"How I Made $100 in the Printing Business"

That's exactly what I'm going to call the book I plan to write just as soon as I make $100 in the printing business!

Actually, I was trying to go broke in the publishing business when I found out it was cheaper to buy a print shop than to have them print something! So, I did.

After finding out that publishing a magazine is a rough business, I learned a few other things: It is hard to make it up on volume when you're losing $2000 per month. Good help is hard to find… especially when there is work to be done. Hard work never hurt anybody because they never showed up for it.

When it came time to cut the losses, I looked around and decided to get rich with all of the equipment I had. Then I learned another lesson; Never target a market that doesn't have any money.

But, things are better since we published our new book, "1001 Ways to Ditch a Collection Agency and Other Useful Tricks of a Professional Deadbeat." My accountant even sent me a note from the pen saying I should break even next year, if the Y2K predictions come true and the banks lose a lot of data.

Meanwhile, we are going to keep the presses rolling.
They are:

(2) A.B. Dick 360s

Ryobi 2800CD

23 inch Harris

We have 2 Pitney-Bowes collator-stitcher-folders for saddle stitch binding and a Rosback perfect binder plus the usual assortment of folders, cutters, drills. Platemakers and pre-press stuff. Our strength is public relations, newsletters and short-run books. We have the unique ability to take a project from concept to the mailbox or delivery dock in-house. We look for interesting projects that can use our particular abilities. We find enough that we have a lot of fun on the road to the poorhouse.

2003 Update

Since this was written, Dame Fortune looked at me and laughed herself to death. A 100% increase in shop space rent tilted the road to ruin downhill more than I liked. My much-beloved Harris went for scrap, most of the stuff went to storage but the basiccs went to a new 300 square foot backyard print shop where I only deal with projects and customers I find amusing.

And I love it!

 

More Soon

 

Back

Back to Homepage