Large and Wide Format Printing | Print Industry News | Image Reports Mag

Sat05252013

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Industry Mole

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Being in business is inherently risky

Being in business is inherently risky. Being successful, sustainable and bankable has more to do with foresight than fortune. In life, nothing is certain but death and taxes. In business, it's change. Technology and globalisation are inevitable levers for change. 40% of the Fortune 500 companies in 2000 were gone just ten years later. Who saw the writing on the wall predicting Amazon and Waterstones would report e-book downloads eclipse printed book sales, or how we now enjoy online music, TV, films, news, articles, and information would decimate entire industries? When Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection under chapter 11 in the US, the winds of change swirled and chilled. This may not be Kodak's finest hour, but for the rest of us it’s a wake up call. What risks threaten, if not our survival, then our sustainable success?

Cloud computing

Cloud computing - what am I supposed to do about that then? Having spent a fair whack of time online over the Christmas holidays, trying to find out a bit more about how this ‘trend’ is likely to impact upon business in general, and trying and get some sort of insight into what I should be doing about it, I’m more bamboozled than I was before. And I’m no technophobe – we use some of the most leading edge printers and software applications around - but it’s a case of where to start when it comes to investigating how cloud computing should be used in my business.

December 2011

I sold my way into my first print job with no clue about printing. I sold ad. space for a newspaper to start with and fancied a change. The fact I had ‘blagged’ the experience became apparent after a couple of days but my new boss said he admired my tenacity so trained me up.
Two years later I fancied another change so I left that company on the promise of a new diesel Golf and an extra £5k a year and poked two fingers up at the guy who had taken me under his wing. I feel guilty about it now but that’s the thing; salespeople have a fire in their belly and quite often want to be company owners so beware.

November 2011

November 2011

For the last two years I have taken advantage of the HMRC’s more liberal approach to the collection of corporation tax as they have allowed me to pay a small lump sum and then contribute a percentage of the debt monthly for ten months.

October 2011

October 2011

The Widthwise Report 2011 has come out stating that number one priority with us printers is that we would like the machine manufacturers to spend more on R&D to bring running costs down. Personally, I think there should be more transparency in cost. I bet my last pound that if every person who took part in the Widthwise survey had shopped around for ink and other consumables they would have found that the running costs of the machine they had bought could tumble.