When a business owner begins to think about selling a business, it often seems the next owner is right at hand in the form of a trusted employee. There are a number of reasons, both practical and psychological, that business owners think this way.

On the practical side, selling a business is a long and often arduous process, with complex paperwork and legal/regulatory implications that must be addressed. Business owners often imagine they will be able to skip a few steps in the process if they sell to an employee.

How to Lead and Succeed in Business

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Everyone knows that leading a horse to water is one thing but making it drink is a different challenge altogether. In the same way that a horse cannot be forced to drink, people cannot be forced to turn in an exceptional performance. Employees need to be inspired to use their personal initiative to collaborate and work together as a team – which is what's required to produce world-class results.

Based on a current survey taken with creative firms, the average number of royalty-free images used is on the rise. According to recent TrendWatch Graphic Arts survey, during the winter of 2003-04 creative firms used an average of seven royalty-free images per month, up from three per month a year earlier. As turnaround times for creative projects get shorter, stock imagery is a handy substitute for expensive and time-consuming customized photo shoots.

One of the challenges in color management is how to ensure that the image on your screen will reproduce accurately? First you need to make sure that your monitor is properly calibrated and profiled. Next, you need to dim the lights so you are not seeing any reflections on the screen and lastly, remember that bright lights and glare on the monitor greatly diminish your ability to evaluate shadow detail.

“I'm in an abusive relationship,” sighed Andrew. “My bookkeeper annoys the hell out of me but I just can't let him go. I keep hoping he'll improveC9 it's torture. Why do I do this to myself.”

“You've already answered that question,” I replied. “You're in an abusive relationship. Would you feel better knowing that many business owners are in the same boat? They've outsourced a task or made concessions to a delinquent account with hope of reducing the stress, but it only made matters worse.”

The practice of profile testing a candidate as part of the hiring process is derived from psychometrics, a branch of psychology that develops quantitative tests to measure psychological variables. Besides personality characteristics (such as motivation and interests), the tests may also profile an individual's intellectual characteristics (such as learning, problem-solving, verbal and numerical abilities), or social factors (such as leadership tendencies, ability as a team player, or response to management). Most tests used in industry measure traits that predict employee performance and whether a person will struggle or excel in filling a particular job. In recent business surveys, approximately 44 percent of respondents indicated that their employment selection systems included some form of psychological testing.

Your business network is a powerful tool for business development.

One of the benefits of publishing a national magazine is the extensive network of business contacts that develops around the publication. This proved its value recently when we brought together a group of industry leaders who provided Graphic Arts Magazine with feedback and criticism of our editorial content. Their insights and opinions will greatly assist us in developing the ongoing direction, influence and success of this industry magazine.

We'd also like your input! Included with this month's magazine is a Readers' Survey that gives you an opportunity to provide feedback on how Graphic Arts Magazine serves your needs. Completed surveys will be entered in a draw that will take place at Print Ontario on November 22.

(If instead you find a Renewal Form in this issue, it means that we have not yet received an up-to-date Renewal Form from you. By taking a minute to fill it in, you'll be guaranteed that your free subscription continues without interruption.)

If you are planning to attend the Graph Expo and Converting Expo 2004 in Chicago, we'd love to see you at our Booth - #2491. This show is the largest prepress, printing, converting and digital equipment trade show and conference in North America. Over 600 exhibitors representing all facets of the industry will be there, showing off the latest in industry technologies. The show runs from October 10 - 13 at McCormack Place South in Chicago.

If you miss us in there, we hope to see you at Print Ontario in Toronto, November 20-22, at the National Trade Centre. Not to be outdone, Print Ontario bills itself as “the largest trade show and conference for the not so big printer”.

I will close with an Irish blessing to you;
May the good Lord take a liking to you ... but not too soon.
As always stay positive.

The best way to transform and inspire others is to look no further than yourself. This requires taking full responsibility for the circumstances in your life. Blaming others is no more than excusing yourself. You come into your highest power when you recognize that the only way a circumstance will change is if you change. And the more you grow and actualize the person you are destined to be, the more your outer circumstances magically seem to change.

Here are four strategies that you can use to be the change that you most wish to see in the world:

There's a belief in many organizations that you need only find the right employee, and the rest will take care of itself. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth, or more perilous to an employer.

Finding key employees is an expense that most companies factor into their budgets, either with aggressive recruiting strategies involving finders' fees or through more subtle attraction programs. Either way, the cost to find a skilled employee today can be very high. However, the real struggle is to keep these employees. This is fast becoming a major issue in today's workplace.

If you are like most service professionals and small business owners one of your primary concerns is generating as many leads as possible. Wouldn't it be nice if you could pick and choose your clients?

While you can't completely control who contacts you, you can use your marketing to position yourself to attract promising prospects and people who would make good clients.

Here's how.

Virtually every person in sales experiences price objections. Unfortunately, the majority of sales people take the wrong approach and try to box customers into a corner by asking questions such as:

“If I can do that price do we have a deal?”

“Is that the only thing holding you back?”

“What do I need to do to earn your business?”

“If I can offer a solution would you be willing to buy today?”

“What do I have to do to get you into that unit?”

Donating cash is still the most popular way for Canadians to help charities. But if you want to maximize the amount your favourite charity will receive – and gain valuable benefits for yourself – you might want to explore some of the following strategies.

Make a bequest in your will

Through your will, you can arrange for specific assets, including cash, stocks, or property, to go to a specific charity. Or you might leave the estate residual (the amount left over after paying debts and making all necessary designations) to a specific charity.

No matter what customers say they want, what they're really looking for is “something special.” They can't quite describe it, but when they find it, they know.

Indeed, those little details of the buying experience may appear intangible. But what you sell is usually less important to customers unless they don't get what they expected.

As Walt Disney said, “Do what you do so well that people want to bring their friends to see you do it again.” Any business able to satisfy customers will consistently beat the competition.

When it comes to dealing with dissatisfied customers, most believe that money back guarantees and/or exchange policies will fix the problem. Lousy strategy. Money back guarantees and exchanges may fix the problem, but they do nothing to fix the relationship. Policies don't fix relationships – people do.

When I speak at conventions and meetings on how to boost customer retention, I often find that there is little attention paid to how employees can fix the damaged relationship when the customer has been let down. The consequences of this are staggering.