page 2 • npoa news • november 2017€¦ · the topic of cleaning, but there seems to be a...

• NPOA NEWS • NOVEMBER 2017

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NOVEMBER 2017 • NPOA NEWS • PAGE 3

Board of DirectorsMr. Barry Martin

ChairmanCopyquik Printing & Graphics LLC710 Oak Hill Avenue, Hagerstown, MD 21740Phone: (301) 791-7400Email: [email protected]

Mr. Randy HerronVice ChairmanHerron Printing & Graphics7621 Rickenbacker Drive, #300Gaithersburg, MD 20879Phone: (301) 990-3100Email: [email protected]

Ms. Michelle MaynorSecretaryInterior Graphics & Printing405 Noble Street, Fairbanks, AK 99701Phone: (907) 456-4982Email: [email protected]

Mr. Dennis TrumpTreasurerTrump Direct1591 North Water Street, Decatur, IL 62526Phone: (217) 429-9001Email: [email protected]

Mr. Daniel FlattDirectorMulti-Media Services11136 River Road, Corning, NY 14830Phone: (607) 936 3186Email: [email protected]

Mr. Nathaniel GrantCommunications DirectorGAM Graphics and Marketing45969 Nokes Boulevard, Sterling, VA 20166Phone: (703) 450-4121Email: [email protected]

Mr. John HenryPrograms and Events DirectorMitchell’s Printing & Mailing1 Burkle Street, Oswego, NY 13126Phone: (315) 343-3531Email: [email protected]

Mr. Jace PrejeanImmediate Past ChairmanBayou Printing & Graphics922 Sunset Avenue, Houma, LA 70360Phone: (985) 868-8273Email: [email protected]

Chairman’s Letter ............................................................................................................................................ 5

Are You Ending the Year With Momentum? .......................................................... 7

Who Does the Cleaning, Again? .............................................................................................. 7

ACS Isn’t Enough to be Your Only Address Updater ............................... 8

Family, Business and Gratitude ..............................................................................................10

Now You Can Pay for All that Stuff with Gold ...................................................11

The Graphics Segment: A Statistical View .............................................................12

The Return of the Beloved Polaroid ................................................................................13

Three Reasons a Client Chooses Me (HINT: it’s NOT price) ................................................................................................................................14

NPOA Provides Access to ‘WhatTheyThink’ ........................................................14

Will Smart Textiles Open Up a New World of Branding ....................15

Everywhere Now Has a Three-Word Address ...................................................16

How to Get All Those Clients to Pay Up .....................................................................17

Younger Workers Think Work Flexibility is a Right ..................................17

The Soccer Star and the Lovely Miss Universe ...............................................18

Pre-Register now for . . . The Best Conference in the Print Industry ............................................................19

Inside

National Print Owners Association301 Brush Creek Road, Warrendale, PA 15086-75291.888.316.2040 • www.printowners.org


6th Annual

Riverside Hotel • Ft Lauderdale • February 22-24, 2018


Dear fellow printers,

While in New Orleans last week for the SGIA show, I observed some interesting things. The first thing that stood out to me was how many booths and vendors were offering some type of screen printing equipment and supplies. Basic single head to 12

plus, fully automated machines and screen washing units were all on display. It sure does not appear that the digital printing has overtaken the traditional screen printing world like it has offset printing!

Inkjet printing was on display also from Fuji’s X3 flatbed that takes a 5’ x 10’ sheet and 20’ x 50’ of floor space, plus a robot arm to unload, to Ricoh’s tabletop direct to garment printer, there was something for everyone. A rep that I was speaking to, told me about a printer in NJ that does over a million in sales from two small desktop garment printers in a very small retail space. It’s interesting that from high to low tech, from large to small footprint, printers have found markets to make a living from print in so many different forms. I also observed some equipment from Ricoh and Duplo and others that many NPOA members have in our traditional ink and paper shops, so it seems that the show is evolving into a show that would appeal to many NPOA members as well.

Our visit to New Orleans would not have been complete without a visit to the World War II museum. An interesting fact that I learned was that prior to entering into the war, the US military size was ranked 19th in the world, behind Portugal. From that modest start, the U.S. went on to fight a war on two fronts against formidable odds.

Following the museum visit our next goal was to find some great Gulf oysters to dine on, however hurricane Nate just about nixed this idea. The oyster beds had been closed for a few days and quantities of fresh oysters were running low in the city, but they reopened in time for us to get our fill.

