Seeking Glimpses of the Future

I have my crystal ball out. It is sitting right in front of me on my desk. I’ve been searching its depths for some clue about the future of printing, publishing, and related industries. You know what I get? Nothing.

The only thing I know for sure is that things will change. This little prophesy doesn’t mean much, except to say that time is a river and we can either find a way to float with the current, or test our strength against it. (Pretty poetic wouldn’t you say?)

I’ve spent a lifetime, so far, learning all about offset printing. I now know quite a lot, but what is that worth? What is it worth really? When I think back, I can remember people who were expert typesetters and others who were great with scanning drums for four color separations. Their hard won knowledge became irrelevant almost instantly with the changes in technology.

I used to laughingly pontificate that someday Bill Ruesch Print Broker, would consist only of an equipment filled Winnebago. Customers would provide me with art files. I would drive over to the paper merchant’s warehouse, load-in the stock, and by the time I arrived at the customer’s dock the job would be completely printed, folded, and bound.

Book in a Box

That used to be my weird vision of the future. It made me and my customers chuckle at the absurdity. It isn’t so funny anymore now that the Espresso Book Machine exists. In one machine a whole book is created; from file to finished product in less than seven minutes.  Seven minutes–printed, bound, and ready to read. That is if you have hot pads. I understand that the books come out pretty warm and need to cool down a bit.

My vision of the future has come true. What do I see in the future now? I haven’t a clue. I think my predictor must be on the blink. I’d be willing to go out on a limb by stating, “It doesn’t matter what crazy, ridiculous, impossible notion we conceive, someone is probably already a step or two ahead of us, and are right this moment building something to make it happen.”

I’m prepared to be amazed. How about you?

by Bill Ruesch

READ ON

The tag line to Talking Through My Hat is Printing, Publishing, and Observations. This particular post falls more in the category of Observations–or does it? We all know that the printing industry is changing, but did the changes have to be so catastrophic? Printing News Magazine recently posted an article on downsizing that contained these words in the first paragraph, “The latest financial crisis seems to have affected our industry like no previous recession. Record numbers of printers have closed or consolidated. Staff, salary and work hour reductions have become common themes.” To read more see, Implementing a Right-size Plan. It is a good article.

WILL THE REAL BOGEYMAN PLEASE STAND UP?

Goldman Sachs is in trouble with the S.E.C. It’s all over the news. Whether they are guilty of the charges against them I don’t really know, but I’m concerned that they are being singled out to take one for the team. You see, diversion is a common ploy used by government to pacify the populace. If they can hold up one bad apple and convince us that the problem will be solved by the censure, restriction, or removal of the perceived enemy all will be made right. Our anger will dissipate and we the people will continue blindly following and believing our leaders who are, after all, just sincerely protecting our interests.

DON’T BELIEVE IT!

The anger of the American people that arose from the financial collapse and bailout is justified. If they try to convince us that it was just because Goldman Sachs went renegade–don’t believe it. The problem is much bigger than one company. The problem was created by the congress in collusion with the financial industry.

I was one who was once convinced that the Free Market would make everything right. Doesn’t the idea of a free market make sense? After all, free people make choices based on what they want and how much they are willing to pay. Industries either find ways to provide the goods and services desired by the consumers or they go out of business. That’s free enterprise, and who could possibly be against free enterprise?

WRONG!

For most of my life I’ve been wrapped up in a warm pink bubble secure in the belief that the Constitution guides our government and protects our interests--wrong! Our elected officials have become masters of illusion. They pledge their hearts, minds, and souls to serving the people and upholding the Constitution and then they and their lobbyist buddies huddle in secret places to find, or create loopholes.

I was convinced that FDR was a socialist and that his policies were the real threat to the American way of life, but Roosevelt put restrictions on the banks that kept them from pulling the shenanigans that led to this deepest recession since the Great Depression and nearly toppled the financial systems of the entire world.

WHAT HAPPENED?

Deregulation is what happened. Deregulation was proposed by Ronald Reagan during his administration. Again, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Then came the Savings and Loan collapses. We slowed deregulation for a time, but over the years culminating with Bill Clinton, one-by-one all of the FDR restrictions were removed. Did deregulation make life better for consumers? At first it did–maybe. Then chaos reigned. Without rules the financial industry went wild. They started offering mortgage loans to people who didn’t have to prove they had the ability to repay those loans. Who thought that was a good idea?

Goldman Sacs executives were, and apparently still are, at the top of the gravy chain. By some miracle they finally got caught by the S.E.C. Like the SEC didn’t know what they were up to long before this–right? They along with other bazillion dollar a year execs plotted to sell derivatives and created other financial vehicles to muddy the waters and obscure the big secret that the nest egg had already been sucked dry. In reality there wasn’t a nest egg at all! A good-faith contract knowingly offered to a party that does not have the means to meet the terms of the agreement is not an asset–duh.

