Young shop expanding services

[Jordon]

Hello,

We are a young shop and are growing. As such, we are looking to add elements we’ve withheld on for overhead reasons. Graphic design being one of them. Without that client base that wouldn’t shy to the cost, it made no sense to bring on a designer as an employee.

We’ve gratefully reached a point we can bring that employment in-house and want to pick some brains on employment contract setups.

Clearly there’s just a simple hourly rate, but I’ve read elsewhere similar to sales positions they have a reduced hourly rate with a commission based rate attached to actual design time.

Our intent is to train them to run our digital presses and become a print team member but also execute any graphic design. I’m intrigued by the reduced hourly with commission as the majority of their time will be operating presses.

If any of you have designers on your team and can share it would be appreciated.

 

[pippip]

So you want to hire a graphic designer to operate printing presses and pay them a low operator wage plus commission?

Alot wrong with that idea.

Sales people get commission to encourage them to make more sales, why would a press operator take a low wage and get commission?????

 

[J_DVRS]

As a press operator, I would expect to be paid very well to create designs as well. I edit files that are sent to me from customers to tweak anything they have missed, and I am well taken care of by my company. I think you are asking too much of an operator to handle graphic designing, and running the presses if you are not paying them a comfortable living wage.

 

[J_DVRS]

I don't think it would be a bad idea to hire a graphic designer who just finished school or is about to finish up school and train them for a year or so on the presses so they can get a real idea of the printing process. Depending on their work load though, and as you expand, it could easily burn them out if they are attempting to do both.

 

[pippip]

I don't think it would be a bad idea to hire a graphic designer who just finished school or is about to finish up school and train them for a year or so on the presses so they can get a real idea of the printing process. Depending on their work load though, and as you expand, it could easily burn them out if they are attempting to do both.

I'd recommend this, you'll need to find an out of school designer who may be interested in developing their printing knowledge.

An experienced designer will only be interested in a full time graphic designer position, and would need to be paid accordingly.

 

[TJPrinter]

You haven't reached that point yet if you can't pay a graphic designer a living wage. Keep outsourcing that work.

 

[jwheeler]

About 20 years ago I was this 'out of school designer' who started at a small print shop doing just what you're describing. It was very frustrating to constantly split my attention between designing and running our digital presses. It's hard to understand if you're not a designer, but you have to get in a certain mind-set to be creative, and it really messes up your thought process to stop every 10 minutes to load/empty paper or clear a jam. This is also how mistakes get made in both design and pre-press because you're doing things in certain steps, and those steps keep getting interrupted. I made it work, but I was not super efficient at either job, and the design work ended up bottle-necking the whole process (since jobs can't get printed until they're designed and approved!)

I'd imagine with how small your shop is, you're even going to expect them to answer the phone and deal with walk-in customers occasionally who are placing/picking up an order, and even do some bindery. If you can't afford a full-time designer, then keep outsourcing it to someone who does it remotely part-time and just hire another press operator.

Lastly, that reduced hourly rate plus commission sounds bogus. Are you hiring a sales person or a graphic designer?

 

[Robohopar]

Yes I agree with everyone.

I have a designer which handles designs only with the exception of answering phone calls ( don’t get too many per day) and walk ins if we have any.

A designer should not be a press operator and vise versa, it would be nice to know design if you’re the operator so you can manage changes in the files if needed but that’s about all.

Sales is tricky and I’ve been thinking about hiring someone as well. Confused on how the pay structure would work as far as commissions etc but from what I’m seeing and hearing I think sales would need to get a low hourly wage + a smaller percentage of gross sales they bring in (~10%).

Believe me, if you’re growing, you’ll have your designer with their hands full soon enough.

