students, students everywhere and .......

Incredibly busy period with the end-of-year shows (we even sponsored a local one) . The feedback we got from students all over the country was brilliant - loads of very positive comments about the quality of the print and the speed of service.

We made a point of offering a 24 hour standby service for end-of-year assessments with digital printed cards - for the students that forgot to get stuff ordered on time (even with our fast 2-3 day service).

Many thanks to all the students who wrote, emailed and called to thank us for their cards, posters and perf'd artcards - it's great to get such positive feedback.

power of the web.....

It's been a busy few weeks, yet again. We have had some time to look at various aspects of the business and our clients. It appears that, while our existing client base is growing, we have started to appeal to a lot of students. If it had been purely local I could have understood this, but we're getting students from far and wide. Makes you realise the power of the web..... and we haven't even done anything to enhance our SEO......

the things you see at Morrisons Supermarket..

I had to include this one. Spotted at our local Morrisons it's a fair size of a propellor. Amazing what gets carted around the country......

Or is it a new line they're taking in.......

new tech people

We've started using a new tech person called Mark McKie. Very switched on and up to speed with the latest developments. He's just started in business for himself so, if you need someone, give us a shout for his contact details.

He's currently reading up on Unison to get our new exchange server up and running. As per everything that goes on with us, it'll be yet another learning curve...

Holidays....

I've been putting off having a real holiday with the thought, that, it'll happen at the end of this glut of work. I was rudely awakened to the reality by a recent event...

We were approached, along with a few other Aberdeen businesses, and asked to pitch for a well-known Oil Company's requirements for the next few years. Both Ian and myself were startled to realise that we were way too busy to accommodate even the pitch, let alone the actual work if we were to actually get it, and we are constantly evolving with new methodologies and staff, which is not a good mix for a large injection of work.

So a fresh look is called for. Our growth has always been organic with, in particular, Uni's and SME's (along with a few big players) being particularly attracted to our no-nonsense prices and attitudes to delivery etc. We've now decided to try to set targets and have a salesperson coming onboard in a bid to steer our growth. Only problem with this is that we have hugely beaten our last 2 years' targets and grown in an exponential manner.

I have had a wake-up call with this, and have decided to start planning holidays, irrespective of projects and jobs to be finished. Time for personal change.

one of those days...

It wasn't actually, it was a really productive one. From a satisfying meeting with a favourite client through to a quick phone call to a good mate in London, it really felt like I had achieved something today. I also launched www.laws-tyres.com , a site that has been sitting in the wings for a week or two, awaiting technical content.

The team had a good day as well, getting everything up to date for the weekend (nice feeling) installing Karla's new super-duper monitor, getting Lynne's one up and running as well, and Lynne even managed to get the buyer personas done for our new service.

So what is our new service? It's no great secret, just package deals for clubs and organisers so they can save even more money using our print service.

great technology.......

We've been considering a CAC for ages, and we finally bought one, a Verevide Colour Assessment Cabinet. What a great piece of technology! Transmissive and reflective work can be assessed as a comparison on the box or cabinet. That combined with our Pantone Two reader means that our colour reproduction accuracy is going to be higher than ever, and our artist clients in particular will be happy bunnies.

Another new service we're offering is a 4000 dpi scan up to 6 x 7 transparencies on a Super Nikon scanner.

Time to start looking for our next premises at this rate :)