GOVERNMENT TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER

The banking interests have been funding lobbying like they never have before. The LA Times had this to say about lobbying expense,”The biggest spender was JPMorgan Chase & Co., whose lobbying budget rose 12% to $6.2 million, enough for the firm to have more than 30 lobbyists working for it. Among other banks, spending on lobbying rose 27% at Wells Fargo & Co. and 16% at Morgan Stanley.

“I have never seen such a scrum of bank lobbyists as I have in the last year — and I’ve worked on quite a few bank issues over the years,” said Ed Mierzwinski, a lobbyist for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a coalition of state consumer organizations. It seems like everybody is out of work except for bank lobbyists.”

SURPRISE, SURPRISE!

In retrospect, is it any wonder that this foolish behavior would lead to collapse? We were told two years before it happened that there was a housing bubble, but even our personal Realtor was convinced that prices were going to continue to escalate. For awhile he seemed to be right. The home we bought for just over 300 thousand, climbed to 500 thousand+ over the next two years. Lucky for us we bought low and with a mortgage payment we could afford, so we haven’t been in danger of foreclosure.  What is our house worth now? Closer to what we paid for it originally. At least we aren’t upside down. Thank goodness for that.

We have survived, so far, the housing bubble. What we are fighting everyday, however, is the aftershocks of the recession. All the banks are raising interest rates so they can recover, at our expense, the losses sustained from their bad decisions. People have had to cut back on purchases they would have normally made. Because of belt tightening by consumers, business saw decreases in sales and governments local, state, and federal saw resulting decreases in taxes so governments have been trying to recoup their losses by raising rates, fees, and taxes where ever they can.

WHEN WE CAN LEAST AFFORD IT

When we can least afford it, the poor taxpayer/consumer is being squeezed for every dime. Does Goldman Sacs deserve to be on the chopping block? I’m pretty sure that they do, but they aren’t the only ones. The system needs a huge overhaul and needs it now starting with reintroducing all of the FDR era banking restrictions.

For more of my thoughts go to: http://wp.me/pqeFo-qV and http://wp.me/pqeFo-v5

In the last two blogs Top 5 Reasons Print Brokers P.O. Printers, and Printers, does Print Broker “Prejudice” Harm You? I’ve given reasons why Printers should consider or re-consider adding print brokers to their sales mix. The biggest reason, of course, is that print brokers have customers that are already printing somewhere and by attracting one print broker you could increase your sales by maybe millions. As for me, and I’m not the heaviest hitter out there, I swing around a million dollar a year bat — sometimes more, sometimes less, but always in the ballpark. A printer who convinces me that my business belongs with them has increased business by not just one, but by a couple of dozen new customers, worth maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars in new business.

And  you can do this without creating enemies in your local fraternity of printers. What happens when you send your sales reps out to grab business wherever they can? I’ll tell you; sooner or later you’ll take a prized customer away from a kindly competitor who doesn’t deserve this type of treatment. Maybe they helped you out in the past, or gave you good advice, or belong to the same clubs as you. When you create bad feelings among your peers it takes awhile to patch them up.

It's nothing personal -- just business.

Oh sure, you can say, “It’s nothing personal. It’s just business.” But isn’t that the same lame excuse the Mafia makes in the movies when they kill someone? Damaging a livelihood is personal. You can’t duck it no matter how you try. It’s nothing personal — BANG! — I shot you in the back, but it’s not personal. No, of course it isn’t, wink, wink.

If you decide that attracting brokers could be a good thing, here are some bits of advice:

• Make sure all of your agreements are in writing. Don’t assume that because you have done things in a certain way in the past that the broker will know or understand what your expectations are.

• A print broker is not your unpaid employee. They are independent business people who’s primary concern is their customer. If the broker is smart they will help their customer understand the printer’s point of view in the event of a disagreement, but when the chips are down the print broker stands with the customer, they have to, it’s their job.

• A broker is also not your customer. They function more like an Independent Insurance Agent. The real deal, when all is said and done, is between the printer and the customer. You can squawk about that, but in every sense of what is morally and ethically right it is the person who possesses the product who is ultimately responsible for paying the bill. A broker is no more responsible for a customer debt than your commissioned sales reps are.

• Get agreements with the print broker and their customer giving you the right to collect the debt in the event of default. You may want to insist that the customer provide a credit application and other information for your files. You should conduct a credit investigation on every customer just like you do with your own. Make sure the broker’s customer is credit worthy before offering credit — duh. Then set your terms.

