Let’s Get Personal

Here are the do’s and the don’ts of building solid, long-term relationships with your clients

GOOD BUSINESSES attract new clients. Great businesses keep them. It’s simple, really. Your best client is the one that keeps coming back to you again and again. These are the types of long-term relationships that carry design businesses through tough economic times. A successful design business knows the key to profitability is finding the right balance between attracting new clients, while taking good care of the ones it already has.

Press Checks for Fun and Profit

Think the press check is only about quality control? Think again.

PRINT BUYERS come in all sizes and colours. It’s no surprise, then, that they approach press approvals somewhat differently. And, while the purpose of press approvals is to ensure the quality of the finished job, they also represent an opportunity for printers to solidify a relationship with the client.

Building a Buff Business

Want to get in shape? Consider hiring a coach as a personal trainer for your company

IF YOU’RE currently running a design firm — large or small — you’ve undoubtedly realized that there is a big difference between the work you do in your business and the work you do on your business. While many emerging designers believe the quality of their work alone will help them attract high-paying clients, seasoned professionals know business success is the product of quality design solutions and effective business processes.

Brand Building or Brand Breaking?

CAN YOU BE HEARD if you aren’t saying anything? The Town of Midland (Ontario, Canada) seems to think so. They’ve decided to run an open competition to create a new logo for the town.

As with most speculative design contests, information is limited, but I would suspect that the Town feels that a new logo will give them a new look and a new identity. Ultimately, they must believe that economic development will increase as a result of their shiny new mark. Why else would they go down this path?

Who Cares, Anyway?

Newsflash! Print buyers don’t care about your new gear

IF YOU WERE at Print World last fall you witnessed demonstrations of the latest and greatest equipment the printing industry had to offer. To be sure, the devices on display were faster and the quality more impressive than ever before. In the printing industry, despite the high costs of equipment, the pressure to continually upgrade in at attempt to gain the edge over the competition is relentless.

The industry certainly has changed dramatically over the last few years and the pace of change doesn’t appear to be slowing. But with all the changes and the high-priced equipment now in the hands of printers, does all that high technology really make a difference in the print buying decision? Does it matter if you’re producing the work on the latest 10-colour press or on a vintage machine in your brother’s garage?