Work has stopped...

[kdw75]

Last week the phones stopped ringing and the email orders stopped. It is as if someone flipped a switch. I have talked to a relative that works at a totally unrelated business who said their numbers where way down the past couple weeks. Two of the other print shops in town said they were all just sitting around waiting for something to come in.

The businesses I mentioned are small and rely on local accounts in a town of 80,000 people. Wondered if anyone else had noticed this?

We have had several clients in the past month tell us that they would no longer be ordering regular jobs because they were going to have people type information into iPads or computers.

 

[Possumgal]

Maybe merge this with "the end is near" thread?

 

[arossetti]

We are located in a state capitol and it is business as usual here.

 

[Al Ferrari]

Capitols are government buildings. You probably meant capital. My taking the time to post this indicates how busy I am.

Al

 

[Lukew]

The industry as a whole is very volatile at the moment.
The only way to guarantee a steady flow of work is to ensure your firm covers multiple facets of print & can be a one stop shop.
This ensures if one segment of print is down there will hopefully be other segments boosting sales for the month.
For the smaller shops this may be difficult as they may not have the capital to purchase the equipment for each print sector.

If your firm can offer lithographic print - digital print - large format digital print - design - web design - marketing strategies - finishing - mailing etc you will be in a much better position to a firm that can only offer the basics of print.

Stick to a healthy pricing structure & do not go down the road of cut price offerings many firms are doing or have done before finally closing due to lack of finance.
Once you drop prices you are stuck there, it sets a precedence & clients will then expect this is continued with inevitably asking for further price cuts on quotes due to Firm B down the road who is printing jobs at a loss just so the machines are turning over.

 

[Imran520]

Last week the phones stopped ringing and the email orders stopped. It is as if someone flipped a switch. I have talked to a relative that works at a totally unrelated business who said their numbers where way down the past couple weeks. Two of the other print shops in town said they were all just sitting around waiting for something to come in.

The businesses I mentioned are small and rely on local accounts in a town of 80,000 people. Wondered if anyone else had noticed this?

We have had several clients in the past month tell us that they would no longer be ordering regular jobs because they were going to have people type information into iPads or computers.

It may be the problem of other thread.

 

[D Ink Man]

Less ink on paper will lead to the ultimate demise of mankind and the earth.

That is my take. D