Cup-a-Joe

That was the headline in an online Bloomberg/Business Week article on Friday, November 19.  It went on to say, “’Creative destruction,’ the term popularized by Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, refers to the process by which entrepreneurs introduce innovations that force established businesses to adapt or die. What does the adaptive process look like on the ground? For small business owners across the U.S., in struggling sectors that range from independent amusement park operators to shoemakers, hobby shops, and travel agencies, survival strategies range from severe service cuts to bold expansion.”  One of the industries highlighted was the Commercial Print Industry. read more »

Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock or with Rip Van Winkle, you are probably aware of the recent request by the USPS for a “emergency” rate increase .  There was a good Op-Ed piece written in today’s Wall Street Journal that summarizes many of the issues.   The Affordable Mail Alliance, a coalition of many firms and organizations who utilize the USPS delivery system, has taken a very proactive role in trying to derail this train.  If your business relies on the USPS — and whose business doesn’t — this is something you truly need to look into.  This “emergency” rate increase allows the USPS to ignore its fundamental problem, that it’s infrastructure is bloated and its labor costs are totally out of line.

If you are involved with direct mail, its creation or production, read the comments on the WSJ article, and you’ll see another issue print has to fight.  Relevancy.

It has been several weeks since I ranted about health care “reform,” so I thought it was time to re-visit the topic.  I feel like a moth drawn to the flame.

Most of us sincerely feel this legislation will make road kill of many small businesses and their employees.  Providing employees affordable health care is an important issue for firms and this legislation will probably not deliver upon that promise.  An interesting article by the New York Times on this issue was posted this morning.  Regardless, as of yesterday, the water’s have gotten murkier.  A federal judge approved the State of Virginia’s lawsuit regarding the constitutionality of the legislation.  Let the games begin!

OK, I’ll be the first to admit, I have not read the recent measure which was supposedly going to provide $30 Billion for small business and was stymied by the Republicans in a 58-42 vote this past Thursday.  Yet, I have been following the discussion for the past several weeks.  What I find interesting is that neither side was willing to find a way to create a program which could help small business and in turn create jobs.  We have become so polarized — one side wanting to keep all the Bush tax cuts in place and the other side determined that providing the banks with “incentives” would instantly have them start loaning money to small business that all that gets accomplished is making the political hacks happy.  Jeesh. Get real!

For the past month or so, I have been watching the ongoing Texas vs. Feds fight.  The gloves are now starting to come off as Governor Perry is playing a role in the disagreement between the Feds (EPA) and Texas regarding “polluting” companies.  The spin from EPA’s Regional Administrator Al Armendariz is that they’re protecting the public from polluting companies, which have been given a free pass from the Texans.  Granted, my experience is strictly with small businesses – but the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s (TCEQ) requirements are far from “easy” on business. read more »

An article last week made mention that Wall Street’s banks had eased their credit terms to hedge funds and private-equity firms that borrow against securities and trade over-the-counter derivatives.  To quote the great Yogi — “It’s deja vu all over again.”  There is more cash sitting on the sidelines than there’s been in a long time, and these guys get more access to additional dollars so they can speculate.  Wow, what a country!

Elizabeth Warren, who leads the congressional panel overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program, said U.S. taxpayer bailouts helped Wall Street and not small banks.  TARP “worked really well for the Wall Street banks, but it didn’t work well for the rest of the banks in the system,” she recently said on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop with Betty Liu.”

I hate to say it, but I think that our financial system is out of sync.

Meanwhile, the folks who make this country great, our blue collar workers and small business men and women are getting the short end of the stick.   Our politicians are not willing to find creative ways to help businesses and people, get off the sidelines.  There’s talk of more money for education, job creation, and small business lending.  Why not just stop writing laws for a while and let the system move forward.  Get creative with finding ways to support small and medium size businesses to get the money they need to start producing and hiring — and don’t expect it to happen overnight!  Too many folks in our country don’t understand that business (and consumers) won’t start hiring/spending until they know what’s going to happen over the next 12-18 months.  As long as the Administration and Congress keep talking about more laws and more deficit spending, more the reason folks will stop, wait and see.  Not a good way to kick-start an economy.

If you are waiting for things to get better, it might be a long wait.  There are too many unknowns out there and the folks in Washington aren’t making many of us in small business feel better.  Thus, we wait for things to get better.  The folks with money wait for it to get better.  And we all sit and watch to see who’s going to blink first. read more »

I recently read a short article titled “What We Have to Do” by NAPL’s Andy Paparozzi.  As far as I’m concerned, Andy hit a home run with this short article.  Why?  Because he dealt with the elephant in the room – the printing business is never going to be the same. 

He could have spent hundreds of words talking about shrinking markets or the need to add ancillary services or digital printing.  Rather, he focused on what company mangers/owners must do to succeed. Here in a nutshell are the key takeaways –

We need to get better at what we’re doing.  Are we still relevant to our clients?  Will we be relevant to our clients in six months?  Eighteen months?  We can no longer afford to focus internally on “managing” the print shop.  We need to become much more marketing oriented.

We have to commit ourselves to being a low-cost producer.

We are going to grow on the backs of our competitors.  There’s not enough print to allow everyone to grow (there’s no rising tide to lift the boats); thus, we need to determine strategies which will allow us to increase market share.  Paparozzi said, “Remember, market share is being redistributed from companies that print to companies that put print to work for their clients.”  ‘Nuff said.

Recently President Obama presented initiatives aimed at small business – primarily focused on hiring employees.  He proposed tax cuts to encourage the hiring of employees, and that monies left over from the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP) should be redirected toward small businesses.

OK, it sounds good from 60,000 feet – but does this idea really have legs? read more »

I was travelling to the office the other day listening to the radio (NPR if you really want to know) and heard a talking head say something that really got me excited.  He was a proponent of a public insurance plan (although I’m not for it – we DO need health insurance reform – especially for small business!) and stated that by having this type of plan it would be competitive because “there would be no profits and other administrative costs.”  And that’s when I lost it and started screaming at my radio – not a pretty site to the guy in the car next to me. read more »