With the growth of the economy in reverse mode and the Chancellor exclaiming that it’s going to take longer to recover from the financial crisis (although the national debt has reduced) companies will be striving to look at ways of streamlining their operations and improving efficiency.

There’s an argument that suggests the more economically challenged the economy is the greater opportunities there are to be exploited.

Only the strong succeed, losers need not apply spring to mind. Therefore our business objectives need to include a strong will, being well prepared and persistence.

The companies who include the above in their business objectives are likely to survive the global doom and come out on top on the other side.

Recently one company/manufacturer with a turnover of £10 million+ told me “we’ve tried everything, we’ve exhausted every possibility, the business is as solid as it can be given the current climate but no-one is buying anything. You can’t sell it if people can’t buy it because they haven’t been given a budget.”

Are you keeping a close eye on your profit? All well and good looking at the cash value in the bank but are you making a profit. There is always something companies can do to make sure they are running a tight ship and are as efficient as they can be.

There is no magic wand to fix the erring global economy and for many businesses, survival is making it from one month to the next; one week to the next.

The companies that win are those who lead, take the initiative and are not afraid.

Businesses that remain focussed use initiative and aren’t afraid will fare well in 2013.

Here are some points to consider:-

1. Rely on no one – does this sound cynical? Success will not happen until you accept that no one thing or no one person is the cause of your problems and only you can make your goals happen.

2. It’s unlikely that the economy is suddenly going to do a u-turn anytime soon so it’s important to make sure we are aware of any industry changes that might have an impact on our business or us personally. Make yourself invaluable to your company (as an employee) and to your customers by being visible and offering solutions even if they are not in the frame of mind to consider them. At least it demonstrates entrepreneurial intent and that you have the customers best interests at heart.

3. Be more pro-active. Just when you think you’ve exhausted all avenues talk to other businesses, colleagues, associates and customers. Find out what they are doing, how are they generating business, what marketing initiatives have they deployed that you might not have done yet? Set small goals and tick them off when they are done. It could be a change in the workflow process that can make all the difference in increasing your profit margin.

4. Be upbeat – at the start of this year, the majority of businesses we spoke to were. There was a sense of optimism in the air, sales were being done and then along came the Greek economic crisis and kicked everyone out of touch. Nothing like a bad bit of economic news to knock businesses. Being upbeat and optimistic separates us from the rest of the “done-in” crowd.

Each day our world is rocked by events that are either unplanned or completely unexpected by staying focussed and working on a plan keeps us calm and less stressed.

5. Be ever-present everywhere. Now is not the time to live in obscurity. Let potential customers know you are there.

Have a social media strategy, showcase your company with up to date content on your website, tell your companies success stories and share your success openly.

It defines the importance of keeping focussed and why we are actually in business and these things are sometimes forgotten when we are in the thick of things.

6. What if you’ve lost that va va voom; the passion you need that gives you the reason to get up in the morning? Think about a business coach or a friend who can be objective enough to give you advice.

Finally…

If you no longer enjoy what you are doing then its time to take a good look and understand why.

If you’re not enjoying what you are doing then you need to take a long hard look at the reasons why.

Be honest with yourself and if the job or the business is not working and you’ve exhausted every avenue; if the passion has gone completely and you are not motivated to continue, then its time to take a long hard look and make a decision about whether you continue.

Could it be there is no longer a market or niche for your products or services in which case is it time to cut your losses and ship on out? Sometimes things happen for a reason and events are out of our hands.

This is not being negative its being a realist.

Too many companies bury their heads in the sand and think the next week or month will be better when the profit and loss sheet tells a different story.

What do you think?

How are you keeping ahead of the economy?

What tactics have you employed to get through the downturn?

You can find Digital Print Management on Twitter, like us on Facebook and connect with us on LinkedIn. For all our news and updates.

The post How to survive 2013! Keeping ahead of the competition. appeared first on Digital Print Management.

The nearest I got to anything remotely computerised was my wonderful Olivetti electronic typewriter capable of holding I think it was 8 pages of A4 in its memory so that obviously included my C.V.

Over the last twenty years technological advancements make it possible to work remotely and has changed the way in which we approach our working day.

remote or mobile working has given the family with young children more flexibility!

Mobile devices, smart phones, tablets, e-readers, kindles all of which provide accessibility to the internet.

