What Differentiates Good Printers from The Not So Good Printers?

What Differentiates Good Printers from The Not So Good Printers?

We’re fortunate. We talk to printers almost all day and have been doing so almost every day (at least Mondays through Fridays) for many, many years now. We see what works and we see sad stories of printing companies calling us to liquidate their assets when strategies don’t work. We’ve seen good friends have to close their businesses and have to work for years longer than they had planned. We’ve seen others grow exponentially and reap very significant rewards.

There are a few common denominators of success that we have witnessed. Here’s our top FIVE with more to follow.

• SUCCESSFUL PRINTERS UPSELL THEIR CUSTOMERS TO THE STRENGTHS OF THEIR BUSINESS. If a printing company has input into the design of the job, they can make creative suggestions to get away from the commodity jobs. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry can do short run four color on their color copiers or can send out for 4/0 or 4/4 work on 80 lb or 100 lb glossy stock. Printers with quality offset presses or DI machines in house can sell 200 and 300 line screens, thicker stocks, heavier solids, more consistent color, a 1% to a 99% dot with great detail in highlight and shadow areas, “green” recycled stocks, linens, Tyvek, crack and peel etc. that they can produce that the guy down the street simply cannot. Once the print buyer is hooked on this quality, it is very difficult for others to compete when the job goes out for rebid in 6 months or one year. Successful printers have input into the design of the job and sell to the strengths of the equipment they own.
• SUCCESSFUL PRINTERS ARE ALL ABOUT EFFICIENCIES. What are your two biggest costs? That’s right, labor (payroll) and paper; in that order. When you can minimize those two expenses, your profit margins increase and you walk away with more money at the end of the month. Automated printing presses now preset color, load plates automatically, register almost by themselves, and have makereadies of 10 minutes or less. Some of the presses we sell have makereadies of 5 minutes or less! Ryobi DI presses virtually make ready by themselves so that the pressman can go work the cutter or the folder during these makereadies and that part time bindery kid who comes in afternoons every day is no longer needed. Paper waste is minimal on these presses thanks to these technical advances as well. Successful small printers running multiple two up machines can eliminate half of their makereadies (on 4/4 work) by running jobs work and turn on half size presses. And now, half size printers are moving into 6 up and streamlined 8-up presses (we’ll talk about these very soon) at much lower price points than where these machines were priced at 10 and 15 years ago. Again, we see more labor and paper savings in all of these examples..
• SUCCESSFUL PRINTERS DON’T FALL FOR BAD FINANCING OPTIONS. I can’t tell you how many printing/copying companies that I have walked into who want out of a color copier only to find out they are on the hook for the sum of the payments all the while their machine is not at the end of it’s duty cycle or is obsolete. Often times these customer friends find themselves tied to the same manufacturer’s product and their only way out (in some cases) is to upgrade to the latest machine which is only another $300/month but your payments go for another 5 years and the duty cycle for the next box is 2-3 years at best. If you can, purchase equipment that is reliable and is built to last. Be very wary of service/maintenance contracts. When you can get a loan with an amortization schedule instead of a lease. This way you can, see how much principal and how much interest you pay each month. You can also see what your payoff will be in three years (at the end of the duty cycle) on a machine you have financed for five years. Invest in equipment that is stout; that will last well beyond the length of the lease/loan. In this way, you are building equity and have an asset that adds to the value of your business. Now your CPA may say a lease is best for you in some circumstances. I get that. Consult with them and tell you lender what you want. You’re the boss.
• BE CAREFUL OF EQUIPMENT THAT REQUIRES A SERVICE CONTRACT AND/OR PROPRIETARY SUPPLIES. A manufacturer approached us a few years back and said “the thing our dealers enjoy most about our product line is that they make lots of money on service”. I looked at my partner and shook my head. We said “no thank you”. We don’t sell service contracts. The products we sell (Ryobi, Sakurai, Count, Baum, Saber, Prism and used presses) are, for the most part EXTREMELY RELIABLE. Sure, all machines break down at one point or another but we have friends with our gear who go years without a break down and who need little more than some over the phone coaching from a technician to solve issues on their own, on site. Now, that’s not always the case but so much of what we offer is built that way and performs that way. Did you know there are service organizations out there whose employees are paid commissions on parts and the sale of service contracts? Just sayin’. Be aware and invest your money in things that last.
• THE AMERICAN DREAM has typically been, for most people, to own their own home. How many of you have reaped tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and maybe a million or more dollars of equity as the value of your home(s) and/or your building has gone up over the years? Renters never realized that same windfall. If you can own your own building, do it. Buy right. Hold on to it. Sell it when you retire or rent it out. A good friend of mine has a building in LA. He is a bit older. He is retiring now and is renting out the space and netting about $100K a year in income from this one rental.. The same can be said of investing in printing equipment as an asset versus the guy who sits at his kitchen table who brokers and sends everything out. If you invest in solid, reliable, long lasting equipment and make those payments where your equity is increasing each month, in time, you will own it free and clear and it will be a business asset. Will it increase in value like real estate usually does? Rarely, but it will be an asset; nonetheless, and the same argument about renting versus buying applies. FEATHER YOUR OWN NEST AND NOT SOMEBODY ELSE’S. Build your own net worth, not the other guy’s. Send out the jobs you can’t do. Never turn down a job and when that type of work grows where it is repeatable and is coming from multiple print buyers, then look at buying the piece of gear that produces it at that point in time. MORE NEXT TIME INCLUDING STRATEGIES BANKS USE THAT YOU CAN USE TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS….