceramic, flooring, textile decoration). Through the use of digital print, Durst has really changed the way some of the manufacturing markets (i.e. ceramic tile) have some to market with some of the larger ceramic tile manufacturers replacing the older technology with the Gamma printer in-line. The popularity of the Rho 500 and the Gamma (for ceramic tile printing) has also led to the expansion of one of their facilities.
While some trends they are observing are more social (globalization and connectivity) there are five specific trends to the wide-format market that they feel has had a driving influence market development: green/sustainability, technical developments, price pressure vs. high-quality demand, new applications, and more efficient production process.

HP
HP has several big announcements during the opening day of SGIA including the release of three new printers from the Scitex division. The new GM of Scitex, Xavier Garcia, opened the pres conference with some overviews of the signage market.
According to Garcia, the signage market currently stands at 6.2B sqft of signage a year, but only 33 percent is currently produced via digital means—leaving quite a bit of opportunity for PSPs. He also reported that the signage market is also growing 11 percent CAGR (2010-2015). Of the many markets within this segment, retail signage shows some of the highest potential for growth. Decoration (digital interior market) and packaging were also two other market segments that show high potential for growth on the digital side.
Other trends:

• 67 percent of PSPs report shortening runs
• 3x the number of jobs for the same volume two years ago
• Jobs have decreased from 10,000 to 20,000 copies to 1,500 copies
• More than 40 percent of PSPs report an increased demand for QR codes and VDP

The "Cloud" is changing the market and the way PSPs do business. It’s not just about B2B anymore. It’s not B2C.
It’s also about managing services from a variety of locations instead of one centralized hub. This is enabled through the  "Cloud" as well.
New products:

• Scitex FB7600 (replacing the FB7500) features multi-sheet loader and new FB225 (replacing FB221) ink. Available after November 1.
• Scitex XP2500/XP5500 (replaces the XP2300/XP5300 respectively)
• The new ink (FB225) is GreenGuard certified, Fogra39 compliant, and can be used for Pantone color matching.

By John Stewart

I am excited about my new, second video titled, “Chart of Accounts.” I just viewed a rough cut and, with only minor changes, it is ready to post. I am hoping that it will be available before the end of this week.

If you haven’t had a chance to view my first video on “Sales Per Employee” I encourage you to visit my website or watch it on MyPrintResource.com.

I have another video in the works that deals with “Key Financial Ratios,” and a fourth video titled simply “Cash.” This video takes a somewhat light-hearted, humorous approach at how a stack of $1,000 dollar bills is distributed to pay all the bills in a “profit leader” firm versus how these bills are paid by a “profit laggard” firm.

The latest color copier survey by Larry Hunt’s Color Copy News shows that color copy volume is on the rebound.

We all know that the economy has had very adverse effects on our industry but we are increasingly seeing signs of recovery, however modest. One of the more recent is from Larry Hunt’s latest color copier survey. In the last survey, only 33% of respondents said their color copy growth was good or excellent while 56% said there was no growth or a decline in volume. In this year’s survey, 45% said color copy growth was good or excellent and only 15% reported no growth or a decline.

As Dirck Holscher, who has taken over the publication, noted: “While not yet back to boom times, these figures are a lot more encouraging than last year’s numbers.” That comment is right on the money considering that the 56% of good or excellent growth reported is still far below the 70% reported in 2007.

One other interesting note about the latest survey is that black-and-white copies account for around 24% of total volume on color machines. I find that a little puzzling, but then I’m not in the color copying business.

The USPS is pushing direct mail to shore up revenues.

If you hate it, it’s junk mail. If you print it, mail it, or read it, it is direct mail marketing. In any case, the USPS is encouraging folks to use more of it in order to make up for the shortfall in First Class mailings.

Last week, I lamented that I hadn’t written or received an honest to goodness letter in ages. Personal and business communications have gone online. Now, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal, the First Class mail nosedive has prompted the USPS to start: “running promotions, easing rules, and planning television and radio ads to encourage more businesses to send pitches by standard mail, the official term for bulk mailings used by marketers to prospect for customers.”

This comes on the heels of a recent campaign to point out how physical mail can drive people to websites by offering a 3% discount to direct mail that contained QR codes. Other aspects of direct mail promotion include allowing businesses to bring as many as 5,000 pieces of advertising mail a day to the post office to be delivered to every home on every carrier route at a cost of 14.2 cents per piece. This does away with the need to buy mailing lists in order to get exact delivery addresses for the printed piece.

I make two predictions. First, printers will be able to make more money printing more direct mail pieces if they get out and sell these new USPS incentives to their customers. Second, the direct mail push will give new ammunition to the “Do Not Mail” campaigns, which, so far, have remained bottled up in the various state legislatures.

Stay tuned.

I learned early in consulting that when owners self-diagnose, often true issues are hidden. In fact, one of the criticisms leveled at consultants is their solutions are so simple that “anyone could have said that.” Sure, solutions are simple. Where a good consultant earns their money is asking good questions so that real problems can be defined; not in just providing solutions. My last post was a great example of this phenomenon when my printer-friend asked, “What percentage of sales should rent be?”

