Whether you are using Acrobat 7 Professional or whether you are up to speed with Acrobat 8, the built in features for batch processing PDF files are at your fingertips. Too often we pass over PDFs in favour of supplied native files just because the bleed box is not set or you want to add standard slug items to a page for proofing.

Using the Batch processing in Acrobat you can create a sequence that will preflight your PDFs, change the page size, trim box and bleed box of PDFs, and add custom watermarks in the slug area and page numbers on each page.

You can run your batch using the Batch Processing dialog under the Advance menu in Acrobat 7. Select New Sequence and give it a name.

1. Select “Sequence of Commands” with the Select Commands button and choose the tasks you want to run. There are several groups to choose from: Comments, Document, JavaScript, Page, and Preflight.

Page
Fix the page size with the Crop pages command and adjust your trim and bleed boxes to show bleed if it is there. Edit the Crop Pages command to set your values. Do this one step at a time—with one for each change, you will have three crop box commands in your batch. (example: Start with a page size of 9.25 x 11.75. Then setup the trim to be .375 all the way around. Bleed will be .25 around.) Next add Number pages. Set to 1,2,3,4 or any other choice. Then Add Printer Marks and edit to set them up the way you like.

Document
Add Watermark—I use this to place an Illustrator slug at the bottom of the page.

Update description with title, subject, author, and keywords. You may not use them now but since you are automating they could come in handy when you upgrade your workflow.

Preflight
Select the preflight command and run your standard preflight.

Choose the Edit button when any of the above commands are selected and you can change the settings to suit your needs. If you want any of these commands to be interactive, just select the box on the left of the command and it will stop for your input if needed. Just be warned that it will stop for every file.

It is important to put your commands in the proper order. You want to enlarge your page and set the trim and bleed and crop before placing a slug outside the trim area. Use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to fine tune your setup.

When setting up your Preflight command, choose the Profile you want to use. You have the option of moving successful files to a new folder and the failed preflight files into another. Turn on Create report to have a report follow the failed job into the folder. There is also an option of a summary report. A PDF will be created listing all the files that ran through the batch as well as whether they passed or failed.

2. Run Commands on a Selected folder, file, or open files. “Ask when run” is the other choice. You have the ability to allow other types of files besides PDFs to run through your batch. JPEGs, TIFFs, Postscript, and EPS files among others are allowed and will automatically be converted to PDF.

3. Select Output Location.
Changed files can be saved in the same folder as the originals or a chosen folder The option of not saving changes is available as well. In the output options you can rename files you have adjusted by adding info to the beginning or end of the file name. The final addition to this batch is a final optimize as the files are saved.

Now, automatically, we have PDFs that are preflighted, sorted as good and bad with a preflight report, and we have a renamed working copy. The working documents have a larger canvas size, proper bleed box and trim box, and a slug with the company logo and signoff information from an illustrator file at the bottom. The finishing touch is that the files are optimized to reduce the size of scaled images and embedded fonts.

You do not need any third party products to perform these tasks. The technology is built right into Acrobat. The beauty of it is its speed in processing the files. (Notice that the files did not even open because the open command was left out of the sequence.)

Automating tasks gives you an opportunity to move along files that are indeed supplied as good files and enables you to focus on the files that actually need work done.
    
Andrea Mahoney
Workflow Automation Specialist
TriBay Enterprise
416.729.9687 www.tribay.ca

Anyone interested in previewing an overview of the Xerox 1:1 Lab’s Proof of Concept—developed through a collaboration between Xerox and Terminal Van Gogh to create data-driven one-to-one marketing programs—can visit www.xerox.ca. Or you could have done what some service providers, vendors, and industry leaders in print buying and prepress did—attend a seminar presented by the DIA, hosted by Xerox at the world-class Xerox Research Centre.

DIA Board member and Xerox representative Rebecca Buffi introduced this educational seminar. The host presenters for the evening were Helene Blanchette of Xerox Canada and Mathieu Peloquin, V.P. of Marketing for Reader’s Digest, Canada.

The Objective
An informal dialogue between Helene and Mathieu demonstrated a real-world example of masterful harnessing of the power of Data Driven Marketing. Transcontinental Printing and their client Reader’s Digest of Canada—already an impressive leader in direct marketing—challenged the Xerox 1:1 Lab to find innovative ways of using data mining technology to increase response and sales.

Helen and Mathieu discussed how the Lab progressed, starting with strategic team meetings to create an agenda and a target outcome. A project plan evolved from these discussions.

Application of Data Driven 1:1 Communications in Action was applied via variable 4-colour image printing, to the personalization of stamps, cheques, and letters—all interactively targeted to prompt responses from Reader’s Digest clients.

Existing clients with the same matching personal criteria were mailed various test packages specifically designed for them by the Lab using the above envelope insertions. The test mailings were categorized and the results tabulated comparing the outcome to past responses and sales from the existing clientele.

The Benefits
The respective test packages, each having some common elements and some unique personal variances, all showed improvements in response and sales. Response rates improved anywhere from 9% up to 111%. Similar sales increases also occurred, with increases tracked to each test package that ranged from 16% to 74%. Mathieu told the audience that Reader’s Digest felt a benchmark increase in sales of 16% would validate the success of the personalized approach. The tabulated outcome far exceeded his expectations.

The Xerox 1:1 Lab experience was truly a success of great magnitude for Reader’s Digest and Xerox. The Xerox 1:1 Lab’s objective is to dramatically redesign print communication for participating companies and their direct mail campaigns by delivering results that can be measured.

The Digital Imaging Association is pleased to present programs that exemplify innovation and success. Concluding comments for the presentation at Xerox of the Reader’s Digest case study clearly reiterated the objectives and the quantified results of the project.
Some of the other companies that have benefited from the impact of the program are Staples, Solidarity Fund QFL, Tourism B.C., and the Conference Board of Canada.

At the end of the presentation case study hand outs on the above companies were distributed to all who attended, showing the effectiveness of the 1:1 Lab programs for each.

The Digital Imaging Association offers a dependable and cost-effective way to stay current with the industry—achieved by asking experts in various fields to address topics of interest to the membership. Become a member of the Digital Association today to take part in informational sessions like this one. As a member of the DIA, you’re not just a name on a list. You become part of a network of professionals dedicated to the strength and future of the industry.

The privilege of membership in the DIA enables companies to send as many employees as they deem appropriate to each meeting at no additional charge above the low cost of membership. Contact Marg Macleod, Association Manager 416-696-0151 or marg@digitalimagingassoc.ca.
    
Myrna Penny
Managing Director, PrintLink Canada
mpenny@printlink.com
905-842-2600
1-877-413-2600 (toll free in Canada)

Succession planning is often difficult, but the following are five important people–handling strategies that can be applied profitably in every succession–planning scenario:

1. Working their way through your company from the ground up is not always necessary to build future leaders. Besides getting an appropriate education, it may be best if your potential successors gain work experience and new perspectives with other companies in the printing industry—or even in settings outside the industry—in order to develop their abilities to succeed in different circumstances.

2. Leadership candidates should be given experience in different parts of your company in order to understand how it operates as a whole.  A further reason to move candidates around is to give them the opportunity to build trusting relationships with key staff, suppliers, and customers.