Did you know that oysters and printers have some things in common? Oysters adapt to their environment and have a very different texture and taste depending on where they are harvested. Having been raised on Chesapeake Bay oysters, I always thought Maryland oysters were the best, but the Gulf oysters are larger in size with huge shells compared to our Bay oysters.

The takeaway? There are lots of ways to earning a living from Print. You don’t need to have the largest printer, the biggest shop or army in order to survive. In today’s printing environment, you do need to be able to adapt and change depending on your mix of customers and their needs. NPOA, offers some resources to help you be the best at what you do no matter where you are.

Barry Martin Chairman, National Print Owners Association

Chairman’s Letter

“There are lots of ways to earning a living from Print. You don’t need to have the largest printer, the biggest shop or army in order to survive. In today’s printing environment, you do need to be able to adapt and change depending on your mix of customers and their needs.”


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Learn more about AnaJet’s solutions at Anajet.com. To see Ricoh’s complete lineup of offerings to help broaden your revenue streams visit TakeaLookatRicoh.com.

Ricoh USA, Inc., 70 Valley Stream Parkway, Malvern, PA 19355, 1-800-63-RICOH. ©2017 Ricoh USA, Inc. All rights reserved. Ricoh® and the Ricoh logo are registered trademarks of Ricoh Company, Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


As we close in on the end of the 2017, I hope you’re thinking about your business plan for 2018. It’s been said – and there’s some truth in the saying! – that failing to plan is the same as planning to fail.

One of the things you should be thinking about is whether your sales trend is positive, negative or neutral. In other words, are you coming

into the new year with any sales momentum? If you are, your challenge is to maintain that momentum. If you’re not – if your sales trend over the last few months is negative or neutral – your challenge is to create some momentum!

How do you do that? The best strategy is a combination of re-connecting with current customers and starting some balls rolling toward new customer development. If you haven’t had any “high level discussions” with your most important current customers recently, it’s likely that this activity will identify some immediate opportunities for growth. And if you couple that with some serious prospecting and follow-up activity, you’ll be laying the foundation for another surge of new business a little further into the year.

What do I mean by “high level discussions” with current customers? Let’s define that as a conversation that’s not limited to what they’re buying in the present, but expanded to cover what they’ve bought from you in the past, and what they might be willing and/or able to buy from you in the future. This conversation is really about change; what’s changed or changing in their business, and what’s changed or changing in yours.

“I’d like to ask you about your plans for 2018,” you might say, “especially as they concern your needs for printing (or any other service you provide.) Do you expect to purchase the same sort of things from us in

the same sort of quantities as you have in the past? Are there new projects or products you anticipate needing printed support materials for? Can we also talk about things you’ve been buying from other printers, things you may not have known that we were capable of handling?” After asking about their needs, you should go on and tell them about any new capabilities you have added or plan to add, and anything else that has changed or will be changing in your business.

You probably won’t have time to have this conversation with every one of your customers between now and, say, the end of January, but I hope you’ll see the wisdom in making the time to have it with a certain group of customers. That group should include your “20/80’s” – the 20-or-so-percent of your customers who probably represent 80-or-so-percent of your current sales volume – and it should also include all of the customers who you think only buy a small percentage of their printing from you. In all likelihood, these “undersold” customers are the ones who provide you the greatest chance of an immediate boost in sales.

Don’t just hope good things will happen for you, make 2018 a good year!

Are You Ending the Year With Momentum?By Dave Fellman

“I hope you’ll see the wisdom in making the time to have

this conversation with a certain group of customers.”

Who Does the Cleaning, Again?Cleaning company Merry Maids regularly does surveys of families on the topic of cleaning, but there seems to be a dispute between moms and dads as to who actually does the scrubbing. In May 2017, moms were interviewed for Mothers Day and 85 percent said they clean the house. On the other hand, 34 percent of moms said hiring someone to help clean was a necessity. But by June 2017, another Merry Maids survey found that nearly half of dads said they clean the house. Maybe moms are hiring the dads?


By Kristen McKiernanPresident, AccuZIP, Inc.

Address Correction Service (ACS™) is a free benefit included with Full Service mail. For no extra charge, the U.S. Postal Service® will send mailers updated address information for contacts on their mailing

list that have moved. It’s a great deal and mailers should definitely take advantage, but they shouldn’t rely on ACS as their only address update method.

ACS is a post-mailing product. In most cases, mailers or their clients won’t receive updated address information in time to correct the mailing that generated the ACS notification. By the time corrected addresses arrive, promotions will have ended, due dates passed, or offers expired. Undelivered bills and invoices may have prompted mailers to cancel or suspend customer accounts for non-payment. Mailing repeatedly to the same bad addresses before receiving the move notifications wastes even more money and distorts campaign ROI.

