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PMA is proud to announce Americas Printing Association Network.
(Formerly Printing Industries of America Affiliates)
APAN associations across the nation have rolled out a new brand to assure the industry of their sustained presence, dedication, and ongoing mission to work together in supporting the Graphic Communications Industry.
APAN is comprised of the affiliates of the former Printing Industries of America (PIA), including Print Media Association (PMA), Graphic Arts Association (GAA), Graphic Media Alliance (GMA), Great Lakes Graphics Association (GLGA), Printing & Graphics Association MidAtlantic (PGAMA), Printing & Imaging Association of Georgia (PIAG), Printing & Imaging Association of MidAmerica (PIAMidAmerica), Printing Industries of New England (PINE), Printing Industries Association of San Diego (PIASD), Printing Industries Alliance (PIAlliance), Printing Industries of Southern California (PIASC),
Printing Industry Association of the South, Inc. (PIAS), Printing Industry Midwest (PIM),
Printing Industry of the Carolinas (PICA), and Visual Media Alliance (VMA).
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2023 Printing Industry
Performance Indicators Survey!
Please take a few minutes to participate
and help us develop the knowledge & data that will help you!
Survey link: PIPI - Financial Benchmarks Survey
This Financial Benchmarks study will provide you with comparison data regarding costs and expenses in running your company, compared to other companies in your industry segment.
Key points of the survey:
* To provide members with useful financial benchmarks they can apply in making
strategic decisions and finding a path to solid performance.
* We plan to provide financial benchmarks for different industry segments (digital
commercial printers, digital and sheet fed commercial printers, label printers, web
printers, etc.).
* We do not ask respondents about their identity. We will not share your data with
anyone. All data is kept confidential!
Before opening the survey, participants should have their 2022 annual income
statement and year-end balance sheet open. If respondents apply a fiscal accounting
year ending on a date other than December 31, 2022, they should use their financial
statements from their fiscal year that ended in 2022.
We will keep the survey open until March 20th.
You may have seen in our monthly Member Update newsletter, Print Media Association and 15 regional printing industry associations across the nation are partnering quarterly to sponsor the Printing Industry Performance and Insights (PIPI) Studies.
This research seeks to analyze our industry’s performance, deliver a view of future outlook, and provide company leaders actionable advice. These studies are conducted under the direction of Dr. Ralph Williams Jr., Associate Professor, Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University.
We hope you find this information helpful, and we look forward to your participation in our upcoming industry surveys and reports.
Links to previous PIPI Reports:
Connecting a “Comprehensive Strategic Approach” to Printing Firm Performance
Revenue Trends and Business Outlook Summary
How Paper is Affecting Printing Companies and Approaches to Consider
Big Picture of the Industry: Revenue Trends, Inflation Effects, Business Outlook
Marketing Planning, Sales Team Management & Social Media Usage
Is Your Firm Growing Like Others in the Printing Industry?
Industry Outlook & Performance
Strategic Group Report
Printing Industry Outlook - Q4 2021
Workforce Shortages
Supply Chain Disruption
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Each year PMA and Americas Print Association Network conduct
one of the most powerful surveys in the industry.
It’s our Annual Wage, Benefits and Human Resource Policies Survey.
This is a valuable resource to compare your compensation package to other companies
of your size, location, and type.
The Print Industries Wage & Benefits Report is the most reliable labor management report in the graphic communications industry, with nearly 500 companies participating,
employing more than 15,000 employees, making this survey the industry’s largest
and most comprehensive!
Reports Available:
General Report / Inplant Report / Packaging Report / Union Report
Survey Report Cost:
FREE for PMA Member participants
$250 for non-participating members
$750.00 non-members
For more information contact Tim Suraud at 314-962-6780 ext. 211 or tim@pmastl.org
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Hooray!
2022 Shipments Outpaced 2021
December 2022 printing shipments came in at $6.97 billion,
down from November’s $7.10 billion.
But January-to-December shipments for 2022 came in at $83.47 billion,
an improvement over 2021’s $82.05 billion.
