Retirement planning can be divided into three distinct phases, based on your life stage. During each stage, there are specific investment and financial strategies you should consider to help you achieve your retirement goals.

Life Stage 1 – Building your retirement nest egg

• Start early to maximize the impact of tax-deferred compounding over time
• Catch up on any unused RSP contribution room as soon as possible
• Contribute earlier in the year or on a monthly basis to enhance growth potential
• Consider opening a spousal RSP to reduce future taxes

Starting early – the power of tax-deferred compounding

It's important to get an early start on building your retirement nest egg – whether you're saving through a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RSP), Registered Pension Plan (RPP), or both.

The earlier you start, the greater the impact of tax-deferred compounding. Because any income earned within your RSP (or pension plan) accumulates tax-free until withdrawn. If possible, contribute the maximum every year, while catching up on any unused contribution room from previous years.

How you time your RSP contribution can also make a big difference. If you contribute $5,000 at the end of each tax year for 30 years, your RSP will be worth roughly $566,000, assuming an 8% annual growth rate. But if you contributed the same amount in monthly installments instead, your RSP would be worth approximately $587,000. And if you contributed the lump sum at the beginning of each tax year, your RSP would be worth about $611,000 – $45,000 more than if you contributed at the end of the tax year.

Reducing tomorrow's taxes – today

A spousal RSP is an excellent way to potentially reduce your future taxes. With a spousal RSP, the goal is to equalize retirement income streams between you and your spouse.

For example, if you have one retirement income of $100,000 and pay income tax at a marginal rate of 45%, you would pay $45,000 in tax, leaving you with $55,000. But if you had two smaller income streams instead, $50,000 each, you would pay tax at a lower marginal tax rate on each of the incomes, resulting in lower combined taxes. Assuming the tax rate is 35%, you would only pay $35,000, saving $10,000.

Life Stage 2 – Protecting what you've built and taking it to the next level

• Reduce risk and enhance return potential with advanced diversification strategies
• Rebalance your portfolio to ensure the optimum level of global diversification and sector diversification

Advanced diversification strategies

Diversifying your investments is a proven strategy for reducing risk and increasing return potential. One of the fundamental ways you can diversify your investments is by asset type – stocks, bonds and cash.

Stocks provide long-term growth potential, while bonds and cash provide a safety cushion.

But diversifying by asset type is just a starting point when it comes to properly diversifying your retirement savings. You should also consider other diversification techniques, including:

Global diversification. Studies show that a portfolio balanced between Canadian and global investments reduces risk and enhances return potential. With the elimination of the 30% foreign content limit in 2005, it's now much easier to increase your level of global diversification.

Sector diversification. Today, stocks tend to perform based on the industrial sector, regardless of international borders. Diversification by sector, in addition to international exposure, may enhance your opportunity for greater returns.

Life Stage 3 – Maximizing your retirement income

Consider alternatives to boost your after-tax income

Boosting your income

Getting the income you need from your retirement savings can be a challenge given the low interest rates currently offered by GICs and government bonds. Seeking higher income, retirees are increasingly turning to other investments, like corporate bonds, income trusts and dividend-paying stocks. The key is maintaining the right balance between secure investments and investments offering the potential for higher income.

Corporate bonds. Carefully selected high-quality corporate bonds can provide higher interest payments compared to a government bond, without substantially higher risk. Risk is determined by the credit rating of the issuer. A high-quality corporate bond issued by a well-established corporation may have a credit rating of “A” compared to “AA” for a government bond. A medium-grade corporate bond might have a credit rating of “BBB” but would most likely offer a higher interest rate to attract investment.

Income trusts. Like stocks, income trusts are publicly traded equities and should be considered part of the equity component of your portfolio. But unlike stocks, income trusts distribute most of the cash earned from underlying assets directly to investors. Income trusts can provide much higher income than bonds, but bear in mind the distributions are not guaranteed and can vary.

Dividend-paying stocks. You can boost your after-tax income with dividends from Canadian corporations, which are effectively taxed lower than interest income due to the dividend tax credit.

John Exler is an Investment Advisor with RBC Dominion Securities Inc. This article is for information only. Consult with your professional advisor before taking any action.john.exler@rbc.com905-895-2949

Packaging printers have been sheeting SBS board stock from rolls on off-line, stand-alone units for half a century. Sheeting commercial paper from rolls has been a viable process improvement for sheetfed printers since the mid-1980s as the manufacturers designed smaller, more compact units. And yet, acceptance by mainstream general commercial sheetfed printers has never reached any appreciable degree of its potential.

New interest has been generated in the last few years, as the long perfectors have become mainline tools for more general commercial printers. As a matter of fact, the number of 8-12 unit sheetfed presses installed without an in-line sheeter is becoming more the exception than the rule.

In the old days “the difficulty of achieving accuracy of cut and squareness” from an in-house sheeter was possibly a concern. There is little doubt that if a printer was going to commit north of $5 million to buy a long perfector, there’s not a shroud of doubt about the quality of the sheet being delivered from the on-line or in-line sheeter.

Let’s look at the features of the on-line versus the off-line sheeter as far as advantages and disadvantages.

The on-line will save the labor of an off-line operation along with pallets and storage (regardless of how brief) of sheeted product waiting to move to the assigned press. The on-line doesn’t need the stacker that the off-line requires.

On the negative side, the on-line unit requires sophisticated electronic integration, a dancer accumulator to adjust for fluctuating press speeds, and can provide only grain long or short, but not both.

It achieves this grain direction by delivering the stock straight in, as grain long for the production of full size A4 signatures. When stationed at a right angle to the press, it delivers short grain stock for the smaller trim book signature.

The off-line unit can deliver both short and long grain stock simply by shifting the position of the pallet receiving the sheeted product.

The on-line unit delivers one sheet at basically press speed. The off-line unit can cut 60” wide, which means it can slit 2-out of a 56”-wide roll to deliver dual stream 28” by 41” sheets to a pair of pallets next to one another.

While the on-line is limited to the speed of the press or 13,000 sheets an hour (430 feet a minute), the off-line machine can run three times that speed (up to 1,300 feet a minute) plus deliver 2-out.

While both on-line and off-line units will be an investment in the $450,000 to $500,000 range, a single off-line sheeter running five ten-hour shifts can provide stock to keep three sheetfed presses busy round the clock six days a week. Or stated another way, a single shift on the off-line sheeter can provide stock for up to 8 press shifts. Instead of feeding only one press, every press in the stable can receive stock from the off-line sheeter.

The two factors driving the decision for sheetfed printers to buy roll stock and sheet their own are (1) the cost of the roll stock versus converter sheeted product and (2) the quicker turnaround times required to deliver the finished product. The $30 to $60 per hundred weight (CWT) savings is typically this roll versus sheet differential.