Post-mailing address correction can also negatively affect print service providers. Their clients, direct marketers, are targeting their audiences more precisely, eliminating marginal prospects from their lists. Print runs are getting shorter. With lower volumes, undelivered mail depresses campaign ROI more drastically. No print service provider wants their clients to see diminishing returns on their direct mail investments!

Must Mail to Get the CorrectionsClients who are migrating portions of their marketing

campaigns away from direct mail in favor of electronic channels should be especially cautious about relying on

ACS for move update information. With fewer mailpieces going out, they are decreasing their opportunities to keep addresses current.

On the surface, this may seem inconsequential. If customer communication has migrated to channels like social media, text, and email, maintaining accurate mailing addresses seems unimportant. That isn’t true at all. Physical location is essential data affecting list segmentation and variable data selection criteria as well as non-mail-related critical business decisions.

Postal Addresses Not Just for MailingEven though marketers do not use postal addresses

for electronic message delivery, geographic location often controls inclusion or exclusion in a campaign, personalized content like directions to the nearest physical retail store, regionalized graphics, offers, and more. Telecommunications and insurance companies use customer addresses to compute tax rates and insurance premiums.

When clients eventually need to mail a physical object such as membership cards, product samples, annual reports, or checks to their digital channel customers, they will be disappointed when the USPS returns large quantities of their material as undeliverable. Even worse, common carriers like UPS and FedEx charge shippers substantial fees for handling packages with inaccurate addresses. Infrequent mailing increases the chances for outdated data to remain in client files.

Customer and prospect tracking is a big job. Roughly 35 million people move every year – about 12% of the population. Any organization failing to update their databases regularly with current address information

ACS Isn’t Enough to be Your Only Address Updater


will increase costs, decrease marketing effectiveness, and lower rates for customer satisfaction and retention. We recommend print service providers discuss the strategic value of address maintenance with their clients.

NCOALink® - A Better SolutionThe USPS National Change of Address (NCOA)

database contains address information for individuals and companies that have moved over the last 48 months. NCOALink is a US Postal Service product using some of the same data as ACS to identify movers and inform mailers – with one big difference. Unlike ACS, NCOALink requires no physical mailpiece to trigger the notification. Service providers can use companies like AccuZIP to access the NCOALink database and update batches of client records on demand, keeping information current and accurate.

Performing move update processing via NCOALink before mailing is a best practice designed to ensure maximum deliverability of direct mail materials. It is also an approved method for complying with USPS move update regulations. Mailers will not qualify for the lowest postage rates without following USPS – prescribed procedures for ensuring address accuracy. Undeliverable as Addressed (UAA) mail costs the Postal Service billions of dollars every year. They are serious about reducing the amount of bad addresses that enter the delivery network and the USPS audits mailings for compliance.

Organizations with no regular proactive move update processes of their own are prospects for print service providers who can regularly correct their client’s database information for a fee. Or, instead of charging their clients, some service providers may include move update services as a value-add advantage over competitors.

Inaccurate addresses affect many areas of client businesses – even those that don’t involve printing and mailing. Helping clients achieve their business objectives by handling their address maintenance tasks is a winning strategy for both organizations. Don’t let clients rely on post-mailing methods to handle this important business task.

Compliance – More Important than EverSince November 23, 2008, to qualify for automation

rate or presort rate First Class Mail® and Standard Mail® (USPS® Marketing Mail), USPS Move Update Compliance became mandatory. The USPS wanted to reduce the costs associated with “undeliverable” mail (forwarding and other costly and manual functions at the time) and they have been effective in doing so. This means that all US mailers presenting mail in these rate classes has (or should have) been updating their data since that time. It is important to remember that the USPS requires the data be processed through one of the Move Update compliant processes (NCOALink is one) within 95 days of the mailing.

In an Industry Alert Update on September 6th, 2017, the USPS announced that it is changing the method for measuring compliance for meeting the Move Update requirement to a Census based approach. Today the USPS measures compliance at an individual mailing level using a MERLIN machine. In the future, the USPS will use scans from Mail Processing Equipment to determine whether addresses for First-Class Mail and USPS Marketing Mail letters and flats, have been updated within 95 days of the mailing date. Compliance will be measured across a calendar month.

In March 2018, the Postal Service will begin assessments, based on February data, for Move Update metrics determined to be over the established threshold for the calendar month. The USPS plans to impose a $0.08 per piece assessment on pieces exceeding the 0.5% threshold for address errors.