3. Avoid the “boss’s kid” syndrome.  If you’re handing over your business to your children, they need the same skills you would seek if you went looking for an outsider to take over your company.  Your children should enter the business at a level of authority and responsibility appropriate for their background, and their salary and advancement should be based on the same criteria that apply to any other employee.  Such a methodology instills appropriate respect on all sides for qualifications and experience, and makes it clear to everyone (including your offspring) that they have earned their place in the company.

4. In all cases, open communication is essential.  Otherwise rumors abound, and the people you have identified as successors may leave for reasons of uncertainty. Your top performers always have opportunities to go elsewhere; thus it helps to engage them in the succession planning process early and let them know you realize they always have a choice.

Open communication is also crucial in transforming succession decisions from a process of dark, secretive collusion practised behind closed doors into a transparent, established discipline with a fair system of evaluation and recognized measures of accountability and performance. Therefore there are two keys to communicating about succession planning effectively with employees: one is talking openly with staff about their own potential and how to achieve it; and the other is communicating the objective, systematic criteria that apply to succession decisions at your company. Such an open, systematic approach reinforces the teamwork and collaboration that are increasingly recognized as chief hallmarks of good leadership.

One minor caveat is that companies that foster open succession planning may discover not everyone likes the idea. They sometimes encounter resistance from managers who worry about job security and think they are more valuable if they are the only people who know their own jobs. There are two ways to counter that attitude: on the negative side, you can point out that managers who don’t identify and equip a successor to handle their jobs are under performing by putting the company at risk. Or taking a more positive tack, you can demonstrate that the company values staff who assume responsibility for succession planning.

5. Capitalizing on an age–blended workforce is critical to a smooth succession initiative.  A significant number of organizations are expected to cope with the reduced future workforce by offering phased retirement and “retires on call” programs in which older employees work fewer hours both before and after retirement.  Such programs allow older workers to continue contributing their invaluable knowledge and experience to the business.  

You can maximized the value of such programs by assigning some training and mentoring activities to retirees.  In cases where your chosen successors are not yet ready to assume senior roles, the solution may be identifying someone already on board your staff in a senior capacity to groom a selected candidate for the future, or else hiring someone from outside for that express purpose.  (But in these cases, you need to make sure everyone is well aware of the plan—the mentor, your family, and the other people within the company.)  

Because of the dynamics of today’s business climate and workforce, hiring managers are factoring in succession considerations more and more often when making their hiring decisions. No matter what your scenario, your task is always that of hiring the best individuals to achieve present and future objectives.  It is the unique aspects of each person and situation—and not a one–size–fits–all solution—that will determine the best possible succession strategy.

   Victoria Gaitskell, Placement specialist
PrintLink    1.877.413.2600
vgaitskell@printlink.com

Although offset lithography was invented more than a century ago, it took more than 50 years before it replaced letterpress and became the pre–eminent method of commercial printing. It has barely been 20 years since the introduction of production digital printers. Yet, unlike previous printing methods, digital and offset presses often coexist in the same plant. Many printers have added digital print to their traditional offset business. For many printers, each serves a different need, application, or market. Others mix offset and digital in the same job.

It is often forgotten that, while the volume of commercial digital print is still dwarfed by conventional offset, many, if not most, Canadian printers have both offset and digital capabilities. In research conducted for PRIMIR (www.primir.org) on the small commercial and quick print market, we found that about 70% of printers with less than 20 employees—a category comprising more than 80% of Canadian printers—own a digital printer, with an overall revenue split of 40% offset and 30% digital. (The balance of revenue comes from prepress, fulfillment, brokered print, and other ancillary services.) Many large general commercial and specialty printers also have digital equipment.

While some printers run their digital and offset operations as two distinct businesses, increasingly these technologies coexist peacefully in the same location. Digital has clear advantages for short runs, where variable information is required, or for fast–turnaround work. The advantages of offset in range of applications and cost are well known.

An important reason to have both digital and offset is the flexibility that it provides. Kwik Kopy of PEI, which recently was named Kwik Kopy franchisee of the year for the second time, has a full complement of both offset and digital system. The 23–year–old company first added monochrome digital equipment in 1998 and added colour a year later.

Their digital production printers are predominantly Xerox and include a variety of colour and monochrome devices such as the Xerox DocuColor 12 and 240 and Canon 3200, and the Xerox Nuvera 120 for monochrome. They also have HP 5500 and Agfa Grand Sherpa wide format inkjet printers. Their offset presses include a Printmaster 52–5 and a Speedmaster 52–4, added with the recent purchase of

Transcontinental’s local sheetfed operations. About 60% of their work is offset–related, 40% digital.

Shawn Mackenzie, who owns the company with his brother Troy, notes that “having both offset and digital provides flexibility. For example, we just got a job of 720 copies of a 36–page 2–colour [document]. We were able to run 20 digital copies right away, then provide the balance later. It bought us some time. Or, we may need to do 10,000 brochures, but do 200 digital to meet an immediate need, and then do the rest later.”
The key factors in deciding whether to print a job offset or digitally are cost, deadlines, and press scheduling. Mackenzie “always gives the customer the option between offset and digital [if appropriate],” explaining differences in turnaround and cost. Turnaround is usually faster with digital, as offset has drying and finishing requirements. Digital tends to be faster and easier, requiring fewer people and less skill.
Mackenzie believes that their offset work will increasingly shift to digital as the breakeven rises. “It was 250 [copies]. Now it’s 500. Soon it will be 1,000. The jobs are getting easier, and faster. Digital costs are falling. We’ll also do more variable.”

Another approach is the direct– or digital imaging (“DI”) type press, which combines aspects of both offset and digital printing. By imaging plates directly on press, the DI–type press offers many of the advantages of digital print, while retaining the inherent benefits of offset. Today’s DI presses have make–ready of less than 30 sheets; saleable sheets take about 10–12 minutes from job to job.

Because of their short make–ready, DI presses are particularly suited for short–run and quick–turn work. While they can run jobs as long as 15,000 or more, they are most appropriate in runs from as low as 250 up to 5,000 impressions, which make them very competitive with toner. Study after study shows a high level of owner satisfaction, and consistently high profitability. And, as it is offset, this technology is appropriate for a wide variety of applications and run lengths, using an equally wide variety of substrates and paper stock, pigment based and specialty inks, colours, metallics, etc.

Contact Printing & Mailing of Vancouver recently acquired a Presstek 52–DI to replace an older 4–colour offset press. Established in 1981 by partners David Brown and Bob Gibson, Contact is the largest full–service print shop on British Columbia’s north shore. With 90% of their business offset, Brown says the DI was a nice complement to their two Heidelberg Quickmaster 46–2 offset presses and Xerox DocuColor™ 5252 digital colour press.

Brown feels the quality of offset presses is still superior to digital. “There’s no comparison between offset and digital… They’re not the same.” DI presses are offset and have all the associated advantages: a wider variety of stocks, range of colours, bindery performance, and the ability to capitalize on the economic benefits of offset printing in short run colour applications. And while the quality of digital colour has improved, offset still better meets customer expectations for image quality and durability. Brown says the advantage of offset is particularly noticeable for work with a lot of finishing and folding, such as brochures. Compared to conventional offset, the DI provides faster turnaround. “With the DI, turnaround is so much quicker. With its fast drying time, we can print and deliver in same day,” Brown notes. “With offset, [we] have to leave it overnight.”