With more and more clients insisting on just-in-time (JIT) schedules, printers are examining every process element to attain control and reduce lead times. “Full service” has never before taken on such a broad context for its definition. Depending on make orders at the mills and the resulting cyclical demands at converters, lead times for sheeting can reach a couple of weeks or even more.

The recessionary pressures of recent years tend to keep that lead time down. The economic turnaround now underway will increase demand and could lengthen that critical waiting period. This factor could make the consideration of this equipment a very timely one.

It’s true that the specialty printers have tended to use in-house sheeters. These include packaging (printing on board), label (printing on coated one side) and envelope converters. The two things these firms have in common are stock standardization and the need for a variety of sizes, which is satisfied by the different roll length cutoffs. And yet, many of these firms deliver 4-6-8 color products with quality as demanding as any commercial shops.

The economics of the investment certainly must be considered. The areas of savings are the sheeting charge by the mill or the converters, the extended time needed for this extra outside service, and the extra warehouse space needed for sheeted skids rather than roll stock.

The sheeting process will incur spoilage. In the 1980s, paperboard surveys indicated that 3.6% would be an average while 70% of the respondents experienced 2% or less sheeting waste. In recent years, with the improved electronic controls and enhanced technology incorporated in these sheeters, users target 1% spoilage and some claim to come under that figure. This improved spoilage performance is realized despite the product-shifting trends of shorter runs, more frequent changeovers and multiple handling of rolls.

The warehouse space savings is certainly not an incidental advantage. The optimum operation would buy 50” diameter rolls to be sheeted. They would stack 40” wide rolls five high or 60” tall skids four high in a 25-foot-high warehouse (22 foot clear under the sprinkler heads). Precut skids are stored in racks possibly four high or two high if on top of one another.

With this scenario, calculations would show that roll stock to be sheeted would save 50% of the floor space of precut skids. In reality, the square footage savings is more like 20% to 25% because of aisle ways and work in process storage requirements between the sheeter and the presses.

The Operations Vice President for York, Pennsylvania’s Strine Printing, Dave Kornbau, said his firm has been sheeting rolls in house for four years. They now have three different sheeters manufactured by three different suppliers. These roll converters are running full out to provide sheeted stock to their 12 sheetfed presses that are running around the clock six days a week.

Their most recent press, a MAN Roland XXL, installed in November 2005, requires an unusual 80” cutoff. This is provided by their off-line Maxson MDH sheeter. “Currently, 95% of the stock printed has been sheeted in house,” says Kornbau. He feels that printers should realize a 3-year to 4-year payback as a conservative return on this investment if they have sufficient paper volume.

Printers consuming 80 tons of paper a month can realize a ROI on an in-house sheeter. This is the equivalent paper for production of two full shifts on a 40” press that nets 10,000 impressions an hour at the industry norm of 43% run time.

While used sheeters are readily available, the unusually low prices carry a caveat. The analogy is similar to the cheap prices quoted for used sheetfed presses manufactured prior to the mid-1990s.

That is, the latest electronics that lead the way for very fast make-readies and many automation features are simply not available as upgrades on older, roll-converting units.

In previous years, the sheeter manufacturers would primarily be exhibiting at the Converting Machinery Manufacturers’ (CMM) trade show. Because of the increasing interest by sheetfed printers, as well as their partnerships with press manufacturers in showing on-line operations, these suppliers will be at the Graph Expos and Print equipment shows.

A few of the well known sheeters are Bielomatik, Jagenberg, Lambs Gray, Langston and Maxson. If the prospective printer can’t wait for the Graph Expo 2006 October 15-18, she/he should call Brent Burdick, Maxson’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing, at 401-596-0162 (maxsonautomatic.com) and Ron Pueshel, USA President of Bielomatik-Jagenberg in Windsor, Connecticut at 860-640-0500 (biel-jag.com) for product literature.

C. Clint Bolte & Associates, Chambersburg, PA.T: 717-263-5768  F: 717-263-8945E: cbolte3@comcast.net

Got problems? Want to learn to love them? Solving problems can be fun and very rewarding. Creative problem solving is the skill most needed through the next years. Use this skill in your private life, your career, your business and your community.

Follow the five steps that point to that direction yet encourage the juices of creativity to flow.

1. Fact Finding

“Just the facts - nothing but the facts.” Make no judgement at this point. You may think you know the problem. The urge to jump to a quick solution is overwhelming - but don’t be fooled by a quick and easy solution just to make it go away. Ask questions to collect facts without prejudging. Remember Lieutenant Colombo in the old TV series. He could ask the dumbest questions with perfect innocence. That’s how you need to ask questions. Ask, What? Who? When? Where? Why? and How?

2. Problem Definition

How many times have you seen someone rush in to attack a problem only to discover that they did not understand it and hence wasted time and energy - and caused bad feelings? Einstein said if he had one hour to solve the problems of the world he would spend 50 minutes defining the problem and 10 minutes solving it. To define the problem ask yourself, “Why does this problem exist? What are the barriers? What’s stopping me?” Once you discover the true problem restate the problem into, “In what ways might I…?” Notice that you are looking for many ways.

3. Idea Generating

Have fun, generate lots of crazy ideas that might solve the problem. The more humour you use at this phase the more radical your ideas will be. Suspend the 'rules’ - maybe they can be changed. If you are an expert forget what you 'know’. Too often experts cannot solve the problems in their field because the rules are ingrained. The Wright brothers were not experts in aviation - they were bicycle mechanics. The most innovative people are those who did not know 'that it couldn’t be done.’

4. Solution Finding

Describe the criteria of the best solution. These might include aspects like cost, time needed, and risk. Pick the best ideas and rate them using your criteria for best fit. Find three best ideas; re-examine your assumptions about each then pick the one you will go with this time. Keep the others as back-up. Turn your expertise back on to evaluate the potential solutions.

5. Acceptance and Action

How do you get others to buy into your solution? The best way is to involve them in the process from the beginning - give them ownership. Sometimes that means accepting a second best solution. If you did not involve the people that are needed to make you succeed it is time to demonstrate the needs that your solution will help them meet.

After Art Fry invented the Post-it note for 3M he could not convince research or marketing to buy into the product. He asked himself, “Who will this product help?” His answer was: secretaries. So he sent free samples to secretaries across North America with the phone number of the head of marketing to call to order more. Guess what happened when the calls started coming in? Art finally convinced his people of the value of this product and 3M’s most successful product was born.

In the information age we might be tempted to believe that knowledge is power. But remember the words of Einstein who said; “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

George Torok is a speaker, consultant, author and media personality.1-800-304-1861info@torok.com

Get out of the printing business

Don't sell printing - sell communication solutions

Printing is a commodity. Even four-colour printing carefully matched to the client's proof is a commodity. Prices are low, and clients order it online and monitor in real time.