AccuZIP, along with the USPS, encourages mailers to begin reviewing the results of their Mailers Scorecard Move Update compliance metrics now to ensure compliance with Move Update standards. To learn more about this new method of measuring for compliance, AccuZIP Inc., a licensed NCOALink service provider, is hosting a series of educational webinars. Visit www.accuzip.com/webinars for more information.

For further information regarding the Move Update Census Method please refer to Publication 6850 found on PostalPro at: http://postalpro.usps.com/node/581 or the Proposed Federal Register Notice found: http://postalpro.usps.com/node/3111.

Whether for compliance or accuracy, and regardless of the delivery medium, one cannot deny the importance of data quality for both mailers and non-mailers. Whether your mailing list was built in‐house or acquired through a list service, as a rule, all of your lists should go through a rigorous data scrubbing and standardization process. In addition to CASS™ Certification and address standardization, this should also include complete data enhancement processes such as Deceased Suppression, Apartment Append and NCOALink to stay competitive in the marketplace. Better data quality increases deliverability of the correct message to the intended recipient at the right time. AccuZIP is a CASS™ Certified software vendor offering a complete suite of Data Enhancement Services including 18-Month and 48-Month NCOALink services.

Kristen McKiernan is President of AccuZIP Inc. a provider of feature rich solutions to manage Contact Data Quality, Address Hygiene, USPS Postal Presorting and Compliance and Mail Tracking and Reporting. Their AccuZIP6 product allows print service providers to prepare mail and qualify for postage discounts. AccuZIP offers a suite of Data Enhancement Services including 18-Month and 48-Month NCOALink services. Learn how to add NCOALink processing to your service offerings HERE, or reach Kristen directly at [email protected].


By Mardra SikoraCEO Pocket Folders Fast

As a child, my evening hours were often spent at the family print shop. My brother and I imagined skids were islands and rolled chairs across the concrete floor. We played hide-and-seek between towering

rows of inventory or used the light table to trace clip-art masterpieces.

If there was homework to be done, I usually sat at my grandma’s desk in her small, carpeted office at the end of a short hall across from the darkroom. It had a sliding window that opened onto the production floor. My grandma was the company’s bookkeeper. Her office was always neat, clear of clutter, and she had an electric pencil sharpener.

Maybe I was easily impressed as a child, or perhaps it speaks to a “simpler time,” but . . . is there anything cooler than an electric pencil sharpener? I thought one must be very important to have a device of such luxury. I mean, you’ve really made it, when you have an office of your own with a clean desk and electric pencil sharpener.

Since it was a small print shop, Grandma wasn’t only a bookkeeper. She also set Linotype. (No spell check in those day, kids!) Linotype was before my time; however, I do recall watching her hands and feet work in motion as she set nine-part forms into the tipper. Of course, she also did whatever else that may have been required to get the jobs right, ready and delivered, as well.

All of her children worked in and out, then maybe in again, the print industry over the years. One uncle began his own print shop several states away. Both of my aunts contributed important skills and years to the business; one then retired to a warmer climate, while the other is still willing (lucky for me) to proofread and edit any catalog or project we throw her way. Another uncle worked in accounting, prepress, and IT capacities before flying into a new career as an airline pilot. And my dad, he continues to be the driving force of our plant.

Since my brother and I spent so much time at the shop, all of the employees were accustomed to our wandering the pressroom. They gave us quarters for snacks or maybe a treat they had at their desk. I felt like each person, from production to prepress to the front office, was like another aunt or uncle, watching us grow up and encouraging us.

While other people’s memories are sparked by the smell of mom’s apple pie or dad’s fresh cut lawn, I smile at the smell of ink, the scent of home.

Family, Business and Gratitude

My Grandma, shortly before she married into a family business.

Current Wright Family in the business. From L-R, Justin Wright, Marsha Wright, Mark Wright, Mardra Sikora, and Timothy Wright.


At my grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary party, this tribute was to “The Shop”

Elaine and Carl “Bud” Wright, as I remember them

1990, Grandma Wright meeting my son, Marcus, for the first time. We were at the shop, of course.

R A D I U S R E S I D E N T I A L PA R T N E R S | o : 6 1 5 . 9 3 3 . 1 3 1 6

V I L L A G E R E A L E S TAT E | 2 2 0 6 2 1 S T A V E N U E S O U T H | N A S H V I L L E T N 3 7 2 1 2R A D I U S R E S I D E N T I A L . C O M

Over the holidays, the family table boomed with conversations of football, the grandkids and school, and, of course, print. My cousins and I were taught by example to work hard and be passionate, to never let something like a weekend get in the way of a good idea or deadline, and, most of all, to be thankful for the work and for each other.

