Is it time to start a Consulting Business?

[EyeCColor]

Hi Everyone,
I hoping to get as many opinions as I possible can. I am in a situation where I would could start a consulting business in the prepress area. My expertise is in color management but my back ground has been as a systems administrator for the last 5-6 years. I feel confident I can handle most situations that get thrown at me.

So I ask, is it time??? Is the market saturated? I live in the Cleveland Ohio area. I have several strategies to go to market and I may be able to land one nest egg. One of my big incentives is the economy. Companies are laying off people left and right, so they are lean, and in many cases understaffed. They may need the assistance to give them a shot in the arm from time to time.

Everyones thoughts are welcome. Crazy or Not?

 

[otherthoughts]

On the one hand, there will always be a niche for consultants.

On the other hand, the collective advice available on Forums such as this, Blogs and other sources draw on the input and experience from a great many people and talents.

By "nest egg" I assume you are referring to a client for your consulting services that is essentially on-board for your services? If that is so, will this nest egg client support/pay-your-bills long enough for your consulting business to become well established?

In other words, most larger companies wont pay for consulting services unless the consultant comes with quite a pedigree. Your consulting talents would have to rise above the scope of talent provided by their current staff.

So the most receptive audience for a consultant lacking such a pedigree would be smaller shops which are often unable to afford "reasonable" consulting fees.

For what it's worth
Otherthoughts

 

[Ian Mackenzie]

i agree

i agree

there is always room for GOOD consultants.

My compnay works with about 30 consultants in the US.
some are good, some are not.

Howver, all of them are looking for more work and most of them do not know where to find it. I worked at EFI for 8 years and at Scitex for 9 years. Color management, in my opinion, has been solved. sorry.

The proofing market is saturated, unit sales of printers and RIPs are at an all time low.
That being said.....there is still room for growth.

Ping me offline for more ideas.

 

[otherthoughts]

I don't know if I can go along completely with "Ian" that "Color management has been solved".

The architecture for managing color is certainly present and available. The issues that I suspect still require more "solving", revolve around expectations and understanding the architecture from one end to the other.

The competent Web Designer who occasionally re-purposes their designs for print-work, often falters while attempting to moderate between the demands of the Photographer for the web-site and the preflight checklist the Designer is presented with by the Prepress Department. Often resulting with the Photographer and Web Designer having no idea what to expect and ultimately being disappointed as a result.

The Prepress Department often has the fullest understanding of the ICC Architecture, the tools at their disposal and how they are used within the scope of their particular experience in their work-flow. Despite their advanced understanding of the principles of the ICC Architecture, they frequently cannot envision the printed outcome accurately.

You see the Prepress Department deals with Numbers, Profiles and Rendering Intents that exist within the realm of Computers. The only physical things that they see are the Digital Proofs and Press sheets they are expecting to match one another.

The Pressman on the other hand, mostly deals with physical things. The dots on his plates, the surface efficiency, brightness, grain direction, capillary force, fluorescence, thickness etc. of their paper stock. The packing between the Plate and Blanket cylinders, the Squeeze applied to the stock between the Blanket and impression cylinders, the PH, conductance and temperature of their fountain solution, dryer settings-coater settings-Anti-Set-Off spray powder settings. You get the idea.

The Pressman lives in a completely different world than that of the Prepress Department, nowadays(They were closer before the introduction of computers). Check-out this thread.
http://printplanet.com/forums/prepr...d-both-sides-divide-press-prepress#post102809

The Prepress Department, dealing mostly with computers and theory.

Seasoned Pressmen dealing with what they see and have learned over time, no computers other than their own brains, no theories other than the one's they conjured up on their own.

As the Modern Presses become more computerized, perhaps the Prepress Department and the Pressman will again be able to communicate with one another?

This post has gone on long enough, lets leave out Management, Bindery and the Final Customer shall we?

So while I concede that the Color Management Architecture exists for the computerized equipment that can take advantage of it-(this extends all the way to the press with newer press equipment). This Architecture is not a panacea. It does the best it can within the bounds of it's programming and if the programming is done diligently, it is pretty damn good!

As I stated in the beginning, the problem lies with expectations, understanding and now I'll introduce continuity. You see, when the software used by the Photographer, Web Designer, Prepress, Pressroom and Final Customer all speak to each-other accurately, the better the software will be able to set their expectations.