Brown uses the colour digital press for very short run colour jobs, particularly when price is a factor. The current “break–even” is less than 500 pieces, when the DI becomes more cost effective. Nevertheless, the DI has been used for even shorter runs, even less than 100, when “the client needed the quality.”

Having both offset and digital in the same location also means that offset and digital can be mixed in the same job. Contact also mixes offset and digital on the same job. For example, Brown often finds it cost effective to print covers on the 5252 and simple black and white on a

QuickMaster for runs of 400 or 500. He also frequently runs covers on the DI and the body of the job on the QuickMaster. Alternatively, if the job has only a little colour, that would be done digitally and the rest offset for black and white.

On the other hand, Kwik Kopy of PEI’s Mackenzie says that 95% of their book work is produced digitally, with offset covers. “Digital doesn’t do as nice a job. [Offset covers] look better, and don’t crack as much.”

Bassett Direct, a $10 million Markham, Ontario provider of direct marketing services, has taken a different approach. With a complete integrated offering for the direct mail of its large corporate clients, Bassett produces envelopes, brochures, and letters, as well as managing database, forms set up, personalization, and lettershop services. With its focus on personalized direct mail, its internal work is almost completely variable and thus produced digitally on an array of devices, including Xerox DocuColor 8000, Xerox iGen3, and Xeikon 5000 colour presses, as well as Xerox monochrome and 2–colour printers with MICR capabilities. While they own no offset presses, in order to offer a total service around printing and direct mail, they have aligned with sheetfed printers.

For Bassett, run–length isn’t the major differentiating factor between offset and digital. President Rich Bassett comments, “[There’s a] thin line where it makes sense to go conventional.” Client campaigns range from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand pieces. If the job has only static colour images, and if the quantities are large, Bassett will print an offset shell and digitally print the personalization in black. Kwik Kopy of PEI also frequently uses an offset shell. In addition to common applications such as mail merge with a pre–printed letterhead or business cards, they have produced customized brochures and invitations to trade shows and personalized packages for season ticket holders for sporting and cultural events.

Bassett Direct will also split jobs between offset and digital. For example, a recent bi–lingual campaign required 100 000 pieces in English and another 12 000 in French. As the images were static, they printed the English portion with conventional offset but the French digitally. Bassett notes it was the more cost effective approach.

Digital presses have the advantages of being able to do variable data imaging and ultra–short run lengths. They are also particularly good for applications where there are multiple forms, especially if the requirements are immediate (timely information, quick–turn, short run). President Rich Bassett recalls a project with 2500 images being brought into mailing pieces from a data file—“you couldn’t make that many plate changes using traditional offset.”

Most of the attention paid to digital has naturally been focused on the equipment and the printing process. Typically, a different workflow was introduced for each type of production process, as both traditional prepress companies focusing on offset and providers of digital presses provide workflows. But yet again, digital/offset combinations contravene this tradition. There are a number of possible combinations of offset and digital work, leading to multiple work processes for offset, colour digital, and monochrome digital.

These combinations are further complicated with the introduction of web–to–print solutions and personalized communications. Multiple workflows can lead to bottlenecks and errors in prepress and file preparation. It is thus imperative to understand and adopt processes and a workflow to insure smooth, efficient, and error–free production. Ideally, the experience, interface, and workflow should at the very least be comparable.

As a result, vendors such as Kodak and Xerox have developed workflows that are meant to be integrated or unified. According to Jon Bracken, Vice President of Marketing Workflow and Prepress Equipment (WPE) for Kodak in Vancouver, the goal is to combine traditional offset functionality and quality with digital print sensibility and cost structures. That means applying technology and automation to minimize requirements for operator intervention.

Bracken comments that the approach that Kodak is taking with its Unified Workflow is “not only the idea of a single workflow, but trying to identify the issues in colour, production, business, and data that affect the overall workflow.” Based on Prinergy and other existing Kodak products, it enables a printer to grow into digital print, including variable data, using the same workflow. Jeff Hayzlett, chief marketing officer for the Graphics Communication Group notes that Kodak’s goal with an integrated workflow is to provide consistent print quality, improve customer control, provide operational productivity and system output, and improve return on investment.

FreeFlow from Xerox takes a somewhat different approach. FreeFlow is also an umbrella that encompasses a number of integrated, automated, and modular workflow solutions from Xerox and partner companies. Deb Cantabene, Vice President Workflow Marketing for Xerox’ Production System Group (PSG), notes that FreeFlow can be added to existing offset workflows such as Kodak Prinergy and Heidelberg Prinect, without changing existing processes.

Files go from the prepress workflow to FreeFlow Print Manager, formatted and laid out correctly for the digital print. Integrating offset and digital print technologies with a single, unified workflow enables last–minute decisions about whether to send the job to the offset press or the digital press.

To be sure, it is possible to keep things simple. Contact Printing of North Vancouver uses Prinergy EVO, Kodak’s most basic prepress workflow. Kwik Kopy of PEI, on the other hand, uses different workflows for offset and digital. For those occasions when a job is split, they use the PDF created in their Agfa Apogee Prime offset workflow. Nevertheless, owner Shawn Mackenzie recognizes the need for a more integrated workflow and anticipates moving in that direction after purchasing a more capable and sophisticated colour digital press next year.

It is clear that there is a place for both offset and digital production. Each has strengths that complement each other. Printers increasingly see the value of incorporating both in a unified production environment. Unlike the early days of digital print, where the vastly different economic models forced printers to adopt different manufacturing, administration, and sales processes, many printers find the key to success today is offering a seamless, integrated, and transparent offering to meet their customers’ needs.
    
John Zarwan is an independent analyst and consultant living in Prince Edward Island. He has been involved with digital printing since the early 1980s and can be reached through his website, www.johnzarwan.com.

The Grafik’Art trade show delighted attendees from April 19 to 21 in Montreal. Exhibitors displayed their newest products and services in over 100 000 square feet of display space. Last month, you heard from some of the people there—this month, we’ll talk about some of the products. Following are the hottest products to come out of Grafik’Art in alphabetical order.

Canon
Canon was showing off its imageRUNNER 7105. At 105–ppm (letter), the imageRUNNER 7105 is perfectly suited for central reproduction departments, print–for–pay establishments, print–on–demand applications, and large corporate offices where fast scanning, copying, and printing are required. To maximize versatility, the system is designed to meet professional printing needs with available in–line perfect bookbinding, saddle–stitched booklet finishing, hole–punching which includes comb bind, coil bind, twin loop, velo bind, and 2 or 3 hole punch, tab–feeding, and high–capacity stacking. The suggested retail price for the imageRUNNER 7105 will be around $50 000 (US).
In the large–format inkjet category, Canon and many of its dealers were showing off the popular line of imagePROGRAF printers from 17 inches up to 60 inches wide. The new imagePROGRAF line of printers is the ideal solution for any colour professional looking for impressive, full–bleed colour output, strength in paper handling, and exceptional speed in output. The ipf5000 17” 12–colour printer is selling for $1995, the ipf8000 44” 12–colour printer is $5995, and the 60” 12–colour printer is $14 995 (all prices in US dollars).

