Many years ago, in the distant past, even before Willie Nelson had a pony tail, I was working for an advertising agency and had a client who wanted to publish a book. His book was called It’s Your Money, Earn or Burn. Actually, I wrote the title, but that is beside the point. The information in the book is way out of date now, but at the time was cutting edge.

He, my client, and a partner had a business finding and promoting tax sheltered investments. Since then congress has closed most shelters and left many tax payers high and dry. The rules surrounding  acceptable tax shelters from those disallowed were somewhat discombobulated and difficult to decipher. Imagine that–tax regulations being difficult to understand–who wodda thought?

Willie Nelson

For example there was the famous case of country singer Willie Nelson who followed the advice of Price Waterhouse, one of the top 10 accounting firms in the country. The government disallowed his sheltered investments and the unpaid taxes and fines forced Willie Nelson into bankruptcy.

Get this, the government wouldn’t tell you in advance if a shelter would be allowed or not. You had to assume it would be, then wait for their audit, which could take years. If you guessed wrong–WHAM you paid dearly.

My client’s idea was to write a book simplifying tax shelters for people and leading them away from uncertain ones into those proven. It was an excellent idea, but marketing and distribution became a problem. The Internet didn’t exist in those days so it was difficult to connect with the very small percentage of Americans who were potential targets for his message, but that didn’t really matter.

Why, you might ask.

The very day books were delivered; he extracted a copy, proudly marched down the hall to the offices of another firm, and gave the book to the owner. The owner looked at the cover, turned it over and saw my client’s photo and bio on the back. Volia, instant credibility.

As a direct result of using his book as a calling card, my client secured a contract that paid him more than all of the costs of producing the book. All actual book sales were gravy.

Ask yourself if instant credibility would benefit you. Are there doors currently closed that might open if you used a book to jimmy the lock (metaphorically speaking, that is)? How do you crash through the glass ceiling? Try throwing your book at it. A book can give you more status than any other factor. These people would definitely improve their chances for advancement, better name recognition, and higher earnings if they had a book:

• Public Speakers
• Corporate Trainers
• Presenters
• Sales Representatives
• Teachers
• Executives

Note: Remember that writing a book is only the first step. At that point you aren’t even half-way done. To decide how you will market your book check into The Author Platform. It’s a comprehensive program to teach you how to use the Internet effectively.

Many years ago there were three young ambitious friends. They met while working for a small start-up business newspaper. One went on to get a Masters in Marketing. Another created a newsletter business. And the third became a printing sales rep.

Time passed and they lost track of one another. The one with the Marketing Masters Degree jumped  into direct marketing and began to create a name for himself. He was invited back to his home town to start direct division for the largest advertising agency in the city. The newsletter guy struggled but kept afloat. The printing rep found out how to make a prosperous living by securing good customers, and taking good care of them. He did well.

All three had different business philosophies. Mr. Marketer believed in charging top dollar for his services. The newsletter guru believed in being the lowest priced, and the print rep felt the real answer was somewhere in-between. Being the highest priced would drive some customers away, but being the lowest would create disrespect. When it’s all about the lowest price, someone will come along and find a way to shave off a penny or two. Price is a very shaky foundation to build on.

Fast forward a few more years. The newsletter man lost his business and moved away somewhere  to the Northwestern United States. The direct marketing guy teamed with another well-respected direct marketing entrepreneur and discovered  that he could charge even more than he previously thought was over-the-top for his services. And the print rep steadily built his customer base seeing  year-by-year increases.

Eventually, the Marketing fellow, sold out his business to his partner and began an affiliate Internet business. He caught the wave at the beginning and has been very successful. The print rep became a self-employed printing broker and began making more money than he had ever seen before, not as much as his friend, but pretty comfortable nonetheless.

Today, the newsletter guy has been off the radar for too many years. Hopefully he is doing well. The Internet affiliate master has a big office with many people working for him that do mysterious things on the Internet that even he doesn’t pretend to understand. He drops in from time-to-time just to satisfy himself that all is well and count his big bucks. “It’s a tough job,” he acknowledges, “but somebody has to do it.”