As it Stands now, the Photographer still wonders why he cannot get the Deep Saturated Blues and Candy Apple Reds he hoped for on the advertisement that was printed web-offset on unbleached newsprint. To him, even his "calibrated"(to nothing in particular) computer screen looks better than the print result. The printer must have screwed up again is often what he concludes.

To my way of thinking, Color Management is not solved completely.
Otherthoughts

 

[edwinb]

If I was looking for a futur I guess I agree completly with Ian,
most of the photographers I work with supply certified contract proofs with their images
The presses I visit have cif files loaded on the pc adjacent to the press and use a scanning spectro to check and realign the ink ducts with precision to the appropiate iso standard.
- a visit a few times a year to update / recalibrate / occaisionally repair systems is I think very beneficial to the clients but its still a hard sell and not becoming easier in a shrinking market.
I think that adds up to good luck if you go for it- it will be very hard work
Edwin

 

[otherthoughts]

I agree with "edwinb" who agrees with "Ian Mackenzie" who largely agrees with Me.

Wait a minute! There seems to be something circular about this Logic? How can this be true despite there being some disagreement amongst us?

It is my contention that Color Management is not "Completely" solved.

In deference to "Ian Mackenzie" whom I largely agree with. Let's ask "edwinb" to expound beyond Photographers with "certified contract proofs" bearing no relationship to web-offset presses running unbleached newsprint, equipped with Ink Fountain presetting software performing within some "ISO" standard and occasionally equipped with scanning Spectrophotometers that reasonably maintain the web-offset press within some guidelines in a closed loop system, If this is all the information he wishes to bring to bear in countering this contention that "Color Management" is not "completely" solved?

Sorry, I guess I got a little harsh there? My Bad!

Back to the thread topic,

In a somewhat circuitous manner I wanted to suggest to "EyeCColor" that a consultant who is fluent with Color Management from one end of the Color Management spectrum to the other is a very rare commodity. I have never met anyone meeting this description. So if it were me considering becoming a consultant, I would try to become that person.

There are plenty of people who are Color Management experts in one specific realm. Trust me, there is no-one and no authority that I know of, and I have looked, that can expertly address the entire spectrum of Color Management!

Best Regards
Otherthoughts

 

[gordo]

I also agree that color management has not been solved.

It will be solved when it disappears into the system - just like postscript disappeared. The problem will not be solved until users are able to accomplish their color goals without having to figure out the mechanics of how to do it (and hence hire consultants, study thick books, or ask questions on forums like this).

In the early days I had to learn and then write postscript code in order to image a simple vignette. Now that code is written for me by the software and all I need to do is decide what the vignette should look like. That is a problem solved.

The barrier to solving the problem is that there is more money to be made fixing the problems that poor creative application software creates than there is to be made by preventing color problems occurring in the first place. It's like the old days of dentistry. The dentist made more money drilling and filling rather than preventing cavities happening in the first place. That's why he always gave me a lollipop to suck on after each visit.

Users should not have to configure their color systems. They should not have to hire consultants. All they should be required to do is define their goal (e.g. this is a newspaper project, or this is a brochure being printed at ABC printing) and their software should then configure the system appropriately and tag the files accordingly to be read by each of the production processes that follow.

But apparently there's no ROI in that.

best, gordon p

 

[oxburger]

[QUOTEColor management, in my opinion, has been solved. sorry.[/QUOTE]

In theory, you may be right, but as long as you have different pressmen running different presses on different stock using different chemistry and different inks, color will always be an issue for most small/mid-sized shops. Will a small shop want to pay a consultant to come in, learn their systems, make changes and come back periodically for tweaking? Or would it just be cheaper to either keep a color expert on hand or let the pressmen/prepress tweak each job on an as needed basis?

 

[otherthoughts]

I think Gordo's definition of "Completely Solved" is about the best I've heard

Oxburger brings up some interesting questions regarding the way things stand now.

Will a small shop want to pay a consultant to come in, learn their systems, make changes and come back periodically for tweaking?

Or would it just be cheaper to either keep a color expert on hand or let the pressmen/prepress tweak each job on an as needed basis?
​

If it were my decision, I would say both, with a few caveats.