Fuji
Fujifilm Graphic Systems introduced a hi–res, UV flatbed printer, the Acuity HD 2504. Specifically designed for print applications requiring fine detail and high resolution images, this press delivers both rigid and flexible point–of–purchase signage that holds up visually, even at close viewing. The printer’s ability to jet droplets as fine as 6 picolitres produces sharp, precise four–colour images with smoother transitions and quarter tones. Acuity also jets larger droplets, up to 30 picolitres, to deliver dense and uniform solid image areas. Users can expect to use up to 35 percent less ink than with a comparable fixed–droplet, six–colour printer. The Acuity HD 2504 also prints at resolutions of 1200 dpi or higher to produce crisper, more legible type in sizes as small as 6 point. With production speeds of up to 174 ft2/hr and a bed size of 49.6” x 99.2”, the Acuity HD 2504 is a hi–res, value–based UV flatbed printer.

Gandinnovations
Home town favorite Gandinnovations was showing off the Jeti 3324 UVRTR—with 24 Spectra heads, environmentally friendly UV–curable inks, and the fastest output of any UV roll–to–roll grand–format printer on the market today. The UV lamps instantly dries the ink to a number of materials including fabric, canvas, vinyl, plastic film, paper, and polyester, opening many new markets. The flexibility of printing in 6 colour with true 1200 dpi resolution on any material gives the Jeti 3324 UVRTR the highest quality of any printer in its class achieving 40 sqm/hr (450 sqft/hr) in the best quality mode. The Jeti 3324 UVRTR hosts a 3.3m (10’ 10”) print area that allows operators to get the most from the new TRUE 1200 dpi resolution, the highest quality on the market today.

HP
HP announced the HP Designjet Z6100 8 colour Printer series for large format print service providers and technical markets, such as GIS, architectural, engineering, and construction markets, expanding its industry–leading portfolio with a level of productivity, versatility and dependability. With the HP Designjet Z6100 Printer series, users across a number of industries now have a rapid, reliable, colour–accurate solution that enables them to print more applications and grow their businesses. Available in 42– and 60–inch models, the HP Designjet Z6100 can handle large print volumes. The HP Designjet Z6100 Printers are expected to be available in June 2007 and sell for around $9995 (US) for a 42” model and $15995 (US) for a 60” model.

Xerox
The Xerox 4595 Digital Copier/Printer is a high–volume, black–and–white copier/printer designed to meet the continuing need for high volume monochrome office printing. With scanning speeds up to 100 images per minute and print and copy speeds up to 95 ppm, this system is a true workhorse for high–volume environments such as office workgroups and educational and financial institutions. The Xerox 4595 is also available with a light–production finisher for a full range of output choices.

The Xerox 4595 is available immediately in North America, Europe, and developing markets. List pricing for a copier–only version of the Xerox 4595 for the office starts at $46 900 (US); the 4595 with copier and printer functionality starts at $53 200 (US).
    
Peter Dulis
Wide Format Printing Specialist
T: 647.895.3315
E: pdulis@iprimus.ca

My birthday’s coming up this month, and I’m planning on giving myself the best present ever. This year, I’m giving myself more than a million dollars for my birthday.

Let me explain: if you replace the words “million dollars,” with “RRSP”, you may start to understand where I’m coming from. It’s springtime, and since I like to think of my birthday as a “fresh start” (I also apply this methodology to New Year’s Eve, September, and sometimes Mondays), I figured it would be the perfect time to get started on saving.

Have you thought about your financial well–being lately? If you’re like most Canadians, you’re probably thinking, “I’d like to save some money for the future, but I don’t have enough to start now.” Well, I’m here to tell you that you do have enough! According to The Automatic Millionaire, by David Back, everyone has enough money to set some aside. It’s just a question of how you think.

Bach explains that if you invested just $200 every two weeks for 25 years in a retirement account that earned an annual return of 10 percent, you would end up with $1 678 293.78. Now, I don’t know about you, but I could definitely use that much money some day down the road. But to be honest, $100 a week sounds like a lot. It’s $14 a day (which, according to my book, is actually only $10—you’ll have to pick up a copy to find out why).

Do remember that putting money into an RRSP reduces your taxable income—so most people are actually better off to put the money into an RRSP than to declare it part of their income (it’s not a total tax loophole, though—you’ll have to pay the taxes when you take your money out). Bach and other writers call it “paying yourself first.” There’s also something he calls the “Latte factor,” which explains how most people spend a bit of money each day on small purchases such as coffees, muffins, and cigarettes. “Over time, money compounds. Over a lot of time, money compounds dramatically,” according to Bach.

You can start today to get your money working for you. Meet with a personal financial consultant who can advise you on the best investments for your situation, income needs, and risk tolerance. Setting aside a part of your income today will ensure you have a safety net tomorrow.
Saving does not come naturally to many of us. We want what we want when we want it. But if we follow some simple strategies, it will become easier and easier. Here’s what I plan on doing:

1Make it Automatic: I can barely remember to pay my bills on time, let alone make a cheque out every month for some retirement plan I won’t see for another forty years! If I set up my bank account to take “x” out of my account each month, I’ll rarely have to think about it.

2Pay My Credit Cards Off in Full: OK, I admit, I actually do this anyway. So I know for sure that I have one financial goal accomplished! Racking up high–interest credit card debt is easy to do, especially in our credit–based society. If you only spend what you have, and look at the credit card as a convenient pay method rather than a Maybe–I’ll–Pay–It–Off–One–Day–But–Now–I–Really–Want–Those–Boots–Card, you’ll find it easier and easier to pay off the full amount each month. So, bring on the airmiles, establish your credit, and pay it off in full.

3The Latte Factor: I’m not a coffee–holic, but I do frequent a little sushi shop down the street on my lunch hour. Dramatic lifestyle changes are not necessary, but cutting back a little here or there will really help with my $14 a day goal!

4Pay Myself First: According to Bach, we should all be “paying ourselves first,” which basically means that you should take a percentage of your income and set it aside for your RRSP before you spend it on other items.

If you feel like you wish you had started earlier, don’t despair. Go see a financial planner to help you get on the right track. Numbers can be boring, but if you’re glazing over, just picture yourself on a cruise ship sipping a Bahama Mama when you are sixty five, saying “I’m so glad I put that money away when I was young!!” It is never too late to start—David Bach also wrote a book called Start Late, Finish Rich.
    
Jasmine Brooks, Project Coordinator
MPR Communication
jbrooks@mprcommunication.com

Hey, did you read that email from marketing? Have you checked your voicemail lately? Isn’t it time for a coffee break? I think I just heard your Blackberry go off, and your daughter’s on line two—she needs you to pick her up at school. If you leave now to pick her up, you can probably make it back in time to sit at your desk and be distracted instead of doing any real work for another half hour or so!

 Distraction is a large part of any working day—or perhaps we should say that work is a decent–sized (one hopes!) part of any distracting day. The average North American office worker is interrupted—by the phone, an email, a conversation, or the realization of an immediate need for a water cooler trip—once every three to five minutes during a typical workday.

As if that’s not alarming enough, a full one third of tasks fall by the wayside after an interruption, either forgotten permanently or not returned to until later that day, week, or month. Even this article could be distracting you from more important work—how many times do you pick up an article just for a break and end up reading half the issue?

