Discipline is the cornerstone of self-mastery. Self- discipline is a fundamental virtue to inner-power. Discipline is the wellspring that lets you live the life that you deserve. You must strengthen your inner core if you are truly dedicated to manifesting your highest potential for personal and professional success. With discipline, you will possess the inner fire needed to focus on your goals and realize your dreams.

Discipline is the virtue that gives you the courage and the inner resolve to do what you said you would do - when you said you would do it. Discipline is about promise keeping. Not only those promises you make to others, but the promises you make to yourself. Those small daily resolutions ranging from the promise to read thirty minutes a day to your commitment to raise the standards of your work at the office.

It is easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day chores of running a business. There are hundreds of books written on how to get more done and be more productive, but where do you begin? One of the best ways to dedicate your time and resources is to follow the 80-20 rule.

Simply stated this means, for example, that 80% of your profits come from 20% of your clients. This rule can be illustrated by the bell curve of probabilities. On the right side are the outstanding examples of the hypothesis and on the left hand side are a comparable number of the worst examples of the hypothesis. So, using the example above, 20% of your clients could also represent 80% of your losses!

When you hire an employee, you choose the candidate who offers the best potential to succeed in any given job. But your responsibility to both your employee and your business do not end there. Just as you maintain your capital equipment to keep it running in top condition, your staff's success is another component of your capital investment that requires a maintenance plan as well. The best way to put that plan into action is by doing performance appraisals. They provide the necessary feedback and coaching to help employees be motivated, do better and accomplish more toward making your company successful.

Printers are faced with a confusing array of demands. Small to med-size printers are often close to their customers and work in the same communities. This can be a blessing and a curse because not all clients fully understand the printing process. That's when the printer faces the challenge of dealing with a client who asks for something the printer really can't easily deliver.

For example, a customer really likes the color red and constantly tells you to “boost the red” to give his material more “punch.” You can boost the magenta and yellow but the more you try to comply with the request the more you run into problems.

Harry S. Dent, a financial strategist and market forecaster, has done an incredible amount of research into the cycles of innovation. Reaching back several centuries, Dent noticed a pattern of repetition: about every 80 years there is a radical generation that initiates a cycle of change. Each cycle is marked by tumultuous change in the early years when the innovations are developed, followed by a period of relative stability and refinement, which in turn, creates the right environment for the initiation of the next cycle.

It's uncanny. Dent is not selling crystal balls, but the more I studied his research, the more I felt caught in a cyclical momentum that was predetermined. Using a variety of historical milestones, economic indicators, demographics, innovation, migration and societal influences, he graphs each 80-year cycle. They have a peculiar familiarity to them. In fact, if you plot these cycles on top of one another, the graph lines indicating the economic activity within each cycle is almost identical.

In the past three years the field of monitor calibration has become very competitive and in the end it is the consumers that are benefiting from the advancements being brought to market as the top colour management companies fight for that number one spot.

GretagMacbeth recently upgraded the Eye-One Display monitor calibration software and hardware to version 3 to suppress some of the negative issues in the previous version. With this upgrade have come a number of necessary improvements.

To reduce any possible confusion about this upgrade I'd like to go over a few areas of potential misunderstanding. The new product is called Eye-one Display 2. The Eye-One Display 2 is shipping with version 3 of the Eye-One Match software. The product can be called the i1 or the Eye-One. Lastly, GretagMacbeth is also adding a new acronym to their name: GMB.

What's New in Version 3:

Automatic hardware control for DDC/CI interface – if you are using a DDC cable the software will automatically adjust the white point, brightness and contrast.

• User definable luminance settings have been added for a closer visual match between different monitors.
• Optimized gray balance for more neutral and better grays.
• A profile reminder to help you remember to re-profile at a set interval.
• Ambient light check procedure to assist you in setting up the optimum lighting conditions in your workspace.

Target Market:

Digital photographers, creative directors, publishers, and designers working in ad agencies and corporations.

Usage:

The best part about this software is anyone can use it without having a degree in colour science. The interface walks you through a step-by-step procedure prompting you to perform certain actions to optimize the hardware settings of your monitor. After going through the calibration procedure the software measures a series of swatches to build the ICC profile component. Once the profile is built the new version displays a profile summary report for post profile analysis.

The calibration and profile on my Powerbook was excellent. If you are creating a profile for a laptop or a Powerbook be sure to read the PDF in the Tools folder on the CD. This file will walk you through what settings to use and also requires you to copy a special text file into you applications folder.

I have tested the new version on the Cinema Display as well as various CRT's and found the results on par with other leading monitor profiling software.

Calibrating the display is always the first step to creating an accurate profile. In Eye-One this is easily accomplished. All you have to do is select the appropriate settings in the pull down menus.