From my point of view, work is now seen as an activity and not a destination or location that one has to trawl through traffic to get to day in day out.

One particular Manager I recall working for in the City in my days as a Sales Rep absolutely insisted I report to the office first thing in the morning prior to the commencement of my customer visits for the day. This meant a trip to the Angel, London, my place of work and then on to to see customers which could have been North of London. What an absolute waste of my time, company time let alone the cost of fuel and traffic frustration.

No matter how hard I tried I could not convince him that working this way was tiring and ineffective. Clearly, me showing my face at the beginning of the day was the reassurance he needed to know I was working. Obviously it didn’t cross his mind that if I wanted to I could have bunked off any afternoon and gone down Oxford Street shopping!

Despite this I am pleased to say that in the last ten years there has been a radical shift in mindset toward the advantages of the mobile working model.

Accessing emails, connecting to remote systems and company data on the go have revolutionised the way we work, engaging with customers remotely, on social media, email and mobile phone are an accepted part of the new working model.

Employees are no longer obliged to sit at their desks day in day out. With the advent of mobile computing and devices enabling access to company data remotely, work can be fulfilled wherever you are.

Organisations have streamlined integration of business applications into the mobile world through cloud computing providing a deeper level of functionality and security in mobile platforms for remote working.

In turn this has resulted in:-

1. Full access to all business critical systems and data resulting in quicker decision making
2. Enhanced productivity as employees can work wherever they are
3. Increased flexibility, changes in working hours and the option to work from home especially during bouts of heavy snow and interrupted travel

Organisations welcome these changes as it is brings tangible benefits in cost reduction, growth, employee satisfaction and better customer care.

Mobile devices and cloud computing have revolutionised the way we work.

For all the years I did my best to put forward a convincing argument for mobile working, is there a downside to working alone, at home, remotely?

None of which is insurmountable as long as you set your working boundaries, hours of work and bolster a big sign that says “I might be in but I am actually working from home today”

What initiatives can you implement to ensure employees are singing from the same hymn sheet:-

1. Set and agree goals.
It’s easy for employees to get lost without a sense of purpose whilst Managers still set goals, collaboration and agreement between team members is vital.

Remote employees actively suggest new ideas, create their own projects, set and share personal goals and put forward solutions.

2. Stay connected
Great team players are trustworthy and available. Web and mobile connectivity makes it easier to connect with remote employees but it can also make it harder and less certain i.e. are they on a call with a client? Is she on Skype with an associate?

Whose responsibility is it to stay connected? The remote worker’s or the office? No wrong answer here but remote employees assume the onus is on them to stay connected.

Remote employees let others know when they won’t be available and the reasons why, they also make it known how they can still be contacted in the event of an emergency because they consider working remotely as a trade-off they may have more freedom to slip into the kitchen and make a coffee but they also recognise that with that freedom comes the responsibility of super-availability. This in turn means that super-availability creates trust with employees and customers.

3. Focus on results not time.
In some organisations it’s enough to show up and put in your time; what you actually accomplish is almost secondary to being present.

Employees working outside of the main offices give up results, not presence. Remote employees focus on accomplishing objectives as quickly and efficiently as possible. If a task “should” take a week and it is completed in three days that opens up time to accomplish other tasks.

What do you think?

Do you prefer working from home or do you need a more governed and routine approach to work?

We love to hear your view point so why not leave a comment in the box below.

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The post How mobile working has changed our lives. appeared first on Digital Print Management.

I’m not kidding. Too many hours travelling to and from your work place will eventually take its toll on you, your family and your work life!

I read this interesting piece from the BBC about commuters in the USA who are travelling farther due to changing economic conditions this piece talks about a legal assistant and how her working day starts at 3:30AM as she travels from the outskirts of Maryland into Washington D.C; a place I love and know reasonably well!

But this isn’t just a condition that US citizens find themselves up against, I suspect its the same in the UK.

Over the last 20 years I regularly commuted to my place of work often 50-60+ miles in each direction; oftentimes on the road for some 3 hours assuming there was no Motorway chaos or accidents! Excluding the travelling I did to meet my customers and prospective clients in my role as a sales executive; one year I managed to accumulate 49,000 business miles; that’s a little under 1,000 a week phew! That was nothing in comparison to some of my work associates; some were travelling in excess of 60,000+ at one point we had a competition to see who could accumulate the most number of business miles; at the time I recall a well known oil company swapping road-miles for air-miles to use their fuel!