As with any office problem, there are small changes and big changes you can make to rid yourself of distraction. We’ll focus on some small but effective changes that may just whet your appetite for even bigger changes in the weeks and months ahead.

Email isn’t everything...
How many times do you check your email each day? If you’re like most people, the answer is almost certainly in the double (dare I say triple?) digits. Ask yourself if constant email or Blackberry checking is really making you more efficient. Most likely, it is instead confusing the urgent with the important and distracting you from the tasks that really do need to get done.

Decide to check email only at certain times of day, such as first thing in the morning, before lunch, after lunch, and at the end of the day. Perhaps send an email to your colleagues and clients informing them of your new policy. If something is really important enough for an immediate response, they can always call you (in the case of clients) or, in the case of colleagues, even amble over to your desk for a face–to–face chat.

Also on the topic of emails, set up folders in Outlook or another mail management program to sort your emails by sender or subject. A one–time investment in a good sorting system will save you lots of time and distraction later.
...and neither are phone calls.

Answering the phone is also not as important as we make it out to be. If you’re in the midst of drafting an important letter or just about to finish an estimate for an important client, consider letting your phone ring through to voicemail. The advent of caller I.D. makes it easier to determine whether immediate action is required or whether this particular caller could wait and receive a call back later. Check your voicemail at predetermined times throughout the day—frequently enough that you’re up to date, but not so often that it’s interfering with the rhythm of your work.

The important things are most important
Almost all of the tips above come back to one central issue: the elevation of the urgent at the expense of the important. When we allow distractions to rule our lives, we are most often elevating urgent matters—a phone ring, an email beep, a Blackberry buzz—over important ones, such as finishing a project well and on time.

So the next time you’re tempted to check email just in case, to answer the phone in the midst of an important face–to–face conversation, or to volunteer to clear the table after dinner just so you can sneak into the kitchen and check your Blackberry (don’t laugh, it’s a true anecdote), consider whether what you’re doing is truly important, or whether it is merely urgent. Don’t let distractions rule your life.
    
Catherine M.A. Wiebe
catherine@graphicartsmag.com

...at the office
If your business is expanding, hiring a personal assistant can dramatically change your life for the better.

A personal assistant is not a receptionist, secretary, or someone whose duties you share with two or three other people. A true personal assistant is totally dedicated to you and excels at the tasks you don’t enjoy. A personal assistant should free you from the mundane jobs that clutter your week so you can focus entirely on your most brilliant activities.

Carefully selecting your personal assistant is critical to your future health. Select the right person and your life will become a simpler, your stress levels will diminish, and you’ll have a lot more fun. Select the wrong person and you will only compound your current problems.
When hiring a personal assistant, list the tasks you want your assistant to be completely responsible for. Most of your list should comprise activities you want to discard from your own agenda.

When you interview, have the top three applicants complete a personal profile evaluation. There are several good ones on the market. (Check out kolbe.com) Make up a profile of your ideal candidate before you begin your selection campaign. Usually the person who is the closest match to your ideal profile will do the best job. Of course, you must also take consider attitude, honesty, integrity, and experience. Do not select someone just like you, as you want someone who complements, rather than competes with, your skills.

It is essential to surrender to your personal assistant. Executives often think that “nobody can do these things as well as I can.” That may be true. However, what if your assistant could do these tasks 75 percent as well initially? With proper training and communication, your assistant will eventually do these activities as well as you, and may outperform you in many of them.

So give up the need for total control—it’s holding you back. Ask yourself, “How much am I worth per hour?” If you are running around doing low-income activities, give them up to someone with better organizational ability and a passion for details.

Schedule time frequently—at least once a week—to discuss your agenda with your personal assistant. If these potentially great relationships disintegrate, it is usually from lack of communication.

Also, allow reasonable learning time for your new partner. Set up screening methods with your assistant that protect you from all the potential distractions and interruptions, so you can focus on what you do best. Be open to input and feedback. Often, your assistant will create better ways to organize your office. Rejoice if this happens—you’ve found a real winner.

...and at home
No matter where you live, keeping a home in first-class condition requires maintenance. If you have children, the problem is magnified according to their age and ability to destroy. Think of all the time spent in a typical week cooking, cleaning, fixing things, and running errands. These activities are the ongoing stuff of life and, depending on your mood, you enjoy them, put up with them, or resent them.

What if you could find a way to minimize these tasks, or, even better, eliminate them? Freedom and relaxation would be sure to follow. Simply put, if you want to free up your time, get help. Although the initial price may seem steep, the benefits far outweigh the cost.
Most of the help you require will be part time. For example, hire someone to do house cleaning once a week, or every other week.
   We found a wonderful couple who have cleaned our home for twelve years. They love their work. They are honest, caring people. Not surprisingly, they do a fantastic job. The investment? Only sixty dollars per visit. The benefit? Several hours freed up and more energy to enjoy the week.

Is there a retired handyman in your neighborhood? Many experienced older people have terrific skills and are looking for little part-time jobs to keep them busy. These activities give them a sense of fulfillment. Usually, money isn’t their primary need.

Make a list of all the things at home that need servicing, fixing or upgrading and that you never seem to get around to. Release your stress and hire someone.

That someone will be happy to use his or her skills. And you can eliminate the frustration of trying to do all those fix-up jobs that you’re no good at, and don’t even have the tools for.

Cutting grass, weeding, trimming, watering plants and bushes, and raking all need to get done, and can be done well by students. Look around your neighborhood for an enterprising teenager—there are lots of young people who work hard and get the job done right. It’s inexpensive compared to the professionals, though it is important to compensate your labourers fairly.

Think of all the extra time you’ll have. You could reinvest those valuable hours into your own best money-making activities, or have real time to relax and re-energize with your family and friends. Maybe this new freedom allows you to embark on that hobby you’ve always wanted to pursue, or enjoy more time for sports. You’re employing others while freeing time for yourself. So why aren’t you doing it already?
    
Les Hewitt, author / business coach
(403) 295-0500    www.thepoweroffocus.ca

One management tool that has achieved significant popularity over the past ten to fifteen years is 360 degree feedback. The basic concept is that rather than have only top down feedback, feedback on performance comes from all directions, i.e. manager to employee, subordinate to employee, and peer to peer.  

Theoretically, the concept is sound, and it has thus gained a lot of followers. However it has not been that successful in practice. A leading consulting company did a series of studies on various practices that affected shareholder value. It found that the appraisal of managers by subordinates as well as the appraisal of peers by peers led to a decline in shareholder value.

Why has a seemingly sound concept turned out to detract from organization effectiveness?

The answer lies in at least two areas of its implementation.

i) It has too many variables (one author lists fourteen) that have to be met in order for the process to be effective.
ii) A significant number of events can occur that cause the feedback to be destructive.

Ensuring that all the variables essential to success are in place requires extensive resources and sophistication. Most small to mid-size employers do not have the resources available to successfully implement a 360 degree feedback process.

But even with a lack of resources and the proven shortcomings of the method, many organizations continue to attempt the implemention process—often to their detriment.

360 Degree Management
While considerable time and effort has been spent on trying to promote the implementation of the 360 degree feedback process, little effort or attention seems to have been paid in training managers to implement a 360 degree management process.