Prices for general, run-of-the-mill printing are so low, it's almost impossible to make a profit by competing on price alone. Printers need to find a way to add value for their customers to the work they do.

"Customers want a supplier who can make their day easier," says Jay Mandarino, President of CJ Graphics of Toronto, a company that has established a niche, and a reputation, in high-quality colour printing. That means, he says, providing more than just ink on paper: it means providing solutions. "If you can do that, there's no reason for the customer to go anywhere else for any other part of their communications."

The only way for printers to get out of the commodity printing, lowest-price bidder wins world is to identify a market segment with particular needs, then work to become known in that segment as someone who can fill those needs. It's called niche marketing.

According to marketing journal DMReview, niche marketing is a segmentation strategy that focuses on serving one identifiable segment of a market, a segment that "can be uniquely served."

Not so long ago, niche marketing was what printers' customers did: identified a market niche and developed print documents to communicate to that niche. Ironically, however, niche marketing isn't the market niche for printers that it used to be.

"In marketing, print is not as pivotal as it used to be," says Tom Beakbane, President of Beakbane Marketing of Toronto. The Internet has changed the nature of marketing. Marketers as a result are doing less printing, publishing their main messages on the Web or by e-mail instead. Print is a part of the "marketing mix," but no longer the main part.

"We used to buy one to two million dollars of printing a year for our clients," says Tom Beakbane. "That was how we made most of our money." But over the past 10 years, he says, that revenue source has dried up. Beakbane's people will design and specify printing, but customers order and manage the relationship with the printer directly.

"Marketing has changed, too," Beakbane says. "Direct mail is no longer considered a separate field or discipline unto itself." Today, advertising agencies commonly have Web divisions as well as direct marketing departments all under the same roof. "There's a lot of exchange of intelligence and cross-fertilization between fields," says Beakbane. The result is better, more intelligent communications.

And the result for the printer is that the customer is less focused on dots on paper, and more on the whole communications package.

Beakbane Marketing has changed, too: it no longer has a prepress company, no longer buys much printing, and instead concentrates its considerable intellectual energies on developing effective branding strategies for its clients.

Find your niche

You can't do everything. To offer complete communications solutions, you'll have to specialize in something — a market niche. The secret is to identify a niche whose needs you can fill profitably, and then work very hard to become known as the best in it.

It's harder than it used to be, most marketers will agree, because it's not a new idea anymore, and most of the easily-identifiable niches already have competent specialists serving them — sometimes several.

The first step is to define your niche, advises Tom Beakbane. Pick two or three."Communicate who you are and what you do simply and clearly, and then run an integrated communication program that involves the same message sent in print and electronically."

Develop a list and build a profile, or a number of profiles, of the type of client you can serve in your niche. Research the potential clients in that niche: find out as much as you can about them so that you can develop communications that will get their attention.

Keep on top of your niche: know everything about it, what drives it, what's affecting it, what's hot and what's not.

Next, build your brand in that niche. A strong Web site is an essential step. Make sure it establishes your strengths in your niche and that it's attractive. Use different tactics to keep attracting your target to your site.

"Get 'Google-cranked,'" Beakbane recommends — that is, learn how to use Google and other search engines to keep your brand in front of your target niche. "People today will use Google to look up a company that they deal with regularly, rather than going to the phone book," says Beakbane. Take advantage of this.

But the Web is not enough. Companies that want to build their brand have to take an integrated approach that includes electronic communications, print, stationery and the personal approach. All your communications materials should have the same look and deliver the same overall message.

If you have a different logo or even a different "look" on your business cards and your Web site, you'll confuse your market — they may wonder if the different visuals represent two different companies with similar names.

Communicate

Direct mail can be a useful tool for the printer. Adventure Printing of Regina sends out an e-mail newsletter to its customers. It's a useful approach, agrees Tom Beakbane, but "the quality of the information within the newsletter is critical."

Direct mail in general must be of the highest quality, particularly if you want to promote a printing company. "It has to be beautifully designed and written very economically," he says. Beakbane Marketing has published booklets of information and advice about its specialty, building brands.

"Have great samples," Jay Mandarino recommends. It's hard to get that first job in a new niche, but once you do, you can use it to promote more of the same kind of work.

Adventure Graphics produces a number of self-promotional specialty items like magnets and notepads. "We'll add some to every box that we ship out to the customers," says President Darryl Schaffer. They often will also add such items to promote certain charities, particularly those involving local or provincial sports. "This province is crazy over hockey, football and curling," Schaffer adds — showing how well he knows his market niche.

Don't forget the personal touch. "A great salesperson is essential," says Mandarino, but very hard to find. Adventure also used to have a great salesperson, but he retired a couple of years ago. While the company now emphasizes electronic communication, the personal approach is still indispensable.

"Support the causes that your market supports, join their associations, go to their meetings," recommends Mandarino. The environment is one of his personal causes, and he donates not only money but his own and his company's time and resources to environmental causes. He also supports graphic designers' associations, agency groups and other professional organizations.

"Get involved in any opportunity to meet people: speeches, events, meetings, conferences," says Tom Beakbane.

Earning awards and recognition in different fields can also be a great way to build recognition of your brand, says Mandarino. Seek out opportunities within your market niche. "Credibility outside the printing field is important," says Mandarino.

Credibility is just one factor that will build your brand. Once you have established recognition of your company name — your brand — you can then start to sell based on your ability to do more than put dots of ink on paper: to be a communication solution.

When you're selling solutions, your company is much more valuable to your clients than someone who's selling printing only. If you can do that, your clients will have little reason to look elsewhere.

Focus one: CJ Graphics

The building with the CJ Graphics sign actually houses several different, related companies and divisions. While they're all involved in print communications, they each have their own niche.

CJ Graphics is a well respected printing company, whose niche is high-quality colour printing; ColourTec handles prepress; CJ Digital has digital presses for variable printing and direct marketing; and JBM Auction Services runs charity auctions for causes supported by owner Jay Mandarino.

Each company also has divisions that cater to specific market niches, such as designers and advertising agencies, the legal community, restaurants, hotels and tour operators, entertainment, non-profit organizations and universities and colleges. Each division has own sales reps, although some reps sell more than one division.

CJ Graphics is also part owner of some "allied" businesses: Anstey Book Binding and C&W Embossing. Together, the group offers a wide range of services: complete printing services from prepress to print finishing, surely, but also a wide range of types of printing: digital, offset, short-run, high quality and more.

Thus, CJ Graphics' customers who come to have a high-quality brochure printed don't have to look for another supplier for their variable printing projects.

"Each specialty feeds all the others," says Mandarino.

Focus two: The Press Run

Twelve years ago, Michael O'Connell faced a choice: should his company, The Press Run of Toronto, invest in offset or digital printing? O'Connell had decided to concentrate on a niche that many would consider a commodity: single-colour, short-run, black-on-white books and booklets.