No wonder I was tired cranky and single I didn’t have time for relationships let a lone time to socialise, my butt started to become almost square for sitting in the car for so long. Often my only relaxation time was my daily run.

Get to the point?

I could never understand why companies wouldn’t allow you to work from home?

I worked so hard to prove and convince my sales bosses that this surely was a more cost effective and productive way of working. Don’t get me wrong my idea of working from home was 1-2 days a week; with a day at the office and 2 days out seeing customers because not everyone of our customers would want to see me every week. It seemed a workable solution it certainly offered a more productive and less tired sales consultant.

Sadly, I couldn’t understand why employers were so resistant! Surely proof of staying at home was PRODUCTIVITY = RESULTS = SALES = SAVINGS  for company with no more excessive fuel and mobile phone bills.

Many years later I set up Digital Print Management and my commute to our offices could be how ever long or short I wanted it to be.

Today, it happens to be a 15 mile commute to Bedford, which fits in with my Boys schooling, my home life and my personal life, all of which are reasonably well balanced. OK it’s a work in progress; like most women and men I battle with work tasks somehow outweighing hours in my hour bank!

Companies have changed their attitude to employees working from home and it appears to be a more accepted norm. I believe wherever possible your job role should allow flexibility and freedom to work from home and office surely this gives you breathing space!  Time to plan, be creative and most importantly 1-2 days a week where you can pick the kids up from School or be there to welcome them home!

If you’re utopia is this: 

Then you really need to think about what it is that makes you get up in the morning and drive xxx number of miles to your work place??

What do you think? Do you travel too much? Or; are you fortunate to have a job that enables you to have a mix of office/home life?

The post Is Your daily Commute Killing You? appeared first on Digital Print Management.

Ok so that was the only title I could come up with as I sit here at Gibraltar Airport waiting the arrival of our Aircraft. 

No, this time we are half an hour from supposedly getting on board to head back to the UK, in this broken down hell hole they call an Airport (new one being built as we speak, by the time its finished I’ll be dead!)

The one and only solitary X-ray machine has failed so the authorities with no contingency in evidence have resulted in a mass cry for assistance over the tanoy system for all service personnel to head toward the security area.

This is code for the damn X-ray machine has malfunctioned, broken down to you and me. The announcement says a “technical malfunction” and we need all hands to the deck to do a search of every piece of hand luggage, ruck sacks, sandwich bags, make up bags, nappy changing bags, persons, wheel chairs, push chairs, if it moves check it, you name it, it’s being searched.

I am asking myself as I look up at the flight departure board why have 4 flights arrived and are set to leave all at 12:00 midday so how does that work then? New game, musical airplanes!

How are you going to get 4 flights off the ground at the same time, worrying don’t you think!

Now the announcer is shouting for all passengers to Liverpool to get to the front of the queue as the plane is ready to depart, the british public once again are at the brunt of bad communication of flight information.

The typical British holiday maker, you know the one, flip flops, shorts, crazy hats not one of them appear to a have any regard for their safety on aircraft, a quick exit requires good robust trainers or shoes not flip flops great if we happen to have an emergency landing on the sand somewhere!

They are hot and bothered, flustered and fed up they cant go any faster through security control as they are reliant on the security men and women who are checking and frisking them! By the way did I mention that there are only 4 security people in attendance to check and frisk what 600 potential passengers groovy!!

You daren’t shout at the security people to get a move on for fear of being further frisked in an exploratory way if you get my drift especially as they are now all wearing rubber gloves.

It’s the power they wield over you they sense you are tense and in a hurry yet they couldn’t go any slower if they tried, at the same time you are screaming inside get a flipping move on, there is another word I feel I could insert here but for those who abhor swearing ( it’s the other appropriate word) that justifies the way you are feeling and makes you feel better, of course you don’t shout it out you just scream it in your head!

Once on the plane, the flight attendants shout at you to hurry up whilst smiling, for you to find your seats and sit down as “we will miss our flight slot” as if it was your fault you single handedly caused the plane to be delayed.

Once on the plane why is it I get stuck with the proverbial passenger from hell, oh he looks alright until he flashes his beaming “I had my teeth whitened especially for my holiday so I can pick up a bird and get laid” and he’s wearing flip flops too with feet that look like they’ve been through a mincer then I then get the story of his holiday.