• If giving any credit sticks in your craw make every broker job COD. That is the easiest way to handle the issue, but it also means you will attract less broker business. Their customers have the same needs as your regular group. If they need terms and you aren’t willing to give them what can they do?

• Print Brokers, the good ones that is, probably have a wealth of experience behind them. They aren’t naive. They usually have years of printing experience under their belts before becoming a broker. They are just as committed as you,  to getting the customer what they need, when they need it, and at a competitive price. When you disrespect the value added a broker brings and treat them in a condescending matter you ruin what could have been a good partnership. Get them on your side and they generally will move heaven and earth to help you when things go wrong.  At the very least they bring expertise that it will take your wet-behind-the-ears newbie years to learn. Weigh it out — newbie, pro. Who would you rather work with?

• Don’t begrudge print broker’s earnings. Yes, some brokers earn a lot of money. Most of us do okay, but none of us are in the Fortune 500. It can be a good business, just like printing is a good business. More printers retire well-to-do than brokers ever do. Not every printer does well, and not every broker succeeds. No one becomes a printing broker to get rich.

• Don’t moan that brokers beat down the price so you don’t make any money. NONSENSE. A broker can’t make you accept a job that is a money looser. What did they do, hold a gun to your head? Ultimately if you let anyone dictate your sell prices you are a damn fool, and in my experience anyone with enough business acumen to run a printing company is no fool.

Printers who let their hostility get the best of them are fools,

because printers who are likely to survive this recession and move successfully forward must find ways to reinvent their relationships with Print Brokers. Brokers hold the key to doubling or tripling your business without creating additional expense. The problem is that most printers don’t know what to do with print brokers. They aren’t part of the sales team and they aren’t customers either. What are they? Any attempt to pigeon hole them into either role will end in failure and frustration.

The first thing to do is embrace brokers and stop kicking them in the teeth.  I know this may not make sense to you. Some of you are going to accuse me of overreacting, after all your company doesn’t mistreat brokers — right? Some will say I’m whining, and some won’t consider the issue of print brokers at all. There are a lot of misguided printers who staunchly refuse to work with brokers. That might have been okay in the past, but it won’t serve you well in the future. You can’t afford to turn your back on sources of instant new business.

Haven’t you noticed how tough times are? Printing, particularly offset printing, has been besieged on all sides. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how the pigheaded, self-serving banking industry has hurt all of us. Have you tried to get a loan lately? Nor do I have to explain about the impact of digital printing, foreign competition, and the Internet. You already know about these things. You are experiencing unprecedented cash flow problems and shrinking markets. Even your best customers have cut back with no real promise that they will ever be at former levels again.

I hear moaning from the Industry that good sales representatives are hard to find and that your sales people keep pressing for ever lower prices to make them competitive. You get upset and believe that they aren’t really trying. A really good sales rep can sell even under the most adverse circumstances — right? If you truly believe that why don’t you put on your salesman’s hat and find out for yourself? Maybe you did. Maybe you took a day, or a week, and went into the field. Maybe you proved to yourself that it isn’t so bad, but let me tell you, selling in this economy is like fighting an uphill battle day-after-day-after-day. It can wear down even the heartiest rep. Your sales team, is running on fumes, and another sales meeting, another motivational talk, and another seminar isn’t going to dramatically change anything.

What can you do? I would like you to take a moment, if you will, and consider re-vitalizing your sales efforts with the help of Print Brokers. Why Print Brokers, because they are FREE! Printers don’t have to house them, pay salaries, benefits, or reimbursements. That should be incentive enough. FREE, FREE, FREE — what’s better than that?

The problem is that most printers I’ve talked to either barely tolerate brokers, or despise them. Why? I think there are five main reasons for this:

1. Print Brokers own their own customer list. The printer doesn’t. Suppose a house sales rep brings in an account, since they were working on the company dime the customer technically belongs to the company. This isn’t true with brokers. In fact if you go after the broker’s customer it can lead to a nasty fight.
2. Print Brokers are legally a middle man. Printers fume if the broker can’t pay them because the customer didn’t pay the bill. On the other hand, how can you hold the broker responsible when they don’t receive the product? You don’t punish your in-house sales team like this. You must find a compromise. How difficult can it be to secure your interests in transactions without leaning on the party who is least likely to have the means to pay you? Think about it.
3. Print Brokers can take the print jobs to someone else if they want. Usually they move things around to save money, time, or be more convenient, but they don’t even have to have a reason, they can just do it.
4. Print Brokers are employed by their customers — not the printer. In the event of a disagreement the printer has little leverage over the broker. The broker knows which side his bread is buttered on  and is most likely to defend the customer’s point of view over the printer’s.
5. Print Brokers are not constrained by territories. Printers often feel threatened by brokers because they see their own customers as potentially vulnerable to the broker. Sales reps especially are very protective and guard, as they should, from any possible threat.