"Our typical press run is 1,000 copies, and at that point, offset is far less expensive than digital printing," O'Connell points out. "Any quantity over 250 copies of black on white is cheaper for offset printing." So the choice was made.

O'Connell describes his niche as "information printing." Customers come for manuals or price lists. It's not sexy or glamourous, but it is profitable.

"It requires a different type of sales approach than most printers are accustomed to," O'Connell says. Rather than selling to the marketing department, O'Connell contacts the purchasing or engineering departments – the end-users of the printing he produces.

"With the marketing department, you're often competing with a quote for every order." With The Press Run's more utilitarian product, however, the focus is not on "best quality, best price, best turnaround," but on providing a dependable solution. He has more repeat business this way.

To promote the business, O'Connell advertises in trade publications, but mostly he depends on direct sales: talking to people. He'll look for manufacturers who need manuals, or distributors who need price lists, call them and make an appointment.

The Press Run is a perfect example of a company that knows its niche and has adapted to fit it.

Focus Three: Adventure Printing

Located in Regina, Adventure Printing has seen its niche, rural businesses and communities, change dramatically over the past few years. And like a good niche marketer, it has changed to adapt.

At one time, sales came through "a good, old-fashioned sales rep who drove the length and breadth of the province," says President Darryl Schaffer. But that sales rep has retired, the rurual economy is strained, and there's been a generational change, too.

"The older generation of rural business people didn't want to deal with e-mails," Schaffer explains. But that's no longer true of Adventure's market niche. They added a toll-free long-distance line a few years ago, "but today, people want to send their files for printing by e-mail." The company is also working to revamp its Web site to allow customers to order printing and upload files.

Adventure Printing also took advantage of last year's provincial centennial. "A lot of municipalities, arenas and other customers wanted centennial-related materials, promotional items like pens, notepads, buttons and banners, which we could print on our new wide-format printer," Schaffer says.

Focus Four: RP Graphics

A sheetfed printer in Toronto, RP Graphics president George Mazzaferro recognized an opportunity for a new market niche when a marketing company approached with a proposal to develop a Web-to-print service for local realtors. Using their own in-house programmers, RP Graphics developed a Web site that allows member real estate agents to easily build and print their own customized brochures.

Member agents log in, select a template, add their own contact information and other images, choose delivery and number of copies, and hit print. The next day, they get their customized brochures from RP Graphics' iGen 3 digital press.

The service is highly automated, yet earns RP Graphics around $30,000 every month. It's just one niche for the company, which also has a 40-inch six-colour offset press, a 40-inch four-colour press and a 20-inch five-colour press, plus a full bindery and mailing operation.

"All our specialties complement one another," Mazzaferro sums up. And that means clients come to RP Graphics for more than one thing, but for solutions.

It's hard to remember when the talk about digital paper, or electronic paper, or e-paper or whatever the vendor has chosen to call it, was first heard. Perhaps it was about the same time the sages predicted the paperless office – the one we're still waiting for!

But regardless of when it started, it seems that the talk has been more of a whisper, just occasionally interrupted by a shout. Now, however, it may be time to pay attention. A new study entitled, E-Paper Technology and Opportunities in Publishing, Communications, and the Graphic Arts, has just been published by Strategies for Management (that's a consulting partnership headed by Dr. Joe Webb). And, when Dr. Joe (known to many from his regular commentary and webinars for WhatTheyThink.com) speaks, it's probably worth listening.

So what exactly is e-paper? The simplest definition, as used by the authors of the study, is "a flexible electronic display." But for the inventors, the goal has been a little more complicated than that. They've tried to duplicate, as closely as possible, all of the desirable characteristics of ink on paper – a flexible substrate with a non-glare surface, producing sharp, high-contrast images that are readable from a wide range of angles.

They also want to make it an electronic display that can be renewed on demand, that eliminates the need to be refreshed, that isn't backlit, and that has a very low power consumption.

A successful product could be used in the reader for electronic books and magazines or for signage and POP displays, to list just a few. In fact, many of the products that you may print in your shop today could be 'output' to an e-paper product instead. But not to worry, it's all still an inventor's dream...or is it?

Unfortunately, if you haven't been listening to those whispers, you won't know that some e-paper products have indeed been invented and are already available commercially. Arguably, the most successful product is actually called E Ink from E Ink Corp. (because it's about the "electronic" ink, not the substrate). This technology employs an ink, composed of microscopic capsules that each contain both negatively charged black particles and positively charged white particles, (just think of the good guys in the white hats in the old westerns!) coated on a substrate and then laminated to a layer of circuitry.

The capsules are suspended in a liquid so the ink can be screenprinted onto glass, plastic, fabric or even paper. In use, the circuitry is charged, pixel by pixel, to attract either the white or black particles and thus creates the desired image. Once the particles are oriented, the display requires no further energy until the image is changed, so power consumption is extremely low and battery life is very long.

Reports from users say that the resulting product is almost as comfortable to read from as ink on paper! While current versions of the product are only black and white, 12-bit colour displays have been developed and are used in new applications, expected to be released this year.

The E Ink technology has been licensed by a number of companies and incorporated as the display in their products such as; Ambient's '5 Day Weather Receiver', Seiko for watch faces, and Ink-in-Motion POP displays from Neolux, Midori Mark or Teraoka.

But perhaps the application with the greatest potential to effect printers is the new Sony Reader for displaying e-books, scheduled to be released in mid 2006. If this new electronic gadget comes anywhere close to the 'must have' status of the iPod, then the impact on printed book sales may be significant. At launch, Sony will offer at least 10,000 titles formatted for the Reader and available through their on-line bookstore. More are promised to follow quickly.

But that's a big if. A few years ago, at a CPIA conference, the keynote speaker talked about e-books and said that he always applied his 3B test to new portable electronic devices. The test has three questions: 1) Is it better than what it's replacing? 2) Would I take it into the bath? 3) Would I be upset if I left it on the bus? The answer to the first question depends on whether it's being compared to a paperback or to some other type of digital display, so maybe yes, maybe no.

To the second, water and electronics don't mix very well, so that's probably a no. And to the third, at an expected cost of $300 to $400 U.S., you definitely don't want to leave it on the bus, or anywhere else. Based on the 3B test then, perhaps e-book readers won't be joining cellphones, PDAs, and iPods any time soon.

So maybe you don't have to worry about loosing any book, magazine or sign business just yet, but other products are coming to market and other applications are being developed. Once again, you're faced with the 'pay me now or pay me later' dilemma. You can choose to do your research now and explore what opportunities this new media may provide, or wait until it becomes well established and try to react to the problems it may present.

