Almost every small to medium sized has focused a great deal of energy lately on just staying in business. Recessions, layoffs and health care seem to dominate every discussion. However, things are changing. Smart companies are rebuilding and upgrading their work forces with the wealth of talent that is currently available. So how do you [...]

I had the pleasure recently of participating in the annual retreat for one of Printingforless.com’s customers, the Assisting Hands Franchise system.  Each year franchisees from all over the country come together to discuss their business, share strategies, introduce new initiatives, and enjoy each other’s company. What struck me about this retreat and the organization itself was two [...]

I work in a small town in Montana that has struggled for years to solve the problem of “economic development.” It seems like everyone wants to talk about the issue as if it is something you can magically solve with more meetings, focus groups or quasi-governmental agencies. I disagree. It is the jobs, stupid. Create [...]

Last week we installed the single biggest and most complex systems change in the history of PrintingForLess.com, revamping some of the very core of our internal systems.  The change represented well over 10,000 hours of work from a number of team members and the change went very smoothly, thankfully.
 
But that success wasn’t luck.  It was [...]

How many of you fell in love and asked your future spouse to marry you all in the span of 45 minutes? I would venture to guess not many. For those who have, congratulations–you are rare. So my question is why you consider interviewing a prospective employee to be any different? I have spoken to [...]

As an online print provider you would think we wouldn’t have a ton of interaction with our customers, but we do—countless phone calls and emails are the norm here.  PrintingForLess.com started out basically as a vending machine for printing.  As time went on we realized that something was missing—to truly satisfy customers, we needed to interact [...]

How many times have you heard someone say “this job would be so easy if it weren’t for the people”?  How many times have you said or thought it yourself?  One thing I’ve found during my career is that if your team isn’t giving you what you want, its probably because you’re not giving them [...]

While we print and mail a ton of postcards for our customers, we typically don’t get to see the results our customers generate from their marketing efforts. So it was especially good to hear back from one of our local print customers – The Community Closet – about a campaign they recently ran.
 But first, a [...]

I remember a job from years ago where the training consisted of me filling out some paperwork, skimming a manual, a quick pep-talk from the boss and then getting thrown in, to “learn as I go.” That was not a great experience, and I learned things sporadically, got frustrated, and frustrated my employer. Many of [...]

I’m a teamwork kind of guy. I’ll readily admit that I really have to work hard to stay focused and on task if I have to work completely alone on a project. Having a group I can trust and seek out to bounce ideas off of keeps my energy up, allows for greater creativity and, [...]