Take Action Now to Survive the Future

Printers must have a strong current ratio and money in the bank if they are going to survive a major disaster like COVID-19. Those who were living off their cashflow are finding it difficult to get the economic engine started again. If experts are to be believed, there is a chance that the virus could revive this winter, and they'll have to learn how they can become financially stable to ride out another stay-at-home order in the future.

Keep Your Accounts Receivable Current

Too often, printers extend credit to companies that don’t have a good history of paying quickly or fail to extend credit correctly. Even if some companies will eventually pay, they may string you on for months before you see the money. Printers must review their accounts receivable regularly and immediately contact those companies in arrears. Printers who had allowed customers more than 60 days of credit may not be able to collect their money fast enough to avoid having to shut down themselves. Even if your shop is closed, you must get on the phone and start asking for your money. 

Increase Your Internet Bandwidth

COVID-19 has shown businesses and the public how important video conferencing can be, especially with the new social distancing. This means customers will want to continue to communicate via video in both business and personal situations. More of your employees will need access to video conferencing and this will suck up your bandwidth.

Bandwidth measures how much data can be uploaded or downloaded in a second. The bandwidth covers your entire network, so if two people are downloading files at the same time, the download speed is halved for each of them. Between the file sharing and the need for video conference, printers will have to increase their bandwidths in the coming months. Your internet speed will be an important tool as more commerce transactions move online. 

Printers must install video conferencing tools on more computers. Salespeople, customer service representatives, the prepress department staff, graphic designers and the bookkeeper will all need to be able to video conference. Whether it is discussing a past due account, making a sales call or proofing a file, everyone in the shop who usually interfaces with customers will start doing it online. This means each computer needs a camera, a headset, connection to high-speed internet and proper conferencing software.

The two biggest video conference providers for the business world are Gotomeeting and Zoom. Using these tools will become as common as knowing how to make a telephone call. 

Printers must have a fully functional website that offers online ordering and customer portals. Printers who already were using online ordering tools are two or three steps ahead of their competition as businesses begin to reopen. Like video conferencing, the advantages of e-commerce were reinforced during the virus crisis.

Many printers already have the online tools available because they are included in popular printer websites. Websitesforprinters.com, PrinterPresence, MyOrderDesk, DocketManager and EFI MarketDirect storefronts dominate the small commercial and quick printer market so most printers can switch on the services quickly. Sadly, some printers only use their storefronts as an online landing page. Customers are going to demand more online ordering, and printers will have to provide it or see sales growth slide. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing the world to change quickly. Printers won’t have the luxury of waiting to see what’s going to happen. They must start getting business as quickly as possible and make up for the weeks of sale losses. To survive, it will take fast action on the part of print owners to adjust to the new post-virus economy. Luckily, most practices are already available to deal with the new dynamics. Printers just must start using them. 

Got a question? John Giles is a business coach and consultant for the printing industry who welcomes calls and questions from readers. John works with Tom Crouser and CPrint International to help printers prosper. They are currently accepting new clients. He is the author of The DTP PriceList that is included in the 2019 Crouser Pricing Guide found at www.cprint.com. If you have questions about making your printing company more profitable, contact John at 954-224-1942, [email protected] or [email protected].