DAB Consult

Do what you do best.

Often stretched and strained, small businesses find themselves trying to master the skills of all their company’s requirements; only to be met by the reality that there’s only so many hours in the day and so many things you can perfect in-house. In years gone by we would have had secretaries to type our letters and receptionists to answer our phones: all now replaced by the common technologies we’ve become so familiar with. Yet there are things that haven’t changed so much – printing. The computer was supposed to mark the end of trusty old paper use and printing, but here we are. Now I know what you’re thinking, “But I love my little inkjet printer at home or in the office”… only to realise that upon your next mammoth booklet printing campaign, you’ve spent your rent on ink cartridges and your night very much unrested. So, do what you do best. Your creativity, your ingenuity, your imagination or whatever else you pride yourself in, they should be mirrored in the quality of your printing, so don’t just give it a go, do it justice.

After learning the hard way, slaving over long armed staplers at antisocial hours, here are 7 Tips for Saving Money on Printing.

1. Black is the new black.

A great deal of printing is for use in-house, so let’s be honest… does your lovely logo need to look pretty and vibrant? Printing in colour requires four printing plates (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black), as opposed to just the one for black prints. Immediately this presents an easy cost saving, as most printing providers will have many types of specialised printing, with basic black print almost always being the cheapest. When asking for a quote, don’t just request one specific colour. Let’s say you’re dead set on Pantone 485 Red, then there’ll be a nasty surprise called expensive when you realise it’s limited to just litho printing, as opposed to being more than happy with black, allowing for ease of print in many different and cheaper ways.

2. Don’t be so last minute.

Out of all the various printing methods, some need drying amongst other processes, which can take time. Don’t reduce your printing options by being in a rush; you’ll also find that with less notice, your printing provider may charge more for the same service. In the situation where in advance you know that your submission to the printer will in fact be relatively late, do your best to communicate that to them so they can be prepared to rush your project through.

3. Group up!

Printing similar items in smaller, separate batches can add unnecessary cost to your project, so group them together. Imagine you’re looking to print business cards for everyone in your team, by completing the printing of them all at once, as opposed to different colleagues at different times, you can easily save just through the economy of scale. So ask around your team when ordering your printing, batch as much together as possible to reduce your costs.

4. Don’t be picky.

When talking to your printing provider, unless necessary try not to specify a branded sheet, instead discuss with them the applications and ultimate vision you have for the finished item; this could include the paper’s thickness, feel and appearance. The UK is home to various paper merchants, which much like supermarkets, supply certain own brand paper alternatives, usually giving the same quality and finish of more premium paper brands. By being less specific with the paper you’re looking for, you’re giving the printer the ability to decide between a greater range, hence they may be able to offer you various discounts and deals.

5. Buy Local. Buy Northern(ish).

Alright, take this one with a pinch of salt. So most of the time, printing companies located roughly north of Watford can offer better value for money as opposed to their London counterparts, plus when you can, it’s great to do your part and to help develop the Northen Powerhouse. However, it definitely isn’t always the case, I would say that it’s best to try buying local first, to enrich your business’ connections and ease of operation. Either way, printing providers dispatch on a daily basis by Royal Mail or various other national couriers, so don’t be too put off by the distance of your printer, if all of your other requirements can be met. Modernity has brought us the gift of Next Day Delivery, don’t be afraid to use it.

‍6. Look for a personal service.

Many printers have a great deal of expertise they are willing to freely share, allowing you to find the best quality and the best price for your needs. Many are also not exclusive to printing, so ask! Have the conversation explaining what your goals are, you may be surprised to learn that by dealing with just one company, you could have the printing and mailing of a product completed much more easily and at a discounted price.‍

7. Don’t DIY.

‍Unless your life absolutely depends on it, avoid printing with your personal inkjet like the plague. These consumer printing devices are only convenient and cost effective on extremely small projects, maybe 10 sheets a week; anything more and it’s time to call your local prvinter.
You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the savings you can make by just following these 7 Tips for Saving Money on Printing; it’s never too early or too late to start economising processes like these. After all, you’re not printing money here.

A big thanks to Allison from Bamford Print Ltd, a great local long time business partner for me, for helping compose all of these great tips forged through years of experience. For any of your printing needs, be sure to check out their website or give them a call with your next business project.

bamfordprint.co.uk

01706 365 182

Over at Saving Business Money, we compile all the best business advice on cost cutting, from expert advice to downright experience, as well as building up a selection of handpicked money saving products that could help bolster your P&L sheet from day one. We use our survey to branch into every aspect of your business, nothing is left untouched so everything presents you savings.

Let’s start saving.

http://www.savingbusinessmoney.co.uk

Businesses all face the same dilemma when it comes to allocating resources for tasks: complete in-house or pay to outsource? Let’s look at the benefits and issues with both, as it’s far from a one-size-fits-all solution.