READ MORE
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What Happens When Traditional Paper Stock
Is Not Available?
This prolonged period of paper shortage has required patience, persistence, and creativity from both printers and their customers. How is the industry responding? This article looks at the results of WhatTheyThink's survey on what happens when traditional paper stocks are not available.
READ MORE
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HEIDELBERG’s Print Media
Performance & Training Center
Adds More Classes!
Addressing the dire need for training for new and seasoned print industry professionals alike, HEIDELBERG USA launched its Print Media Performance & Training Center at its North American headquarters in Kennesaw, GA in May 2022. The company offers its training free of charge to participants.
READ MORE
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Postal Service Merges 3 Ground Delivery Products
Into 1 Brand
The U.S. Postal Service said on February 10 it is proposing to merge three ground delivery products into a new brand known as USPS Ground Advantage, which will offer
two to five-day transit times with pound, ounce-based and cubic pricing options for
parcels weighing up to 70 pounds. The product is aimed at shippers willing to sacrifice speed for price.
READ MORE on Freightwaves.com
READ MORE on USPS.com
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Two Sides North America Anti-greenwashing Campaign Kicks off 2023 with Big Wins
So far this year, seven additional companies representing 40 million customers have removed “go green, go paperless, protect the environment” and similar claims from their marketing communications.
READ MORE
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New Rules about
Severance Agreements
Source: CNN Business
A multitude of questions have been raised by the National Labor Relations Board's recent decision to prohibit employers from requiring laid-off workers to sign certain types of non-disparagement and confidentiality clauses in order to receive severance.
What companies does this apply to?
Is it retroactive?
Here are answers to five key questions. READ MORE
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EEOC Reporting!
Employers need to understand that the timeline for submitting their demographic data to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is somewhat different this year.
The agency recently confirmed that EEO-1 reporting for 2022 data is scheduled to begin in mid-July. In recent years, the starting points and deadlines for data collection have varied.
All private employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more employees must file EEO-1 reports each year that summarize employee headcount by sex, race/ethnicity, and job category. This component of data collection, called Component 1, does not include pay data.
READ MORE
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To Report or Not Report
an Injury or Illness to OSHA
Are you overreporting workplace safety incidents in your OSHA filings?
Learn what’s reportable and what’s not and download this helpful OSHA Recordkeeping Decision Tree.
READ MORE
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OSHA Penalties Automatically Increase, Putting Pressure on Employers!
The U.S. Department of Labor has just published its yearly increases to the maximum civil penalties that may be assessed via citations against employers by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as a result of workplace safety and health inspections.
READ MORE on OSHA.gov
READ MORE on FisherPhilipps.com.
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Easy Way to Build Trust
and Credibility with Your Customers!
Every business owner knows that customer service is critical to staying competitive. But what about communicating expectations?
Do you ensure your print buyers know what to expect when doing business with you?
READ MORE
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PayPal Phishing Scam
If you receive an unexpected invoice from PayPal, it is not real. Please delete the email.
Do NOT call the 800 number included in the phishing email.
As always, make sure all of your financial accounts (PayPal, Venmo, Banking, etc.)
have MFA enabled.
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Every client you have should feel like they are #1.
Making that happen is not an accident. It’s a plan, a strategy, and an approach to sales.
This Short Attention Span Webinar shows you how to make every account feel they are your most important customer.
Presented by Bill Farquharson of SALESVAULT.
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What is a Short Attention Span Webinar (SAS)?
They are quick, powerful programs (15-20 min) followed by as much Q+A time as you need. You can stay just for the presentations or take a deeper dive and ask some questions.
SAS Webinars will be held on the second Thursday of every month.
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Bill Farquharson is a coach and sales trainer for the graphic arts. He draws on his 40-year sales career to write, speak, and create content. Bill’s Sales Vault features weekly sales workshops, sales challenge discussions, template and script downloads, and archived content for one monthly price (Affiliate members receive a discount). Contact Bill through BillFarquharson.com.
