Make Finishing a Profit Center in your Business

Many businesses believe that finishing is an essential step to protect the inks before the prints are sent to the customer. Yes, this is an important reason for laminating images. However, I would not view it as the only reason if I were you. "The best way to make money is to keep the inkjet printers running." is a misleading, but common notion I hear. Often, finishing is under appreciated and money is literally left on the table. When unfinished, a print may struggle to stand on its own for the desired effect to be achieved when it reaches its final destination. The "value" lies in its aesthetic appeal. However, when the print is mounted, routed, and/or laminated, the piece transforms into an integral component of its final surroundings. That very idea is the confidence many customers are seeking from a print provider that can mean higher margins for your business. Providing a variety of finishing opportunities for a customer can increase the perceived value of their product. When finishing is viewed as a necessary evil, the potential for business growth will greatly diminish.
First and foremost, make your customers aware of the wide variety of finishing materials and options available to them. Train your sales staff to offer solutions, not prints. You want to enlighten your customers and spark their imagination. Otherwise, they will continue to think their only option is a 2-mil gloss simply because they do not know what options are available that are a "best fit" solution for their product. It is the salespersons job to educate customers so they know what choices are available to them. To accomplish this, you may need to have your sales team spend some time in the finishing department.
Show your customers what you can do by putting sample packets together showcasing some of your more exceptional finishing techniques. Showing your customers what is possible, and charging appropriately, will transform your finishing department into a rewarding profit center for your business. The key is to know what your capabilities are with regard to the equipment and finishing options you have. I think the real trick is to pick a solution that will make business growth possible. I would start by picking a solution that complements most of your existing products, and then grow into more exclusive solutions that offer customers product uniqueness. Constant attention must be given to efficiencies in order for a business to grow and be profitable. While it is important to buy the right digital printer, buying the right finishing option is just as important.
Today's most successful print providers differentiate themselves from the competition by offering the benefits of total finishing solutions to their customers. From trade exhibits to outdoor signage and fine art, print providers can see financial benefits from print finishing technologies. Finishing the job improves the performance of the product, and can make a positive difference to your bottom line...and you can take that to the bank!

Johnny Shell, SGIA

Pain Points

In a recent meeting of the SGIA Industry Development Committee, committee members had the opportunity to share and discuss the challenges they face as business people, and effectively illustrate some new realities faced by today's specialty imaging businesses. Here is short list of issues:

Sales and Pricing Strategies
How to get new customers, and how to price effectively, continues to be a challenge for specialty imagers. For many companies, these critical elements are deciding factors for long-term profitability and business success.

Understanding Costs
Whether controlling inventory or learning to capture the true, total cost of services rendered, understanding the costs of production is for many companies a significant source of stress and an ongoing barrier to profitability.

Avoiding Commoditization
Increasingly, imagers find themselves in pricing battles with companies that will low-ball a project just to get the work. In so doing, these companies serve to drive prices down for the entire industry, and leave once-certain profitability in question.

Accessing New Markets
Having found themselves in commoditized markets, many business owners are looking into new, different and less saturate markets. If these markets are accessed successfully, they can offer at least temporary relief from traditional, cost-focused markets.

Quality Control
Whether the challenge is creating formalized lean manufacturing processes or simply establishing reliable standard operating procedures, a focus on controlling quality and costs is critical for companies now doing more with less.

Understanding the New Workforce
As younger, tech-savvy and electronically-oriented employees continue to move into specialty imaging businesses, some business owners find themselves challenged to create workplaces that suit their needs.

While the technologies and materials used in our industry require a significant amount of expertise and care to produce a quality product, it is important to note that it was not technical expertise, but instead production and business management issues that weighed most heavily on committee members.

What are the current pain points for your business, and what efforts are you undertaking to address them?

Submitted by: Dan Marx, SGIA

Comparing Notes on the Future

We're just back from the 2010 Congress of Committee meetings where 81 SGIA community leaders came together to discuss SGIA services and explore future opportunities. This was a much bigger crowd than we had in 2009 -- the bleak economic picture of last January kept many SGIA leaders from participating in the 2009 Congress. It was great to once again have strong participation and creative input from all sectors of the community.

The mood at this year's Congress was upbeat and positive, but there was also a sense of caution. This kind of cautious optimism certainly makes sense considering the events of the past year and the continued challenges in the marketplace.