Oh, and if you are thinking about Dr. Joe's e-Paper Study, it probably provides lots of information and insightful analysis to help you discover those new opportunities. Just one simple business decision you need to make first – what will be the return on the $4,875.00 U.S. investment needed to buy it?

Jim Dutton is an industry Consultant and serves on the Board of Directors of the Digital Imaging Association. He can be reached at j.dutton@sympatico.com.

Executive compensation is often a focal point for comments by shareholders, employees and the media. I'm of the opinion that if an executive is improving the financial performance of a company, then they should be entitled to sharing in the rewards. However, when a company's relative performance is deteriorating, then the leadership should suffer along with the other stakeholders.

Recently, while reviewing an annual report of a leading Canadian company, I came across a revealing chart. The senior executive compensation was compared with the company's net income. I was pleased to see that this executive team was providing added value to the stakeholders. The relation of their income to profitability was decreasing.

This comparison was new to me and not one that I remember seeing before.

On reflection, this simple comparison seemed to be a very useful and revealing tool that any organization could use. How does the total compensation for your management team compare with your company's profitability over the last five years?

When reviewing salary adjustments with employees, it could be useful to show them how their salary has progressed relative to the profitability of the company. Doing this has some risks. For example, if compensation has not kept pace with profit growth, the employees will undoubtedly complain.

A comparison of this type should not be limited to a one-year period, since aberrations can occur that skew the picture. Five years is a reasonable time period for developing a comparative chart.

If a comparison is developed, it should not be limited to salary. Bonuses and benefits should be included in the total compensation figure since these are significant business costs that have a habit of growing in a stealthy manner. Too often they're not recognized by management and seldom recognized by employees.

If management doesn't want to provide the compensation/profit comparison to employees, it's still a good management tool to develop for tracking compensation costs.

Total compensation

When discussing compensation, many managers make the error of focusing attention on base salaries (sometimes we include bonuses or other incentive compensation). This has been done for such a long time that individuals either forget or disregard other things that they receive.

A useful exercise for management to undertake is a compilation of what an employee's total compensation truly equals.

We've found that when this has been done, both management and employees are amazed at what total compensation amounts to. Some items are very apparent – salary, bonuses, and vacations. However, most employees have no idea what other components of compensation are costing the company.

Let's look at some of these other aspects of compensation:

Life and health benefits:

1. Cost of life insurance.
2. Cost of short-term disability insurance.
3. Paid sick leave.
4. Government premiums for health insurance, unemployment insurance and WSIB.
5. Medical and dental insurance.

Training and development:

1. Cost of in-house seminars.
2. Payment of tuition.
3. Payment for development courses.

Ancillary Costs:

1. Parking.
2. Cell phone and/or blackberry costs.
3. Lunch room and/or coffee expenses.
4. Recreation costs.

Post employment costs:

1. CPP
2. Base pension or RRSP contributions
3. Matching pension contributions.

The above list certainly isn't complete, but it gives an idea of costs incurred for employees. These costs will likely vary by employee based on their status and occupation. However, they're all costs that an employer incurs. Most employees take them for granted and don't ever think of the total cost that each of them represents.

It takes time and effort to develop this information on a per-employee basis, but it's useful to do from time to time to bring the realities of compensation to both the employee and management.

Fred Pamenter is managing partner of PPB&D Consulting Limited, a Toronto based Human Resource firm. T: 416-620-5980E: ppbdconsulting@aol.com

One is a very tiny number. However, it can have a tremendous impact on your revenues. Here are some ideas to consider:

Make one more cold call every day. One extra call a day equals 260 calls in a year. How many meetings could you set up with this number of calls and how many of those meetings could you turn into sales? Consider your current conversion ratio and think of the impact on your business.

Suggest one additional item to every customer. This is particularly important if you sell lower-priced items or work in a retail environment. Too many salespeople are focused only on getting the initial sale. However, almost everyone has additional items, products or services that could benefit their customers.

Invest one day a month developing your skills. Many of the most successful people in business invest in themselves. They attend workshops, conferences, and participate in webinars and tele-seminars on a regular basis. Considering that the majority of people don’t invest in developing their skills, you can quickly out-pace your coworkers and competition.

Read one book every month. Expanding your knowledge will help you become more successful. Read books related to your industry or that will provide insight to helping you improve your skills in a specific area.

Ask one more question during each sales call. Before you starting “pitching” your product or service, ask your prospect one more question. This question might give you the additional insight you need to more effectively position your product or service.

Pause for one moment longer than usual before responding to a prospect’s question or request. Known as the pregnant pause, this often prompts the other person to blurt out something they had not intended to say. The secret behind this strategy is that most people are uncomfortable with silence and will begin talking to fill the “dead” air space.

Get to the office one hour early. Remember the expression “The early bird gets the worm.” That one extra hour first thing in the morning can be the most productive time of the day. You have a better chance to reach decision-makers, there are fewer distractions and you can often achieve more in that 60 minutes than in several hours.

Address objections one more time before giving up. Too many salespeople give up too soon when faced with objections. I’m not suggesting that you beat your customer into submission in order to close the sale. However, I do recommend that you tackle each objection one more time before you give up.

Send one more e-mail to the prospect who’s been sitting on the fence. Sometimes, people need that little push and encouragement to move forward. But, in many cases, their time is occupied by other projects and priorities which means that they’re not focused on your solution. Gentle reminders are often appreciated, providing you don’t follow up so frequently that you appear to be stalking them. Even though they may not be ready to make that particular buying decision, you’ll help keep your name in their mind.

Ask for an endorsement or testimonial one more time. Endorsements and testimonials are greatly under utilized by most people in business today. Quite often we ask a client for a testimonial but because they have other priorities, they forget. Call them or send an e-mail and politely request the testimonial again.

Suggest one more idea to help customers improve their business. Schedule a breakfast meeting or lunch with your customers, but instead of trying to sell them something, focus on learning more about their particular challenges. Offer solutions that don’t include your products or services. Your customers will begin to see you more as a partner than a supplier.

Send one more thank-you card or note. Very few salespeople make the effort to thank their customers. You can stand out from the crowd by sending handwritten notes to thank customers for their most recent order, meeting with you or sending an on-time payment. You can also send a note when you see their company mentioned favorably in the media.

Although it’s a tiny number, one can make a very powerful impact both on your top-line sales and bottom-line profits. One extra sale every day, week or month, depending on your business, can make a significant impact on your sales by the end of the year.

Kelley Robertson, President of the Robertson Training Group, works with businesses to increase their sales and motivate their employees.www.RobertsonTrainingGroup.com

Fraud is everywhere and you need to be aware of it.  If you have an e–mail address, then you've no doubt been assaulted with a particular spin on an old con. It's an old swindle that's been modernized thanks to the Internet. The perpetrators now have an entire planet in which they can troll for unsuspecting dupes.

