Will PSPs Take a Real Vacation This Year?

Yes: 70%

• I’ve been blessed with the best team ever. With this, I can now effectively delegate and not be married to the business so much. — Malcom Gieske, IDWraps.com/Identity Group, Slatington, Pennsylvania
• Planning typically depends on kids’ school schedule combined with other employees’ breaks to make sure we have appropriate coverage to not exceed 20 percent of a department being out at one time. — Jason Ahart, Olympus Group, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• I take a few vacations each year. It always ends up being a busy time, but there’s no way to plan for that in advance. I trust my team to make decisions and take care of problems while I’m away. — Rob Matthews, Matthews Mobile Media (M3), Greensboro, North Carolina
• I love traveling and would take big trips twice a year, but I think with all that has happened this past year, we’re taking our RV out more, which I love anyway. So maybe in 2022, I’ll start traveling via airplane again, but for now… RV trips are great! — Carol Yeager, MY Prints, Los Angeles, California [Read more about Carol’s camper trips in the May issue.]
• My wife and I plan our breaks to be on as many days that we’re already closed as possible, which is a little easier now that we are a Monday through Thursday shop and closed on Fridays. The switch to working four 10-hour days has been a game-changer! — Jake Soper, Evermore Prints, Boise, Idaho
• Any vacation I take intertwines around an event. I’m going wherever there will be new ideas and equipment that are showcased. — Tommy Melendez, Master Graphics, The Bronx, New York City
• I generally take a week-long vacation toward the very end of the year when business slows a bit anyway. — Trey Matula, Picture This Wraps and Graphics, Mandeville, Louisiana
• We take a vacation every other month and have the past several years. Train your employees to take care of your customers while you are there, and they will continue while you’re away from the business. — David Kaiser, Digitype Design, Tualatin, Oregon
• Vacations usually are planned around the absence of my boss. I usually don’t take more than a week; usually it’s an extended weekend. She works hers around mine, so I do the same. We just have that understanding! — Stephanie Wise, Print Express, Torrington, Wyoming

No: 30%

• There’s so much going on with a real lean staff. And I’m not comfortable traveling yet. — Rick Mandel, Mandel Graphic Solutions, Glendale, Wisconsin

Question: Have you received an injection of a COVID-19 vaccine yet?

Yes
50%
No, but I want one asap.
3%
No, but I don’t mind.
32%
No, and I never plan to.
12%

In the Flesh

It’s been over a year since we’ve walked a show floor, but there seems to finally be light at the end of the tunnel. Printing United and FESPA are scheduled to happen later this year, and not just through our computer screens. Are you comfortable attending in-person events and tradeshows? The overwhelming response to our May Brain Squad survey was “yes!” Here are a few extended answers:

• I’d be comfortable, but I don’t know that the “juice will be worth the squeeze” unless vendors and other industry contacts will definitively be attending. If networking opportunities are going to be limited, much of the value of the events is lost. — Wade Neff, Strategic Factory, Owings Mills, Maryland
• As soon as international travel is possible without mandatory quarantines, we will be back at tradeshows. — Cain Goettelman, FLS Banners, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
• I have to be. Events are a big part of our business and I need to promote this segment to get back to where we need to be. — Dan Plomin, Westamerica Communications, Irvine, California
• When vaccination rates are up around 70 to 80 percent. — Pete Brunner, Full Sail Graphics & Marketing, Huntington Beach, California