If I have one piece of advice to give you after fifteen years in the industry, it is this – if you have a printing company, set up shop near a college campus.
That’s it, that is my “golden rule” for the printing industry.
There is the one big, obvious reason, of course, with all the students, researchers, and faculty who all prefer paper products to digital ones. There is another reason, however, and that is the amount of money these people are willing to spend on printing, because they aren’t paying for it! Faculty members get an open account set up at a printing shop and they can use it at will. These faculty members don’t pay for anything, the college does, so they will spend all kinds of money! The downside of being close to college is that you won’t get a lot of call for signs and graphics, or label production, it will be a lot of generic printing and photocopying. Professors and students don’t need a lot of signs and graphics, which are the most profitable for a printing company. Most of the printing done by college professors could easily be done on a home printer, but these academics hate doing their own secretarial work. They would much rather have a custom printer do it, and the college pay for it, then printing anything out themselves. Once again, that is my one golden rule for the printing business, is to keep close to a college campus, and you will never go without a steady amount of work.