The approach on the Internet takes greed and couples it with misdirection, and you have a recipe for fraud. The e-mail arrives from an individual with the subject line indicating "Private Business proposal / Urgent reply!". When you open the e-mail, it is the most atrociously misspelled letter with some tale of woe.

In a recent version that I received, the good Samaritan is a widow with three children, who directs you to her "profile" through an internet link. The link takes you to a page that looks like a resume for the widow. The story in the e-mail goes on to say that the widow's husband used to be some high-ranking official with some African country. He died and left a safe deposit box loaded with cash which the widow was unaware of, and due to some reason she can't get access to the money, but with your help can have it directed out of the country to your bank account.

The amount of money is generally in the tens of millions of dollars (why not - if you're going to fish you might as well use big bait). For your assistance, that is for the use of your banking information with which the widow will transfer these funds out of the country, she will pay you a percentage of the loot, usually amounting to several millions of dollars.

Sounds like a great deal for you. Just give her your banking information, take deposit of tens of millions of dollars which were "stolen" by the widow's deceased husband, and collect a fee of millions of dollars for assisting the widow to get the money out of her country. Sounds easy. Do yourself a favour: delete the e-mail now.

If you allow yourself to get into this any deeper, apart from the danger in divulging your banking information (even if it's only a dupe account to be used for this transaction only), there's the issue of "good faith" money.

Somewhere along the line you'll be asked for your show of bona fides, at which time you pony up or the con is over. If you send a nickel, it's too much.

In the hopes of making a quick financial killing, you may embroil yourself in identity theft of which you may be the target, or consider that you may be aiding in a criminal enterprise the intent of which is money-laundering or worse, or that you may be participating in a criminal enterprise in a foreign jurisdiction, not to mention the various local laws that you may be contravening.

It sounds so low-tech that it's a wonder how anyone could fall for it, but people do. These cons take on a life of their own. They circulate, then disappear for a while, then circulate again. They are generally more successful during times of economic downturn, when desperate people do increasingly desperate things to save what they feel is slipping away.

Another variation combines two cons: the Nigerian letter scam and the fake cashier's cheque scam, and puts them together for a near perfect rip-off. The e-mail message or letter is from "Lottery Resources Management and Payment Verification Center." It is very official looking. And there is good news. There's been a sweepstakes and you have won.

The catch? You have to pay taxes and clearance charges of $4,975.00.

If you are awarded a prize, you don't have to pay anything for it. If someone says you have to pay for a prize, it's generally a scam. Then there's a cashier's cheque to cover the full cost of the taxes and fees, and the cheque looks authentic. The value is imprinted in the cheque, and the bank's location and phone number clearly listed.

One telltale sign that this is a scam is that there is a telephone number for the bank. Banks don't list their phone numbers on cheques to ensure that their telephone number is independently acquired, i.e. through a telephone book or directly from directory assistance. The reason the number is there is so the victims will contact the perpetrators of the scam rather than the bank itself.

The fake is so good it even takes the bank a while to track it down. But it is a fake, and it is a scam. Somewhere along the line, the mark is asked to deliver up "good faith" money, to pay real money in order to receive the big payoff which never comes. 

All these scams are old wine, new bottle. At some point the mark is asked to wire money to some unknown person. If that happens you can be certain it's a scam.

Don't fall prey to them. If it smells like manure, and looks like manure, then chances are it is manure - don't step into it!

Sid Karmazyn is a Chartered Accountant, author and speaker, who lives and works in York Region. Your comments are welcomed.

T: 905-771-3813 F: 905-771-3810

Habits we have formed over the years can be time wasting, unhealthy, obnoxious, boring or outright dangerous. They can limit our effectiveness, stunt our personal growth, and dissipate our energy. They can cut years from our lives. Antagonize friends. Alienate loved ones.

Or they can be constructive, positive, healthy, and desirable. They can save time. Relieve tension. Increase our effectiveness.

It all depends on the habit. And I define a habit as something we do automatically with little, if any, forethought. Something devoid of conscious choice. It could be smoking, drinking, excessive eating, chewing gum, twisting paperclips as we listen, saying “you know” every few words, drinking coffee every half hour.

Or it could be organizing your clothes before you go to bed, checking the doors to see if they’re locked, jogging before breakfast, eating apples for lunch, reviewing personal goals every morning, smiling at everyone you meet, reading in bed every night, showering before breakfast.

Whether it’s a good habit or a bad habit depends on its effects on your life. If it helps you to achieve your goals. Brings you happiness, health, and prosperity. Adds meaning to your life. Makes you more effective. Then it’s probably a good habit. But if all it does is impede your effectiveness, waste your time, alienate your family and friends or decrease your life expectancy, it’s very likely a bad habit.

Before you attempt to break any bad habits, you must be convinced that you want to. The benefits must be obvious. The motivators must be there. Otherwise you will likely fail in your efforts.

It’s always rewarding to feel that you are in control of your own life. That might be motivation enough. If so, start breaking some of those patterns of living that sap you of any feeling of excitement and spontaneity. Stop spending every Thanksgiving Day at Mother’s. Don’t go away with the same couple every Labor Day weekend. Don’t order pizza every Tuesday night. Don’t return to the same Florida resort every year. Stop eating in the same restaurants all the time. Make a conscious choice each time. Don’t be bound by the force of habit.

Some specific habits, such as smoking, drinking, overeating, may be more difficult to break. Greater motivation is required to initiate and maintain the greater effort that is necessary. Get a handle on the harmful effects of the habit. If you’re convinced that smoking will reduce your life expectancy by 16.4 years or that lack of exercise will double the risk of a heart attack, you may have the kind of incentive you need.

Once you feel motivated to proceed, be sure to set realistic goals. Losing 20 lbs. in one week, for instance, is not a realistic goal. It’s a long-term goal, say three to six months. Break it down into monthly and weekly goals. Even daily goals are advisable for some habits. Goals produce deadlines. Deadlines produce a certain amount of stress. But they also produce results. That’s why we’re so effective at work.

Now, practice self-discipline. Train yourself to accomplish those daily and weekly goals you set for yourself. Don’t let yourself slip once. The first slip spells disaster. For it becomes progressively easier to slip the second time, and the third -- until you’re back in your old ways again. If your daily objective is to jog for 20 minutes every morning, then jog for 20 minutes every morning. Regardless of whether it’s cold and rainy or whether you don’t feel that great. Always keep the long-term rewards in mind. Don’t succumb to the immediate rewards -- such as the comfort of a warm bed. In time you will have formed a habit - a good habit. And good habits are as hard to break as bad ones.

The same self-discipline is needed in breaking a habit. If you want to stop smoking or drinking, don’t take that first cigarette or first drink. If you do, it’s too easy to take the second and third.