And I am. I am thankful to have the blurred lines of family and work

because that makes everyone I work with . . . family. I’m grateful for the people who join our “family dynamic” and

add their own talents, quirks, and ambitions into the mix. I’m grateful for relationships that start with small talk, an

estimate, or a rush order and evolve into lasting friendships, relationships across the country, across time.

When I walk into my office, with a door that opens to the production floor, and see an electric pencil sharpener of my very own, I think of my grandmother, her years of building a business and building a family, and I am thankful.


The Graphics Segment: A Statistical ViewBy Dan Marx, Director, Content Development and Olga Dorokhina, Research Coordinator, SGIA

Brand is key to graphics and sign companies making equipment purchases, according to SGIA’s 2017 Specialty Graphic Industry Report, which was recently posted on SGIA.org. The report, which

reports on 2016 activity, notes that in addition to brand reputation, brand loyalty runs deep in many companies, likely driven by past experience with the company and the reliability of OEM customer support, another strong consideration.

The survey was conducted in Spring 2017, and 189 U.S. sign and graphics producers participated.

Digital technology has been profound in the sign and graphics segment, as evidenced by the 83 percent of companies that classify themselves as either entirely digital or primarily digital. While there is still much analog printing done within the segment, analog-only operations – for instance, those using only screen printing – have become a rarity: Zero percent of companies self-identified as analog only. Technologies and processes used by more than 20 percent of respondents are dye-sublimation, dry toner, custom or commercial-printing-focused inkjet solutions and screen printing.

Equipment purchases – often an indication that companies have either cash on hand or certainty of a favorable pipeline of work – have been strong in the sign and graphics segment. In the last year, nearly 50 percent of companies made a production equipment purchase costing between $50,000 and $500,000. The most purchased item was software (RIP, color management, production management), and the most-purchased types of digital presses were roll-to-roll latex ink-based printers (eleven percent), UV-curable hybrid systems and UV flatbeds. Four percent of companies purchased graphic/industrial screen printing presses. The most purchased finishing technology was cutting/trimming/routing/die-cutting equipment.

While printing for retail applications has been, and will continue to be, a strong vertical market for the segment, recent SGIA reports have shown a softening of the retail vertical and a strengthening of the corporate branding vertical. The causes of this change may be two-fold. First, brick-and-mortar retail is not as robust as it once was. In the U.S., amid rising consumer use of online shopping, some retailers are closing stores and minimizing their locations. This results in smaller ad buys across many channels, including ours. Non-retail entities are increasingly using display graphics and printing to convey their corporate messages or build name recognition, and our segment is a direct beneficiary of this change.

“Non-retail entities are increasingly using display graphics and printing to convey

their corporate messages”


The graphics and sign segment produces a diverse mix of end products, and the top three product areas are banners/soft signage/flags, window graphics, and retail graphics/POP. Banners and soft signage increased significantly in the past year, which may reflect the strong increase in companies using dye-sublimation technology for soft signage and other fabric-based applications. Of the 15 product areas included in our survey, 13 of them are served by more than 50 percent of companies, which indicates an ongoing amount of saturation.

More than two-thirds of companies (69 percent) reported positive growth. Median 2016 sales growth for U.S. sign and graphics companies was eight percent, with 68 percent reporting increased sales. Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) reported increased production, and 41 percent reported hiring additional staff. The price for products sold remained mostly firm, but did shift slightly toward increase. Industry confidence was strong, with more than 63 percent viewing it as positive. Confidence in the US economy was somewhat less positive, at 48 percent.

The challenges facing today’s sign and graphics industry include downward pressure on prices and finding new customers. Of concern to many companies is the challenge of recruiting and keeping qualified employees.

To bolster their businesses in production, more than half of companies are working to reduce operating costs, institute lean manufacturing strategies and add new product lines. Controlling costs and increasing efficiency are essential to turning a profit in this competitive industry. To strengthen their management and sales efforts, more than 60 percent are increasing their Internet presence, developing new markets and improving customer service efforts.

This is part of an ongoing series of articles produced by SGIA, addressing the needs of printing companies using or considering wide-format inkjet. For deeper information, visit SGIA.org. To see the widest range of wide-format technologies, visit the 2018 SGIA Expo in Las Vegas (October 18-20).

MIKE’S GRAPHIC SERVICE & SUPPLY LLCCERTIFIED TEC LIGHTING PARTNER

Michael GillUV Coater Technician/Sales

Cell [email protected]

[email protected] Highpoint Dr.

