What I Learned at the AlphaGraphics Gold Circle Meeting

Last week was our annual Gold Circle meeting of the top revenue owners in the AlphaGraphics system. We held the meeting in Naples, Florida. There were 31 owner groups represented. Contrary to what a lot of businesses are doing in this economy, AlphaGraphics continues to have these meetings of top performers and also having our annual conference each summer. The location was not as exotic as in the past, but the company was, again, outstanding. Thank you to Kevin Cushing, AlphaGraphics CEO and the rest of the AlphaGraphics staff in having the foresight in continuing these meetings in these difficult times.

So what did I learn?

From the group as a whole...Yes these are hard times and many of us have experienced revenue declines from the prior year, but we still need to laugh and enjoy ourselves. We had several discussions about how to improve our businesses and how to gradually change ourselves to adapt to the changing business climate. There was a lot of laughter in our meetings and dinners.

From Grant Richey in Bountiful, UT...maybe its time to hire a person who devotes themselves to the marketing aspects of our business, especially for SEO and social media

From Butch Clarke in Dallas...the best way to transition into becoming marketing and communications experts is to bite the bullet and start having conversations with our clients

From Rodrigo Abreu in Brasil...being an expert in marketing does not mean we have to be on the bleeding edge. Man, this guy really knows his marketing stuff. Good choice Kevin.

From Chuck Stempler in Seattle...maybe we can make money in this marketing and communications consulting gig. Great work on the Humane Society.

From Rob Johnson in West Valley City, UT...there is plenty of money to be made in the large format arena. I'm going to take a look at vehicle wraps.

From Clair Meehan in Pittsburgh...If you have a creative mind, our customers will seek us out for their most important projects.

From Bill Meehan, her husband...before we can present ourselves as experts, we need to market our own businesses in the way that we preach.

From John and Karen Bickers in Madison...if you want to get into litigation support, you need to right business structure and the right software.

From Keith and Shelly Hermanson in Billings...we need to invest in new types of people in order to make this transition and we have to plan to maybe fail before we succeed.

From Mike Sparaco and Darin Osborne in Tempe...keep investing in the business, become an expert in everything we try to do, and have passion for the business.

From Jeff and Jill Lerner in Sunnyvale, CA...Being active in the community is where its at. Also, when you check your airline tickets for departing time, also check the departing airport :-)

From Sally McKenzie with Ecommerceconsulting.com...Google is taking over the world and our personal lives.

From Karen Brinker in Greenwich, Connecticut...starting another AlphaGraphics can be exciting and hopefully rewarding. I hope they learned a few things from me in that regard.

From Larry Furlong in Phoenix...continue to have a marketing mind. We need to continuously promote our businesses by direct mail, on the internet and wherever our propective customers' eyes might fall. And, as Kevin Cushing said, he continues to do God's work (love you Kathy!)

From Liz Brohan of Colman Brohan Davis...our customers do not want us to find them, they want to find us by researching and getting recommendations online. The Millenials are going to rule the world and we need to adapt to this change. However, we can still teach them about the benefits of direct mail.

And for all of the other Gold Circle owners and presenters I did not mention above, thanks for the most enjoyable and instructive meeting I have had in a long time.

You can reach us at AlphaGraphics at the following websites and phone numbers:
AlphaGraphics Mesa on Baseline 480-844-2222 FaceBook
AlphaGraphics Tempe on Elliot 480-413-1900 FaceBook
AlphaGraphics Phoenix-Northwest Valley 602-234-2944 FaceBook
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