Okay, so the current business environment is in a slight pause right now. Here are five suggestions to make the most of it.
5 Positive Things to Do in Your Sign & Print Shop During this Pause in Business
Use Your New Time Wisely
ONE: Do Some Maintenance & Upgrades
Now is probabaly a great time to do maintenence on your wide format printer and other shop equipment. You should sit and make a list of things that need to be done that your too busy to typicaly accomplaish. So is that a throurough cleaning? What about your computer? Can you sit and orgainez your files? How about getting rid of temporary files? How about backing up your entire hard drive? You might also think about upgrades to your computer like more RAM or move to an SSD harddrive to improve speed and capacity.
In adidtion to hardware, how about your shop? Can you move items arouns for faster access or does it need a good cleaning? Does your own signage need to be upgrades?
There are lots of things you can do to keep busy yet productive in this time.
TWO: Learn Something
We all need to get better at what we do. Now is a good time to take that online course you’ve been wanted to take or maybe just sit down with Adobe or FlexiSIGN and Print and work with color management. Try a few new settings, find out more about how you can control the colors that you print. Maybe you need to go to Google and hunt for more or different ICC profiles etc.
As far as FlexiSIGN and other topics, you can visit www.thinkmutoh.com and find lots of topics to read as well as online video lessons that are made for wide format printing.
THREE: Sort Through Emails
I don’t know about you, but I’m always a little ebind in my emails. Not only that but there are old emails that should be archived or better yet deleted. Doing so will improve your email speed, make it safer and if you setup some rules or folders and move items around a bit, orgainizing them, it could make it much easier to handle emails as they come in when business get faster soon. Need some help?
Here are a few websites to visit that could assist:
https://zapier.com/blog/outlook-tips-and-tricks/ : 7 Microsoft Outlook Tips & Tricks for Better Email Management
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2688099/outlook-organization-tips-5-ways-to-tame-the-email-pile.html : Outlook organization tips: 5 ways to tame the email pile
Why not spend the time to organize those emails.
FOUR: Plan & Market Your Business
When the pause comes to an end, why not have a business plan in place to accelerate your business. Also, why not touch base with current customers and create a marketing plan FOR THEM!
Now would be a good time to re-examine your own business plan. What can you tweak or change to make your bsuniess better. Will prices need adjusting? Are there things you are doing that are not really profitable but tkae you time? Take a look at your business and make some decisions now becasue you can give them thought rather than rush to that decision.
In a similar way, your customers will also be suffering a bit in thie pause. Why not touch base with them and come up with a plan to help them when things get busy again. Maybe offer a series of weekly or monthy signs or banners or something to help them back into the real pace of busniess. They will thank you for it and you’ll have business ready and can even get some of it done while you wait.
FIVE: Get Some Rest
Sure you can worry about business, but get some rest as well. Rest is not only good in helping your body with resistance to all forms of illnes, it is also a good thing for your family. Use this time to be with your loved ones and spend time reconnecting with friends and relatives. This will make you feel better and you’ll be able to hit the streets with a new and more pisitive outlook.