In my next post I will give printers some ideas that will allow them to work around the conflicts and make better broker relationships which will benefit both printer and print broker.

In a previous blog post, I referred to catching the printing bug as having printer’s ink in your blood. There is something about printing that gets one hooked. You can stray away from printing, but eventually you’ll circle back around and find yourself umbilically attached.

In my case, my printing career began right out of high school. I heard from a friend that a newspaper printer was hiring. I was the second to lowest employee on the totem pole, just ahead of janitor. I was a jogger. I think the hourly wage in 1968 was around $.75, maybe a buck and a quarter, I don’t really remember for sure. A jogger’s job was to stand at the delivery end of the press and scoop his hand between the conveyor belts, gather a stack of papers, and place them on the string bundler. There was a kicker that would knock a paper a little askew every 50th signature. This way we knew how many papers we were stacking. When the right quantity was reached the flyboy, (another name for jogger) pressed the foot pedal on the bundler. Heaved the bundle by hand over to a pallet, and scrambled back to the press to do it all over again.

Soon, because I looked bright enough, I suppose, they began teaching me how to make plates, hang the plates on the press, shaft the paper rolls, and fill ink trays.

OMG -- that really smells bad, and not in a good way.

It was dirty work, and because I was still the low man, I usually pulled the dirtiest jobs. When I think about it, I can still remember the smell of the developer, the ink, and even the paper.   The developer fluid was the most pungent. It made the entire press area smell bad. With today’s presses, they’ve either done away with plates, or plates are processed in a totally contained plate processor that doesn’t smell. Not at all. Whew — I thank you, my nose thanks you, and my clothes really thank whoever invented that dandy machine.

Part of the reason I chose a career in printing was because I thought it was a stable industry. After all, people will always need to get things printed — right? What I didn’t count on were all the technological changes in the business. Now they happen so quickly that it puts a kink  my neck as I whirl around  just trying to figure out where they are coming from next.

Negotiate This

It feels like Han Solo negotiating the asteroid field in the movie Star Wars. When he found what he thought was a nice safe cave to land in, it turned out he was very, very wrong, and barely escaped with his ship, friends, and life. I’m not saying that printing is life threatening it’s just difficult to know which way to go.

I was doing a press check at a web offset printer the other day. The presses are ever-so-more sophisticated than in my cub days. Many of the adjustments can now be done off of a computer console which keeps the press operators from running back and forth turning ink keys or adjusting registration.

Other things have also improved, for example, web breaks were common in my day. A web break occurs when the paper coming off the roll snaps apart. Snap is the right word but it doesn’t do justice to the event. It’s like a starting gun was fired. Pressmen scrambled like the Keystone Cops to get to and whack the big red STOP button. The goal was to limit how much re-webbing they’d have to do. No one breathed until they found out how much tail was left to splice before the whole (*@#&) press had to be re-webbed.

#%*&@

If the broken web wasn’t caught fast enough, it would take precious time, and many four-letter, red-faced printer words to fix it. Mule skinners had nothing on printers, I can tell you.

Today’s web presses have sophisticated roll changing systems that not only automatically splice, but keep a constant tension, so that the web won’t suddenly jerk when a roll bump suddenly happens. Have web breaks been completely eliminated? Ha, it just means that they happen less frequently. Are there fewer emissions of printer talk? Double ha! Web breaks aren’t the only things that go wrong. I like to say that printing has so many things that can go wrong it’s a miracle anything goes right.

One thing that hasn’t changed though is the job of jogger. The joggers are still there at the end of the press scooping up the printed press signatures and taking them to the pallet. My hat’s off to joggers. At least something, so far, has remained the same.

Unsold books are just landfill. If you or anyone you know has published their own book, marketing is critical. Learn the ins and out of social networking, Amazon, and other resources to sell the book. There is even  weekly computer coaching to keep you on track. Visit TAP (The Author Platform) and check it out for yourself.  You’ll be glad you did.

In my last blog entry Credit is Our Lifeblood, Usury is Our Deathbed I criticized the banking and financial industries for passing off PR statements as a  Customer’s Bill of Rights. I suggested some rights that I would like to see instead.  That got me thinking about my own business. What promises am I willing to make to my customers, and what should they be able to expect from me as a printing broker?