Most management training and development is directed towards training the manager to lead or to manage his or her subordinates. The other roles of management—managing one’s superiors and managing one’s peers—get very little attention. New or first time managers in particular may not recognize the need to manage persons other than their direct reportees. Yet managing these other relationships is frequently as vital to a manager’s success as managing subordinates.

Frequently, a manager will assume that maintaining agreeable relationships with the various stakeholders she interacts with is the same as managing the relationships. In fact, maintenance of good relations by being a “yes” man or being always agreeable may do nothing to enhance one’s ability to manage. In fact as most of us realize, the “yes” man is frequently viewed with disdain and contempt. It is often a surprise to yes men that these feelings of disdain are shared by his peer group and by the manager he is trying so hard to impress.

An effective manager needs to make a conscious effort to manage on a 360 degree basis if he or she is going to achieve optimum success. Although there may be some common management elements in each direction, there is enough dissimilarity that a manager should develop a plan—beyond blindly agreeing with superiors—as to how he or she is going to manage each group.

As organizations have relationships beyond that of the sales person and the purchasing decision maker, managers need to plan how they will manage inter-company relationships as well. This is just another facet of the 360 degree orbit today’s manager needs to consider.
In my next article we will discuss the specifics of how a manager should manage her manager in order to improve her effectiveness and enhance her personal success.

Fred Pamenter
PPBDconsulting@aol.com

I believe you have inside you a core genius... some one thing that you love to do, and do so well, that you hardly feel like doing anything else. It’s effortless for you and a whole lot of fun. And if you could make money doing it, you’d make it your lifetime’s work.

Successful people believe this, too. That’s why they put their core genius first. They focus on it—and delegate everything else to other people on their team.

For me, my core genius lies in the area of teaching, training, coaching and motivating. I love to do it, I do it well, and people report that they get great value from it. Another core genius is writing and compiling books. Along with my co-author Mark Victor Hansen and others, I have written, co-authored, compiled, and edited more than 100 books.

Compare that to the other people in the world who go through life doing everything, even those tasks they’re bad at or that could be done more cheaply, better, and faster by someone else. They can’t find the time to focus on their core genius because they fail to delegate even the most menial of tasks.

When you delegate the grunt work—the things you hate doing or those tasks that are so painful, you end up putting them off—you get to concentrate on what you love to do. You free up your time so that you can be more productive. And you get to enjoy life more.

So why is delegating routine tasks and unwanted projects so difficult for most people?

Surprisingly, most people are afraid of looking wasteful or being judged as being above everyone else. They are afraid to give up control or reluctant to spend the money to pay for help. Deep down, most people simply don’t want to let go.

Others (potentially you) have simply fallen into the habit of doing everything themselves. “It’s too time-consuming to explain it to someone,” you say. “I can do it more quickly and better myself anyway.” But can you?

Delegate Completely
One of the strategies I use and teach is complete delegation. It simply means that you delegate a task once and completely—rather than delegating it each time it needs to be done.

When my niece came to stay with us one year while she attended the local community college, we made a complete delegation—the grocery shopping. We told her she could have unlimited use of our van if she would buy the groceries every week. We provided her with a list of staples that we always want in the house (eggs, butter, milk, ketchup, and so on), and her job was to check every week and replace anything that was running low.

In addition, my wife planned meals and let her know which items she wanted for the main courses (fish, chicken, broccoli, avocados, and so on). The task was delegated once and saved us hundreds of hours that year that could be devoted to writing, exercise, family time, and recreation.

Most entrepreneurs spend less than 30% of their time focusing on their core genius and unique abilities. In fact, by the time they’ve launched a business, it often seems entrepreneurs are doing everything but the one thing they went into business for in the first place.

Many salespeople, for example, spend more time on account administration than they do on the phone or in the field making sales, when they could hire a part-time administrator (or share the cost with another salesperson) to do this time-consuming detail work. In most cases, in a fraction of the time it would take them and at a fraction of the cost.

Most female executives spend too much time running their household, when they could easily and inexpensively delegate this task to a cleaning service or part-time mother’s helper, freeing them to focus on their career or spend more quality time with their family.

Don’t let this be your fate.
Identify your core genius, then delegate completely to free up more time to focus on what you love to do.
I believe that you can trade, barter, pay for and find volunteer help to do almost everything you don’t want to do, leaving you to do what you are best at—and which will ultimately make you the most money and bring you the most happiness.

    
Jack Canfield, America’s Success Coach, is the founder and co-creator of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and the nation’s leading authority on Peak Performance. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at www.JackCanfield.com

Giorgio Brothers’ Avant Imaging & Information Management Inc. (AIIM) takes printing, marketing, customer service (and just about everything else) to the next level

Pisticci is a small, quiet city of just under 18 000 situated in the province of Matera in the picturesque region of Basilicata in southern Italy. About 6300 families live there.

The town of Aurora, north of Toronto, is also quiet and picturesque, with a population of 50 000. About 9500 families live there.

What do they have in common, other than their natural beauty?

How about Frank (President) and Mario (CEO & Chairman) Giorgio, co-founders of Avant Imaging & Information Management Inc. (AIIM), headquartered in Aurora, Ontario.

Granted, southern Italy and their hometown of Pisticci might be a long walk from Aurora, but these two brothers undoubtedly brought with them the standard, old-fashioned Italian values—common sense, hard work, ingenuity, friendliness, and a sense of giving back to the community—when they came to Canada in 1956.

Today, their company is an industry leader in commercial printing, having both adapted and adopted—adapted to the changing marketplace and adopted innovative ways to keep customers happy and the presses running.

Sometimes, say the brothers, companies are too preoccupied with the latter.

AIIM employs over 100 staff and emphasizes helping those who live and work within their community. In other words, their corporate goals may be big-city big-time, but their management approach is definitely low-key and small-town friendly.

In fact, each year, employees commit time and money to support two charities designed to help local kids—The Yellow Brick House and the

Children’s Aid Society Toy Drive.
 “My brother and I go back to the days of hot metal,” said Mario. “We’ve seen amazing changes in this industry even before we set up shop here in 1990. When computers rose to prominence, many in our industry were taken aback. We, on the other hand, embraced the new technology, knowing it would be the way of the future.”

The company’s primary business is commercial printing, offset lithography, bindery and finishing, creative and graphic design, fulfillment and distribution. Business expanded in 2004 to include digital printing, total variable and personalized printing, data analytics and direct-mail management. More recently, that impressive list expanded to include e-mail marketing services. The company currently occupies a spacious 100 000 sq. ft., including offices. They also own the building and property and rent office space.

Aiim•CONNECT leads the way
Arguably, one of the most important and well-received new services is their aiim•CONNECT, a Web-to-Print Marketing Portal, set up to help customers manage their print and direct-mail requirements online. This integrated e-commerce solution centralizes isolated print and direct mail components within one common internet-based application.

The benefits to customers are many:

• Reduces meeting time by 50% (by collaborating online)
• Reduces print management and creative costs
• Improves expense management (all projects are tracked online)
• Monitors project status (ideal for executing multiple campaigns)
• Centralizes information (no searching for artwork or images)
• Ensures brand consistency and integrity in the marketplace
• Improves marketing return on investment

The innovative program can assist and streamline virtually every phase of the printing process—from e-procurement to digital asset management to self-serve publishing. Programs can be used as stand-alone applications, or be fully integrated, depending on a customer’s operating requirements. This flexibility permits clients to use the software modules that will best support their business strategies and environment.

