"He who marches out of step hears another drum." ~ Ken Kesey
This thread is great. I want to chime in on three points. We're a manual shop. Small, 3-4 employee operation with under $200k in sales per year. That number is deceptive though because only about 50-60% of that dollar figure is custom print work, the rest is pre-print retail sales that have a much higher margin or less work for the dollar amount. This year I made the business mistake of investing in people instead of automated print equipment. I would argue that my choice of staff may have effected this heavily but it doesn't degrade the point made earlier that an equipment payment and a machine is better than payroll and HR. It's just the way of things. Now, I've spent my equity upon staff, never to be reclaimed and have none for the auto until later on. Upon finally moving to our new space in the next month, we're ready for automation in most every way and the press would be a drag and drop into our workflow more or less. When getting mid-sized orders we do have to battle against the clock to keep up with production printing manually, sometimes you just can't win that fight without going unpaid hours and pulling late or all-nighters. I wish I had spent the money that I now see as wasted on payroll and the professional fees associated with the business structure, etc. I was creating on an auto press instead. It would have changed my position for the better in many, many ways. So +1 for that argument. If you're reading this and have the equity, get the damn machine. As others have said, even if you think you're a smaller, slower shop, like GraphicDisorder here, the machine will pay for itself in short time. Don't make my mistake.
actually, as a small business, adding meaningful and competent employees is significantly harder than buying equipment. I was told you have to go through 8 ppl before you find one that really fits. So while having ppl there is not necessarily a standard way of doing it, it is not a wrong way either. People are by far the most important asset in any company. Try taking any one of us here away from the company and see what happens. Lose a press and you can get another one!pierre
Quote from: blue moon on December 22, 2011, 04:11:23 PMactually, as a small business, adding meaningful and competent employees is significantly harder than buying equipment. I was told you have to go through 8 ppl before you find one that really fits. So while having ppl there is not necessarily a standard way of doing it, it is not a wrong way either. People are by far the most important asset in any company. Try taking any one of us here away from the company and see what happens. Lose a press and you can get another one!pierreI am in no way saying people aren't important. You misunderstood.My first employee I am hiring in at around 40k a year, I know him well, I know his capabilities and I know what he will bring to the table. I found finding a guy of his caliber easier than deciding/finding/buying equipment. I am sure for some its hard to find the right people, im sure down the road finding people may be a bump in the road or a revolving door for awhile. But its not always like that either. Nothing is that cut and dry. Just giving my experience. Having the right tool for the job is often more important than having the right person for the job. I am not saying its always that way. All I know is I was a pretty shitty printer on a 1 station ebay press, I was a lot better printer on a Vastex Manual, and today I am a pretty awesome printer on a M&R Sportsman. I haven't changed much, my tools have. Food for thought.
Well I have pictured my 1988 6 color gauntlet and my 10 color sportsman ex. And wouldn't trade neither one for another brand. I step out of box a lot ,but when it comes to feeding my family ,I know my presses won't let me down. As far as tri loc, I've seriously seriously been looking into it. But my guys haven't been to bad at setting up.
Quote from: GraphicDisorder on December 22, 2011, 04:36:41 PMQuote from: blue moon on December 22, 2011, 04:11:23 PMactually, as a small business, adding meaningful and competent employees is significantly harder than buying equipment. I was told you have to go through 8 ppl before you find one that really fits. So while having ppl there is not necessarily a standard way of doing it, it is not a wrong way either. People are by far the most important asset in any company. Try taking any one of us here away from the company and see what happens. Lose a press and you can get another one!pierreI am in no way saying people aren't important. You misunderstood.My first employee I am hiring in at around 40k a year, I know him well, I know his capabilities and I know what he will bring to the table. I found finding a guy of his caliber easier than deciding/finding/buying equipment. I am sure for some its hard to find the right people, im sure down the road finding people may be a bump in the road or a revolving door for awhile. But its not always like that either. Nothing is that cut and dry. Just giving my experience. Having the right tool for the job is often more important than having the right person for the job. I am not saying its always that way. All I know is I was a pretty shitty printer on a 1 station ebay press, I was a lot better printer on a Vastex Manual, and today I am a pretty awesome printer on a M&R Sportsman. I haven't changed much, my tools have. Food for thought.if you allow me, I'll disagree with you. This is not to say that I am right and you are wrong, just that my opinion, based on my experiences is different and thus I draw different conclusions. WHat works for me is not bery likely to work for anybody else as we are all different . . .First, wait till you have the employee for a year before you judge him. Your opinions of ppl change as you spend time with them and you get to really know them. I've had best friends turn into enemies and acquaintances turn into best friends. It is almost (at least for me) impossible to predict what somebody will be like long term. I do remember you and Shelly saying he is a good friend and that you go back long waays, so hopefully it works out for you! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.Second, I will say that you as printer grew and changed. If somebody gave you that nice and shiny auto when you were starting it would do you no good. But as time went by, you learned more and can take advantage of the god equipment. Chances are, your prints on that cheap ebay press would look pretty good with what you know now!pierre
We should take a tally equipment first or employees
The problem for most folks is you can pay for employees by the week without "pre-approval" but getting financing on some equipment is tough.....