I haven't blogged since Wednesday. I'm going through withdrawal. Am I ill? Nope. Uninterested? Nope. Traveling on business. Yep.

I've been in Florida since Wednesday to meet with a couple of clients, speak at one of their conferences, and meet with a key vendor. Traveling from Minnesota to Florida at the beginning of September is like traveling from Florida to Minnesota in January. The change in temperature and humidity are not for the faint of heart.

Also not for the faint of heart was the amazing tour that we received of the new Valpak manufacturing facility. Valpak, a client, is the publisher of the blue envelopes that magically show up in your mailbox each month and which contain offers from local and national merchants. Their new facility is incredible. My background is in printing so I've seen my share of large commercial printing facilities, but none come even close to approaching the level of robotics and other automation in this plant. There are virtually no workers involved in the process of printing and mailing literally billions of targeted direct mail pieces each year. The automation has allowed Valpak to reduce the time it takes to turn a piece around from four days to four hours.

Their hundreds of franchisees will now have a much better cost side of the income statement to work with. CollegeRecruiter.com, along with other partners, will now be able to help the franchisees increase their net income even further by helping them hire hundreds of new entry level sales representatives.