Do You Really Want To Print That? A Cautionary Word Of Advice For Start-ups Re: Printed Materials

As one small business owner to another, I'd suggest being very skeptical of any plan involving the printing of hard copy materials

. In previous work lives, I was party to many marketing collateral purges, when we'd trash extra copies of old materials that were never distributed. When I say, "extra copies," don't think that I mean 100 copies or so. I mean large unopened box after large unopened box. Unless there is something truly timeless and classic about your materials, you need to keep in mind that they will have a limited shelf-life, even if they do not contain pricing information. An address change, a new phone number, new personnel, a new process, a new logo or motto, any of these things can make your materials outdated before you run out of them. Do not over order!

A major contributor to over-ordering is the way that printed materials are priced: essentially, the first copy costs a fortune. The marginal cost of additional copies quickly dwindles. So, you easily get tempted into over-ordering, thinking of the potential for the material instead of the true likely need for the material. Quick piece of advice: Have a distribution plan in place before you even look at the price breakdown. Know the maximum amount that you are likely to successfully, profitably distribute, and then look at your price options.

My personal experience with printing involved the printing of coupon booklets. The booklets were genuinely nice, with 112 coupons from small, local businesses in the Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD metro areas, with offers ranging from alpaca products to yoga instruction. Working with a designer from Odesk.com, we were able to design the booklets affordably and were happy with the result on screen. But, after seeing the proof of the cover in person, we fell out of love. It just didn't look as good as it did on the screen. There are things we wanted to change, but guess what: At the point, after the proof is created, it's a huge expense to go back and re-do anything. If you're ever going to print anything, do yourself a favor and print a hard copy first.

So, what was our Return on Investment (ROI)? The calculation is a nebulous one and it's still being played out, but I'm guessing it's solidly negative. But, we had to give it a try. Also, for a brand new start-up, having printed materials is somewhat comforting. Now you have something that explains what you're about. You have something real, it's tangible. It's no longer a pipe dream. Just organizing to the point where you could print something is a good process in its own right. So, while the return wasn't there, it's hard to write off the process as a huge loss.

In summary: Don't over-order, even if the numbers seem to "make sense." Try to anticipate things that could change in your materials, and work hard to not box yourself in. Print the materials before sending them to the printer, don't trust the screen. Even if you know there are no typos, you still need the experience of holding it in your hand. In the end, it's going to be difficult to understand the true ROI of your printing job, as there are side benefits, but print is dying for a reason. Be cautious.

by: Rebecca Tyler

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