Print Shop Thoughts

Though it is a debate topic among many economists, The United States has experienced roughly 50 recessions in the 246 years that we have grown as a country. Each time marking the cycles of production, consumption, and business that turns the engine of the economy. Although the people in power, nor the media will say out right that we are in a recession; the average person will already understand this fact when they pull up to the gas pump or go to the grocery store. With the rapid inflation being seen across global markets; businesses and consumers are being forced to rethink spending and cut costs where they can. For print shops that were around during the 2008 recession, this will be a test of their lessons learned during that time. For print shops that got their start during one of the biggest bull markets ever seen in American history, this will be a matter of learning from the past and positioning yourself accordingly.

Although typically a recession will show it’s warning signs years ahead, it will reach up and strike the general public seemingly out of no where. One day things are good. Then there’s a bad week, and another, and another, until you evaluate everything around you and understand the circumstances are more dire and this was not just a hiccup. If you don’t address the hiccups quickly, you can find yourself hiccuping uncontrollably and gasping for air. I can spend my time in this article analyzing the how’s and who’s of the situation we currently face. That will not however change the fact that businesses and consumers are being forced to react quickly to a rapidly evolving situation NOW.

As a respectful business owner, you don’t want to have to weigh the options of having to cut back or possibly lay off your workers, or weigh the options of having to sacrifice your product quality, or be forced to raise your prices during a time when consumers are being forced to reevaluate their budgets and spending. Any price increases are going to decrease your chances of a sale during this time. This tug and pull match between producers and consumers can be the difference in this recession taking hold for years to come or keep us afloat while the massive supply chain issues work themselves out. It will take the effort of both producer and consumer to ultimately start to move past this. If we wait for the powers that be to act effectively, you can go ahead and strap in, because it’s about to get bumpy.

Until then, you have to start figuring out how to make your business more efficient. Anybody who’s been in the printing industry for any amount of time, understands how tough or expensive it can be to do that. One of the biggest overlooks when it comes to most print shops is the investment and utilization of software. If done properly, this can dramatically increase your print shops efficiency, therefore increasing your profit margins, which in turn can aid in your ability to keep your prices lower, therefore leading to a higher rate of sales. If you are able to continue your growth through these uncertain times, you undoubtedly will be the one standing on top once we get to the other side of this mess. That’s capitalism, baby!

One software investment that many industries could stand to benefit from, is investing in their website. For print shops specifically; a quick google of competing print shops in your area, will show that they either do not have a website, or their website is limited and still leads to a traditional process of customer acquisition. Anybody who has been in the printing industry understands the many nuances of pricing out different printing processes and the many variables that come with that complexity. Those nuances are what ultimately leaves print shops stuck with a website that is about as useful as a business card. The goal here needs to be efficiency.

In the era of convenience, you have to be able to give your customers a path to pricing and submit orders quickly and easily. If a client has to get in touch with you by way of phone call or email to know more about your product or service, you may never get that sales lead. If they are able to get rough pricing and submit an order, your odds of closing the sale is vastly higher due to that convenience factor. You can go a step farther and utilize “Design Your Own” product designers on your website, but that is ultimately dependent on the products you are producing, your goals, and your abilities as a print shop. You can read more about that subject here.

At the very least, a functional website will give your customer the perception of your professionalism. At the beginning of my business ventures in the printing industry, many first time clients were baffled to learn that I was working out of a basement. When you are just getting started, your clients perception of your business will be an integral part of your growth.

Your print shop’s website doesn’t need to be as technical as you think it needs to be. Simplicity, in many cases, is the key to being effective. With our website system built specifically for print shops, you won’t have to know a single line of code. Your a printer not a web developer, you have a prints due out. You don’t need the headaches that comes with dealing with a super technical website. We have been in your shoes and we get the many difficulties that come with running a print shop. We have built our website system to ease that stress and make the day to day easier.

Check out all the features we have to offer here and learn how we can help you grow!

When you started your print shop, you probably had big dreams of automating everything through your website with an Online Product Designer tool, like the ones that are featured on the big online print companies websites. “This will be no problem. Customers will design their own stuff and I won’t have as much to do”. Once you started looking around for a way to implement this, you likely realized the highly technical and workload heavy effort it would take to make it work effectively. Online Product Designers can be great if you have a design that is easily editable and repeatable. However, how many of your clients want the same design options over and over? If you’re a graphic designer, setting up these tools would likely be pretty easy for you to get working, but you will be limited on what you are able to create given the limited abilities of most Online Product Designers. This is more than likely going to leave you with designs that are unappealing to your eye as a designer, and leave you with design work still left to do on the backend to make the design printable and aesthetic. Rest assured that if a client is given the freedom to design a product, they will make it look terrible 90% of the time. You’re then not able to use this as quality example of your work. Quality design is a key factor in print shop growth.

Another thing that most small print shops don’t plan for when implementing an Online Product Designer into their website, is the non tech savvy nature of most of their clients. The majority of business for small print shops will come from local businesses. Other business owners come to you because they want your expertise to create their products  or they have other things to deal with operating their own business. There are big online players in the game already. If they wanted to use a system like that, they would have went to those providers to begin with.

This is not to go without saying in certain situations, online product designers can be very beneficial. If you are doing any type of digital printing, you can take advantage of these tools in different ways. If you are printing vehicle wraps; you may have some sort of abstract design templates that you use for backgrounds on your wraps, then allow customers to choose different colors and add their logos. In these cases, you will have to do some design work on the backside to accommodate the many different variables associated with wrapping a vehicle. This process can give you and your client a good starting point, which then leads to getting products out the door faster. If you are printing business cards or other paper products, you can create templates that are fairly easy for customers to customize. Once again you will be limited on the capabilities of your design, but if the goal is to print more you will be aided in that. These tools aren’t always as friendly to screen printers. However,  simple 1 color designs can be easily repeatable. Deciding if an online product designer is going to be beneficial to your business model comes down to asking yourself; “What kind of product do I want  to sell?”

That then begs the question of what you can do to better serve your customers online experience without having this functionality. The point of e-commerce is driving sales, right? Our simple and intuitive website system for print shops has solved that issue.

• Allow your customers to price out your print shop’s products on your website. Our calculators are capable of figuring numbers through several different methods.
– In the modern era of convenience, if a customer has to go out of their way to ask for prices, your chances of a sale goes down.

• Allow customers to submit their order inquiry without having to input their credit card info immediately.
– Most print shop orders don’t receive their first initial deposits until  production is about to begin)

• Have a simple and organized way to send proofs and communicate with your clients.
– This process allows for much higher quality design possibilities. Nobody will want your products if they don’t look good.

Your print shop’s website doesn’t need to be as technical as you think it needs to be. Simplicity,  in many cases, is the key to being effective. With our system, you won’t have to know a single line of code. Your a printer not a web developer, you have a prints due out. You don’t need the headaches that comes with dealing with a super technical website. We have been in your shoes and we get the many difficulties that come with running a print shop. Our website system is built to ease that stress and make the day to day easier.