The printing broker is still doing well, but has definitely seen a drop in business because of the Internet. He is concerned about the future of the printing industry and his place in it. Maybe a little late he decided to enter the fast paced world of the Internet. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. He’s now on social sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. He’s learning terms like SEO, Links, Widgets, and Plugins. He’s writing blogs, books, and developing training materials to help printers, customers, and prospective print brokers become more successful in their businesses. In short, he’s reinventing his career at a time, he thinks, when he should be resting in a golden hammock.

What’s the moral of this story? If you bargain with life for a penny life will pay no more. There’s a temptation during tight times to cut prices. If you own a company your salesmen will all whine that, “Our prices are too high–we can’t compete.” Don’t give in to this cry, because it is very difficult to raise them again after you have established a low water mark. If you compete on being the lowest price you may as well start making your bankruptcy plans now.

What about the middle road? The middle of the road has its dangers too. That’s where the traffic is the highest. It is very difficult to establish your own identity when you are in a flock of me-too’s. Long-term success depends on splitting off from the pack and becoming your own person, or company. Be unique and find a way to charge more for your services than the going rates.  Sock some of it away so you’ll have extra dollars to take advantages of opportunities that may come your way. Maybe you too can catch the next big wave and beat me to that golden hammock.

 Question: If I order a reprint will the price be the same?

This came up recently when a customer realized that the address on her business stationery was out of date. You’d think a question like this would require a simple yes or no. You might think that, but you could be wrong. There are several variables that would affect the reprint bid, here’s some things to consider:

• The price might actually be less!

If the job was completed recently enough that the factors going into the bid hadn’t changed, your price could be less. Printing bids consist of two parts, fixed costs and variable costs. The fixed costs include prep work, press make-ready, overhead, and such. Every printing  job needs some amount of pre-press preparation to get the files ready to plate. If your job is an exact reprint, with emphasis on the word “exact,” a reprint could cut out some, if not all of the pre-press work, thus saving the printer and you money.

• What if I want some minor type change?

A minor change probably won’t cost as much as a major change, but unless your printer is willing to throw it in for free there should be a charge.

• How long ago was the job printed?

If it was last printed two or three years ago, they may no longer have the files and will have to start over. I work with a graphic designer who had purged her files on a five year old project. Without warning, her customer came back after five years and expected a reprint. I was called, and happily, I keep my records for seven years. To be perfectly clear we are talking about my job files, not customer art files. But because I was able to provide the specifications from the previous printing we were able to accommodate their request by recreating the original art. We did have to choose a new vendor because the previous one was no longer making that particular product. A lot changes in five years, you know.

• What about paper cost increases?

Paper and other supplies are not static. When paper, ink, plates, or other materials increase those increases must be passed along at some point. What makes commodities go up? Supply and demand is the easiest answer but not the most complete. There are a whole host of reasons that affect pricing and that’s why god made economists. Let’s just say that if paper takes a 6% bump (which is not unusual), you will see it in your bid.

• What else could increase cost?

Every business faces increases in operating expense. Good employees need to be rewarded with pay raises. Equipment breaks down and must be repaired or replaced. Insurance, taxes, and licence fees go up.

• The printer bid it wrong last time.

Printing is custom manufacturing. Every job the printer does is a custom job. When estimating a project the printer has to take into consideration the costs of materials, time, labor, overhead, and profit. With all these variables in play it is easy to make a mistake. When there is an error in the bid, the printer is often made to hold to the original bid price. Most printers, if the difference isn’t too onerous, are willing for the sake of goodwill.  If you don’t know this by now you should know that printers as a group are very helpful and understanding. I’ve seen them go much further than they should to please a customer. If you feel you are being treated unfairly by a printer, step back and ask yourself if that is really true. Maybe the fault is somewhere in the middle. And perhaps, perish the thought, the blame is more yours than theirs. The bottom line is that if the job was mis-bid last time, for whatever reason, you can’t really expect the same price on a reprint–can you?

• Did the printer have an advantage?

Maybe the printer bought some paper on a closeout discount, or ordered enough “house” stock to get a price advantage. Maybe an ink company made an offer that couldn’t be refused. There could be a thousand different reasons for the printer to have a better price one time and one not as good at another. Printing is a VERY competitive business. If you don’t take every opportunity to best the competition with wise buying you’ll lose. So if you see a reprint bid that is 30% higher than the previous one, it could be that they don’t have that advantage any more.

I’m sure I’ve missed some reasons in this list, and if anyone would like to add to it just let us all know by adding your comment.