Larry Hunt’s July Color Copy News and High Speed Copy News report the results of two surveys—one on color copy prices and one on self-service copying. Not surprisingly, the price of color copies has fallen as speeds have increased and equipment has become more efficient and affordable. Also, it is no surprise that self-serve copying is rapidly disappearing in today’s print shops.

Back in 1990, printers were charging $2.61 for one copy of one original and $1.14 each for 500 copies of one original. Five years ago, that had dropped to $1.07 and 51 cents, respectively. Today, the average price of one copy of one original is 72 cents and the price of 500 copies of one original is 39 cents. The average cost per copy of all color copy jobs has fallen from $1.64 in 1990 to 41 cents today. That said, most printers report being relatively satisfied about their color copy business, perhaps because they are no longer depending on the one-offs and are concentrating on larger jobs that are suited for today’s more sophisticated equipment.

On the self-serve copy side, it appears that this small but once ubiquitous profit center has all but disappeared. For one thing, yesterday’s customers now have their own basic copying capabilities. Also, the annoyance and lost time associated with walk-in convenience copy customers has prompted printers to deemphasize the service or drop it all together. Some have kept it as a community service, but its days as a standard offering in modern print shops are certainly over.

NAPL’S Strategic Perspective 2010 contains some interesting findings on the adoption of social media in the printing industry. Some 60% of printers are not using social media at all. Of those, a little over 24% plan to get social within the next three years, while nearly 18% of those who aren’t using social media have no intention of doing so in the next three years. Another 17% don’t know enough about the subject to even respond.

Of those who are using social media, only 1.1% say it is already an important part of their marketing and communications practices, while 37.8% say social media are somewhat important now and will become more important over the next three years.

What are the most used social media choices by those printers who are getting social? LinkedIn is by far the tops at 44.7%. That is followed by 29.8% using Facebook, 14.4% using Twitter, and 10.1% using You Tube or other video. Another 10.1% are using blogs, while 8% rely on online forums.

There is no question that social media are becoming more a part of printers’ marketing and communications toolbox, but it’s clear that there remains a reluctance to get involved and a lack of knowledge about how social media can be used effectively. It will be interesting to see how all this shakes out over the next year or so.

It’s less than three months until the NAQP Owners Conference and the preliminary session topics are already available.

• See how printing and other services are valued by print buyers.
• Learn about social media in a three-track program for the novice, the knowledgeable, and the expert.
• Find out how marketing is done right.
• Learn how to price integrated services.
• Discover how to communicate your green initiatives, be they large or small.
• Find the secrets to getting you best customers to buy more and buy more often.

This is only a partial roster of highlights that also include the annual Supplier Showcase featuring vendors who specifically market to this segment of the printing industry. The NAQP Owners Conference is the only industry event specifically for owners or general managers of quick, small commercial, or digital printing operations with 25 or fewer employees. Don’t miss this opportunity to fine tune your business and learn from both industry experts and your peers.

I’m tired of reading material written by folks who don’t understand us. I think Forbes is one of the biggest offenders. AOL put Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Airlines, as chairman of their Small Business Board of Directors. Then there’s the likes of Inc. and Entrepreneur that assume all of us want to float an IPO (initial public offering) and get rich. And then there’s the flip side: those who treat us as self-employed and give us stories about five helpful iPhone Apps and the like. Okay, here’s the real scoop.

An entrepreneur is one who brings together the forces of land, labor, and capital and makes a profit. Lesson one is that a self-employed person is not an entrepreneur; rather they are self-employed because they employ themselves only. Nothing wrong with that audience, but that audience isn’t us.

We employ others and, as such, can take a paid vacation, for the business goes on making us money when we aren’t there. At least, it is supposed to do so. Those who are working exclusively for themselves, whether doing accounting, lawyering, or cutting grass can’t do that because if they don’t work, they don’t earn. Therefore, we real entrepreneurs have employees and real people headaches. That’s one.

Two is that we are not ever going to take our business public through an IPO. Some of us may dream of that and a few may even do it, but the vast majority of us will not. So we don’t need to know about VCs (venture capitalists). The funds for our business come from our retirement account, savings, credit cards and/or any other way we can scrounge around for a few bucks to get started. And since either the cash or the credit belongs to the family, that’s why I say we are family-based rather than market-based (as in selling stock on a broad scale). And, by the way, there are about 20,000 public companies in the U.S. and about 12-15 million of ones like us.

Three is that we are geographically oriented. We didn’t get here by figuring out the best gizmo and then moving to where gizmos were needed. No, we are where we are usually because of our family or happenstance. We look around and think, “Gee, wonder what I can do here to make a living.” And then we open that kind of a business.

Four is that we are a lifestyle business. The reason I say that is if we were all about profit we’d all be junk dealers or auctioneers because they usually have the most cash in the neighborhood. No, we’re about a lifestyle: something that has hours that agree with us, something that doesn’t require us to travel all of the time, something that allows us to hold our head high at the Rotary meeting, and something that, preferably, we have an interest in.

There’s more, but I’ve got better things to do than give lectures to the big magazines about doing some market research on us before filling our in-box with stuff that is too farfetched (IPOs) or too trivial (social media will save your business).

It is always interesting to watch the ongoing debate between owners on which new widget to buy or how to get their existing widget serviced properly. As I look at the different opinions, it seems to be more a question of who they are dealing with rather than the quality of the widget itself. Sure, sometimes there are some lemons out there, but by and large, most complaints are because they don’t like the dealer or the techs.

Do you ever wonder if your ability to draw customers has nothing to do with the equipment that you have, but rather how you and your staff are interacting with your customers or how you are interacting with your employees. Do your customers complain about how they are treated at your store or do your employees complain about how they are treated by you and their fellow employees?

Think about the answers to those questions. It could be very interesting.

Is your prepress department ready for the future? The role of the prepress department will expand and evolve as more services are added to the arsenal of products sold by printers. But before any printing company can add services, it has to be sure that the prepress department can handle the services now being sold.

Typesetting, design and file output are the standard services now offered by most printing companies. If you look closely at most financial statements, you’ll see that the prepress department is losing money because the printer isn’t charging enough to cover the department’s cost. As John Stewart says, prepress is a black hole.

To survive the future, the typical printers will have to attempt to reinvent themselves and offer more cross media services. Most of these services will be computer and Internet based so the logical department to produce the services is the current prepress department.

Print owners need to make sure their prepress department is making money today. Typesetting, design and customer file output should be profitable and not considered loss leaders. Printers can do this by using outside design and typesetting services to supplement the work produced in house. Printers can set standards for customer files and use the automation and workflow tools that come with most digital presses and direct-to-plate systems to cut production costs and increase profits.

It will be very difficult for a printing company to add additional services if the prepress departments are already losing money. If a prepress department is inefficient now or the prices charged for the service too low, then there will be no way to add other services to offset the current losses. If it isn’t profitable now it is never going to be.

You have to get ready for the future today. Make sure your sales people are charging fair and profitable prices for design and typesetting. Printers shouldn’t be giving away design work just to get the printing job. If you can’t produce it profitably in house, then use an outside vendor.

Automate now. Require customers to provide PDF files that are constructed according to your specifications. Use the hot folders and workflow systems that come with your equipment. Make the prepress staff learn how to use the tools properly.

It is up to the owner to make sure the changes happen. The owner needs to lead and make sure pricing for prepress tasks is correct and profitable. The owner has to make sure the staff is using the tools available to be more efficient. Printing is more competitive and as printing evolves it will be harder for the typical print shop to survive. You can no longer afford to live with a “black hole” in prepress sucking away profits. Unless you plug the profit leaks now, you won’t be able to add the new services that will be required to stay in business. The black hole may not just suck away prepress profits. It just might suck away your future.

July is shaping up to be a particularly busy month. This week I will be in Tucson, AZ, at the AlphaGraphics annual convention. The following week I will be in New York City to preview a new offering from Epson. The next week, Karen and I will be in San Antonio, TX, at the annual Franchise Services conference for owners of Sir Speedy, PIP Printing, and Signal Graphics franchise operations.

In looking at my travel schedule, it dawned on me that these events–and others like them–are proof that despite all the doom and gloom there are many signs that our industry segment is still alive and kicking.

At the AlphaGraphics event, I’ll be presenting awards to a group of franchisees being singled out for their contributions to the system and to fellow AlphaGraphics printers. That is only one of many awards scheduled to honor franchisee success.

At the Epson meeting, I’ll get a sneak preview of a new offering aimed at our market. To me, this indicates a confidence in the quick and small commercial printing industry on the part of a major manufacturer.

Finally, I’ll be presenting awards to the PIP and Sir Speedy top sales volume franchisees, along with awards to all of the franchisees who made this year’s Quick Printing Top 100 roster. Again, these awards show that success is possible under almost any economic circumstance.

I’m reminded of a quote I once ran across in a sales training book: “Success in life comes not from holding a good hand, but from playing a poor hand well.”