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No matter what business they’re in, CEOs generally have plans that work well in good times. Now they have to think smaller, sometimes a lot smaller. But one area to protect is R&D. It can set the stage for future growth.

Slower business means bosses will be forced to cut payroll, or cut it more than they already have. As office workers go, most are experiencing anxiety over whether they will have a job. Those left on the job could form alliances, backstab, and wind up reducing the quality of their work.

You may have noticed that when business is good, busy people perform very well. When it’s not, they make more mistakes and don’t perform as well.

What can you do to keep people focused on your plans?

Authorities writing in Business Week say constant communication is a must. People are more willing to give of themselves if they know you’re in it for the long haul.

Be visible, walk the hallway and offices and hold meetings where everyone is invited.

Mitt Romney, who specialized in leading company turnarounds in the 1980s, says it’s very helpful to let people know the reality, which usually isn’t as bad as they fear.

While managers everywhere would be smart to plan on things getting worse before they get much better, Robert Reich, labor secretary, says it’s possible to be very hopeful and at the same time to be quite sober about what you are going through.

In any case, the rest of 2009 will be an uncertain time for those whose job it is to make decisions and for those who work for them.

When Jim Collins makes a plan for the new year, before designating new projects, he identifies three things he wants to stop doing.

Collins, author of Good to Great, says having a not-to-do list is as important for achieving your goals as a to-do list.

First, the to-dos as recommended by Gary Bencivenga, author of Success Bullets.

• Apply the famous 80/20 rule to your work. About 20 percent of your activities are responsible for 80 percent of your success. Give those activities a high priority. Review your to-do list every day.
• Rise an hour earlier and give your highest-payoff activities your attention. Earl Nightingale claimed that if you spend this hour in study of your field, you will be an expert in five years.
• Slow down. Everything is not urgent or important. Define matters that will improve your work and life. Do those things well, though you sometimes have to ignore other things.

Your not-to-do list

1. Don’t answer email in the morning. Let phone calls coming from people you don’t recognize go to voice mail.
2. Don’t overcommunicate with low-profit, high-maintenance customers. Discover which customers are responsible for your profits and which just take up your time.
3. Don’t carry your to-do-list in your head. It will perpetually nag you so you won’t be able to think as well on priority work.
4. Don’t multitask. Doing two things at once brings a poor result for both.
5. Never agree to go to a meeting that has no clear agenda, recommends Tim Harris, author of The 4-Hour Work Week.

PagePath Technologies recently conducted an online survey of Print MIS Systems. What you are going to see below is strictly raw data from the survey. We have not tried to sway in any direction or draw any conclusions from this. We are just presenting data. We would encourage you to comment below on any of your thoughts or feelings on this matter. We hope this helps.

Data from the question “What MIS/Estimating System are you currently using?”

Data from the question “How would you rate your MIS/Estimating System”

Comments on the various MIS Systems

PrintSmith

• We have used PrintSmith for 5 years. It is improving slowly. Some of the new features in 8 are worthwhile.
• The product works fine, but I have not seen any signs of progress or development for at least two years.
• Good, reliable program but lacks good support. The program handles all our needs and I pay yearly maint. fee but when I needed help the support staff seemed aloof. I get better support from others that use PrintSmith
• PrintSmith is a very good estimating program but for upgrades I think it’s beyond their current programmers and support staff.
• The base module “PrintSmith” is limiting. We are debating whether to buy the module Report Writer.
• Overall it meets our needs. Would actually prefer a little bit more complex estimating system. That part is a little to generic and set up for a variety of users.
• Reports are very difficult as are many of the pricing features — also not compatible with any bookkeeping system
• Have been using PrintSmith for many years; last year tried to switch to ePace but it was very difficult.Very easy to use but has limitations (mainly no integration with any other program)

PrintersPlan

• Powerful, flexible, fast.
• We’ve been using it for over 20 years. They have the best service. They also have a user group and they listen to what we ask for…big plus.
• Great program. Wonderful support
• I was at a shop which used Printers Plan for eight years and Printers Plan seemed more user friendly.

Franklins

• Does an adequate job but the SQL server seems to slow everything down. Have to wait awhile for Estimate/Job Ticket retrieval and export of estimates to .pdf’s.
• I’d really like to switch to something more user friendly.

Others

• Custom coded program that runs all functions of our company. Estimating, scheduling, paper, inventory, invoicing. Has been put together over the last 30 years, and still going. Yes that is right 30 years. The first parts of it were coded in 1978, and work just fine.
• Our ERP is from Reflex Software. It is mostly custom developed but financial system is based on their common ERP core that they use for multiple implementations. We have worked with the same software developers for 20 years. Our previous ERP was a Unix green screen terminal application. Expensive to do custom development. And sometimes it sucks to sometimes be basically beta testing new features in a production environment but it’s very targeted to our needs.

Additional thoughts or comments are encouraged below. Thanks to all who participated.

In a worldwide marketplace, there may be times when it’s difficult to compete in the area of labor costs and, in some cases, even material costs.

At these times, our customer service can put us ahead of the game in competing with companies both at home and abroad. It should be a top consideration for every team member.