Most of the participants I talked with see business improving, but don't expect to see a return to pre-recession profitability anytime soon. They have adjusted to a smaller marketplace and are working hard to maximize every opportunity.

Several commented on tightening margins. The search for improved profitability is driving many graphics producers to find new customers or, at the very least, modify their product/services offerings. Our community is fortunate to have new technology coming to market on a regular basis, which allows us to continue creating profitable opportunities.

Several of the graphics producers are expanding their reach through diversification. Some see diversification as a temporary move until the marketplace better supports their preferred product specialties, while others see diversification as the new "normal."

Thank you to all who participate in the SGIA leadership. And I invite those who haven't taken part to consider joining in. It's a rewarding experience.

Mike Robertson, SGIA

What Will 2020 Look Like?

As we enter a new decade, of course it's natural to look back on past decades and reminisce. However, I find it more interesting to look forward and imagine what 2020 will be like. I mean, it's only 5 years past the date when Marty McFly traveled "back to the future." It's impossible to say for certain how the world will look and act then, but there are some hints today for what will be popular tomorrow. Unfortunately, I don't think that flying cars or levitating skateboards are in the cards though!

For example, the hottest concept cars at the Detroit auto show this week are the ones that use the least energy. When I look back 10 years to 1999, I remember gas-guzzling SUVs were the car all my peers lusted after. In 10 years there has been a slow shift to more fuel efficient vehicles brought on, in my opinion, by ever-increasing gas prices. As the demand for oil increases from the developing world, it makes sense that by the beginning of the next decade increased fuel-efficiency will be more standard.

Additionally, the US government today is making changes that likely won't be in full effect until the end of this decade or the beginning of next. Healthcare overhaul, new banking regulations and proposed environmental initiatives are just a few issues on the horizon. Other nations are making changes as well. China is growing rapidly is soon expected to become the world's second largest exporter. With that kind of wealth-building within the country, the next decade could see China's consumption of goods dramatically increase.

And, finally, what effect will the current economy have on today's youth? Millions have watched their parents lose their job, have hours cut, or have anxiety over job security. In a decade these kids will be entering the workplace and setting up their own households. Will the frugality and tight budgeting they experienced as a child mean they will be less likely to incur debt? Or that they'll save more? Their consumption spending will have a large impact on all manufacturers.

This next decade will certainly be interesting, whatever happens.

Submitted by: Katy Lellelid

A new year?....more resolution!

I am so glad times are tough!....wait, let me rephrase that a little and maybe explain what appears to be poor punctuation in the title line of this blog. I am a designer by trade and training. I became a printer during the pursuit of my degree. Once the print disease overcame my design senses I became a print junkie. Most of my life has been spent in print institutions treating my sickness.

When I put it in those words it sounds a little dark. The silver lining of this common and humorous mentality among those who print, is that every year of printing has a slight flavor of desperation. Its about what we do and how we work. The world of deadlines, insane customers, shortages of materials and sleep and the permanently split wardrobe. The clothes in one side of the closet have ink on them, the clothes in the other side can still be worn on the occasional day off to visit traffic court.
About 80% of all printed media is advertising. In the screen printing and digital world that may even be 90% or more. Advertising has its own nightmares. It not only has to look good but actually has be finished on time! I guess there is no point in turning out 3500 gorgeous president's day sale posters ....a day late. With the world of advertising print your daily stress level is tied to the rise and fall of the economy. In tough times....if you are still printing, its the same lunch in a smaller size with a different flavor.

In this bleak and colorful world of technical addiction, what keeps a print junkie coming back? For some printers its just a job. For those who can't use that excuse, it might be the challenge (you would think we would just find a hobby). For others...like me...its technical. I found that alongside the deadlines and madness I was most intrigued by the consistency and precision required to actually make the image. It was the challenge of maintaining detail and resolution (there's that word) in a difficult environment.
So what's the connection between hard times and resolution other than the beginning of a new year?
To put it simply, it's the quest for improvement in the process that feeds the addiction of the average printer. Improvements to the process seem to happen to a greater extent in every recession period that I have been through while being employed in the printing industry.
Customers are fewer. Orders are smaller. A better price per unit without a corresponding increase in image quality may not be enough to keep you on the job list of the average print buyer. The first sign that buyers are getting more particular are the requests to printers for higher...resolution. Less line work....more process. More colors for less money. Finer line count (many times unnecessarily) on materials that can be rendered into more than two dimensions (vacuum forming, in-mold decorating, heat bending). More bang for the buck.

