The Semper International Blog

Wrote up this blog post for Graphic Arts Monthly last month, but thought it was a good basic description for others to enjoy. Original Blog Post

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Build your business a Second Life
Brian Regan, COO, Semper International

There’s a new medium that will provide extraordinary opportunities for printers with vision. It is called Web 2.0. In general, they’re called metaverses, which, described in Wikipedia, are fully immersive 3D virtual spaces; environments where humans interact with each other— socially and economically—using the metaphor of the real world, but without physical limitations.

The most popular metaverse is Second Life. If you haven’t heard of it, you will soon. Second Life is a user-created 3D virtual world. It’s hard to believe that 2D websites will become a blended 3D/2D experience. However, virtual worlds have many advantages over traditional websites. The power to incorporate people viewing the same content brings tremendous advantages to marketing and business applications. As does the opportunity to add a powerful colabrotive tool for training, conferences and recruitment.

Residents make up the population of Second Life; characters that you can meet and interact with. A user moves through the world using an avatar, which is similar to a game character. You can make the avatar an extension of yourself, or a ‘new and exciting you’ that’s anonymous from the rest of the world(s).

Some residents earn their real world income through Second Life. They’re store owners, clothing designers, editors for ‘in world’ newspapers and magazines, graphic artists, web developers, programmers and others who help firms enter Second Life. They’re bright, creative and adaptive to these new environments. Some of them have become real life millionaires just from their ‘in world’ businesses.

Are there customers here for printing firms? You bet. The world is filled with creative people and many of them are marketers and graphic designers involved in real world advertising and design projects. Some of these people are registered with Semper International. We use them in the real world for graphic design, programming and work in Second Life for Semper clients that either want a new Second Life presence or want new features to the existing assets they’ve already built.

Tapping into those groups is a fantastic opportunity for printing firms. I have even seen a few printing firms that have created storefronts. If you can build a network of corporate marketers, who knows what opportunities exist?

Who’s in Second Life now? From the Corporate 500, it would be easier to list who’s not. I know that Fidelity Investments, and a host of other companies, are. Google the following: “Second Life” and IBM; “Second Life” and Xerox; “Second Life” and Coke…the list goes on and on.

What are these firms doing? Most are publicly engaged in marketing activities, trying to understand how to reach the ever-growing resident population. I’ve seen a wide range of promotions; from Coke branding activities to ‘educational’ Weather Channel programs about extreme conditions. Others use Second Life to recruit people. Semper is an active recruiting force in Second Life, as are TMP, IBM, Cisco, Verizon, Microsoft and others. There are lots of other corporate Second Life activities. Semper uses our location for internal training and development. In fact, many colleges currently offer classes within Second Life.

Should you jump right in? That depends. Many companies in Second Life are visionaries or early adopters of new technology. If you’re looking for a fast ROI, this is not a good option right now. Let the early adopters figure it out and buy the “Second Life for Dummies” book when it’s available. But, if you wait, you’re limiting your ability to make a significant impact, as the early adopters will have cornered much of the niches—but maybe some will look to be acquired.

If you’re thinking about entering Second Life, I strongly advise you to hire a consultant (like me!) who has a strong understanding of this new world to determine if you should enter it, help you understand the culture and build your presence. Often I persuade my clients not to enter Second Life. Then again, in many instances there ‘s a compelling business argument.

The metaverse is evolving and you should be paying attention. Web 2.0 firms like MySpace, Second Life and YouTube are changing how people interact and communicate. It’s wise to not only learn, but also adapt to these networks, so you can position yourselves for the future. Maybe your real print world can morph into something else.

Brian Regan is COO of Semper International, involved in recruiting operations for the company as well as consulting clients about Second Life, on behalf of Semper.
bregan@semperllc.com
www.semperllc.com

The usual request comes with a whole host of requirements-

-Must have a Book of Business!!!
-Must work on commissions -( as low a percentage as possible)
-Would rather not give a base if so then only for a few months at best
-No house accounts to be given
-The Fringe Benefits are very skant- IE Health, Dental etc -
- Expenses are mostly covered BUT the reporting requirements to get reimbursed! Are Very large!!

Funny, When you look at the description in writing, no wonder why the company cannot find anyone to take the position.
Some basics- If a sales representative has a Book why would they want to consider moving? What about non competes? In this day and age a better idea is to find an individual with the proper personality and train them into the role. We have found our most successful sales type placements come when client companies are willing to consider a flexible development plan. These plan’s take into consideration the market labor conditions and the need for business to compete to attract labor.

In order to be successful it is incredibly important look at investing in your core staff. Firms have little problem deciding to invest millions in plant and equipment yet have huge issues understanding that small investments in core staff can have a much higher positive impact on profits and faster. I understand that forming a good structure to implement a flexible development plan maybe a challenge - most worthwhile things are - but consider - A challenge is a barrier to entry - Which means if you do it then you have an advantage over your competitors.

Food For Thought

David Regan
CEO
Semper International

Been thinking for over a week on what should be the first post on this blog. I have gone from doing a whole Metaverse thing to targeting a big issue in staffing and ripping it apart. However, I think that the first post should be what a niche staffing firm should be responsible for. In a sense, what positives we need to bring to our market and be held responsible for them.

Let me just play my card here and say that I firmly believe that a niche staffing firm should create a better environment for its niche market then if it did not exist. Being a parasite and taking money from the industry should not be the only goal, in fact it should not be at the top of the list. Being a successful niche staffing firm will always be profitable, but focusing solely on profit is a dead end street. We must bring helping to a higher standard. We must hold ourselves to a standard of integrity and honor.

One benefit from coming out of the industry you decide to staff is that you have an appreciation for that industry and in my case a love for it. I was more or less born into a print family and have always and will always have ink in my blood. I am proud of the many great things print has given me. That passion and love made me want to give back, to create something that breeds quality, service, hope and efficiencies all into one nice little basket. For me it was a good way to start out a new life of niche staffing.

As one can assume staffing firms have two clients the client company and the client employee. Each are equally important to the staffing firm and each has their own unique challenges. Yet creating a winning situation for each and improving their experience is critical.

The client employee is what ultimately makes or breaks a niche firm. Since niche firms charge higher mark-ups it is key that each client employee be of a superior quality, more productive sooner and more readily available, thus making them a strategic and dependable resource. Yet to develop that pool of talent is anything but simple. A firm must have a profound respect for that person skills and perhaps even more importantly that the person will be relying on the staffing firm to provide them the needed work so they can not only keep their heads above water but to prosper. The client employee (Associate, talent, worker, temp, flex staffer….etc) should also feel that they are interacting with people that understand where they are coming from, what they do and that they have someone there to help them out should they need it. I can not tell you the number of times I have driven out to a work site and made sure my person onsite was okay and in a safe environment. If you have a great person and place them in a horrible situation you are obviously not thinking straight. There is a key balance that is required to succeed. Place tried and true people with new clients and when you introduce new talent to the pool you get the support of existing clients, have them help you qualify the pool. Ultimately it is in the best interests of the client companies to help a niche firm be successful.

The result of a niche firm must be profound, most show quantifiable impact that assist client companies and client employees in positive ways. To aim for any less is to not achieve the the balance and without question success needed by all. In niche staffing winning is not good enough, win win is not good enough only when a win win win situation has been achieved have you started on your way.

Brian Regan
COO
Semper International