Bill Ruesch Print Broker’s Customer’s Bill of Rights

Whereas the customer and Bill Ruesch Print Broker are entering into an agreement to produce a printed product for the customer, the customer can expect the following:

• The Right to be Heard.  The Customer shall be treated at all times with respect and cordiality. All concerns and questions shall be answered promptly to the best of the Print Broker’s ability.
• The Right to Expert Assistance. The Print Broker will advise, consult, and assist the Customer in all aspects of the printing and mailing arrangements, using his experience, wisdom and common sense to place jobs with Vendors best suited to produce the work with proficiency, reasonable cost, and in a timely manner.
• The Right to Free Consultation. The Print Broker will draw on his experience and the knowledge of other professionals to make recommendations  toward improving quality, decreasing costs, and saving time. The Customer is not bound to act on any of  suggestions.
• The Right to be Fully Informed. A bid specification sheet will be prepared by the print broker for every job. The bid sheet forms the blueprint for the job and informs all parties to the scope of the work. It is the Customer’s responsibility to review said specs and make corrections, preferably in writing to keep the job on track and prevent misunderstandings.
• The Right of Mediation. The Print Broker serves as an intermediary between the Customer and the Vendors. While not responsible for the Customer’s debt, the Print Broker will work in behalf of the two parties to assure smooth financial transactions. In the event a problem occurs with quality, timeliness, delivery or any other Customer concern, the Print Broker  shall be available to mediate and mitigate the issue to find an solution acceptable to all parties.
• The Right to have Expert Access. The Print Broker is primarily invested in getting the Customer’s job done right, on time, and at a reasonable cost. At any point in the production or estimating process that the Print Broker sees a need to have the Customer interact directly with the Vendor or other sources of specialized expertise, acting immediately connect said parties.
• The Right of Friendly Support. The Customer has the right to assume that the Print Broker is working in the Customer’s best interest, and will continue to do so as long as the Customer’s demands are moral, ethical, and legal.
• No Surprise Fees. It is understood by the Print Broker and Customer that bid prices are subject to change. Any changes from bid specification sheet that become necessary in the process of the job will require adjustments. The Print Broker guarantees that all fees for his services will be included in bids, and charges for changes. The Print Broker is committed to a no surprise policy.
• No Long-Term Contracts. Unless otherwise agreed, Bill Ruesch serves the Customer on a project-by-project basis. The Customer is not obligated to hire him for future jobs unless it suits the Customer to do so.

The above nine rights are flexible, in that if any of the readers have suggestions or recommendations for changes I would like to hear them. When my Bill of Rights solidifies I will keep it on my website as a continual promise. And that’s a promise.

Printing is never boring

A typical offset printing plant is like a 3 ring circus. I say that not because Barnum and Bailey was just in town, but because there are three basic workstations a job goes through before it becomes a finished product, and if you’ve ever visited a print shop you’ve seen people hurrying here and there, heard lots of odd sounds, and smelled unusual smells. Printing is not really a circus, but anyone in the graphic arts can see the similarities.

Ring No.1: Prepress

No job enters onto the press room floor without going through prepress first. Your electronic files may be perfect and prepared exactly in the manner that the printer has requested, but will still need prepress. For example, does your job have multiple pages like a booklet, or a book? Then the prepress department will have to paginate your pages. Is that confusing? After all your file was in order, probably in reader spreads, why then should it need to be paginated?

If I was sitting across your desk from you I would demonstrate what I mean by taking an 8 1/2″X11″ standard size sheet of paper and folding it in half to 8 1/2″X5 1/2″ inches. Then I would fold it in half again so it becomes 4 1/4″X5 1/2″ inches. This folded sheet of paper would represent an 8 page press signature. You can verify this by writing consecutive numbers 1 though 8 on the bottom right corners including the back. Don’t unfold it to do this, just lift each corner. It is easiest if you have the last fold on the right and the other folds at the top, this leaves the bottoms open for numbering. Now open your mock press sheet. On one side you should find the numbers 1, 4, 5, and 8. On the other side will be the numbers 2, 3, 6, and 7. You will probably also see that the numbers you wrote on the bottom right hand corners are no longer in the same place. The direction the number is in is the direction of the page. For example, page 1 and page 4 face one another, and so do 5 and 8. This seemingly unorganized alignment of pages and numbers is precisely what is needed to print the job so that it will bind as a booklet.

At this point you may think that it would be helpful to pre-paginate the files yourself. Don’t even go there. There are other complexities that come into play like the size of the press sheet, the size of your page, and the size of the press it is printing on. Trust me it is best to leave pagination to the printer.

Center Ring: The Press Room

Ah, the press room. The printing press is what it is all about. This is the place where ink hits paper.