Its a peculiar pattern. In the graphic and textile screen printing industry in 1988 through 1992, some of the greatest strides in resolution and repeatability were made in the drive toward creating better and faster printing for less money. It started in a subtle manner with the demand for...you guessed it....higher resolution more four-color process, more exotic materials and shorter runs.
The technical progress with emulsion, mesh and inks addressed the resolution issues first. Better equipment and innovative substrates followed quickly to address cost and speed. The mid 1990's were the boom days of technical achievement in screen printing. By 1996, most screen printers wore silk clothes and drove Cadillacs and smoked $7 cigars (OK...we all have our fantasies). By the time 1997 arrived and the dot-comers had punctured every ones bubbles....we landed in another recession of sorts and ended up back in the shops hoping we could still feed our print addictions.

Again it was the call for better resolution, shorter runs and better quality that heralded the fast influx of digital printing....and the movement out of another recession in the early 2000's.

Here we are again. Recession. Shorter print runs, fewer customers and less time to get it all done....and again....a noticeable upsurge of requests for four-color process, higher quality and better resolution from those who screen print. The drive for digital imaging to supplement or replace existing screen print is growing rapidly. The drive for screen printers to print lower volumes of more exotic substrates for specialty work is increasing again.
From a printers point of view it never seems to be an increase in available money for new equipment or droves of customers with larger print runs that first signals the light at the end of the tunnel during tough times. It was the renewed requests for higher quality in a shorter amount of time...with better resolution. I'm betting the pattern holds true. Happy New Year, work hard...and check your dots!

Submitted by: Ray Greenwood, SGIA

2010: Getting Where We're Going

For many, a new year is like having the opportunity to step through a doorway into a new room; a new decade is even more so. During the moment when the midnight countdown reaches its completion and the champagne corks pop, many of us feel that things will be different - that we will somehow get what we want.

Business owners and entrepreneurs are the same way, really. Whether what they want is long-term (continued growth, even in hard times), or short-term (holding on through our current, lessening downturn), they know that their wants can not be expected. The decade we now exit provides an excellent example. After the 1990s brought us a relatively prosperous and peaceful decade, the last ten years have been anything but. Terrorism, wars, natural disasters and economic collapse all took place on massive scales, while at the same time our industry challenged to grow and innovate.

While we as an industry held our own, little in our industry looks as it did back when our biggest concern was Y2K. The digital revolution continued, changing the graphics and sign community to the core, and significantly changing the way decorated garments are not only produced, but also acquired. New applications, markets and opportunities were launched, populated, saturated and commoditized, as specialty imagers sought new ways to differentiate themselves from the pack.

As we move into a new decade and seek new opportunities to grow both our businesses and our industries, we must accept that where we are going may not be where we end up. Business today is increasingly about the ability to adjust to opportunities and market forces in wise and advantageous ways. Getting what you want may mean developing goals that allow you the leeway to move forward without getting stuck.

While we toast the year and the decade ahead, let us also embrace the fact that the future can and will bring unexpected things - some good and some bad. During the good times, we must also prepare for the challenges that will surely come. By doing this, we chart the most direct course between where we are and where we are going.

Submitted by: Dan Marx, SGIA

SGIA Leadership Ready for Action

Every year SGIA's Congress of Committees brings together member volunteer leaders to help chart the course for SGIA. These discussions always uncover new and exciting opportunities. It's great to have the diversity of the community represented in one place at one time, and these meetings are a huge help to staff.

Last January, the economy kept many volunteer leaders from participating in Congress. I don't have to remind you -- it was a very unsettling time. I'm pleased to report that for the 2010 meeting we've bounced back to our typical participation numbers. We have a 26 percent increase in participation from the 2009 meetings!

These are exciting times -- a dynamic mix of opportunities and potential missteps. With the help of the volunteer leaders, SGIA will continue to provide the valuable resources that help members stay competitive and profitable.

I encourage you to take an active role in the SGIA Leadership structure. In addition to our existing committees, we will be adding some ad-hoc committees to address specific projects. Contact me at SGIA HQ for details.

Happy Holidays all!

Michael Robertson