As an aid to self-discipline, declare your intentions to family and friends. Once you commit yourself publicly, it will be more difficult -- and embarrassing -- to back out. Enlist a partner if possible. Two or more people trying to break or form the same habit provides reinforcement for each other. And there’ll be a greater chance of making it fun. It’s so much easier to form a new habit if it’s enjoyable. Be prepared to reward yourself if you achieve your goal. That delayed vacation. New wardrobe. Whatever is meaningful to you.

And remember, there’s no such thing as “can’t”. If you want to do something badly enough, you can do it. If you don’t believe me, how do you think you would react if someone put a gun to your head and threatened to blow your brains out unless you kicked the habit. You’d probably kick it.

And some habits are as deadly as a gun at your head.

Harold Taylor Time Consultants Inc.1-800-361-8463harold@taylorintime.com

We often find a client who has approached us to sell their business, and has come to the conclusion reluctantly, many times having agonized over the decision to sell for many months. Our selling process requires the client to undergo a rigorous analysis to determine the viability of the business, its strengths and weaknesses, its current problems and its long-term opportunities. In effect, we perform due diligence on the business before it goes to market.

Warren Wilkins, founder of Webcom, has retired. We wish him well in his retirement and thank him for all his efforts and contributions to our industry.

To those of you have been following the World Cup, I hope you've been able to find time to catch a few of the games. With just four teams left to play in the tournament, I will go out on a limb and choose Germany as the winners for 2006.I had a chance to watch most of the games and was very impressed with our homegrown Canadian Owen Hargraves. It's ironic that Owen was unable to make the under seventeen team in Canada, but shone in the World Cup while playing for England. I'm sure there's a scout kicking himself now. His determination and focus made him stand apart.

I was on a trip to Alberta last month and was astonished at the boom that is happening out there. The economy is definitely on an upswing. I spoke to people who landed, and after two days had jobs that were –paying well. It definitely seems the place to be.

Congratulations to Margaret MacLeod on her appointment as Marketing Manager of the Ottawa-based printer, Tri-Graphic Printing. Marg is also manager of Digital Imaging Association.

Remember to take some time this summer. I have a friend who is currently battling cancer. He was always of the belief that there was too much work to do to take a break. Eventually it catches up to you, though. Especially in this stressful industry that we operate, it is so important to take some down time. So make a goal this summer, especially if you haven't had a break in a long time, to set your ego to one side and trust that the business will run without you. Some of my best business ideas have hit me when I'm relaxed on holidays and have stepped away from my business. You see it with a new set of eyes and a refreshed energy. Remember, business can come and go, but friends and relationships are what make the journey worthwhile. There's no one who ever said on their death bed "I should have worked more hours!"

I will finish with an Irish blessing:

Always remember to forget,

the troubles that passed away,

But never forget,

the blessings that came each day.

As always, stay positive.

Specialized markets don't always use page layout programs which have workflows designed for them. Often, workflows involve Adobe Illustrator, dielines, layers, spot colours and odd page sizes. These workflows don't fit with standard preflighting software, standard pdf workflow software, proofing systems and regular separation workflows.

Specialized prepress workflows rely on the ingenuity of the production artists, prepress specialists and colour separators. Often, they don't realize that they could be getting more by automating their tasks using Tigers Automator and Applescript on their own.

Adobe Illustrator was limited to Illustrator Actions in previous versions, but now has an Applescript Dictionary that brings the power of Applescript to all Illustrator users. Illustrator CS2 ships with some standard and sample scripts that can be altered to meet your needs.

Sample scripts will show you how to:

• Analyze documents
• Collect for output
• Create a calendar
• Create a contact sheet
• Create a dataset from text
• Export Flash Animation

Work with paths and text

The scripts can be altered to fit a specialized workflow such as removing overprints (or adding them to specific paths), get the spot colours used in a job or check out images embedded or placed in an Illustrator file. The niche markets have special needs and these can be met using Applescript and Automator.

The main reasons to automate processes are to speed them up and to eliminate errors. The less we have to touch files, the more we can reduce unnecessary errors and speed up the process. Workflows currently use Illustrator Actions to handle repetitive tasks. These existing actions can be added to any script or Automator workflow to further enhance it.

The scripting community on the internet has representatives from niche markets posting their scripts for everyone to use. I've tested scripts that create marks and bearer bars that create custom dielines. New scripts can be posted at any time.

The script supplied by Adobe to analyze documents can be altered to add any specific issue related to existing prepress software and separation rules. Text can be automatically outlined, PDFs can be created to spec if the file passes, spot colours can be inspected as well as tints, and dieline measurements can be added to a report.

Here is a sample script that will set all the selected paths, fill and stroke to overprint. You can change it to false to turn off overprints. Illustrator users understand how unreliable selecting several objects and applying an overprint can be.

The "do script" at the beginning calls an Illustrator Action in an Action set called "Workflow Actions." This action unlocks all and selects all, but you can manually select parts of the file before running this script.

This next script will print individual layers from an illustrator file, but you could easily change it to save to pdf or postcript. The point is, you don't have to create scripts from scratch – there are enough working scripts available to work with and alter to your own needs.

Some hints to help you along the way

Open the Script Editor on your Mac and select Open Dictionary. There you can select the Adobe Illustrator CS2 Dictionary and see all of the commands that are available to use in Applescript. The other trick is to select the Event Log in the bottom of the Script Editor window. If your script has trouble, it will show you where it bottomed out.

Once you get your feet wet, you'll find you can figure out how to make Illustrator do what you want it to do and incorporate your actions as well. You're on your way to creating the "Do It Yourself" Custom Automated Workflow!

Andrea Mahoney

TriBay Enterprise

T: 416.72939687

E: andrea@autoflowforprepress.ca

The digital revolution has made great strides in photography. digitally recorded images have replaced film to record the scenes. today's user friendly cameras adjust setting for you and capture your composition as an analog image and then convert it to digital information so it can be transferred onto the storage medium.

You've heard this before: Digital cameras do all the work. You just push the button and great pictures magically appear. The better the camera, the better the photos. Isn't that right? Heck no!

The truth is that you can make great photos with a simple consumer point-and-shoot camera, or take lousy shots with the most expensive Nikon. It's not the camera that makes beautiful images; it's the photographer. With a little knowledge and a willingness to make an adjustment here and there, you can squeeze big time photos out of the smallest digital camera.

Image Size

Resolution is the number of pixels in a liner inch (ppi). Because an image is made up of pixels, the more pixels per inch, the higher the resolution, and therefore better image quality. A 4"x6" image at 72 ppi (internet pictures are at 72 ppi has pixel dimensions of 1200x1800 more pixels=more definition.

One of the quality factors for a digital camera is the number of megapixels it is capable of handling, simply put more pixels=more definition. As an example, a 2.0 megapixel camera is capable of producing a printable 4x6 image at the recommended ppi, and a 5.0 megapixel camera can create a printable 6x9 image at 300ppi.

