In Australia, 2016 has been largely one of politics. It started with local Council Elections, then we had to endure the Federal Election and of course, we had to also endure the American Presidential elections.

For the past few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of navel gazing. Why, I hear you ask. Well, simply put, there is nothing on TV. It is more than that though. I don’t know about you, but elections and election debates and promises aren’t riveting viewing for me. I’d rather watch paint dry to be perfectly frank.

Recently I was stalking several forums on the subject of longevity, or lack of it, on digital printed material and colour change wraps on vehicles.

The wide format industry is becoming increasingly competitive on many levels these days. More aggressive marketing from the Chinese and Korean manufacturers is tempting more end users to give them a try. Buyers it seems are prepared to take a risk if it means bigger profit margins for their efforts.

I think any business owner would have to agree that the recovery from the recent GFC has played havoc with many small businesses and it is still playing a part in business strategy.

Social media has become well and truly entrenched in people’s lives these days, and the general computer user and more importantly businesses, have seen the popularity grow from its nerdy-ness into the phenomenon it is today.

January in most parts of Australia has been fairly extreme on the weather front, with high record temperatures in most capital cities, and even higher inland.

Some time ago I was lectured by a well-meaning colleague telling me that I was far too generous for my own good.

Being a small business, there is that balance during the day of taking phone calls, unexpected visits from prospective clients and the odd cry for help from a client that needs you to 'pull a rabbit out of a hat'.

The industry that has become printed vehicle wraps, and that is now morphing into vehicle colour change wraps, is approaching a crisis point not of its own making. The culprits I suspect are some marketing boffins putting profit ahead of common sense, professionalism and industry standards.

In this day and age of electronic mail, electronic brochures, electronic advertising, it is fast becoming the norm rather than the fad that some pundits predicted a few short years ago.

I’m not sure if it is the dire economic times for some businesses, or they are just interested in saving any money at any cost, but businesses large and small seem to be opting to forgo a solid professional image in the interests of saving a buck on items that are the front line to their image, in the face of prospective clients.

2012 is drawing to a close and it’s probably a good time to reflect on business in the past year.

Regular readers of my articles would know that I’ve been prattling on for some time, that as small to medium enterprises operators (SME’s), our task is made all the more harder by bad press and bad government.

I’m sure most of the WFOL readers would agree with me that business has become, and is, pretty hit and miss right now.