If printing isn’t a core function of your business, there’s a good chance someone is managing your print buying ad hoc — someone whose main job, or expertise, isn’t print.
Printing may seem one of the simpler, more straightforward services or products your company buys.
But watch out — the costs of inexpert print management may be a lot higher than you think. Think:
- Embarrassing delays in campaigns.
- Costly stock wastage.
- Paying premium prices for a basic service.
And heaps more — the hidden costs of the wrong decisions can add up big time. Here are just a few of them…
Hidden cost #1: underdone specifications
Your printer may know you want a label, or a brochure, or whatever. But if you don’t tell them — and they don’t ask! — exactly what it’s going to be used for, you can end up in world of trouble.
Ask for a label, and a general printer will probably spec the cheapest option for you. But will it be used indoors or out? On what kind of surface? Any standards that must be adhered to?
Order brochures to be delivered to a mail house for insertion. But don’t specify that they need to be packed a particular way for insertion?
Not getting the right questions answered up front can cause delays, extra processing costs, wastage, redos, and headaches all around.
Hidden cost #2: overdone specifications
If you don’t know your options, and choose unwisely, you can pay a lot of dosh for what you actually don’t need.
Example: paper is generally 30% of your printing cost. So there’s opportunity for big savings just by making the right decisions here. Do you really need that specialty paper or is an alternative generic grade perfectly adequate? Not exploring all the options available and appropriate to the job can hike costs up significantly.
Hidden cost #3: imprecise delivery instructions
Need your print to get to someone, somewhere on time?
You’d be amazed at how easily insertions can get missed, campaigns delayed or print deliveries simply lost just because someone didn’t make the delivery instructions precise enough. And the printer or the courier they hired didn’t ask.
A box of brochures, inadequately addressed, can end up in the corner of a warehouse, overlooked forever. Tiny details. Big problems.
Hidden cost #4: tiny changes, big costs
If you don’t want a nasty surprise at the end of a print project, someone needs to know up front exactly how much every little change along the way will cost.
Example: want to add a page? Don’t think it will cost that much? Think again. Adding 1 page to stitched brochure means adding 4 pages, a whole signature. New content/design required. Additional ink, paper, folds and stitching. The costs are adding up.
Change a few other little things, and all of a sudden you might have doubled your print cost.
These are just a few of the printing process variables that can derail your projects — and end up costing you more than you even know.
Avoiding those hidden costs
Printing price shocks generally result from a lack of specialised and focused print management.
Put the proper print management expertise and discipline in place and instead you’ll get:
- Rigorous oversight of the whole process, from start to finish
- Print decisions appropriate to the job at hand (and what you should be spending on it)
- Specifications that leave nothing to chance
- Accurate estimates, accounting and transparency on costs
- Information needed to make the right decisions along the way.
- Full control over how much you ultimately spend.
Considering co-sourced printing — a printing partner for your business
If print management isn’t under expert, focused control in your business, perhaps you should consider co-sourced printing.
Imagine a dedicated team that will look after all your printing needs. Working in partnership with you to establish a process unique to the needs of your organisation. From design, print and delivery, handling all your end-to-end print management.
With Inkifingus co-printing, you’re ensured:
- Personalised recommendations for the printing options that best suit every job’s needs, at the most effective price
- All jobs pre-quoted on precise, pre-determined specifications, to avoid missteps and surprises.
- Clear communication and transparency on any job alterations to allow easy fix and avoid price shocks.
- Management of your print inventory as an asset, to minimise wastage.
- Consistent, dependable flow of stock via an option for bulk print and storage at an Inkifingus warehouse.
If you’d like to avoid those hidden costs lurking in printing and gain control over your print management process, please contact me on 0400 024 905 or fill out a contact form here.