Other than the name and the fact that they have machinery, no two press rooms are alike. Printing presses come in all sizes from small enough to almost fit in the trunk of your car to towering three story tall monstrosities, and everything in between. It is not true that if you’ve seen one press, you’ve seen them all. But, and here’s the good news–it doesn’t matter much. A cursory knowledge is all you need to be a reasonably competent buyer of printing. You don’t have to specify that the project be run on a 40″ eight unit press with a perfector and in-line aqueous coater. What you have to know is basically the dimensions of the job, the numbers of inks, the paper, what coatings if any, and bindery processes, i.e. does it fold, staple, or bind some other fashion? Then you need to shop around until you discover the printers who are best at that niche. Or even easier, contact a print broker like myself to get you to the right place.

You need to understand that I have no objection to a sales rep from a printing company serving as your source of information as long as you keep in mind that they are obligated to their employer to direct the work there. A broker on the other hand is independent and free to place your job where it fits the best. That’s why I became a broker. I hated working square pegs into round holes just because my paycheck depended on it.

Ring No.3: The Bindery

Again, binderies are as varied as much as there are printers. Commonly they will all have cutters and delivery stations. Other than that they could have folders, saddle-stitchers, perfect binders, collators, etc.

The bindery is where the paginated printed sheet turns into a booklet. The first stop is the cutter. A press sheet will often have color bars, targets, and tic marks for bleeds. You don’t want any of these things to appear on your product, so they are trimmed in the cutter.

The trimmed press sheet goes to the folder where it folds exactly the way you did in Ring No.1 except not usually by hand. The folded product looks very similar to the one you made, but one side will be a little longer.

The next step if you want a stapled booklet is to take it to the saddle-stitcher. The press signatures are stacked precisely to allow the machine to grab the longer edge. The sheet opens as it is pulled and drops onto the chain (it isn’t really a chain, but that is what it is called). If there are additional pages in your booklet there will be multiple stations filled with signatures. Each one stacking on top of the other. Once gathered they go through the stitcher. The stitcher doesn’t look like any stapler you’ve ever seen because first of all there aren’t any staples. You’ll see spools of wire like fishing line that feed into the equipment. You’ll hear a chunk sound as the wire becomes what you know as staples. The final stage is the trimmer, usually called the three knife trimmer. Until this stage your booklet still has the folds at the top, and the bindery overhang or lip on the face. Those things have got to go, so into the trimmer they roll, the blades come down and cut off the top, face, and bottom just to make it even.

Finale

The finished product is boxed, shrink wrapped, or skid packed and sent out for delivery. Is printing a career for just anyone? No. No more than just anyone joins the circus. Printing is a demanding, insane, deadline driven business. The three rings: prepress, press room, and bindery are the stages where the action takes place, but the real action, just like in a circus, happens with the people. It requires the attention of a juggler, the precision of a tight rope walker, and the humor of a clown to make it through the working day. Tomorrow it all starts over, but the show must go on!

Okay posts on printing and Self-Publishing are going to have to wait once again. It seems that the last post, We Sure Swallowed the Health Care Lie, I seriously stirred the pot. If you go back and read my post and the attached comments, you will find that sentiments are all over the place. The truth is we don’t know what to do about the corporate Godzilla’s wreaking havoc in our lives. We know who they are, and there is plenty of finger pointing to go around, but our backs are against the wall and there isn’t a rescuer in sight.

Does this sound a tad dramatic? It is, but unless we see the monsters for what they really are we won’t muster the will to fight them. Tracy commented on my post, and I quote, “I emphatically agree with you regarding your views on health insurance…perhaps because I, too, am self-employed and have been for 31 years. My Blue Shield plan just increased about 3 months ago by 22% and is going up another 18% in December (when I enter a new age bracket). I worked in the housing industry and my income is down 90% while my health insurance will have increased 40%. I have been charging my health insurance premiums since January of this year because I am afraid to cancel it because, as you stated, it will be impossible to get health insurance then. Something has GOT to change!”

Tracy’s example is representative of the trouble many of us are finding ourselves in; let’s look at the the history of the unholy trio: US Congress, Health Insurance Companies, and the Financial Industry; and discover the careful step-by-step path that led us into this unconscionable position.