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Kelly Mallozzi is the president of Success In Print. She is active in Girls Who Print, an expert in LinkedIn for sales reps, and a frequent presenter for the Affiliates. Kelly’s Total Sales Transformation is an intensive program to give your sales efforts a shot of adrenaline. Find Kelly through SuccessInPrint.net.
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Webinars are held on the second Thursday of every month with topics ranging from
Sales Productivity, Prospecting, Customer Communication, Selling Skills, Social Media Sales, Motivation/Organization, Post COVID Sales Challenges, Sales Growth, Sales Management, and more. As a webinar attendee, you will be invited by Bill to a future Sales Vault workshop as his guest.
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The Sales Vault
Discount for PMA members
Visit:
salesvault.pro/partners
Think of the Sales Vault as an ongoing conference full of live presentationsand group discussions focused on sales-specific topics.
As a Sales Vault Insider you have exclusive access to a packed calendar of live workshops and presentations, currently covering nearly 30 sales topics with new material added monthly.
Prefer to learn on your own time? Most subjects are available on-demand for
24/7 consumption. Then, there’s the weekly sales challenge discussion groups, the growing list of template downloads, and 35+ years of Bill Farquharson’s columns, sales videos
and blog, all organized by sales topic.
PMA members can take advantage of the Sales Vault for the discounted monthly subscription price of just $40/month/participant.
If you would like to try out the Sales Vault before signing up, let us know
and we'll provide you access to a workshop of your choice at no cost.
To learn more, contact:
Tim Suraud at 314-962-6780 ext. 211 or e-mail tim@pmastl.org
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MORE ON PRICING
A reader replied to our discussion of rational pricing policy (“What’s the price for this job?) by saying, “my rates include all
of the overhead (building, equipment, front office, etc.) and those are real numbers.” How can I sell at lower numbers and still be
in business?
Yes, they are real numbers, but they are unaffected by the production of a particular job - they are the same whether the job is sold or not. If the job sells and is produced, money is spent for materials, outside purchases, factory labor and commission. The difference between that and the invoice is called “contribution to overhead.” In any time period when the total contribution exceeds the total overhead, you’re in profit land.
Another reader asked what the “markups” and “discounts” should be when taking into consideration the hit ratio on the account. In theory, the markup should be as high is the customer will pay without losing the order. Similarly, the discount should be sufficient to get the “no” to become “yes.” As a practical matter, it’s safer to limit them to single digits (less than +/- 10%).
TAKE ACTION – UTILIZATION
If profits are going to improve, the business model needs to be rethought. Probably, the most powerful area to address is plant utilization. The vast majority of printers are single shift operations with occasional overtime meaning that at least 75% of the hours in every week (there are 168 of them) are idle producing no revenue and certainly no profit.
Moving the utilization needle requires more sales and then more employees. The first mission is addressed by a customer specific pricing policy that avoids losing orders because the quote doesn’t match the customer’s reality. The second is dealt with by more extensive overtime initially and then by more people.
These actions are guided by the reality that it’s contribution dollars that count, not percentages. Profit is reached by contribution dollars - the difference between the amount spent to produce the job (materials and outside purchases, factory wages and commission) and the amount of the invoice. When those dollars equal overhead (rent, machinery, front office) we’ve broken even - when they’re more, we’re in profit land.
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Volume 3 / Issue 5
Hiring is Easy
Let’s be truthful, hiring is easy, but finding the right person is challenging. With today’s electronic postings, finding “applicants” is easy. Sorting through the chaff is difficult. Do you know what makes it easier? Creating a system. First, develop a job description of the skill set necessary for the position – and the expectations, e.g. willing to work overtime; does well in a fast-pace environment, etc.. (PMA can provide you with job descriptions for the various positions within our industry.) Once you’ve determined the guidelines for the position, the interview process can focus on quickly determining if the person has the skills. That should be determined in a screening interview (face-to-face is best). Subsequently, the individual’s potential supervisor can perform an interview to determine whether the applicant has the right attitude and work ethic to fit into the team. Many firms will also have one or two fellow employees conduct an interview – just to make sure there’s a fit. Is this time consuming? Yes, but the results can be extremely positive.
Benchmarking
As we all know, benchmarking is comparing our performance metrics to internal as well industry best practices. As we’ll explore in future articles, it has many benefits, but also can create challenges when we start comparing ourselves to firms which may not represent our company’s structure. Regardless, let’s look at areas where we can potentially develop internal benchmarking. First, and a very important area, is our financial statements. When we structure our financial reporting to segregate variable costs of manufacturing from fixed costs, we can start the process of measuring profitability drivers in our production process. Another area is tracking the number of days it takes our customers to pay their invoices. Cash is the engine which runs our business and the faster we receive payment, the better.
A third area for benchmarking is in the pressroom and bindery. Makereadies; net output per hour are two key areas. Granted there are many variables (type of paper; size of sheet; registration; ink coverage; # of folds) but collecting this data and then creating benchmarking is one of the methods to improve profitability and easily sustain growth.
What’s Our Price For This Job?
We get the specs and the copy from our customer, and they want to know how much it will cost. We go through our estimating process which produces a number which we give to the customer and then cross our fingers. We’re happy if they say “yes” disappointed if they say “no” and then go on to the next opportunity. But, stop and think for a moment, what if we had offered a higher number and they still said “yes”? Similarly, what if we had offered a lower number and the “no” changed into “yes”?
The answers to these questions revolve around two realities: the customer’s “yes” or “no” depends on the value of the job to them and their perception of the price from another printer known and trusted by them. Our answer depends on just one fact - the dollars we are going to spend to produce the job (materials, buy-outs, factory wages, commissions).
A moment’s reflection suggests that our estimating process ignores these realities: it
doesn’t think at all about the customer and its definition of cost tries to include a portion
of every part of the business, thus the press operated by a $30/hour employee becomes
$350/hour. If we imagined a price setting process based on the customer’s realities instead
of our own, we could stop leaving money on the table and stop losing orders.
Achieving that would lead to a bottom line explosion.
The easy part of this process is identifying our out-of-pocket cost to produce the job. The hard part is reading the customer’s mind - for that we must invent a “crystal ball.” The missing link is our “hit ratio” with the customer as that is our crystal ball. That simply means, what percentage of the time does the customer say “yes?” If it’s high (80% or more), we’re leaving dollars on the table and could get more by simply asking!
If it’s low (30% or less) our quotes are just making the competition look good and walking
away from potential sales. What’s the impact of walking away from those sales? The answer to that lies in our out-of-pocket costs which are typically in the range of 60% of average quoted prices leaving us with 40% of the dollars to pay for the overhead. If we don’t
get the order, we get nothing to pay for the overhead if we quoted 10% less we would get
30% to pay for the overhead!
How do we make this work in real life? First, keep track of the hit ratio for each customer so that we know which are high and which are low. Second, figure the estimate in the usual way but keep it simple as incorporating a lot of detail simply wastes your time as the mark-ups or discounts suggested by the hit ratio are where the real gold is.
What about new customers since we don’t have a hit ratio? Since we really don’t know them and they don’t know us, the best course is to start on the discount side. As we get used to each other and they begin to know and trust our work, the door is open to improving the price level.
Print Factoid
Even though “America’s printer” Ben Franklin was a successful businessman and renowned
inventor, he was in substantial debt most of his life. Although not widely known, Franklin was often reckless in his business ventures, while spending large sums of money to support his statesmen reputation and lifestyle, as well as funding his global travel and adventures. Source: Printing Impressions
quoins2pixels is written by Bob Lindgren and Joe Polanco.
Bob and Joe have spent decades in the printing industry, and throughout their careers,
they have counseled hundreds of company owners on a variety of management topics.
As a value-added service of Print Media Association, they are available to expand
on these articles or aid with projects.
Bob can be reached at (818) 219-3855 and Joe at jspolanco49@gmail.com.
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quoins2pixels is written by Bob Lindgren and Joe Polanco.
Bob and Joe have spent decades in the printing industry, and throughout their careers,
they have counseled hundreds of company owners on a variety of management topics.
As a value-added service of Print Media Association, they are available to expand
on these articles or aid with projects.