Columbus, Ohio 43221www.uvrollercoater.com

MIKE’S GRAPHIC SERVRRCERTIFIRR ED TEC LIGH

New NPOA Membership Benefit!NPOA has an exciting new benefit for its printer members. NPOA printer members receive complimentary access to Whattheythink.com premium membership valued at $199 a year. YYou should have received an email from WTT directly with instructions to activate your complimentary premium membership. If you have not received it, please visit www.printowners.org for instructions or call June Crespo for assistance at 888-316-2040.

*this premium membership is only available to printer members in good standing.

WhatTheyThink?

The Return of the Beloved PolaroidCamera phones have incredible quality but you don’t get the photos instantly on paper. To get that, you have to go retro. Polaroid and its 1977 OneStep, the best-selling camera of all time, fell out of favor with the mass adoption of digital photography. But the OneStep 2 is the updated reincarnation, sharing many characteristics of the original including the basic design and big red shutter button. The Impossible Company, new owners of Polaroid, has added a USB battery charger. You have to buy film, which at $2 a shot is expensive but turns out to be a big party treat, if not a master of beautiful photos. According to Wired, Fujifilm Instax Mini 9 Instant Camera has somewhat better photos but it doesn’t have the retro reputation.


Three Reasons a Client Chooses Me (HINT: it’s NOT price)By Paula FargoCurry Printing, Baltimore, MD

Not to brag or sound arrogant, but our clients really love us. Do we offer the lowest prices? Nope. Are we even CLOSE to the lowest price? Uh uh. In fact, the comments we often get are “You were more

than twice the winning bid.” Good, then I didn’t make a mistake on pricing.

Does my company win on price? We do not. In fact, if we DO win on price, I worry that we’ve made a mistake in the estimate and might go into panic mode.

Do we lose a lot of bids? Yup, we do. Our hit rate is about 50-50 for estimates.

Why, then, does my company remain busy and successful? Because ALL clients aren’t ALWAYS looking for the low bid.

My emphasis is important here: every client is not for my company, every job isn’t the right fit, and some jobs do, indeed, require a low bid.

How, then, do we earn our clients’ loyalty and business?

Reason #1: COMPETENCE and CONFIDENCEWe have extremely knowledgeable, intelligent and

experienced staff in every position at our company. We are comfortable with what we do, and know we do a great

job. That confidence shines through in every piece of communication with our clients, every phone call, voice mail message and email, delivered in the same, “we’ve got your back and can handle this” tone. If you had an important job to manufacture, wouldn’t you want your vendor to exude that vibe?

Reason #2: GREAT LISTENING SKILLSActive listening involves reading between the lines

of what your client is actually saying. When she says “It’s really important that my job be delivered on time,” is she implying “I will lose my job if this doesn’t show up when promised” or is she confessing “the last time I ordered this from someone else, they totally flubbed it.”? Once you can be like Dr. Cal Lightman from Lie To Me and can understand the things your clients are NOT saying, then you have the keys to the proverbial kingdom.

Reason #3: BE HONORABLE and RESPONSIVEIn other words, live up to your promises. Do what

you say you are going to do. Communicate all the time. Follow up right away. Treat people as you would like to be treated. Walk the walk (if you don’t want to work with price shoppers, try not to be one yourself, don’t be a hypocrite, more on that later).

Of course, you have to do everything else right too: correct product mix, up to date equipment, great quality, easy to work with, current and functional website. Those things are just a ticket to the dance. If you want to be the belle of the ball, try my three suggestions. Just don’t do it if you are my competition

NPOA Provides Access to ‘WhatTheyThink’ Stay on top of emerging trends. As an NPOA member you have unlimited access to WhatTheyThink’s industry data, commentary and analysis. To join WhatTheyThink visit the NPOA Member Portal http://www.printowners.org.


Clothing usually revolves around either extreme utility or fashion and the recent introduction of smart textiles hopes to

help improve both of those areas.

According to Forbes, a smart textile is a kind of fabric that incorporates new technology to add value for the wearer. This value could come in the form of electronic connectivity or even the ability to change colors or transform. Creatively, there are many avenues that smart textiles could take in the coming years but much of the recent work has gone into three categories: connectivity, aesthetics and performance enhancement.

In an increasingly connected world, companies like Google are always looking for new ways for people to interact with their products. According to USA Today, Google has teamed up with a clothing manufacturer to create a jacket capable of sending commands to a smartphone using only gestures and movements. Aimed at bicycle commuters, the idea is that clothing should make it easier for people to get the information they need as quickly and safely as possible. Although the product is just one of the first steps in this arena, it shows the kind of thing that can be possible by weaving electronics into clothing.

