44 email: news@printmonthly.co.uk March / April 2023 - Issue 341 REACHING YOUR FULL POTENTIAL HHaving run my own print business for a number of years and working with well over 100 print business owners over the last couple of years, you start to see trends, what people are struggling with, and where they are going wrong. I was partial to most of these in the past too. I see these issues existing in a range of businesses, big and small, well-established and not. Nobody is exempt. Yes, even those big companies you consider to be successful! Here are just some of the more noticeable issues I come across regularly. Not having solid systems in place These are the building blocks that support your business to grow and run efficiently. Every employee and every department should have a solid blueprint, a checklist, and an ethos to follow that ensures consistency and that everyone is working towards the company's strategic objective. Underestimating costs How many times have you produced a print job for a client only to look back and realise it actually cost you money in the end? Often it comes down to inexperience from the estimator, not understanding the actual production of the job, and allowing for enough time or processes. Maybe you only allowed for a set number of design hours and the job grew arms and legs? Don't be afraid to go back to the client if they changed the brief on you midway. If you don't, it could slowly be killing your business. Not knowing YOUR numbers properly Did you notice I emphasised the word 'YOUR'? It's a common mistake to use your competitors as your pricing gauge without knowing why they use those numbers. Think about the nightmare you will get yourself into if you take a competitor's price, cut it by 10% and then sell it to your client. What if the competition has a bad pricing structure and is barely making any money? What if your costs are more than theirs? Not charging for all your time This seems like an obvious one, yet I see it with print businesses all the time. It's okay to throw in a little extra from time to time when relationship building, just be mindful of the impact it has on your numbers. One of the most common ones I see is clients changing the spec of their paper on a job. Let's say they tweak from a 130gsm to a 170gsm stock. It might feel like too much hassle to change the work ticket, and get accounts to raise a new invoice, so you just bypass these steps to push the job through. You might say you'll stick it on the next job they place but let's be honest, it seldom actually happens. Not getting paid fast enough We've all heard the phrase "Cash is King". Cash flow can be a real issue for printers specifically which is why I'm now a real advocate of being paid in full upfront prior to starting a job. Sadly, I've been on the wrong end of customers not paying their bills, however, I do appreciate there are some customers where this is just not possible and you have to offer credit terms. In these cases, be sure to get these invoices raised as soon as possible. When I first went into business for myself, I was very guilty of being too busy to keep on top of invoicing and in some cases, wouldn't get around to raising an invoice as much as 6 weeks after the job was delivered. You can imagine the impact this had on my cash flow! Not tracking advertising I would actually rather see people not advertise than spend money without tracking the results. There is absolutely no point in a marketing campaign unless you put the measures in place to see the effectiveness. A common one is just boosting Facebook posts because it's easy and will get you lots of likes, but what's the point if those likes are not from your ideal clients? Make sure you are measuring all your sales and marketing activity so you get to see what works and what doesn’t. Spreading yourself too thin This is a classic mistake made by every Colin Sinclair McDermott, owner of The Online Print Coach, offers his insight into where print businesses could be going wrong when striving to be successful Having been in the print industry since the mid-late 90s, Colin Sinclair McDermott entered the world of self-employment in 2004 and over the years that followed, experienced a number of highs and lows running his own print company, learning what does and doesn’t work. In 2022, he trained with The Business Coaching Academy to become a fully certified corporate coach with the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches. Through The Online Print Coach, industry members can access an online training platform in the form of The Print Growth Academy, as well as private 1-to-1 coaching with Sinclair McDermott. Sinclair McDermott says: “I didn’t always get it right, I made mistakes along the way and one of the greatest motivators now is being able to give the support I never had to make sure others don’t repeat some of the errors I made. “My clients are seeing great results and it genuinely feels like I’m doing what I was always meant to do and making a difference.” www.theonlineprintcoach.com In 2022, Sinclair McDermott trained with The Business Coaching Academy to become a fully certified corporate coach Factoid INDUSTRY TIPS / THE ONLINE PRINT COACH
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