Time for a break down. The good type, not the ones you have when excel crashes. Outsourcing is a great way to access a constantly evolving talent pool, something you could miss when your in-house team is consumed by the monotonous monster known as day to day. Sometimes that rare flair can be something you never knew you needed on a project. The out of house approach can also help you to compartmentalise projects in your business, so if you find yourself being distracted from your company’s purpose or goal, then this method of focusing in on your core business functions could be valuable to you too. Too many cooks spoil the broth so keep it lean! Having a smaller, core team could allow for a more driven business, with low personnel numbers allowing for less administrative attention and to put it bluntly – you can care less about staff and more about vision; if that’s your thing. Besides, having a constantly changing team could help your business stay fresh.

Uh oh, reality called. Time to see the dark side of outsourcing. Quality is something that every business aims to champion, so it’s a valid concern when most outsourcing opponents bring up lacking quality in externally completed tasks.

There are ways to try and mitigate these quality issues, by using trusted providers and having close contact with the out-of-house team, but then it begs the question, at that point why not just use your own team? It’s also no secret that management can be a proverbial pain, and communication not being a patch on what it could be internally.

After ripping the idea apart, oops, let’s look at the alternative: in-house operations. It gives you ultimate control over the direction of the task, with little delay between instruction and action. Nothing says understanding like a team meeting, with people you’ve worked through thick and thin with. It’s often the case that as a business, you also invest directly into the development of the people you work with; this long-term working relationship can be invaluable. Although it’s hard to quantify some of these advantages as numbers on paper, the tangible advantage it can give your business can certainly be written on a spreadsheet. Worst comes to the worst, if you have a cohesive, skilled team around you that can’t complete some task – outsource it! Although that sounded a little counterintuitive, in laymen’s terms, you can have an in-house team with the option to outsource, but not the other way around.

So what’s the catch you’re asking, well again we have to factor the human aspect of having a team, meaning rather great expense, ranging from office space, equipment, training, and everything else you need to keep a team together – basically you have to contend with responsibility, both financially and in terms of those you guide. People are people, meaning you will have to contend with absences and every other gruelling form of micromanagement.

To get the inside scoop of this dilemma, we spoke to Joel Rush from AsOne. A common catalyst of this headache is when companies look at branding and image: “It is rare that companies should have their own in house marketing team. Small teams concentrating on one subject can often be jaded and blinkered with a lack of exposure to other clients and sectors.

Compare the salary for a marketing manager vs using an agency. For example, our agency’s team can fulfil all the needs of most companies for about £2500 + VAT per month. While a decent marketing professional will cost about £3,000 per month when tax, pension contributions, and other expenses are taken into account. An employee also needs to be paid while they are on holiday not producing anything and depending on the company, when they are sick and not contributing.

Even if it was not for the costs the owner of the business usually has little knowledge of what good results should be and therefore cannot properly manage, set targets for their employee or have any quality control or oversight as they are blinded with jargon they don’t understand.”

So I think it’s time for a definitive answer. Well it doesn’t exist. Again we’ve reached that point in business where I have to say you should stick to the things you’re good at, the areas where you pride yourself in providing a great product or service. This is how we can start to build a template for approaching our initial dilemma. When it comes to services that may be operational and not necessarily unique to your project (think receptionists and cleaners), then this calls you to look into outsourcing in my opinion, for the factor of ease and cost. Similarly, some tasks are more specialty (think Joel’s example of marketing), and they can call for outsourcing too if it’s not your company’s focal point – don’t just try your best, do justice to what you do well. Yes a more speciality form of outsourcing may incur greater cost, but it’s my opinion that it doesn’t warrant tarnishing your quality to save small amounts – it’ll just cost you later. But this is a hybrid approach, you still need a quality team to be the foundation of your business, I think it’s almost impossible to run a viable company from pure outsourcing; at the least you’d have very little hair left at the end.

This should be tailored to your needs, It’s impossible to recommend a percentage based system for in-house to out-of-house, but the next best thing is this: each time you have to decide between the two, picture the task being completed – what do you envision? Does it need to be a perfect representation of your business’ values? Does it need to take the world by storm? Does it need to just get done? When you have your end goal in sight, refer back to the benefits and costs of each solution. I think that if you’ve gotten this far in business, common sense will be able to match up the dots and show you the way forward. Also be mindful of the resources available to you and the frequency of the task. If you realise that marketing (for example) will soon play a large part in your business’ success, then look into investing in a permanent team, but if you need just one design for just one product there’s no need to hire an artist to sit and twiddle their thumbs for the next year after the initial project is complete.

In the end, you should be meticulous yet honest in assessing your company’s strengths to find the perfect balance between solutions.

A huge thanks to Joel from AsOne for help writing and researching this article. With nearly twenty years experience in the industry, and many large businesses flourishing with their help, there’s no doubt they have the expertise and knowledge your business needs. Head over to their website to start the discussion of how they can help your business in development, marketing and most things digital.

asone.co.uk