That means not only listening to customers and providing good service, but identifying unmet needs that can result in new revenue opportunities.

A successful customer experience often requires collaboration with others in the organization and communication with our own suppliers.

Customers must feel important and appreciated. They are very sensitive to whether we care about them. Be sincere and thank them every time you get a chance to do it.

Look for ways to say “yes.” Comply with any reasonable request and make sure that everything you promise is done. Follow up.

Don’t be afraid to apologize for something that has gone wrong. Customers must always feel that they win in one way or another.

Career coach Marshall Goldsmith was asked, “If you had to choose one piece of advice that would help people achieve more happiness on the job, what would it be?”

Goldsmith, interviewed in Money magazine, said you should imagine yourself being 95 years old. “If you could talk to the younger you, what advice would you give about having a better career and a better life?”

Whatever that wise 95-year-old would tell you to do, says Goldsmith, do it. Start now, because that’s the best advice you are ever going to get. Listen to it closely.

When the time comes, you want that 95-year-old to be proud of you. If the conclusion is that you were a success, you were. Of all the performance appraisals you’ll ever have, how you’ll feel about yourself in the last days of your life is the only appraisal that really matters.

Hey! Times are tough. There is no denying that. But during the most difficult times, we must continue to run the race. Here is a story of a man that I find quite inspiring. See if you can guess who this is:

• He was born in the United States.
• His father was illiterate.
• They were forced out of their home when he was seven.
• His mother died when he was nine.
• He failed miserably at his first attempted career.
• A year late he ran unsuccessfully for the state legislature.
• That same year he lost his job.
• He applied for law school but was denied because of his miserable qualifications.
• He later started a business using money borrowed from a friend, but after a year, his business closed.
• He claimed bankruptcy and spent 7 years paying off his debt.
• He fell in love and was engaged, but his fiance died shortly after their engagement.
• The following year he had a complete nervous breakdown and spent 6 months in bed recovering.
• He later sought to become speaker of the state legislature and was defeated.
• Two years later he attempted to become the elector of the state, but was defeated.
• Three years later he ran for Congress and lost.
• He ran for Congress again, and won.
• Two years later he ran for re-election and was soundly defeated.
• He ran for Senate of the United States and lost.
• He sought nomination for the vice-president and received less than 100 votes.

Year after year he suffered loss, rejection and humiliation. Most of us would have given up long ago. But, he kept trying. What can we learn from him? Who is this man?

If you have a guess, please comment below. Watch our blog for more information and what you can learn.

Everything related to computers has improved by leaps and bounds in the last 20 years. Batteries for laptop computers, however, have improved only 10 percent a year during that time.

Laptop users have to rush to plug them into electrical outlets and recharge them after about four hours of use, and at the most inconvenient times.

Power engineers have developed an alternative to the present technology, a fuel cell that recharges a small battery when it gets low. Fuel-cell makers hope to grab some of the $71 billion-a-year worldwide battery market.

Toshiba Corp. promises to begin selling a cellphone powered by a fuel cell before summer. Its direct methanol fuel cell is certified as the smallest in the world. It’s a start toward a laptop fuel cell, says The Wall Street Journal.

Lilliputian Systems, Inc., of Wilmington, Mass., is showing a matchbook-sized ceramic fuel cell for cellphones that is powered by butane, the fuel used in cigarette lighters. It should be ready for sale by the end of this year.

Igo, Inc., of Scottsdale, Ariz., says they will have a fuel cell charger priced at $199 and based on the Lilliputian system. Replacement gas cartridges would cost about $3.99.

That’s a lot more than the $59 it now costs for a backup lithium-ion battery. But the fuel-cell charger will be half the weight and wouldn’t require an electrical outlet.

Users would not have to carry a converter for electrical outlets when traveling overseas.

Lilliputian is developing a fuel-cell system for later delivery that will replace the battery in a laptop and run it for up to 40 hours before the fuel cartridge needs to be replaced.

Gas-powered fuel cells run at high temperatures and must be insulated.

At the start of this new year, PagePath Technologies sends you our best wishes for happiness and success.

The year just finished is filled with your accomplishments, and we thank you for your work and dedication.

On the lighter side, while we certainly deserve a happy new year, researchers, psychologists, and poll takers want to tell us how to get one.

Some of their conclusions:

People who are engaged in their work are happier than those who are not, according to the Gallup Organization. Those who are trained for their jobs are happier than those who are not.

Psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania say people who are more resilient are happier. They know how to view situations in a positive light and come up with solutions for problems. Economists at Dartmouth College say that if you are single, you have to earn more money than a married person in order to be just as happy.

Pennsylvania State University sociologists say that how people view money is related to their peers and friends. They say “relative wealth” is more important than “absolute wealth.”

Stanford University researchers discovered that people actually get more satisfaction and happiness from anticipating a purchase than from owning the item.

Researchers at the Marketing Department of State University of New York at New Paltz say “recreational shoppers” have lower self esteem than those who shop for necessities.

We wish you and yours success, health, and happiness in the new year