Cup-a-Joe

I was going to leave this topic alone for a while, but like a moth to the flame, I return to the discussion on Health Care Reform. 

I’ve been eavesdropping on a variety of newsfeeds and comments from “small business” folks regarding the proposals being discussed in the Senate as well as President Obama’s “Kroger Chat.”  What I found interesting is that no one has discussed one of the major reasons why small business struggles with today’s system – government regulations! read more »

So, here we are in the middle of summer in our nation’s worse recession since the “Big One,” and there’s talk of the economy turning around, as well as talks of a double dip recession.  Regardless, it is going to be a hot, slow summer for our industry, and with last week’s forecast by Brian Wieser, Global Director by Interpublic Group Companies’ Magna, it maybe a very cold winter.

On July 13^th, Wieser forecast that revenue from media suppliers would drop from $189 billion to $161 billion.  That $28 billion dollar drop represents all media buys – but reflects the weakness in advertising, which directly impacts the print world.  In a report by Michael Bush with “Advertising Age,” Wieser was reported in saying that there 2010 would be down by 2% with no growth occurring until the second half of ’10.

If Wieser is correct, and your business has historically worked with advertising agencies and other similar advertising buyers, it’s time to start rethinking your plans for the rest of 2009 and 2010.

It will come as no surprise to those of us who follow our 535 leaders in Congress that practically all of them do not understand small business issues.  Oh, yes they’ll voice the platitudes of job creation and entrepreneurship, but the vast majority of our leaders (and especially their staffs) have never had to make payroll, or provide a service or product, while wearing all the hats of a small business owner.

We are now facing one of our country’s most significant issues – health care reform, and I’m afraid Congress is going to create a solution which will be much worse than what presently exists. read more »

Now that the House and Senate have put forth proposals for health care, everyone is sharpening their knives to either attack the proposals, or the ones doing the attacking.  Regardless, there are several questions which are not being posed. One which I will deal with at a later date is, how will small business be impacted – and at what cost?  The other issue, which few have delved into, is at what cost should we “ethically” provide health care for everyone.

 I ran across this thought-provoking article in the New York Times by Peter Singer, who is a professor of bioethics at Princeton University. He is also laureate professor at the University of Melbourne, in Australia.  It’s definitely thought-provoking!

Remember the old Wendy’s commercial that asked “where’s the beef.”  In a sense, our industry should be asking itself the same question when it comes to differentiation.  If you think about it, as a whole, our industry looks very similar to the majority of print buyers.  Companies buy from very similar equipment manufacturers; purchase similar material from comparable distributors; compensate personnel within a similar bandwidth; and have plants that look pretty much a like.  Thus, where’s the beef?  How do we differentiate ourselves from the herd?  read more »