Aesthetically, smart textiles open up a vast world of possibilities for designers interested in putting their models and customers into something truly unique. It is possible, for instance, to use a particular type of fabric that gathers energy from movement vibrations and heat to light up in dazzling colors for nighttime events. For further integration with the beauty industry, smart materials could one day be used to apply moisturizer or perfume as a response to certain activities like dry air or sweating.

Performance-wise, industries such as athletics and even the military are extremely interested in what could be accomplished through using smart textiles in their gear. For a long-distance runner, for instance, a body suit could be used to reduce wind resistance, control muscle vibration, and even regulate body temperature which could lead to faster times and a safer environment for the body. Speaking of safety, other garments could be created to protect against some of the more extreme environmental dangers like radiation or changes in pressure. Far from simply being able to control a music player with a jacket, smart textiles will one day have the capability to impact the lives of consumers dramatically.

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Thinking Outside the Box . . .Will Smart Textiles Open Up a New World of Branding

“smart textiles open up a vast world of possibilities for designers ”


©2017 Xerox Corporation. All rights reserved. Xerox®, Xerox and Design® and Versant® are trademarks of Xerox Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Whether you’re a commercial or in-plant printer, the Xerox Versant family gives you more versatility. More automation. More consistent ultra-HD resolution. So you can take on every business challenge.

Xerox® Versant® Family of Digital Presses

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A PRODUCTION PRESS THAT CAN DO IT ALL, SO TAKING OUT THE

COMPETITION WORKS BETTER.

New NPOA Membership Benefit!Bristol Pay is now available to NPOA Members!

REDUCE CARD SURCHARGESLet us advise you on getting the lowest commercial card rates. We save on average $1,200 per year for our printers.GET PAID FASTERNNext-day funding, e-Invoicing, e-Commerce, virtual terminal & PrintSmith integration shortens printers’ payment cycles by up to 50%.REDUCE LIABILITYWe store your customer card info on secure servers so you don’t have to worry about it.

This benefit is only available tommembers in good standing.

Everywhere Now Has a Three-Word Address

We take for granted the orderly grid of streets and signs and numbers that locate us in the world. But what if there were no addresses? You could get email on your phone, and maybe you could order something online but

you couldn’t get it delivered. You could tell someone where you live but not how to get there. You could call repairman but he wouldn’t be able to find you.

Four billion people in the world live in just that situation, but a new tech startup is changing that by giving every three-by-three meter spot in the world a three-word name. What3words gives a memorable three-word name to every spot on the globe and then cross references that spot on maps using latitude and longitude.

This makes a huge difference in places like the Brazilian favelas. Favelas are the Brazilian name for shanty towns, spontaneous cities of make-do buildings. Favelas can have tens of thousands of people living in a colorful chaos of shacks, concrete homes, street vendors, and businesses. But the people living on the thousands of winding paths and streets don’t have addresses.

Local delivery services once used creative directions: Go past three pink houses, then a hen house, then a vendor, turn left. That system worked, but things tended to change over time. Like a pink house might be painted blue. Enter What3words. Now, even in the thick of a favela, residents can put a three-word sticker on their door and a delivery service can find them.

This system is even in use in Denver where the fire department uses it to find its 50,000 hydrants. It’s also used in Lake Tahoe for ski rescue and by delivery companies who need to get packages to locations in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia.

You may not know it but even if you have a conventional address, you also have a three-word address. Check it out at what3words.com.


By Lois KirkpatrickMarketing and Communications ManagerLoudoun Economic Development

As an entrepreneur, you’re excited about the product or service you’ve created. You’re thrilled to have a growing number of customers. Money is coming in, but you haven’t put a system in place to formally

track who owes you how much, and by when.This is where a lot of small businesses get into trouble.

Without effective strategies in place to make sure your clients pay you on time, you could be setting yourself up for a cash flow problem. Your business could quickly go off track by having more money going out than coming in. You could be putting yourself in the position of having to spend your time chasing after customers who promise to pay, but never do.

In order to free up your time so you can focus on growing your business instead of on delinquent clients, use these nine tried-and-true strategies offered by business experts and successful entrepreneurs. 1. If a project has a hefty price tag, run a credit

check on the client before you start work. Equifax, Experian and Cortera all offer credit monitoring tools for small businesses. Checking out a client can cost less than $200, and save you lots of time, money and headaches.

