April 6, 2011
Entrepreneurship Group Coaching Call
One of the biggest marketing expenses for most large or small businesses is printing. From business cards, to brochures, to presentation folder it all adds up to a large amount. For most business owners the printing is mysterious. They don’t k now how a brochure is created and printed and they don’t know whether the printer they are using is the best one for their needs. They certainly don’t know how to get price bids from several printers. In this lesson I will show business owners nine ways to reduce printing costs.
It all starts with putting out the bids for prices. Most print buyers will choose three comparable printers to bid on the print job they are doing. If the three printers are truly comparable it will not matter which printer you choose. That being the case most buyers will choose the printer with the lowest price.
Sometimes the printer with the lowest price is not the one you want. There are other factors to consider other than price. Does the printer do good work? Do they deliver on time? Are they easy to work with? These are all factors to consider, but most of the time the printer with the lowest price will get the printing job.
So savings number one is pit one printer against another. Printer A has the best price. You tell printer B his price is too high and that printer A is much lower. (Don’t say what thee price is,) Printer A matches Bs price. You tell printer C that he has to beat printer A and B price to get the job. C will lower his price and so on. You can save a lot of money in the bidding process.
The next way to save lots of money on business printing is a practice called “gang run.” The idea is instead of printing one brochure on a sheet at a time, put two or more on the same sheet and print them. There are a few requirements though. Both brochures have to be printed with the same colors and on the same paper. Ask a printer to show you about gang run printing. You can save almost 50% on printing the brochure.
Partner with the printer to save more money. Let’s say your company’s annual printing budget is $50,000. Talk to the printer and make an offer. You will give that printer all of your $50,000 printing jobs in return for an additional 15% of the whole lot. Chances are he will accept your offer and you have saved %15 on you annual printing budget. Let’s see. In t his case you would have saved $7,500. Not bad.
Give the printer extra time to print your job for a discount. Every customer a printer has is in a hurry and needs their printing yesterday. The printer wants to make all his customers happy but sometimes all his presses are book and running 24 hours a day and it is highly stressful for the printer.
If you have some printing like a brochure that you need to get printed but you don’t need it for three weeks or so, tell the printer you will give him your printing job now so he has more than enough time to get it printed. You see printers have busy times and slow times when he has little to print. He only makes money when his presses are running. By giving the printer your brochure several weeks ahead of when you need it, the printer can put it on the press when things are slow and it helps keep the presses going. Tell the printer you will give him your printing job several weeks ahead of time but you need an additional; discount. He will do it.
Save money by never rushing the printer. As I said most of the printer’s customers want their printing now! He is always in a rush. When he rushes your print job the chances of a mistake occurring go up exponentially. Each person who works on your printing job hurries and doesn’t take that extra few minutes to look over their work and they miss a problem or they cause a problem while rushing. Some printers have as much as 20% of rework because of mistakes by the press or the customer. Never rush the printer. It will cost you.
Using fewer colors on printing your brochure saves money. Four color costs more than two colors which is more than one color. Ask yourself, “Would this invoice or brochure be any less effective printed in one or two colors rather than three or four.” If the answer is yes don’t change it. If the answer is no reducing the number of colors will not make a difference in its effectiveness, reduce the colors. The savings over a year will add up.
Never run out of printing. There is no excuse for running out of invoices or brochures, or mailers. Running out means you must pay the printer a higher rush fee to get them printed. When you’re printing of invoices or brochures are delivered, notice how many are in each box. Every Monday count the number of boxes and see how many you have until reorder time. Duh!
Using the right paper to print your brochure on can save money. Printing paper comes in three grades, number one is the best, number two is the next best and number three is the third best. Of course the number one cost the most number two costs next most etc.
Always have the printers give you bids using number three paper. You can’t tell the difference between a number one and number three. If you are printing large quantities of brochures the savings will be substantial.
Well there you have it. Ten sure ways to save thousands of dollars on your business printing. Go get’em.
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