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The World Cup of Printing History 

By Jim Hamilton You may not be familiar with the name Rubén Fontana, but he is the most recent winner of the World Cup of Printing History. Fontana, an Argentinian graphic designer, type designer, and teacher, was chosen to represent Argentina by the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, Massachusetts, the sponsor of the World Cup

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Use Financial Benchmarks to Improve Your Business

By Dr. Ralph William Jr.   About eight years into my first printing business, things were going well. We were growing at about 25% a year, adding new equipment and quality members to our team, and we had just moved into a great building. Our profits were good, but they could have been better. Our “good”

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Dear David: Making a Good Offer Letter

Question: What should be included in an offer letter? Answered by the HR Experts:  The offer letter should outline the job’s expectations and benefits and provide explicit compensation details. Ideally, it provides the candidate with all the information they need to decide whether to accept the job. A standard offer letter should generally include the following: 

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Compensation Inside Sales Representatives (CSRs)

These management tips are brought to you by your printing industry association…  The customer service representative’s role varies dramatically across the industry. In some instances, the individual is an extension of the sales representative and heavily involved with customer contact including face-to-face visits. In other instances, the CSR is a project manager whose role is

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Dear David: Comp Time to Reward Employees

Question: Can we use comp time with our employees? It depends. For non-exempt employees of a private employer, no. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) doesn’t permit private employers to offer compensatory time (“comp time”) in lieu of overtime pay.  You could offer time off to your exempt employees as a reward for working more than their

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Dear David: Getting Ghosted by Candidates

Question: It seems like we’ve had many candidates ghosting us recently. Is there anything we can do to prevent this?  Answer:Nothing you do will prevent ghosting altogether, but there are steps you can take to keep candidates engaged and discourage them from just disappearing on you:  Start with a clear, descriptive job posting so they understand

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Semper Workforce Solutions Reveals Results Of The Q1 2023 Survey

May 17, 2023 – Semper Workforce Solutions has released the results of the 2023 first quarter survey of the printing and packaging industries. The survey results reflect a marked slowdown and increased concern for new sales. The start of the banking crisis and the steady increase of interest rates is causing industry economic pain.  Dave

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Dear David: Employee Discord Is Impacting Performance

Question: We have two employees who don’t seem to like each other, which is starting to affect their work. How do we help employees who don’t get along to work well together?   Answer: Getting employees who don’t like each other to work well together can be challenging, but here are several steps you can take to improve

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Making More Money

Would you like to make more money? If your answer is yes, your path may well be a differential pricing policy matching your price to the customer with their relationship with you. Do they see you as their valued resource or the low bidder? Clearly, all customers are not the same, and you should take

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Check out VMA’s New Website

With lots of forethought, creativity, and dedication, we are excited to share that we just launched a new 80-page website! We also updated our URL. Check it out at visualmediaalliance.org.   Our objectives in the redesign included creating a site with stronger SEO and UX. As well as to speak to our audience and prospects, be

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