• 1920′s Health Insurance created by Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
• 1929 estimated annual average health care expense for American families totaled $108.00.
• 1933 Federal Government passes Glass-Steagall Act wherein “banks, brokerages, and insurance companies were effectively barred from entering each others’ industries, and investment banking and commercial banking were separated.” Post by Kitty Wampus
• 1940′s saw the entrance of commercial insurance companies into health insurance  after seeing the success of Blue Cross/Blue Shield (source EHNet).
• 1960 Health Care expense rose to an average of 6.6% of a family’s annual income. It was no longer a luxury–it was now a necessity.
• 1973 the last year middle-class and poor Americans saw an increase in real earnings–only the top 20% saw gain–the bottom 80% has been stagnant for 36 years.
• 1980 congress passed Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control which broadened lending powers and banks rushed into real estate lending and speculative lending.
• 1980 Ronald Reagan elected president, took office 1981 (note: Regan didn’t start banking deregulation).
• 1981 Economic Recovery Act spurred a boom in real estate.
• 1982 Garn-St.Germain Act authorized money market savings accounts in banks and savings and loans. Seriously undermining their security.
• 1999 President Clinton, Republicans agree to deregulation of US financial system effectively nullifying all of the protections of Glass-Steagall Act of 1933.
• 2001 Health care insurance premiums risen three times more than wages. With company health care the average person paid $2,827.00 including premiums and deductibles. Health Reform.Gov
• 2005 Bankruptcy laws changed to protect banks at the expense of customers. Banks who encouraged consumers to participate in reckless free-spending credit card lifestyles feared to face the results of their own actions.
• 2006 Average spending on health care including premiums and deductibles rose 30% in five years to $3,744.00. For those without company sponsored group insurance the costs were even more. HealthCare.gov
• 2008 ushered in the biggest financial failing since the Great Depression. US Government offers bailout money to head off economic collapse. Banks promise to renegotiate home mortgages, instead raise credit card interest rates by double or more

So here’s the bottom line as I see it:

1. The way to unimaginable wealth is to create and market a product that becomes a necessity, like cigarettes and cocaine. The health insurance industry did just that. How? By allowing costs to spiral up. Since medical providers have had unrestrained ability to charge outrageous fees, i.e. the ten dollar dose of Tylenol, ancillary costs and services have skyrocketed too. Who now can afford treatment for even simple procedures without insurance? Furthermore, should a policyholder contract an illness or suffer an injury while covered, their options of changing insurance companies becomes impossible. Pre-existing condition clauses keep people stuck. Drop your insurance with a pre-existing condition and you may never qualify for coverage again.
2. The financial industry has manipulated the government into lifting all of the protections that were implemented to prevent the collapse experienced during the Great Depression. What happened? Is it any surprise that the country is experiencing a deep recession? It is okay with the CEO’s because they take their bonuses whether the company makes money or not. It is the workforce and small businesses are hit hardest. Big banks are recovering nicely because of bailout money, higher credit card charges, and tougher bankruptcy laws.
3. People like my commenter, Tracy, find themselves charging their rising
   

   New & Improved Card

   health insurance costs on credit cards that can, and do, double interest and fees without restraint. If she can’t find another way to pay those usurious interest rates and outrageous policy premiums she will lose everything she has.

4. Congress, the health insurance, and financial industries have us just where they want us. We have become slaves of the system just as surely as blacks were plantation slaves over 200 years ago. If you want proof, just try to get away without paying income taxes. Go to a hospital without an insurance card. Refuse to pay exorbitant credit card fees. Do all of those things and see what happens.

What’s next, debtor’s prison?

Have you ever been woken up by cold water splashed in your face? That was what happened to me when I read a blog post on another site the other day. To paraphrase (because I failed to bookmark the site and can’t find it again–drat) he said that those in the printing business should not hold expectations that 2010 was going to improve the state of the market. Furthermore he said that there were only two things companies could do to remain viable during the coming year. The first, was concentrate on customer retention. In this market losing customers is like losing blood. Do whatever you have to do to stop the loss. The second thing  was steal customers from the competition. Honest to goodness, steal was the exact word used. It wasn’t attract new customers, it was steal customers.

Part of me understands his point while another part of me is revolted. In a down economy new customers are rare. Prudent people rarely start new businesses during hard times. Banks are loath to loan and entrepreneurs are careful.  So if new customers aren’t springing up that only leaves current customers. If they aren’t your customer, then they are someone else’s. There is something very distasteful to me about targeting some other company’s livelihood knowing that if you win you may be causing their demise. That is what the emotional side of me says.

The pragmatic side says that you have to face reality. If it takes stealing a customer to keep your company afloat, and allow your employees to put food on their tables, that’s what you have to do. Strike first before they strike you.

Is that cutthroat? Maybe, but business is a jungle and it is survival of the fittest. Don’t we benefit as a society if those moving the bar up are the ones surviving? Don’t we get better goods and services? For the sake of all shouldn’t those weaker companies be weeded out? For the good of the garden thinning has to take place. OK, I’ve managed to mix at least three metaphors in the previous sentences, but you get my point–right?

Stealing customers might be a correct term even though it’s hard to swallow (yet another metaphor). I remember talking to a travel agency some years ago about their marketing. They got tired of fighting for position in the middle of the pack and decided to break out by being unique. What they did is identify ten commercial accounts who did large volumes in travel. Then they determined how much they were already spending on newspaper and magazine ads. They totaled their radio expense. In short they added all of their marketing costs and put it into an imaginary pot. Then they looked at those ten prospects again and divvied up the pot ten ways. During the next year they focused all of their energies on the golden ten. All they had to do was get three and their business would increase. When the dust settled, and the year was over they had six out of ten, and business more than doubled for them.

