10 sure shoot ways to put your Printing Business in "Harms Way".

This list is not based on any official studies and/or research just plan old experience. It is also not in any particular order.

• Get behind in your Taxes and/or Withholding payments to the government. This is one area you don't want to get into. It seems when folks get behind the money that should have been sent in gets spent and the business can not generate enough positive cash flow to make up the amounts needed. Things continue to spiral downward.
• Allow any one customer to give you more than 25% of you total sales over the period of a year. This is an easy trap to fall into. This great customer comes along with all this work. Great? Common sense tells us  "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" but, we tend to learn the hard way. You will become a slave to that account and If they fail, you fail. It's that simple. There will not be enough other customers to pick up the slack.
• Have an affair or an improper relationship with another member of the staff. Gee Mr. Clinton! Should I explain?
• Constantly beat up your suppliers on price and delivery. If your suppliers are not given the opportunity  to make a reasonable profit on your account they will not succeed and will not be able to offer the service you want. This can also hurt your business reputation when the suppliers that were beaten out talk to others in the industry.  Asking for help on an item once in a while can be expected. Beating up suppliers as a way of doing business always ends up biting you.
• Take in an investor, or investment capital, or make an SBA guarantee loan at the bank. Most areas of our industry today are very competitive and profit margins are slim. Private investors who loan capital want a good return on their money. They will expect the same return as they may expect from a Hi-Tec industry. Without the potential for high profit margins in our industry payback will be difficult. As for the SBA, It is a good way for your banker to take away his exposure and get in a position to tell you how to run your business. Take one look at the out dated forms the SBA uses and that alone will tell you about their business prowess. The SBA tries hard but simply don't get it done. If you need capitol to do what you want, find a better way. Work hard and keep other options open.
• Hire a Salesperson with accounts and put them on commission. You see this over and over again and business owners simply don't get it. You hire a person with accounts! Guess what they do when they tire of you! Commission? We don't pay any of our production people commission, we expect them to do what we pay them to do, but the salesperson needs to be "cut in on the action" in order for them to do a good job? Consider this, You are a medium size shop trying to grow so you hire this commissioned person. You pay them, let's say, 8%. Your people do real well on short runs around $100. That's $8.00 commission. Do you think that person will pursue what is profitable for you and not so profitable to them? And as we stated before, as soon as they gather information about your company they will be selling them selves to the next highest bidder. Build your on sales force. Get in control of your own destiny.
• Allow booze and/or drugs on the property. Oh, I thought a little wouldn't hurt! .....It was just the guys working late. .....Who called 911?? Will they be alright?? How much damage was there?
• Adopt the attitude that we have always done it this way and we will continue to do it that way. Change is every where. You can't escape it. It's what makes our system work. Ignoring it puts your company further and further behind the competition. The old way worked in the old days. It more than likely won't work today. Some of the old ways may be good in some Ares, but, overall you can bet someone has developed a better way to do most things in you business.. Make sure you stay abreast to what needs updating. 
• Stay away from computers. They are simply too much hassle. Sure they're  a hassle. Can a business survive today without them? No! Get into computers and your business will advance. Consider them useless and your business may become too old fashion to compete. I consider the computer the biggest thing to happen in the printing industry sense the invention of the off-set press. Which brings up the fact that digital reproduction is storming through our industry as we speak. Talk about changes ahead?
• Pay your bills late. Some business managers feel their suppliers are making far too much money on them and they can wait for their money. Well it ain't necessarily so. Late payers don't run with the pack. It puts a moniker on your business that can keep it from succeeding.

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