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Managing Your Production Staff: How Proper Communication Can Save You Money

If you've been managing your print shop for any more than a few months, odds are you've had to redo some jobs due to mistakes made on your end. It happens to the best of us - but it doesn't have to.

If you've been running your shop for any time at all, I'm sure you know the frustration of redoing a custom job. All those materials and man hours gone to waste and a high probability you won't be seeing that customer again.

We just went from pocketing a nice profit to spending more than we're getting paid. This is far from ideal, and if it happens regularly it's a serious problem.

So this begs the question: How can we avoid this from happening ever again?

Communication. Plain and simple.

Nine times out of ten if I had to redo a job for a customer it was because of poor communication between members of my staff.

Make sure that you have a system in place to be able to keep track of open print jobs easily. You should also have work orders with clear instructions for your production staff.

Staying organized and making sure that your staff have a clear understanding of their role in the workflow, including what information they are responsible for passing along, is going to make the difference.

Don't fall victim to stupid mistakes eating away at your profits. Make sure your staff understands how important it is for them to clearly communicate about jobs with each other.

Comments

  1. Sticker company Dublin Ireland, Wow, cool post. I'd like to write like this too - taking time and real hard work to make a great article... but I put things off too much and never seem to get started. Thanks though.

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About the Author

Hello everyone! Welcome to Print Shop Expert , my blog consisting of all the information needed to run a successful printing business. I'm going to cover all things related to managing your print shop as effectively as possible. I don't plan on monetizing this blog, or anything like that. What I want to do here is simply share some tips and strategies I've picked up over the years while running my own shop. I'm going to cover everything from how to price your screen printing jobs correctly to how to best utilize print shop management software to make your shop more profitable (because who doesn't want to read about how to make more money). To give you some background on myself: I've been working in the printing industry for most of my career. I spent a brief amount of time as a graphic designer, and did a lot of work with photo labs in my area at the time. A couple of my friends I was working with decided to partner up and start a print shop, and they offered