noelward
Well-known member
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
By Noel Ward, Editor@Large
So after 30-plus days I have had a whopping single response to my plea for your insights on your business. More than 400 people have seen the request, less than the usual number who read my articles. My sole response came from a chap in Europe who spanned time zones to share his thinking, mere hours after I posted the questions. I need about 50 more responses.
I’m not sure what to make of this. I promised that all replies will remain totally anonymous, explained that this is like a big online focus group and I am just gathering opinions and stories and experiences that may or may not be similar to those of others. It is the differences between your responses and anyone else’s are what make the resulting responses interesting: Having everyone say the same thing would be incredibly boring!
Speaking of stories
All responses would be the basis for a few stories here on Print Planet and probably be of interest to other readers. Over the past 30 years I’ve talked with a lot of printers and been in plenty of shops. I know things are probably less than ideal. It’s the way things are, especially these days. Or may be anyway. Addressing or resolving the various issues is something all printers have in common so we can all learn from each other. I know a group of printers who share the bad and the good with each other all year long. They all know that whether any given tactic, approach or strategy works or does not work is useful information to business owners in the next zip code—or on the side of the planet. No business secrets are involved.
Here are the questions again. Please answer whichever ones you wish and try to get your responses to me by November 1. I have asked a lot of questions because I know some won’t be answered. It’s perfectly OK not to answer any you don’t want to. And anyway, all I need is one or two sentence answers to most questions. If you want to be verbose, that’s fine, but I may not use all of what you say.
Once again, the unique email address for responding to the questions is [email protected]. Your response goes only to me, is protected within iCloud, and is deleted once I download your response. Microsoft Defender and a 2-layer VPN keeps intruders out of my computer and email. A 2-layer VPN, I’m told, is all but NSA-proof. So probably secure.
I’ve run a company, been a marketing director, spent a dozen years in market research and spent twenty as a marketing communications consultant. What you say is very important, but it doesn’t matter who you are. Use a throwaway email address if you like. All individual answers or opinions are only interesting or useful in the context of others’ input.
Please help. I need only 50 or so responses to any of the following questions and I’m hoping you will be one of them.
Here’s what I’m asking:
In what ways has your business changed since you started it or took it over from your predecessor?
Best,
Noel
By Noel Ward, Editor@Large
So after 30-plus days I have had a whopping single response to my plea for your insights on your business. More than 400 people have seen the request, less than the usual number who read my articles. My sole response came from a chap in Europe who spanned time zones to share his thinking, mere hours after I posted the questions. I need about 50 more responses.
I’m not sure what to make of this. I promised that all replies will remain totally anonymous, explained that this is like a big online focus group and I am just gathering opinions and stories and experiences that may or may not be similar to those of others. It is the differences between your responses and anyone else’s are what make the resulting responses interesting: Having everyone say the same thing would be incredibly boring!
Speaking of stories
All responses would be the basis for a few stories here on Print Planet and probably be of interest to other readers. Over the past 30 years I’ve talked with a lot of printers and been in plenty of shops. I know things are probably less than ideal. It’s the way things are, especially these days. Or may be anyway. Addressing or resolving the various issues is something all printers have in common so we can all learn from each other. I know a group of printers who share the bad and the good with each other all year long. They all know that whether any given tactic, approach or strategy works or does not work is useful information to business owners in the next zip code—or on the side of the planet. No business secrets are involved.
Here are the questions again. Please answer whichever ones you wish and try to get your responses to me by November 1. I have asked a lot of questions because I know some won’t be answered. It’s perfectly OK not to answer any you don’t want to. And anyway, all I need is one or two sentence answers to most questions. If you want to be verbose, that’s fine, but I may not use all of what you say.
Once again, the unique email address for responding to the questions is [email protected]. Your response goes only to me, is protected within iCloud, and is deleted once I download your response. Microsoft Defender and a 2-layer VPN keeps intruders out of my computer and email. A 2-layer VPN, I’m told, is all but NSA-proof. So probably secure.
I’ve run a company, been a marketing director, spent a dozen years in market research and spent twenty as a marketing communications consultant. What you say is very important, but it doesn’t matter who you are. Use a throwaway email address if you like. All individual answers or opinions are only interesting or useful in the context of others’ input.
Please help. I need only 50 or so responses to any of the following questions and I’m hoping you will be one of them.
Here’s what I’m asking:
In what ways has your business changed since you started it or took it over from your predecessor?
- What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started your business or took it over?
- What are the three top business challenges you face today?
- To what extent do equipment and software vendors understand the practical realities of your business?
- How skeptical are you about the claims and promises of vendors?
- What can win you over when you are skeptical?
- We know finding good employees is a problem for many business owners. In what ways is this impacting your business?
- Who or what are the most important parts of your team?
- What formal or informal ways of sharing challenges or ideas do you have with other printers?
- In what ways are any of the supporting technologies of printing becoming too complex and sophisticated for customer needs?
- Are there any capabilities you don’t have now that you would you like to see in presses or prepress technologies
- Some printers say they are seeking new lines of revenue. If you are one of them, what are you doing to expand your business and its offerings?
- How do you communicate what you do to your target audience?
- To what extent do you use the internet to promote your business? How?
- Which technologies offered by equipment and software provide the most value for your business?
- What kinds of articles should we have more of or less of on PrintPlanet?
- These are pretty basic questions, so what am I not asking that you think I should?
Best,
Noel
