Hi Rez Digital Solutions

The June issue of Quick Printing elaborates on leadership in the printing industry and asks the very telling question of, “If I was working for me, would I inspire myself?”  Michael Hennessey asks other questions like, “What difference does your printing company make?” and “If you shop never existed, who would care?”.  The answer lies in not what your print shop does, but what it allows your customers to do.

John Biacy and ImmediaPrint help teach children to read.

Scott and Jane Levine at River City Printing & Imaging collect blood for blood banks.

Emma Email Marketing plants 5 trees for every new customer.

Kevin and Debbie Hebert at St. Charles Printing helped rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

At Hi Rez Digital Solutions, we give back to our founding community by offering a TANF Training Component which provides tribal communities with an opportunity to develop skills in the Printing Industry.

Even if you don’t have something of that latitude, use what you do have.  A small copy shop helps people sell homes, create fund raising brochures or produces legal briefs.  Hennessey explains how this is almost identical to finding a marketing niche.  When you focus on your company’s purpose as a whole, the by-product is making money.  Find that higher cause and communicate that meaning and value to everyone all of the time.

Read the full article here.

And hey, after implementing Hennessey’s advice, work might get a little more fun.

Tags: business practices by elizabeth.latham
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Printing business cards involves many design decisions that tell your company’s story in a matter of seconds whether you’re a corporate giant or small firm.  It’s typically the first and lasting impression.  When it comes to creating a great business card, issues pile up such as:

Print on both sides?

• To print on both sides means more room but also runs the risk of clutter and information overload.
• Prices rise but when ordered in bulk become minimal.
• A single sided card leaves room for not taking yet seems like a wasted chance to promote yourself.

How do you hand them out?

• Some choose to hand them out eagerly at the first interaction.  While that gets your name in their hands, it could be a turn off.
• Some take the analytical approach and decide if the prospect is worth a card.  This could end up in lost clients but raises the percentage of leads to sales.

Other topics include shape, color, contact information and appropriate timing.  All of these things we hope to catch the eye of our clients so that when they thumb through their records, we’re the one they call on.  Hopefully our first impression will be the last one they need.

Tags: b2b Marketing, b2c marketing, business practices, lead generation by elizabeth.latham
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An eager and trendy account executive said to his boss, ”I think it’s important we let our clients know that we support the environment.”

His boss turned around and looked down at him with sympathetic wisdom to say, “See, I think it’s important that we actually do support the environment.”

Firstly, I’d like to comment on the term “environmentally friendly”.  Any way we conduct business, the best of the worst way, the worst of the worst or anything in between, we’re not being environmentally friendly.  The environment has a natural state and anything we do to affect that is not friendly as to progress it.  What we consider environmentally friendly is the least amount of damage possible while turning a profit.         

To pile on the heap, our era has given way to greenwashing, a term used to describe the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company.  For instance, a printing company can place an attractive, little tree in the corners of their documents that are on 10% recycled paper.  Where’d the other 90% go?  Or, a company can use 100% recycled paper on a press that uses hundreds of paper stacks to warm up.

Green standards do not take enough into consideration.  That’s probably because there are no green standards.  All we’ve got are attractive little trees that any business that knows what’s best for it will find a place for on their next letterhead.  With all the Prius’s in the world, it’s no secret green is the new black.  Why wouldn’t companies take advantage of such a loose label?   

There’s a lot to say for companies who take being green seriously.  Unfortunately, we spend time focusing on the scams than appreciating pure agendas.  It’s only a matter of time before we actually do get standards or we become the set of Wall-e.

Tags: business practices, green, marketing, printing by elizabeth.latham
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Hi Rez Digital Solutions has always promoted environmentally friendly practices, from purchasing recycled papers to recycling paper, bottles, and cans. Over the next couple of weeks we are even going to get our Certification as a “Green Printer.”

Stamped Green has some great tips that we follow on how to make a greener work environment that we want to share with you.

Recycle:

Around the office this will included items such as plastic bottles (those dreaded water bottles, read here for some interesting facts http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5279230 ), plastic bags and glass. In general, we all seem to be getting used to the idea of separate cans for regular garbage, plastic, glass and even paper. But here is a list of some additional steps you can take: ·

• Eliminating all paper waste by including all types of paper
• Keeping track of and evaluating recycling activities at your business and expanding the collection by 1-3 materials each year for example. Potential materials include vinyl, batteries and polystyrene
• If your office is small, consider combining your recyclables with other small offices nearby
• Don’t buy paper that is a contaminant in recycling, e.g. thermal fax paper, glossy/plastic coatings, plastic windows, bright colors including goldenrod, laser printer inks, adhesive products
• Print directly on envelopes rather than using labels

Reduce:

There is a tendency around the office to focus less on reducing consumption of resources because, well we aren’t usually paying for them. But we must refocus our attention on the global view of our lives and what we impact and carry the same attitude we have about our at home usage of, for example, electricity, as we do at the office. There are many things we can all do at our place of business to reduce usage of resources and materials, for example:

• Eliminate unnecessary reports and reduce report size. (this is a win win proposition
• Print or copy on both sides
• Use electronic mail and voice mail
• Switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs (http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls )
• Don’t use cover sheets on faxes· lowering your thermostat a few degrees down in the winter and up a few in the summer
• Enable the “sleep mode” feature on your computer, allowing it to use less power during periods of inactivity
• Configure your computer to “hibernate” automatically after 30 minutes or so of inactivity
• Turn out or dim the lights in unused conference rooms

Reuse:

There seems to be a tendency in all of us (Americans, especially) to throw things out before they really need to be. Before you toss it, before you recycle it, or even before you buy a new one, step back and decide whether you can actually use an item that you already have or if the item can actually be repaired. Now these actions may seem to take more time, and they might, but too often we come to a snap decision and just toss and buy new without thinking. Here are some things we can all do to reuse items:

• Reuse envelopes by placing a label over the old address
• Use reusable containers instead new plastic bags when you pack a lunch
• Use reusable envelopes for interoffice mail
• Use cloth napkins or washable rags instead of paper napkins and paper towels
• Reuse file folders
• Use your own coffee mug instead of a Styrofoam cup
• Investigate whether local libraries, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, etc. could use your old trade journals or magazines
• Donating instead of tossing usable or fixable items

These are just some simple ideas that we can all do. Plus if we start doing these things, it will lead to other ideas. It needs to become a way of life so we really don’t have to think about what we are doing, it just becomes a part of who we are. Together we can all go green!

Tags: business practices, green, life at hi rez by heather.marsh
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