how's business

[SlaveToTheMan]

Edited. Due to the fact that this information is too good to divulge for free.

Really. May I subscribe to your fabulous Newsletter then?

 

[excellprint]

Hows Printing Business?

Hows Printing Business?

We have had great business last year and look forward to another great year. Especially successful with many of the typical and unique printing products like custom business cards, sell sheets and posters. But, most recently we have experienced a growth in both revenue and client satisfaction for our over 300,000 promotional products that we offer.

Custom printed USB drives have come down considerably in price. The promotional Frisbee is certainly a fantastic professional business promotional product and will be for quite some time. Professionally printed magnets and postcards are the ultimate in promotional giveaways.

Read more at our company business printing blog

ExcellPrint-Promotions

 

[OutSourceD]

SHAMELESS self promotion, methinks.

 

[excellprint]

We are not self promoting just sharing some of the things we do. Sorry if this is not accepted we like communicating with other industry alikes so we will not post any info like this..

 

[CD102]

I'm not the moderator and neither is OutSourceD. But with that being stated, most folks posting here aren't including links back to a commercial web site so it certainly looks like an ad for your business. I don't have a beef with it, but it is what it is.

 

[excellprint]

Guys once again sorry our intent is to communicate with people in the industry so we will not post like that again. Have a great day all

 

[ondemandbindery]

Oh lets see..... In the past 3 weeks 2 customers of mine have closed up. I expect to lose atleast 1 more by the end of April. As one of my Vendors told me. these players went swimming in the deep end of the pool without a floatie. The good news is I will still be around at the end of this year but will have changed my position in the business.

 

[OutSourceD]

What do you mean by "changed my position in the business".

20 years ago we started as a typesetter, for all the local print shops, (and boy there were a lot of them). Then we became a film service bureau, but years past and we ultimately lost out to in-house image setters, so we became a Heidelberg DI & Indigo, print provider, then lost out to the likes of 4 Over, so we added a full fledged sign company/department replete with screen printing and embroidery, and have seemed to flounder over the last 3-4 years. I've never seen it as bad as it is right now. We are close breaking even each month, but I don't like break-even. It sucks. I like to be busy. We are 50% off at least.

 

[rbailleu]

outsourcd I like how you roll with the changes keep up the good fight

its sad to see others leave the business. but when thing pick up there will be more for those that are left.

now that health care is on the back burner and congress thinks we should worry about jobs, it will be all better by the fourth of the july. I hope they get the message soon. "ITS THE ECONOMY STUPID"

 

[ondemandbindery]

What do you mean by "changed my position in the business".

20 years ago we started as a typesetter, for all the local print shops, (and boy there were a lot of them). Then we became a film service bureau, but years past and we ultimately lost out to in-house image setters, so we became a Heidelberg DI & Indigo, print provider, then lost out to the likes of 4 Over, so we added a full fledged sign company/department replete with screen printing and embroidery, and have seemed to flounder over the last 3-4 years. I've never seen it as bad as it is right now. We are close breaking even each month, but I don't like break-even. It sucks. I like to be busy. We are 50% off at least.

Well, if I stay as a Trade Bindery I will fall to the wolves of this Industry. I am slowly trying to change myself into a Graphic Arts Service Provider. It means a multitude of things from Packaging to rubbing elbows with some of the bigger companies and helping them with Turn Key printing projects that quite frankly hold their dollar up due to a quarter. I am scrambling just like the majority of the Printers are right now and I want to make sure I have a chair when the music stops. Something else I do is provide input to smaller printers I deal with. Bigger shops have dug into their work and it hurts a small shop to lose any work that is recurring right now. I offer consulting services for these small shops and try to educate them on how a job they have been turning away for years may actually fit them and they did not know how to plan it. An example may be cross grain folding that they believe needs to be letterpressed and they can typically not realize there are many ways to skin the apple.My history of working is from Mom and Pop shops to Corporate structured Printing companies and I have seen a lot done right and wrong. The success rate for this varies but in this economy price can become primary and small shops are not typically layered in management and if they use some creative thinking they can get medium size runs. It is all fair game at this point for anyone and you have to just figure it out. Think outside the box. Heck, I was in a little shipping store the other day and they had helium tanks. What a great idea. Just an example of someone figuring out how to survive in this economy.

 

[rbailleu]

I am looking for a new copier right now. and the salesperson tells me that they have to run credit checks on realestate agencies, and printers before even ordering a machine for demo.

 

[OutSourceD]

No doubt. Real estate agents are the freaking WORST "customers" I can think of.

 

[OutSourceD]

Things picking up?!?

Things picking up?!?

2010 certainly seems to be better. Last year was replete with monthly losses. We broke even in January, actually made money in February, and March is on for the best month in the past 10-12. I really do not know if this is due to the efforts we've made in marketing and sales or simply whether the economy is picking up here. I think it may be the latter.

 

[HachiZenki]

At the height of the economic....malaise shall we say...all the employees got a letter from the CEO saying that advertising was off 40% over all so no more employer 401K matching (which we got for only the first 3% anyway). 2 months ago we got another letter saying that conditions have improved so they were going to reinstate the 401K matching program...for $.50 on the dollar for only the first 1%.

 

[OutSourceD]

I can't imagine that it's just me. Is business picking up for any one else? All of a sudden, we are boom town.

 

[rbailleu]

yeah ours started in january. I have some customers complaining because they arent getting our regular 1-2 day serrvice.

 

[Neil Meggitt]

Things are picking up over here also. Had plenty of job offers in the last 2 months and the company I work at is overflowing with work.....can't say if that's due to the time of year as we're doing some large government & blue chip contract work or if everyone's finaly starting to dig into their pockets again.

 

[ondemandbindery]

I can't imagine that it's just me. Is business picking up for any one else? All of a sudden, we are boom town.

Looks like my March will be the second worst month since I opened the doors up 2 years ago. Luckily I have been working on other avenues to generate revenue. I suspect there are turf wars over bigger printers in my area getting work from some of the smaller printers I deal with and they are just beating themselves up on pricing. We are putting together some marketing stuff so I will have to report back in a few months and give some feedback. The other problem is I am not a bank for Printers. We have already decided for the remainder of the year to turn away projects from certain Printers due to payment history unless they want to show up with cash and even then we will check the bills for counterfeit. Laugh but we had a local printer get busted over it in the past so I am sure some of that money is still out in my area. This is probably one reason for reduced sales but I would rather clean tiolets then help these scoundrels out.

 

[lakai]

I can't imagine that it's just me. Is business picking up for any one else? All of a sudden, we are boom town.

Yeah business business picked up substantially for the month of march. About 30% more than normal.

 

[himani365]

any body can give me advice on opening a frenchise of printing place...in ontario canada...is it too late to get in...or still have potential for small businesses. please give me advise before i jump in and ...