Printing companies today need to grow in order to remain healthy.  As adding volume organically continues to be a challenge, growing by acquisition is a very realistic growth strategy.

Merging with or acquiring another company is a viable method of strengthening your company's financial position and provides the added volume necessary to stabilize pricing to attract and retain customers.

This 90 minute program will cover:

• The methods, advantages and pitfalls of employing acquisitions as a business growth strategy

• What to look for in a potential merger or acquisition

• How to best position your company should you wish to sell

The Call For Entries for this year's Print Excellence Awards competition has been extended until February 15, 2016.

Submit your best print pieces for the competition. You know you have them - outstanding examples of ink on paper and other substrates, projects that wowed your customers that you are proud of, campaigns that differentiated you in the marketplace.

Award ceremonies will be held on April 7, 2016 in Phoenix (Rustler's Rooste) and April 28, 2016 in Denver (Embassy Suites Downtown). 

To download entry forms or for more information, CLICK HERE

Prospecting skills: How to get face-to-face with the people who buy what you sell.

Time management/organizational skills:How to make the time and get organized to get to the next level.

Hacking of corporate data and customer files is a serious concern in the United States.  Don't leave yourself vulnerable with passwords that can be easily broken.

Use a variety of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. While you might not want to use a password that consists of a random string of characters that you won't be able to remember, you can use a mix of characters that makes sense and provides increased password strength.  For example, the password "beachhouse" is not very strong, but the password "B3@chH0u$3," which uses a few simple substitutions, is much stronger and retains a semblance of meaning.

Use a variety of passwords.  If you use the same password for everything, it would be an enormous hassle (or worse) if that one password became compromised.

Consider applying passwords to lock devices.  Many people think digital security only applies to online threats, but it's also necessary to keep your devices safe from people who may have direct physical access to them.  Imagine losing a phone, which you haven't protected with a password, and some unscrupulous individual finds it and now has access to a ton of personal information.

Beware of phishing scams.  A phishing same is a type of attack that attempts to trick a person into giving up their persona information.  This might involve a fake website that looks like a legitimate website. When a person lobs in to the fake website, they are actually supplying scammers with their login information to the legitimate website.  If you are suspicious, it's best to manually type in the URL that you're visiting.  Similarly, phishing scams can come in the form of emails asking you to supply confidential information.   An email like this, especially from someone you don't know, should always raise a red flag.