While acknowledging that 2016 was not a very good business year based on the economic recession that took a negative toll on businesses; I believe that shouldn’t becloud your moves to meet and surpass your strategic goals for 2017 Business Year, rather it should re-fire your will to achieve your 2017 goals – especially now that the first quarter has elapsed.

This shows that the way we manage our time especially in business will determine our success or otherwise at the end of the year. You can’t buy more or borrow more, so time is a limited resource that expires every day. As a business owner, you have to be very careful and take control over the amount of time you spend on thoughts, conversation and actions that will make or mar your business throughout the remaining part of this year.

This is because, regardless of the type of business you own as an entrepreneur, you will be frequently interrupted or pulled in different directions. While you cannot eliminate interruptions, you do get a say on how much time you will spend on them and how much time you will spend on the thoughts, conversations and actions that will lead your business to success (this year). In all, I will enjoin you to daily ask yourself these questions to know the extent of success or otherwise that you’ll record at the end of the year:

How have you perfected your operations to achieve your business goals? What measures are in place to surmount pressures from government and non-governmental agencies unconsciously clogging the wheel of your business progress? How do you intend to (not only continually meet but also) surpass the quality expectations of your customers?

BUSINESSES UPBEAT AS 2017 MOVES INTO 2^ND QUARTER

As businesses seem to be cheery and optimist on better second quarter, you need to be optimistic as Nigeria move out of economic recession. This is because when we look at the relative performance of Nigerian Naira against foreign currencies especially United States of America Dollar ($USD) – just by Central Bank of Nigeria intervention (albeit belated) – we see an economic outlook that is devoid of storms. And as increase in price of crude oil remains stable while the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) put pressure on corrupt activities, I believe the economic benefits these will create will put Nigeria’s small and mid-sized businesses (of which print businesses are major part of) on the part to real growth. For us, we are expecting nothing else but a better 2017. My take:

• This is actually the best time to invest. Invest in new printing equipment and processes; invest in your human capital; invest in making your operations as seamless as possible to reduce cost, increase efficiency and increase profit. How to do this? Call on us to know how to be part of WHERE To Print Delegation to FESPA Africa 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa; PRINT 17 in Chicago, USA and IPEX 2017 in Birmingham, UK; if you’re not opportune to travel out of the country, attend the biggest and the best value-driven print and packaging exhibition in West Africa – PROPAK West Africa 2017 in order to partake in series of free refresher courses on print and allied business during the seminar and workshops.
• Cut cost (expenditure) but not customer–centrism to increase profit by investing in areas where your business has the best competitive advantage and totally eliminates areas of spending with no value to the business. It may be money, time and energy spent in marketing non valuable customers thinking they are potential customers.
• Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Focus on your best customers, but maintain relationships with those who think without them you won’t be in business. They’re still some of your best referrals.   
• Renegotiate cost, credit facility moratorium (if available), and service contract with your print equipment, consumables and materials suppliers.
• Note that standard paper types, grammage and sizes vary likewise genuine consumables and parts are vital to your operations and cost; cut off suppliers that do not meet your requirement or whose specifications are doubtful.

• Promote your print business through the best and cost effective medium. Self-promotion is key as well: it will be foolish of us if we continually blink in the dark or do the same thing and expect different result.
• Print has evolved over the years; know your weaknesses and strengths. There are better and profitable print businesses to invest in: seek experts’ advice and opinions.

The fallout of these indices ginger our COVER STORY (on pages 28 and 29) titled: WHERE IS PRINT GOING? By Kodak’s Brad Kruchten with a supporting subtitle from Ricoh on: SHIFT TO DIGITAL. And we continue our serial SPECIAL FEATURE titled: AS RECESSION BITES: TOP, VALUE-DRIVEN AND REPUTABLE PRINT & ALLIED MANUFACTUERERS PROFFER SOLUTIONS from page 17. Read practical solutions that stakeholders in the printing and allied industry can adopt to grow their businesses from top, value-driven and reputable print & allied manufacturers and their representatives in the country. To aid your packaging business, this issue of WHERE TO PACKAGE gives you an expose’ on how to tap into the emotional side of colour to really drive your product messaging! Flip to read a valuable contribution from Pantone Colour Institute titled: AFFECT YOUR CUSTOMER WITH EFFECTIVE PACKAGING on page 36.

This edition is also characteristically embellished with major stories and exclusives recorded in the last two months within the industry in our PRINT IMPACT AROUND THE WORLD (from page 12) and PRINT IMPACT AROUND NIGERIA (from page 14). There is also WHERE TO PRINT VOX POP (from page 19) and OTHER SIDE OF PRINT which features Managing Director/ CEO of Sequence Ventures – Mr. Lawal Waheed. Please open to page 40 to learn from some of his innate attributes otherwise unseen from his regular print business.

Before we round off, check out WHERE To Print magazine POST SHOW REPORT on the just concluded Gulf Print & Pack 2017 (GPP 2017) in our SPECIAL FEATURE titled GULF PRINT & PACK 2017 CLOSES ON HIGH NOTE with pictorials from page 34. See WHO IS WHO that attended the show and visited WHERE TO PRINT STAND L63 as well as pictorials from WHERE To Print FACILITY VISIT plus ‘COOLING OFF’ images to inspire you to take things easy and relax this season.

Finally, as you’ll read in the PRINT IMPACT AROUND NIGERIA Section, NUMBERS CMYK LTD has now relocated to a new corporate office situated at 18, Adekunle Fajuyi Street, GRA Ikeja, Lagos. All our other correspondence details remain the same.

With humility, we know that we could not have possibly done this without you: our faithful readers, loyal customers and consistent business partners. That is why, on behalf of the Board, Management and Staff of NUMBERS CMYK LTD, I sincerely thank you for your ardent support, constructive criticisms and faithful patronage. We do hope to continue our mutually beneficial relationships going forward.

Please continue to do good!

Joju Adekanbi

jojuadekanbi@yahoo.com

0803 862 9114