But the company also boasts a host of other key services that it feels are a must in today’s competitive environment. These include on-demand printing, direct-mail services, print management services, personalized one-to-one marketing, customer relationship management, advanced data services (analytics) and distribution & fulfillment.

Obviously, AIIM has evolved into a printing and marketing company. They simply had to.

MAN Roland a key ally

“Without a doubt, our business is customer-driven,” says Frank. “Three years ago we purchased a MAN Roland 700 10-colour. The results were more that we hoped for. Initially, we justified the purchase, knowing our five-colour business would grow quickly.

“What eventually happened was a huge reduction in waste because of the roll-to-sheet feeder. We decided to pass these savings along to our customers. So, when it came to quoting on yearly contracts, or developing new estimates, we could offer a reduced price just about every time.

This was an added bonus. Of course, the MAN Roland quality has remained superb, as has its back-up service.”

Today, AIIM remains very strong in servicing finance, insurance, automotive, health care, retail and not-for-profit.
“We have a long list of loyal customers who’ve been with us for 10 to 15 years” says Mario, “and our commitment to helping them do more every day will remain strong.”

With this kind of attitude, it’s no wonder that AIIM was chosen in 2003 and 2005 as one of the best managed companies in Canada. With Deloitte, CIBC, National Post and Queen’s School of Business doing the judging, AIIM was one of 200 finalists out of 12,000 participating companies during those two years.

AIIM has also earned over 240 national and international awards for quality and service excellence.

After sipping an espresso, chatting with them, checking out their plant and offices, seeing samples of their work and reading about their community efforts, I couldn’t help wondering what their friends and relatives back in Pisticci would say if they were here.
For more information, please visit www.aiim.com.

Adobe’s CS3 has hit the streets and it has enough new features to keep users talking for some time. In the interest of focus and practicality, I will focus in this article on how best to use the new Refine Edge tool when making a selection. As you use Photoshop more, you learn that making seamless and transparent selections is the key to creating realism in your work. The best selection is always one that is transparent to the viewer.

Color Range
One of the best tools for making selections is the Color Range tool located under the Select menu. Color Range is my most extensively used tool and can be an enormous time saver.

Did you know that the “sample size” of the eyedropper has an impact on your selections when using this tool? Before using the Color Range Tool, double click on the Eyedropper and be sure the sample size is set to Point Sample. The larger sample sizes will not allow you to select individual pixels.

Lets start with something straightforward and work up from there. In the image below, the client has asked us to change the colour of the tomato in the bottom right corner. To do this we need to make a selection.

Step one: Draw a rectangular marquee around the image. The goal here is to restrict the selection so not to include any other red components of the image.

Step two: Double check that your eyedropper is set to point sample by selecting the eyedropper tool and ensuring it is set to “point sample”.

Step three: Go to the Select menu and choose Color Range. Set the Fuzziness slider to 20 as a starting point. Here is where Color Range Shines—you can add or subtract from a selection by adding the shift (+) or the option (-) keys. In the tomato example, I clicked and held the shift key and dragged over the tomato to increase the range. If you mess up, you can reset the selection by holding the option key and clicking the cancel button (in order to start over) or you can subtract from the selection using the same key. Once you get a good selection, increase the “Fuzziness” slider to enhance the range.

Step four: (CS3 Only)
Once you are happy with the selection, click OK. If you are using CS3 you can refine the selection with the new “Refine Edge” tool also located in the Select menu. Here you can contract and expand, feather and visualize the selection in a new and very powerful manner.

 This technique works well when you have a colour that stands out, like the tomato example.
However, what if you needed to make a selection of the dog’s auburn fur?  You could accomplish such a task in a similar fashion. I would start by isolating the selection with the Lasso tool, as shown in the following image:

Again, drawing a marquee around the area you want to select makes the next step much easier, as it reduces the chance of other areas also being selected.

Go back to Select/Color Range. Change the selection preview to Quick Mask. Hold the shift key and drag your mouse through the selection until you have most of the fur selected.

In many cases, especially with fur and hair, additional fine-tuning is required. This is more complex to explain but I use the Quick Mask and a small brush to paint in or remove parts of the mask until I am satisfied. Below is an example of my selection that took less than 3 minutes to complete.

Learning how to make selections fast and professionally is a very powerful asset to any retoucher or colour correction professional. With the release of CS3 and the Refine Edge tool, the job of making selections has gotten a lot easier.
    
Angus Pady is the president of Digital Solutions. Complete colour control from desktop to press. T: 905.764.6003
E: Angus@ColourManagement.ca
www.colourmanagement.ca

“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I don’t want you to tell anybody else. Keep it to yourself. Are you ready? The secret is: there are no secrets!

Like it or not, we now live in a world where there are no longer any secrets. If you think for a moment that you are putting one over on your customers, you are sadly mistaken. It’s not that people are smarter than they used to be—information is just much more accessible than it used to be. Anyone with rudimentary technological tools and a bit of time can do the due diligence that will ferret out deceit, lies and fraud. A quick

Google could save you time, money, and heartache.

I recently went into a car dealership to lease a new vehicle. I met with a salesman, a nice guy with a big smile who really wanted to sell me a car today. I typically lease my vehicles for several years, trying to keep my monthly payment as low as possible. To that end, I can vary the down payment and the buy back, not to mention accounting for the intangibles such as predicted resale value several years down the road. The salesman popped these numbers and more into some software on his computer and spit me out a down payment and some monthly payment information. I looked it over and told him I would go home to think about it.

At home, a quick Google found me a site with a car lease calculator, as well as some information about my potential vehicle. I did some reading and some calculations, and discovered that the salesman’s suggested down payment was $5000 more than the amount my objective lease calculator gave me. Even after doing the arithmetic with pencil and paper I determined that my salesman buddy was wrong in his calculation. When I asked him for an explanation, he instead insisted that I should return to the dealership so he could explain or to have the business manager sit with me. I sent him my calculation by email, and even sent a copy of the lease calculator website, but still no response other than phone calls entreating me to return to the dealership.

This isn’t magic. It’s mathematics, and the numbers don’t lie. Unfortunately for that salesman, he misjudged me, and he failed to respond to my request for an explanation. He tried to use a few sales tricks on me, keeping the true value of my car a secret, which I dismissed immediately. At the end of it, for about the same money, I decided to get a Porsche.

You think you can keep secrets? Think again. The only information you can keep secret is information not shared.

You don’t tell anyone anything? Think again. Everything you write, everything you store on your hard drive, everything you think you’ve erased, is still there for anyone who really wants to see. Of course there is the issue of taking physical custody of the media and retrieving data, but that can be done, and with less effort than you ever thought possible. Everything you say and do may come back to haunt you. Everything that you write, whether it is seen by human eyes or not, may come back to bite you. The only way to keep a secret is not to tell anyone. Even professional standards of confidentiality may not protect you from your previous statements.

