First, as we raise our glasses to toast in the New Year, all of our longtime loyal clients and our enthusiastic new friends and clients are first in our hearts! Although the times have been tough for many, and the challenges of the economy and business in recent years forced everyone to rethink their basic assumptions of running a business, we’ve enjoyed a strong support of all of those people we’ve tried hard to serve – and to you, a hearty “Here’s to YOU!” (tink tink, sip sip)
In my travels on the webernets, I happened upon this post from a great blog called Coconut Headsets, called Sisyphus for Startups. Sisyphus, if you’ll remember back to your Greek Mythology class, was that dude who was fated to forever roll a stone up a hill, only to have it roll back down, and have to start over. Sound familiar? The post was written from the perspective of the “startup” entrepreneur, but can apply to just about anybody running a business – small or big. Just ask GM CEO Dan Akerson if you have any lingering beliefs that it just applies to the little guys. Rather than being discouraging, Rob May’s post was inspiring:
“So if you really want to be a successful entrepreneur, maybe instead of trying to be as smart as Bill Gates, as good a presenter as Steve Jobs, or as lucky as that Plenty-Of-Fish dude that so many startup gurus tell you emulate, you should really try first and foremost to be as persistent as Sisyphus. Push that rock, but don’t just push it when you feel like it. Push it when you are tired, push it when you feel bad, push it when other people tell you that you are wasting your time. Don’t expect pushing the rock to be easy. If it was, everyone would do it.”
The economy, global politics, and even the climate has all combined to hand us what amounted to the “Perfect Storm” of a business climate. Many companies have failed, but despite what you hear on the news, most have survived. Those that have, did so by responding to their market, shedding waste and indulgence, and concentrating on their core market and services. We’ve done that here, and you, our clients, have done the same. This past year showed us a leveling off, and a start of a recovery, made even more poignant by the many times we saw our clients as committed and determined to see this through to the other side as we are.
From our perspective, everywhere we look we see opportunity. As more people understand what our Cruise Scanner can do for them, coupled with our “Grand Format” Epson 11880 printer, we’re partnering with more museums, artists and galleries to create new revenue streams. We’ve released a new, exciting Fine Art Watercolor media- Angelica Bright White Velvet II, and if you liked our old version, you’ll be amazed at what the new paper looks like. Printer deals continue, and we’ve had an unbelievable run of printer sales and installations over the last quarter. Above all, the technology continues to improve, run better and more profitably for anyone running a scanning or printmaking studio. Most importantly, we see more and more people emerging from “triage” mode to looking ahead to a positive, brighter, and more profitable year.
So as we tink our glasses tomorrow night in gratitude for your loyalty, we’re also keeping an eye on the year to come… a year promising to see us all breathing a little easier, and enjoying the fruits of our labors a little more. We’re a team, we’re all in this together, and we all owe each other a good pat on the back.
“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
– Thomas Alva Edison, Harper’s Monthly (September 1932)
