At the Auction

[gordo]

 

[claude72]

Somebody told me years ago when I was in the printing business: you have the customers you deserve…

 

[Possumgal]

Classic rookie mistake. Get all the best money can buy before you have enough business to pay for it. Oh, well. More work for the smart guys.

 

[Repro_Pro]

This reminds me what a large printing plant manager told me many years ago:
"To succeed in this business you need 3 things - Work, Equipment and Workers. You never have them all at the same time."

 

[Repro_Pro]

Some customers may well be worth more than the equipment.

Some, I agree. But for the rest - I'd much rather deal with the equipment...

 

[chriscozi]

Somebody told me years ago when I was in the printing business: you have the customers you deserve…

80 / 20 rule.
If you attract the types of clients that are problems then they will be 80% of your client base.
That only leaves you with 20% not causing problems.
Then again it is your fault for attracting them - typically through low prices.

 

[Possumgal]

That comes many times from being intimidated by those customers who tell you that so-and-so doesn't charge as much as you just quoted. Wonder how many times that customer has actually told the truth about the matter.

 

[claude72]

… - typically through low prices.

No: we were printing on recycled paper, in a time (1990) when no other printers wanted to print on recycled papers.
With two consequences:
1- recycled papers being less expensive, it attracted people with low budget with DIY files or designers with very little or no experience working at low prices and doing butcher's files;
2- recycled papers being low quality, it needed particular pre-press work for films and files, which was never done, despite our recommendations and demands, leading to many printing problems when we had to work with films supplied by the customer or needing extensive corrections on the files when we had the chance to get files!

 

[Repro_Pro]

This reminds me of an obserbant customer who told me once, after watching how we fixed his problematic job that although he comes from a different industry (Electronics) he realizes now that we share much the same difficult situation because in both our fields "sometimes to achieve 10% higher quality, takes twice the time" and there is no way we can charge realistically for that extra effort.

 

[Shawnd]

Or maybe their up to date customer(s) were bought out.