Warm up those tones

Have you ever noticed that your shots sometimes have a cool, clammy feel to them? If so, you're not alone. The default white balance setting for digital cameras is auto, which is fine for most snapshots, but tends to be a bit on the "cool" side.

When shooting outdoor portraits and sunny landscapes, try changing your white balance setting from auto to cloudy. That's right, cloudy. Why? This adjustment is like putting a mild warming filter on your camera. It increases the reds and yellows resulting in richer, warmer pictures.

Outdoor Portraits

One of the great hidden features on digital cameras is the fill flash or flash on mode. By taking control of the flash so it goes on when you want it to, not when the camera deems it appropriate, you've just taken an important step toward capturing great outdoor portraits.

In flash on mode, the camera exposes for the background first, then adds just enough flash to illuminate your portrait subject. The result is a professional looking picture where everything in the composition looks good. Wedding photographers have been using this technique for years.

High rez all the way

One of the most important reasons for packing a massive memory card is to enable you to shoot at your camera's highest resolution. If you paid a premium price for a 6 megapixel digicam, then get your money's worth and shoot at 6 megapixels. And while you're at it, shoot at your camera's highest quality compression setting too.

Final thoughts

Most digital cameras, even the consumer point-and-shoot models, have a tremendous amount of functionality built into them. By applying a little ingenuity and creativity, you can take shots that will make viewers ask, "So what kind of camera do you have?

As a business manager, you're constantly faced with the question of whether to branch into offering something new, versus concentrating on what you already know and do best. Diversification or consolidation? Venture or tried and true? Risk or safety?

Standing still is not an option in the graphic arts industry of the 21st century. Successful graphic arts businesses all too often find long-standing customers, even lucrative market sectors, dry up quickly. Look at typesetting in the 1980s, and colour separation firms in the 1990s.

Is the same thing happening to offset commercial printing?

Customers today expect high quality, low prices and fast, if not instant turnaround. And they're getting all three from Canadian printers today.

Our main feature article this edition presents four businesses run by professionals who recognize that their customers expect more than just ink on paper. They offer services that fit a defined market segment's specific needs. It's their unique edge in the market.

To use a buzzword, they're providing "solutions."

To succeed in today's graphic arts market, you have to offer something besides fast, high-quality printing at low prices. You have to give customers a reason to come to you and stay with you.

As successful printers and just about every business pundit will tell you, customers will pay for services, but what they really want are solutions. Successful printers, like those we've profiled, recognize that print is just a part of the whole communications package, along with the Web, telephone systems, broadcasting and everything else. Many printers — many of you reading these words — have integrated the Web into your own businesses with e-commerce, Web-enabled ordering and tracking and even Web-to-print services.

And now it's our turn at Graphic Arts magazine.

Starting in September, GraphicArtsMag.com will present late-breaking news about the graphic arts industry in Canada and the world, previews of upcoming features as well as complete stories and columns from the current print edition of Graphic Arts.

So take a look at our site, and tell us what you think about it.

Have a terrific summer!

This article expounds on last month's discussion of the purposes and techniques for managing employee success, starting with additional guidelines for conducting performance appraisals.

Encourage two-way dialogue. An effective performance appraisal requires interactive conversation. Give employees the message that their opinions matter and they will get a fair hearing.

To stimulate discussion, ask open-ended questions such as: "What achievements are you most proud of this year?"; "In your opinion what's the best way to...?"and "Are there obstacles to your success on the job?"

Coach people. When discussing problems, talk empathetically with employees in a way that helps them understand the situation and develop a plan to improve it. Your support will have a long-term impact on them personally and increase their effectiveness in the organization.

Identify and agree on goals for the coming year. The goals should be measurable and/or observable. They should be a stretch but also achievable. Tie these goals in with both: (1) corporate goals, and (2) personal value to the employee. Be prepared to sell your suggestions to staff who may not be receptive to your ideas, and to listen to alternatives proposed by employees.

It makes sense to develop a collaborative plan that works for both of you. Allowing employees to be part of the planning and problem-solving process aids their development and motivates them. People who take part in the process assume ownership of it. They acquire a personal interest in achieving the goals they help to develop.

Summarize the results in writing, including your observations, the employee's comments, and any resulting action plans. Make two copies – one for the employee's file and one for the employee. This documentation becomes a valuable tool for decision-making about such matters as salary increases, training budgets and promotions. And in the event that it becomes necessary to demote or terminate an employee based on inadequate performance, you have the necessary documentation in place to support your decision.

Always keep communication channels open

Remember, in building effective working relationships and staff commitment to the company, formal performance appraisals are no substitute for regular, interactive communication with employees. At PrintLink, when we ask candidates why they want to move from their present place of employment, many cite a lack of communication. Employees express frustration over not knowing how they're doing, how the company is doing, or what changes are occurring – and what they hear is not coming from their supervisors.

Employee recognition programs and incentive-based compensation

After the discipline of structured performance appraisals is over, a strategically timed opportunity exists to recognize and reward employees for the value they've already brought to your company over the past year. The beauty of this timing is that it establishes a results-first sequence – plus, there are practically an infinite number of creative ways to express tangible appreciation to employees within your budget. Here are just a few ideas:

• Monetary bonus
• Framed certificate of acknowledgement
• Gifts bearing the company logo
• Gift certificates for activities or products that include families or significant others
• Use of a reserved parking spot for the "Employee of the Year"
• Tickets to industry-related events
• Perks like a car allowance, cellphone or a hand-held organizer
• Anything else you can think of. Just don't forget to publicize loud and clear to all your employees that you do measure, recognize and reward excellence.

It's never too late

A company can adopt a system of annual performance appraisals any time – even businesses that have gone a number of years without formal and consistent performance reviews. The trick is to plan and conduct the appraisals with professionalism and care, and to be sure to review everyone in the company.

The main thing to remember is that implementing and maintaining effective performance-appraisal and recognition programs yields far greater rewards than the effort and expense consumed by the process, including the following benefits:

• More clearly defined job functions and expectations
• An effective monitoring and measuring system for job performance
• Increased productivity since employees do better, accomplish more and are motivated to work toward making your company more successful
• Results first, if your performance-appraisal system is tied to recognition and incentives
• Improved staff retention because of better employee motivation
• Supervisors and managers are more focused on staff performance
• Increased customer satisfaction as a result of higher service levels from staff
• Potential for improved profits

The list can go on, but to sum it up succinctly: Motivated employees are valuable assets – and performance appraisals help keep them motivated.       

Victoria Gaitskell is a placement specialist with PrintLink, a professional placement firm for the graphic communications industry. T: 1 877 413-2600 E: vgaitskell@printlink.com