Labels and packaging have seen a dramatic shift in sales and sentiment over the last few months. Entrepreneurs and executives don’t have the same optimism, and employees are getting restless.

 

Despite the changing dynamics, we’ll weather the storm. In good times and bad, we’re relied upon for marketing, brandbuilding, security, tracking and more — bringing value to just about every industry.

 

Still, we have some new obstacles. One of today’s biggest challenges is the aftermath of Covid-19. Over the last few years, we’ve tried to avoid material shortages and price hikes by stocking up, adding equipment to handle work we previously sourced, and hiring new staff. We took aggressive action on short-term issues. While this benefited our immediate needs, it didn’t position us for tomorrow.

 

So, now we’re left with some new impacts. We’re also facing pressures from our marketplace and economy at large. Let’s take a look at our five major challenges and see what we can do to navigate them.

 

1. Overstock Just about every business has excess inventory that it needs to clear. This means all of us are trying to push through the same material to customers, with some competitors drastically undercutting to offload their shops. At the same time, converters are lowering prices to protect their end market. This has caused increased concern and frustration as sales margins have dropped — on the few projects that are actually getting in the doors.

 

We need to turn this ‘commodity’ thinking around and focus on what has made us successful for all these years: Providing solutions. Show your customers why you’re a valuable resource. Take the downtime to devise a product that answers a marketplace need. Have clients out to your plant. Identify their pain points and rebuild yourself as a partner in their growth, rather than just another supplier.