Good luck

 

[Snowhugger]

About 20 years ago I was this 'out of school designer' who started at a small print shop doing just what you're describing. It was very frustrating to constantly split my attention between designing and running our digital presses. It's hard to understand if you're not a designer, but you have to get in a certain mind-set to be creative, and it really messes up your thought process to stop every 10 minutes to load/empty paper or clear a jam. This is also how mistakes get made in both design and pre-press because you're doing things in certain steps, and those steps keep getting interrupted. I made it work, but I was not super efficient at either job, and the design work ended up bottle-necking the whole process (since jobs can't get printed until they're designed and approved!)

I'd imagine with how small your shop is, you're even going to expect them to answer the phone and deal with walk-in customers occasionally who are placing/picking up an order, and even do some bindery. If you can't afford a full-time designer, then keep outsourcing it to someone who does it remotely part-time and just hire another press operator.

Lastly, that reduced hourly rate plus commission sounds bogus. Are you hiring a sales person or a graphic designer?

Very well put. Been there, done that!

 

[J_DVRS]

I just imagine having a 40 page document that needs to be designed by 5pm and having a rush order on some super staticy paper that needs to ship out on the same day

 

[jwheeler]

Sales is tricky and I’ve been thinking about hiring someone as well. Confused on how the pay structure would work as far as commissions etc but from what I’m seeing and hearing I think sales would need to get a low hourly wage + a smaller percentage of gross sales they bring in (~10%).

There is no perfect formula, but I do have a few pointers from being on both sides (I've sold printing equipment, and I've managed print shops that had outside salespeople).

1. You do need to give them some sort of base salary. They won't stick around very long if they can't at least put food on the table. It's going to vary depending on the region where you live, but make it just enough to get by, but not enough to thrive. That's where the commission becomes the incentive.
   
   
2. You need to provide them with a tool to track their sales activity. SalesForce is a common one, but even many print MIS' have built-in sales tracking. Don't get crazy on making them input EVERY single detail about every deal they're working on. But they need some sort of tool to type some notes, and so you can hold them accountable if they're not bringing in any sales.
   
   
3. You need to be very clear with your contracts on what they get commission on AND what they don't. For instance, if your shop does mailing, they could get paid on the printing and mailing services, but not the postage. If jobs get shipped, they don't get paid on the shipping fees since you don't make a profit on that.
   
   
4. They should get perpetual commission on an account they bring in. I worked at one shop that only wanted to give commission on the first order(s) they brought in. It's their account, keep paying them on it. However, you could write in the contract that they must have some form of ongoing contact with that account, such as one touch per month, and have them document it. An amount like the 10% you suggested is reasonable. If there's certain services that are highly profitable for you, you might offer them a higher percentage so they push that type of work.
   
   
5. Set a reasonable quota of NET NEW business but be flexible when they're new and figuring out the territory. Offer bonuses for exceeding the quota by certain percentages, and don't keep changing the quota if they keep exceeding it. If they're exceeding it, that means you're getting new business! So many sales reps that I worked with over the years would quit and go to the next place because they got tired of the management changing their commission structure. The bonuses should not apply to repeat business (but commission does!)
   
   
6. Give your sales reps excellent sales tools! This could mean a presentation folder full of samples. Or a well-designed booklet of your services, etc. Some leave-behinds that will stay on someone's desk such as a coffee mug with some wrapped candies, magnets, pens, mousepads, etc. And hopefully you have a really nice website where the customers can place orders/reorders. A big bonus for our new bigger accounts was when we set-up portals for them with images of their commonly re-ordered items, and especially their business cards so they could typeset them on their own.
   
   
7. Train them on what you offer, what you do really well, what you don't do well, and what requires outsourcing. Talk to them about reasonable deadlines so they're not out there telling people you can get them 100,000 booklets by the weekend. And you don't want them out there selling coffee mug printing if you want nothing to do with it. Maybe you excel at wide-format. Give them a little kit of material samples and tell them to emphasize that service. I'd even suggest having them work in the print shop for their first week or two shadowing people in different positions to understand how things work. Offer them slightly higher pay during this on-boarding period since they won't be getting their commission.