Once the calibration is completed the software will measure all the colours required to create a monitor profile. This profile is used by ICC aware applications to adjust the signals from the video card so you see an accurate representation of the file

I often question why anyone would consider doing colour work for a living and not invest the $400.00 to ensure that he or she see is seeing an accurate representation of the file. I would give this new version 4.5 stars out of 5.

Print Ontario 2004, the largest show in North America for printers interested in small to midsize print jobs was another industry milestone. The trade show, held November 20-22, 2002 in Toronto, included over 200 exhibitors and offered top-notch management seminars. Sandy Donald and his team deserve a round of applause for a job well done. Ken Harbin of Prism Graphics was very satisfied with the show and commented, “We wrote a fair amount of business at Print Ontario and it has paid huge for us”.

Print Ontario announced that they are changing their name and byline in 2006 to “Print World – The World of Shorter Run Printing. See our pictoral report of Print Ontario by Vic Michener on page 18.

Vincent Mallardi has a very insightful article on exporting print to the USA. One interesting fact from the article is that the US consumes over $192 billion (US) in print every year and that less than 1% is imported from Canada ($1.82 billion). See the complete article on page 47.

The successful completion of another CCAB audit coincides with the end of our 7th year of publishing. The Graphic Arts Magazine would like to thank all our readers and advertisers who have put their trust and support into us over the past seven years and have enabled us to grow and provide every day practical information.

During this holiday season we wish you and your families a peaceful and relaxing holiday. Spend time with the important people in your life. If it's a choice between family or business, remember, families grow up all too fast. One day taken off will never ruin any business, but that day taken with the family might just be a memory that will last a lifetime. Go ahead, recharge your batteries so you can see the opportunities that lie ahead in the New Year.

Until next year, stay positive.

Forget the exchange rate on the US dollar. The old argument to buy “cheap” in Canada is worn out. A new tear is the rising “anti-foreign” attitude among American buyers. Some long-time print exporters are being locked out by their former customers south of the border. Others are being excluded from bidding in the public sector market, as was the case with New Jersey, in spite of an economic benefit of 300,000 Canadian beachgoers who visit the state each summer. So why would any foreigner bother with trying to sell print in such a hostile place?

Quite often in this busy life we rush through jobs that may cause us to make mistakes or overlook small details, and that in turn will cause us to have to re-do the job. I'm sure all of us have been guilty of this from time to time. So this month we thought we would look at the top 4 reasons why mistakes are made in the printing business.

1) Lack of information

Too often a sales person can be so geared up to getting the sale that they don't ask enough questions. Or sometimes the sales person may not have enough technical understanding to ask the right questions. Both of these situations can lead to a lack of information coming from the customer that will satisfy his job requirement.

If you've fallen behind in planning for your retirement, you're not alone. A recent study showed that 53% of affluent Canadians do not have a formal written financial plan.

Do you need to catch up?

If you have less than 15 years before retirement and you have saved less than $200,000, then you may need to fast-track your retirement savings plan. This is especially true if you don't anticipate a future source of additional income, such as a substantial inheritance.

Here are eight strategies that could help you get back on track:

Not Getting the Clients You Want? There is a good chance it is not the services or products you offer that is the problem. While you may be an expert in most aspects of your business, many service professionals and small business owners don't do the right things to market their products and services. They don't have a marketing strategy that works.

You are probably spending time and money on advertising, mailings, sales calls and presentations to prospects. But going through the motions of marketing doesn't guarantee results. More often than not, potential clients aren't fully aware of the range of your products and services and don't think of your company even when they have a genuine need, despite all your efforts. You could pour more time and money into individual marketing tactics and achieve only an incremental amount of growth. Or you could use these proven marketing strategies to attract clients and grow your business. The marketing strategy I help clients apply to build their businesses is based on five principles of highly effective marketing. Apply these principles to attract all the clients you want.

Once a decision is made to sell a business, there are three distinct stages in the selling process. There will be deviations to this process if the sale is not proactively sought. In other words, if there is a forced sale due to illness or financial difficulties or where an unsolicited interest to acquire your company arises.

The First Stage

The first stage in a proactive business sale is preparation and planning.

The Second Stage

After the business and shareholders are ready to go to market, the second stage is the development of a marketing plan. How will you find and attract good quality buyers—ones with motivation, money and management capabilities?

As a business owner, I receive my share of sales calls. More often than not, I'm away from my desk or out of the office which means I end up listening to messages instead of speaking directly with salespeople. Here are a few of the common mistakes I notice and how you can correct them.

The message lacks focus or clarity

You are more likely to receive voice mail today than actually connect with the person you are trying to contact. That means you must be prepared to leave a clear, concise message. People are too busy to listen to a lengthy message that is not focused and you lose credibility if you cannot state your objective without rambling. The average executive receives dozens of calls every day and many are from sales people trying to sell a product or service. Keep the message brief and to the point. Plan what you are going to say before you call so you are prepared.