He shuts up as I try to feign minimal interest with a faint smile, and says is that an ipad, no it’s a toaster I feel like saying what the heck do you think it is.

In front of me I have a family of 6, no I mean 6 kids and 2 adults, they are the kids from hell, 2 teenagers both boys who have clearly OD’d on coke and mini cheddars mega super-sized pack who are shouting at each other whilst Mum is doing her best to calm her clan down.

How do you get time to have 6 kids, I barely have time to manage 2 let alone 4 of the smiling monsters. Then she turns to look at me smiles and it’s the smile between 2 women the one that says sorry and I know that you know how I feel!

In the midst of all the shenanigans his lordship my beloved whom I might add is sitting with our boys in the next aisle seat thinks it’s sooo funny he’s wetting himself with laughter as its always me that appears to draw the short straw.

I’ll have the last laugh because the proverbial next to me passenger has alluded to the fact that he doesn’t like flying so when we hit clear air turbulence over the channel I’ll be the one screaming WE’RE GOING DOWN BRACE, BRACE!,

Ode to the joy of travelling!

See you in the UK …. That’ll be next week then!

The post Diary of a frazzled holiday traveller! appeared first on Digital Print Management.

In a recent article posed by smallbusiness.co.uk it was reported that British businesses were least optimistic in the world in the second quarter of 2011!

Hardly surprising!

It’s a simple fact that no matter how hard you work, you sell, you market your products, you do everything and more. If the companies you are marketing your products or services too have no budget to make the purchase even in the face of saying we love it we know it will work, yes I can see it will save us time, money etc; if they don’t have the capital then a sale can’t take place!

It sounds flippant to say this but the old adage that says “nothing in the world ever happens until a sale is made” is very true.

It’s tough out there and talking to the more experienced businessmen and women many of whom have commented that this is the worst recession or downturn they’ve experienced in 25-30 years of trading!

Unfortunately there is no magic wand to wave to make it go away. The interest rates are low with inflation running at 5.0% (RPI) and 4.4% (CPI) it’s difficult to see where it’s all going to end.

On the plus side, the numbers of start ups is on the rise for the second consecutive year up by 9.4% to 396,000 over the year to March 2011. I’d counter that if people are being made redundant or unemployed then they are looking at seizing this opportunity to go for it and set up their own business.

So where is your business headed?

There is a lot to worry about but there’s no point in panicking which is certainly not an effective business strategy the whole economy is not within our power to influence and the most important thing for us to worry about is to seek new opportunities that will help our businesses thrive.

My father now retired after having run a successful print company in the Midlands says it  “takes a recession to weed out those companies that shouldn’t be in business, or in his own words, rubbish; the companies that survive are the ones that are doing something right!”

What are you doing to counter the effects of the recession?

What opportunities or ideas have helped you?

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We’d love to hear from you!

The post How's business for you? appeared first on Digital Print Management.

and COMMUNICATION defined as the imparting of information or news!

My family and I have just spent almost two and a half hours on the runway at Malaga Airport; having been re-routed from Gibraltar due to low cloud cover. I felt compelled to write this on the plane to fill in time and as I was observing the goings on of the trained stewards and stewardesses struggling to manage a fractious, hot and increasingly angry bunch of passengers.

One of those unforeseen situations I suppose; completely out of your control and and in lieu of the fact that the Rock of Gibralter ominously stares out to the sea and is one of the top ten most difficult destinations to land a plane; I for one am quite happy to be re-routed but here’s the sticking point.

Prior to landing at Malaga we were advised by the Captain of the aircraft that we would have to wait at the most thirty minutes on the runway ready for a quick departure as it was likely the cloud would disperse enabling us to land in Gibraltar.

Meanwhile; one hot and it has to be said, over-weight and harassed air steward; understandably, given the situation was becoming more and more fraught as he tried to placate the growing number of irritated customers.

It became rather apparent there was no protocol for the provisions of food and water in such circumstances.

OK, water, yes but not bottled which is by far the safest and more desirable method of distribution.

But what really makes me mad is the blatant lack of communication from any party!

We were advised further that the wait was to continue as the weather still hadn’t cleared. Co-incidentally this waiting went from thirty minutes to just over two and a half hours standing on the runway, no air conditioning just the two plane doors open, no access to the outside other than standing next to the doors, get the picture, any moment I envisaged a mass exodus down the stairway!