I thought, “Why do you suppose the owner asked that?” So, after I responded (5% to 6.5% with a typical of 6%, which is up from 4.5% over the past five years), I asked the obvious: “Why do you ask?”

And now we get to the rest of the story.

The owner wrote back, “Thanks so much for the information. I was looking back over previous years P & L’s (pre-2007) and saw that rent was running around 7% of sales. Since 2009 my rent has been at 10% of sales. This can be attributed to lower sales volume and rents increasing due to the terms of the three year contract I signed when I purchased the company.”

“My reason for trying to get a percentage of sales number was due to my need to renegotiate the terms. My landlord came back with a proposal that would reduce my rent to around 8.5% of current sales. I agree with your statement that I may have more square feet than I need given my current volume. My problem is that the new terms require I sign for three years with an escalation in rents clause over those three years.”

“In this economy and given the outlook, who knows where we will be in three years? I may want to move to a smaller space or sell/merge with another printer into their larger facility and then I will be stuck in a binding contract. The obvious answer is to go get more sales, easier said than done … Again, thanks for your help. I hope to one day get my volumes and cash flows back up to acceptable levels so I can join your group. For now however, I feel like the “Dead Printer Working” that you so often describe.

So what’s the real problem? The printer’s question was about a benchmark in helping to renegotiate his lease with the landlord. That’s valid but why was he having a time renegotiating his lease? Well, as he later told me, his sales had decreased by half in the last five years. That meant his rent doubled as a percentage of sales and I’m sure everything else was squeezed cash-wise as well.

Now what’s the printer’s reaction to it? In this case he’s putting the squeeze on the landlord to reduce the rent because the print shop’s sales are down. How come the sales are down? Well, I don’t specifically know for sure but can give a fair guess: sales are down because he’s not doing a lot about it.

Oh, yes, we hope and wish for better sales, but unless we actually do something about it; unless we specifically spend our time on selling activities, we’re not doing anything about it.

Well, and again I’m guessing here, but he can’t spend more time on selling activities because he’s got too many other important things to do. Like what? Well, get jobs out, pick up paper, deliver jobs (no, that doesn’t count as a sales call), answer the telephone and more.

In short, he doesn’t have time to sell.

And that’s for two reasons.

1. He doesn’t make time to do anything, rather reacts to whatever happens. This is most typical of small business owners regardless of their type of business. We don’t accomplish important projects (in this case selling activities) because we can’t dedicate “heads down” time to any specific project. And the reasons for that are many.

They can range from workers not being trained to do specific tasks (can’t set up the folder or can’t price jobs or whatever) to the owner self-inflicting their own wounds (owner has to price all jobs because no one else has the touch which, in turn, really means the owner hires people to stand around and watch them work).

Answer I often use here is to work with owners in establishing a weekly time planner. Yup. You can actually plan your day within reason. Specifically you plan for interruption time as well as heads down time. And then you work to eliminate the reasons why you can’t stick with it.

There’s too much to this to go into it in depth here, but if anyone’s interested, let me know and I’ll write more about it later.

2. He or she doesn’t want to sell because he or she doesn’t want to do it. Why? Not trained in “how” is the most common reason but it’s not the only one. In straightforward cases, most implement a plan once they are trained and know what to do and why.

Notice I said “most” though. Occasionally, you will find owners who have a deeper reluctance or a reluctance based on other reasons. Good news here is that there are tests for true reluctance as well as proven remedies and training for the various strains of reluctance. Yes, I will write more on this soon as well.

Let’s go back to our friend, though.

His real problem is that his sales have dropped by half and he didn’t really do a lot about it. What he was doing was focusing on the symptoms (lease was up and landlord wanted more rent).

Even worse, that’s about to lead him into a really bad decision. Again, he wrote, “I may want to move to a smaller space or sell/merge with another printer into their larger facility.”

Moving to a smaller space is logical given the right conditions (not impacting sales that much and an immediate bounce back in sales isn’t imminent).

Getting married to another printer, however, can cause many more problems than high rent. The merger of two weak companies does not make a strong one. Additionally, figure at least $1 million in sales per prime family living out of the business to prevent cannibalism. There’s more but that will do for now.

And a final word; he mentioned, “I hope to one day get my volumes and cash flows back up to acceptable levels so I can join your group. For now however, I feel like the “Dead Printer Working” that you so often describe.”

Well, lots of folks feel this way. In fact, some of my best clients felt the same way before they sought help, but really what they found was that you can’t wait until your volume and cash flow improve to seek help to get your volume and cash flow up. That makes as much sense as waiting for your cancer to subside so you will have strength enough to drive down to the hospital.

The purpose of our programs is to help owners with cash and time issues. If you want information on the particulars in your case, send me an email to tom@crouser.com.

Okay, I made some recommendations to our friend which did include getting some professional assistance. What’s important for the rest of us is the point that when we treat the symptoms, we often miss the problem. In this case the printer was dealing with a symptom (rent was getting too high as percentage of sales) instead of the real problem (significant drop in sales and not doing anything about it).

This blog originally appeared on www.tomcrouser.com.