The consultant should deliver his assessment of the shop in the form of a written audit detailing all findings as well as communicating directly to the shop staff as appropriate. A well seasoned consultant should be able to size up a small shop inside an hour or two. Periodic tweaking should be handled by the shop personnel not the consultant.

The pressmen/prepress should be much more able to tweak jobs when needed if the consultant has been effective. In essence, helping them to become experts.
​

What do you guys think?
Otherthoughts

 

[Ian Mackenzie]

let me clarify.....

let me clarify.....

We all live on different sides of this.
Yes, i still do believe that color management has been solved.

What remains in flux is the "management of color management".....;-)
Hence the constant need for a consultant.

Why do I believe that color management is "QED"?
Many reasons....some of which are:

- My company works with about 30 of these consultants in the US. They are all looking for work - NOT because of the soft economy, for that would not be logical, as color issues would not vanish with less work in a shop. Many providers are finally treating print like a true manufacturing process instead of a craft. With such ego removed, they are left with "just the facts".
- All the tools are there. Even at Kinkos, they can produce a Vutek poster that matches a Xerox copier, that matches a Dell monitor, that matches an HP 6100. The issue becomes one of human capital management and process control and not technical limitations. They CAN do it, but apparently they do not always choose to do so.

Yes, I admit I may be viewing this issue from afar, but I am exposed to a cross-section of our industry - litho, digital, wide format - on a national level. My point....I just dont hear the debate as much as we did in 2006.

 

[otherthoughts]

We all live on different sides of this.
Yes, i still do believe that color management has been solved.

What remains in flux is the "management of color management".....;-)
Hence the constant need for a consultant.

Why do I believe that color management is "QED"?
Many reasons....some of which are:

- My company works with about 30 of these consultants in the US. They are all looking for work - NOT because of the soft economy, for that would not be logical, as color issues would not vanish with less work in a shop. Many providers are finally treating print like a true manufacturing process instead of a craft. With such ego removed, they are left with "just the facts".
- All the tools are there. Even at Kinkos, they can produce a Vutek poster that matches a Xerox copier, that matches a Dell monitor, that matches an HP 6100. The issue becomes one of human capital management and process control and not technical limitations. They CAN do it, but apparently they do not always choose to do so.

Yes, I admit I may be viewing this issue from afar, but I am exposed to a cross-section of our industry - litho, digital, wide format - on a national level. My point....I just dont hear the debate as much as we did in 2006.

Good Points Ian!

But I still have to go with Gordo's statement, "It will be solved when it disappears into the system". Thereby eliminating the need for "management of color management" to use your words.

I like your comment, "Many providers are finally treating print like a true manufacturing process instead of a craft. With such ego removed, they are left with "just the facts".

I won't argue that "we all live on different sides". As an example, I contend that you will never see a "Kodachrome" film positive with a 3.5 D-Max, match unbleached newsprint, printed web-offset, or the bulk of the intervening attempts at matching. The Density range of the "Kodachrome" film positive is so much larger than any downstream efforts. The best one can hope for is an approximation living within a 1.5 D-max newsprint result.

D-Max - Dynamic Range

Being Retired, I must concede to your opinion regarding, "I just dont hear the debate as much as we did in 2006".

However I feel you omitted the definition of QED-(It was new to me)

Definition: Quod erat demonstrandum (Q.E.D.) is the Latin for that which was to be demonstrated. Q.E.D. is used in mathematical proofs to show that what was to be proven has been proven. The Greek for Q.E.D. was used by the ancient Greek mathematicians Euclid and Archimedes.

​

Thanks for adding to the discussion Ian!
Best Regards
Otherthoughts

 

[encompus]

Great Discussion!

The management of color management is the title of someone's next book. There will always be a need for education and a need for consultancy. Knowing the details is one thing, implementing an enterprise solution is another thing. I am been in the speaking circuit for X-Rite, GMB, and the GIA since 2001 and classes were always filled with people just trying to make sense of it all. It's true, we have great tools at our disposal and for the most part they work well. CM is no longer black magic and foreign concept. However, we still have a communication problem. From design to prepress to print - speaking the same language is still a problem.

Marc

 

[Raymond Ramirez]

Max you are so smart...... I fully agree CM is going nowhere as long as there is human intervention in the process.