Those ten golden commercial accounts had been buying travel services from someone else. In effect, the upstart travel agency stole their customers. Or as I like to think of it they won the business. Because they were focused on only ten, they could service the businesses like they had never been serviced before. It wasn’t theft, is was a reward for a job well done. To not reward them with business after this effort would be criminal.

To stay afloat, and even improve during an economic downturn find a way to earn more business. Whinning all day long that business is bad won’t do it. No that won’t do at all.

On becoming a print broker: I dreamed I could serve customers best by leading their jobs to a printer who was the best fit, instead of attempting to force them to fit the printer where I was employed.

If you had a golden goose, in this case an employee that charged you nothing for their services, and you didn’t have to pay any health care costs, matching social security, expense reimbursement, or overhead either, wouldn’t you be dancing up and down with joy? You’d think so, but in the case of print brokers it isn’t true.

The golden goose is subject to be spat upon, derided, and treated, if not illegally, at least unjustly. Oh sure, when everything is going smoothly, that statement isn’t true, but in the real world, sooner or later some transaction is going to go south. That’s when printer’s bring out the steely knives and prepare to skin the goose.

For example, I have been doing business with a certain printer for approximately 20 years. Twenty years is the equivalent of an entire military career, to put it into perspective. For the whole 20 years they have been aware that I am a print broker. No surprises there.

The company was recently sold to a firm in California. It doesn’t bother me that the folks out-of-state don’t know me from Adam and are concerned about my business practices, they should be. What bothers me is that people I’ve worked with for twenty years aren’t defending me as hard as they can. In twenty years, the printer has never had to write off an iota of bad debt from any of my customers. Could any of their sales people boast the same record? I’d be willing to bet, not.

So what’s the problem? The problem is that the new owners want to make me as the broker, totally responsible for the customer’s debt.  Completely ignoring the fact that I neither receive the end product, nor gain any profit from it.  A generally accepted definition of broker is “A broker’s function is to arrange contracts for property in which he or she has no personal interest, possession, or concern. The broker is an intermediary or negotiator in the contracting of any type of bargain, acting as an agent for parties who wish to buy or sell stocks, bonds, real or personal property, commodities, or services. Rules applicable to agency are generally relevant to most transactions involving brokers. The client is considered the principal and the broker acts as the client’s agent. An agent’s powers generally extend beyond those of a broker. A distinguishing feature between an agent and a broker is that a broker acts as a middle person. When a broker arranges a sale, he or she is an agent of both parties.”

If I was a real estate broker and the homeowner defaulted on their loan would the bank attempt to collect from me? Of course not. That would be ludicrous in the extreme.

Why would a printer insist on making the broker personally responsible for someone else’s debts?

I’m baffled. I’m  particularly baffled at the reaction of friends who have worked with me for a whole career.

If someone could explain the logic behind this attitude by printers, I am all ears. As I see it, I bring printer’s work on a silver platter and it costs them literally nothing for my services. I do want a small discount. A discount equal to what they pay their sales representatives in commission. That’s only fair isn’t it? I ask for a level playing field, and for that I give up any benefits their in-house reps get. I know I’ve written about this before, but it’s a point so often ignored, that it needs to be hammered in. What is the real cost of matching social security, health benefits, retirements (401K’s), expense reimbursement, and overhead? If it doesn’t come to double or triple their commissions, I’d be surprised. My discount is the biggest bargain there is.

It is grossly unfair to demand that brokers pay for a customer’s obligations if their in-house sales reps aren’t personally liable too. But if they tried that one, the state Labor Commission’s would probably climb down their throats. Payrolled employees have safeguards. Independent contractors, like print brokers, are legally abandoned. There is no real protection for an independant contractor.

So why do they do it? Why do they try to kill the golden goose?  Because they can. I’ve had suppliers tell me that they work with other brokers and they don’t have a problem with the terms. I’m sad if that is true. If true it means that brokers are so used to poor treatment, that like the whipped dog, they keep coming back for more. It just doesn’t make sense. But then again, if business decisions had to make sense, the banks wouldn’t have been willy-nilly giving out non-disclosure loans for homeowners. Our whole economy has suffered because of that one.

In return, you might ask, what do I do to protect the printers? I have contracts with my customers stating that they accept the legal obligation the vendor. I have a contract, that if the printer doesn’t subbornly refuse to sign it, gives them third party rights in all transactions. And I provide any and all credit or other information, if terms are required. Do you still require my neck? Come on printers, stop trying to kill the golden goose. We are on the same team. Let’s work together.