2. Put payment terms and conditions in writing every time, with every client. Do not make exceptions for friends or relatives. Consider stating up front the consequences for delinquent payments, and always follow through with whatever terms you set.

3. Use a standard invoicing system. Always work off of an invoice and never from a note, email or verbal agreement.

4. Get paid as much as possible before you do any work for a client. It’s common practice in some industries to get paid 50 percent up front when the client signs the work order or contract, and the remaining 50 percent when you deliver the product or service.

5. If at all possible, have a policy of only accepting credit card payments instead of checks.

6. If you don’t have an employee to handle accounts receivable, hire a virtual assistant to call clients when payments are due. Always have him or her follow up the calls in writing. VAs usually only charge $10 - $15 per hour.

7. Turn up the heat on clients who are 30 days past due. For a small fee, companies like Dun & Bradstreet Small Business Solutions, Transworld Systems and I.C. Systems will make calls or send a series of letters to delinquent clients.

8. Consider turning delinquent accounts over to a collection agency. Keep in mind that agencies usually keep 50 percent of whatever they collect for you.

9. Depending on how much they owe, you can sue the client in small claims court for the amount owed. You can avoid spending a lot of time and effort on

collections by having the right policies and procedures in place up front. Understand that you deserve to get paid on time for giving customers products and services that benefit them. Put systems in place that will encourage clients to take your invoices seriously. This will help you avoid the cash-flow problems that derail so many startups, and instead of chasing delinquent customers, you’ll be able to spend more time doing the work you love.At Loudoun Economic Development, your business is our business. We want to make sure Loudoun companies are successful, and if your company isn’t in Loudoun already, we’d like to discuss how moving here can contribute to your success. Call 1-(800)-LOUDOUN to learn more about how growing your business in Loudoun County, Virginia is #LoudounPossible.

How to Get All Those Clients to Pay Up

Younger Workers Think Work Flexibility is a Right Millennials and college students don’t expect to go to work at a desk and stay there. Surveys abound as to younger workers’ beliefs in their workplace rights. According to Inc. magazine: 29 percent of college students think being able to work remotely with a flexible schedule is a right, not a privilege; 66 percent of Millennials say lack of flexible scheduling has caused them to leave a job; 76 percent of Gen-Xers say they look for jobs with flexibility that will still let them get promoted;


Running a family business is never easy – particularly for husband and wife teams who must balance the stresses of work and home life. Gary Bailey, a former soccer star with Manchester United and his wife Michelle McLean-Bailey,

Miss Universe 1992, can relate. In the opening motivational presentation of the 2018 NPOA Conference, Gary and Michelle will share the secrets of “Success Under Pressure” and how business leaders, particularly family members like husbands and wives, can succeed.

Take aways:• This dynamic couple will share tips on how to reduce stress• Deal with challenges more efficiently• Improve productivity• Enhance communications skills• Harness the best of teamwork and strike a winning formula

for your work-life balance. • Help your own children manage stress and be more

successful in life

Husband & Wife Team to Open NPOA Conference in Ft Lauderdale February 22-24, 2018

The Soccer Star and the Lovely Miss Universe


Registration Includes Admission to the Graphics of America Show

Register Online atwww.printowners.orgor Give Us a Call1.888.316.2040

You will meet fellow Print Owners and build lasting relationships.The NPOA 2018 Conference will be held in Fort Lauderdale, FL, in conjunction with the Graphics of the Americas Show. Come in Wednesday night and gain entrance to GOA for FREE. To register for the NPOA conference, fill out this form and return with payment or log into printowners.org and register and pay on-line. If you have any questions, feel free to contact NPOA at: [email protected]. Also, the 2018 registration includes admission to the Graphics of America Show on Thursday which will have their floor educational sessions going on at the same time.

Early Bird RegistrationEnds November 30, 2017

NPOA Member Conference Registration:M Primary Attendee .................................$525M Additional Attendees ........................$475M Additional Social Only ....................$145

Conference Registration Non-Members:M Primary Attendees ..............................$795M Additional Attendees ........................$795M Additional Social Only ....................$145

Pre-Register now for . . .

Your Name ______________________________________________

Title ____________________________________________________

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Please indicate below any special dietary concerns or requests you may have while attending the NPOA Owner’s Conference. We will do our best to accommodate these requests:

Dietary RequestsM Vegetarian M Vegan M Gluten Free M Lactose Free

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Remember, if you have already registered for this conference, and then decide at a later point that you would like to register an additional attendee, partner or spouse you may do so simply by returning to this registration for at a later point.

The Best Conference in the Print Industry

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