Why oh why couldn’t one of the stewardesses talk to the pilots to see if there was an update on the situation? I’d have settled for a regular update over the plane’s intercom even it was just to say sorry guys still waiting no progress yet!

A polite update and some visible attempt at communication would have been appreciated given the circumstances.

Why is it in the UK we are inherently poor at offering up good customer service and I consider communication to be an intrinsic part of that process.

Surely communication is paramount particularly given the situation we found ourselves in?

I have one absolute condition in my relationships with customers, employees and suppliers alike and that is communication good news, bad news, updates are all vital to the relationship you have with your client or in this case passengers.

A case in point was a meeting I had recently with one of our key print suppliers and a long standing customer.

Our customer had been experiencing some issues with some of the processes that had been implemented at the commencement of the service. For some reason, a handful of customers weren’t receiving their weekly statements and even this proved to be an an intermittent problem. It transpired, following a detailed investigation, the records of the customers were never included in the actual data files sent over by the customer despite providing detailed reconciliation reports prior to print and despatch of the documents back to our customer for checking.

But my point is this; we didn’t see it as “their problem” it was “our problem” we resolved it together we went through the protocols, enhanced and improved one or two areas changed the naming of some of the default files for better clarification and moved on.

The customer is happy and secure in the knowledge that we have his best interests at heart and moreover he’s delighted that we give good customer service at all times and always communicate keeping the customer updated on requests, changes and day to day issues. By working with the customer we demonstrated our commitment to helping them resolve the problems therefore increasing our creditability and ensuring that they feel that they have been taken care of.

I should mention that we finally landed in Gibraltar, made our way into Spain and arrived at our destination some seven hours late!

The moral of my sorry tale: Monarch Airlines communicate with your passengers update them frequently when faced with predicaments such as inclement weather and please, please have a protocol that enables the supply of snacks and drinks if you have passengers having to endure a long wait!

The post Why UK airlines fail so miserably at customer service? appeared first on Digital Print Management.

Its been a gradual process updating my husband with the ingenues of social media and I have got use to the tongue in cheek comments like “so when’s the next big deal going to happen”, or what’s it really all about”; to comments like “don’t you have anything better to do”, “all you seem to do is twitter (now my personal favourite) facebook or linkedin.

Of course all this has been quietly solicted by my business coaches who have empowered me to embrace the importance of getting into social media and personal branding for our business.

Don’t misunderstand me, I am aware it exists; its here and its happening and if you aren’t doing it now then within five years its quite likely you won’t exist at all!

Online marketing and social media can be bewildering especially when you start out on the quest for “likes”, “links” and “connections” but it becomes so compelling and addictive, enough to make you want to run screaming out of the office shouting hey, what’s wrong with the old way of doing business. But that’s the point, it’s the old way.

This is not an advert for the aforementioned product, don’t think they need any help with their SEO; nor am I getting paid by that well known “bite” unfortunately!!

But because the quest for online presence and social media is so instant and so beguiling; it reels you in with articles of interest and ambiguity, headlines which are fun and misleading; it tempts you to keep on reading; hell, you don’t need a good thriller to read, it’s all there on social media; which brings me back to my new love affair with my best friend beginning with a small “i”.

You see I find myself reaching for it as soon as I open my eyes in the morning; its the last thing I now say good night to; and recently, I woke up unable to get back to sleep, I was at it again at 3am in the morning. I sneak to the W.C. with it instead of a magazine; it’s in the kitchen craftily hidden behind my recipe book as I pretend to read whilst really checking to see what’s going on in the world; so you see, I’ve got it bad, I’m bitten by the SM bug; that’s SOCIAL MEDIA by the way not some other well known acronym!

Recently on my own facebook page I updated my status as follows” you can turn off your ipad but you can’t switch off your husband” too true but until such times as Mssrs Jobs invents an on/off switch for husbands’ my ipad is staying well and truly on!!

The post ipad V Husband appeared first on Digital Print Management.

Whilst the corporate logo and colours remain the same the new site is designed to be informative and thought provoking for visitors by helping them understand the maze that is print outsourcing and by removing the myth that outsourcing can be costly, that it is flexible and will save time!

The post Digital Print Management – New Website appeared first on Digital Print Management.