So what’s the moral here? Be honest. Treat your customers like sentient beings and accord them the respect they deserve. Know that they have the capacity to evaluate your integrity. Although the bar is not that high, people have the resources, if they choose to use them, to make informed decisions about you or your product or your service. All you need to do is match your offering to a willing customer. You will save yourself a huge amount of grief and you will create a satisfied patron who may be inclined to refer you for life. A satisfied customer may tell a few people, but be certain that a dissatisfied customer will tell everyone, and for a lot longer. If you’re dishonest, the secret will be out soon.
    
Sid Karmazyn, Chartered Accountant
905.771.3813
skca@idirect.com

For more than a decade, I have had the opportunity to interact with thousands of salespeople and I have discovered some myths that many of them have fallen prey to. Here are just a few.

Buyers are liars. I’m constantly amazed how many salespeople use this expression. Do customers mislead salespeople? Absolutely. But this deception usually occurs when the salesperson has failed to earn the customer’s trust.

Gaining someone’s trust means not pushing her into making a buying decision. It means focusing your attention on his situation rather than trying to close the sale. Earning trust means treating people with respect and dignity even if they are not prepared to make a buying decision right now.

Anyone can be persuaded to buy. This may be true of impulse purchases, but in today’s business world, buyers are more savvy than ever before. I once heard someone say, “If you have a strong case you will clarify it. If you have a weak case, you will try to persuade the other person.”

It is vital to determine whether or not the person or company you are speaking to has a genuine need for your product or service. If they do not, then your best strategy is to move on to someone who both needs and wants your particular solution. If a company could benefit from your product but they are reluctant to give you the opportunity to discuss things further, your time is better spent talking to other companies.

Price is the only reason people make a buying decision. I will never dispute that price is a factor in the buying process but it is not usually the primary reason, unless, of course, you fail to establish the value of your products or services. If you don’t clearly show how your solution will help your customer, price will become the default decision–making criteria.

A technique that works well for one person will work for everyone. Countless books have been written about one sales strategy or another and I have read many of them. In this search, I have discovered that we all have a unique personality, and what works well for someone may not work as effectively for another person. Even if an idea doesn’t immediately work for you, instead of discarding it, look instead for a way to integrate it into your natural style and approach.

You must close the sale quickly. This is one of the craziest beliefs. Yes, it’s important to move people towards a buying decision. Yes, it is important to gain commitments along the way. Yes, it is important to include a call to action in your proposals and conversations. But, it is also important to recognize that not every sales decision will be made quickly. Decisions can be delayed for a number of reasons, and in certain situations, trying to rush the customer to a commitment will actually cost you the sale.

Close the deal at any price. Too many people feel they have to close every deal, even if it does not make good business sense to do so. I have spoken to countless salespeople who will accept a deal that has virtually no margin just so they can get the sale. I recall talking to a store owner who quickly matched the prices of her competitor in order to prevent people from going to her competition. However, this seldom creates loyalty and only conditions that customer to continue asking for a better price, which generally ends up costing you money.

If you are not making your desired gross profit on a particular sale, then you need to consider whether it makes good business to accept it. I know small business owners who will offer substantial discounts to a large company in the hopes of generating additional business from that client in the future. Unfortunately, they end up giving away their services and expertise because they don’t get any more business from that company. They neglected to negotiate an upfront agreement.

Do whatever it takes to get the sale. Manipulative, aggressive, high–pressure sales tactics work. But they don’t create loyal customers and clients. You may win the sale, but in the long run, you will lose the customer. I once had a participant in a workshop proudly state, “I don’t care what my customers want, I’ll sell them what I need to hit my quota.” Ouch! As a sales professional I take serious offense at this mentality and type of behavior. Selling is an honorable career and sales professionals need to avoid falling prey to these myths. Focus on helping your customer make an educated buying decision. Concentrate on asking high–quality questions and positioning your solution appropriately and these myths will not fool you.
    
© 2007 Kelley Robertson, All rights reserved. Kelley Robertson, professional speaker www.kelleyrobertson.com
905.633.7750

The other day when my Macintosh started, it came up with the registration screen but it wouldn’t let me quit. So I restarted my Mac. Then it came up with an error saying “/etc/master.passwd: no such file or directory”. I don’t want to erase my files and I can’t reinstall the system. What can I do? 

Normally when a Macintosh starts up it looks for specific files on your hard drive. These files may have become damaged or corrupt during a crash or if you forced it to reboot. During start up, the machine will test its components, checking the RAM and connections and “chime” to let you know it passed the tests.

Next you’ll see the Apple logo and then the spinning pinwheel while it loads the operating system. If successful, the screen turns blue and you’ll see the mouse pointer icon. Soon after, there’s a dialog box with a progress bar indicating the extensions load and then the blue screen soon reveals the login screen (or goes directly to the Finder).

In the case of the error mentioned in the question, you don’t get to the login screen because the Macintosh cannot find certain files it needs to log you in. This is where we rescue the Mac using our UNIX arsenal of tools. If you’ve followed my columns you’ll know that one of the things I love about Mac OS X is that it is at its heart based on UNIX. What has happened here is that a couple of UNIX directories are missing (or seem to be.)

There are at least three ways to get to the command line on a Mac that won’t start. You could use a FireWire cable to plug it into another Macintosh in target mode. To enter target mode, you hold down the “T” key while your Mac starts. You’ll see a FireWire Icon (instead of an Apple logo) and your drive will appear on the second Mac as a hard drive—but you won’t see the UNIX files that we need to fix except on the command line.

Insert the Tiger Install DVD into the DVD drive. Then hold the “C” key while starting your Macintosh. When the Installer starts, choose “English” and click “Continue”. At the next screen you’ll see a Utilities menu, from which you can choose “Terminal”. Voila! The command line appears. To navigate to your drive (since you started from the DVD) you change directories or type “cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD” and press return (pressing “Return” executes a UNIX command).

If you don’t have the DVD, you can start the Mac holding the “S” key. This will start the Mac in “Single User Mode” and your monitor will be a terminal. Next mount the drive by typing “mount –uw /” and press Return. You’ll already be on your hard drive so navigate to top (or root) of the drive with: “cd /”.

Next you should check and to see if two files are present. These are actually “symbolic links”, the UNIX equivalent of Mac “aliases” or Windows “short cuts”. So we list the contents of our hard drive with “ls –la” and you should look for two items named “etc” and “var”. The reason why the Macintosh can’t start is because one of these is missing or damaged. They should appear as “etc –> /private/etc” and “var –> /private/var”.
If they don’t appear as described above then we can rename them with “mv” and the recreate the symbolic links. So type “mv etc etc.bad” or “mv var var.bad” – followed by a “return” and the files will be renamed. To recreate the symbolic links we type “ln –s /private/etc etc” (return) and/or “ln –s /private/var var” (return). Then we once again check to see that the files are there and correct with list. Type “ls –la”.

If they appear to be correct:
lrwxrwxrwx–t 1 root admin (date) etc –> /private/etc
lrwxrwxrwx–t 1 root admin (date) var –> /private/var

Then you can restart the Mac by typing “reboot” and pressing Return.

When the Mac restarts, the setup screen may appear again. Create a second user account and when the Finder loads you’ll be able to switch to your regular account.
    
Timothy Mitra, IT specialist (IT Guy)
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