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Insurance Options, Coverage, and Support!
We are ready to protect your business,
your employees, and their families.
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Need Help with Credit & Collections?
We Know The Printing Industry!
Printing Industry Credit Bureau (PICB) and its’ sister company, CheckitCo
have over 40-years experience as a dependable, effective, cost-efficient, and reputable agency dedicated to taking the hassle and stress out of credit & collection.
Who better to handle your credit and collection needs than an agency
designed for Printers.
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PrintAccess, the printing industry’s “Who does what” search engine
has been completely rebuilt and is open to help market your business.
As a PMA member, you have a complimentary listing that can have the content you want displayed to your potential customers focusing on your specific products and services. Google-friendly pages are designed to increase traffic and coordinate with your own website and social media activity.
Begin updating your listing today!
Follow the steps below and contact us if you need help with your login or with updating your profile! Call us at 314-962-6780 ext. 211 or tim@pmastl.org.
Simply click "printer" and sign in. Username is your e-mail. If you forgot your password you can reset it or you can call PMA (314-962-6780 ext. 211) and we can reset it for you!
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Start updating and editing your profile. Update your company info, social media, add images of your amazing body of work, add any new equipment or capabilities you may have
acquired recently.
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Weather you just want to make a quick edit or completely overhaul your listing we've made it simple and user-friendly! After you have completed your updates you can either go to the blue box labeled "Next Step" located on the top right of page or you can click "Finish & Save" at any point during the update. You do not have to go in order of the steps, hit "Finish & Save" and your updates will save and be reflected on your listing. | |
NEW PMA MEMBER BENEFIT
Kodak Buying Power Rebate Program
Print Media Association (PMA) is excited to announce its newest member benefit -
an exclusive new Kodak Rebate Program. Members can now save money while strengthening offset solutions or building out a digital offering.
Rebates include the following Kodak materials, equipment, and services:
- Kodak Offset Platesetter Solutions
- KODAK TRENDSETTER, KODAK ACHIEVE, and KODAK
- MAGNUS (4-up, 8-up, VLF)
- KODAK PRINERGY On Demand Software Solutions
- KODAK NEXFINITY Digital Presses
- KODAK PROSPER Inkjet Presses
- Consumables: Proprietary water-based inks
- Kodak Services and Support
If you would like more information contact Tim Suraud at 314-962-6780 ext. 211
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Tackling the Trend
An August 2022 survey from Nationwide Retirement Institute found that 40% of workers
age 45 and older plan to delay their retirement due to inflation and rising living costs.
That figure is double the percentage of workers who said they delayed retirement last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the current inflationary environment presents a host of retirement plan challenges for both employers and employees, tackling the trend with prudent and sensible solutions remains the best course of action.
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If you have questions or would like to discuss how we can help your business, e-mail or schedule a time to talk below!
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Guaranteed Life Coverage
for Your Employees!
No Employer Obligation!
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Print Media Association has partnered with Cincinnati Life Insurance Company
to offer a solution that helps you retain employees, while also putting their well-being
as a top priority.
The Total Life Benefits program allows you to protect and offer your employees
peace-of-mind with guaranteed life insurance. Browse plan options and only choose what fits your priorities and your budget.
NO medical questions asked, NO employee minimums
and NO financial obligationas the Employer.
Employees can purchase life insurance for themselves, their spouse, their dependents,
and their grandchildren at a cost and amount of coverage they choose through a simple
and flexible payroll deduction program. Employees have a choice of term life, whole life,
or return on investment and they can take care of all the back-end HR paperwork
so you don't have to.
Employees own their policies! If they retire or otherwise leave the company, they can keep the policy and we will work with them to shift the billing to the employee.
Affordable and portable life insurance coverage for you and your employees.
If you would like more information contact
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Print Media Association is your local trade association representing the
graphic communications industry in Missouri and Southwestern portions of Illinois.
Print Media Association offers its members the products and services that enhance their growth, efficiency, and profitability through advocacy, education, research, technical information, management tools, employee benefits, and cost-saving resources.
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