We had an open house recently for the members in our Sonoma County Executives business networking and referral group. The planning took weeks and everyone got involved in the preparations. It was sort of like having the entire family over to your house for a holiday meal, only in July.

The weather cooperated beautifully, as the day before the temperature was in the 90′s, but on this evening it was a beautiful summer day with the cooling breeze coming from the ocean and our large roll up doors open, bringing in plenty of fresh air.

We had explanations of offset printing, digital printing and letterpress printing. During the letterpress demonstration I was explaining how we are using presses that were built 40 or more years ago, based on the printing practices that were hundreds of years old, and use modern plastics’ technology to make photopolymer plates that are used instead of the traditional lead type.

Afterward, one of our guests pointed out how it was ironic that the computer and modern imaging practices had impacted the printing industry so much and yet it was the internet and our website that was making it possible for us to be letterpress printing wedding invitations for clients all over the United States and foreign countries.

I was struck by this observation and realized that, yes, we are given new opportunities in today’s business climate to be versatile and innovative.

After we have been at it a few years there is a tendency to want to sit back and want to rule over the king/queendom that has been created and we forget about our earlier desires to be innovative and creative. We want to do the things that we like and sometimes neglect tasks we do not find as satisfying and fulfilling. In these challenging times it may be necessary to step out of our comfortable success and build new sources of business.