Common Screen Printing Mistakes

Posted by Robin Bumgardner - Custom Color Mixing on 3/26/2015

As an everyday screen printer, it is easy to fall into bad habits that can be hard to break out of.  As someone new to the screen printing industry, it is a good idea to learn what habits to avoid from the very start.

Using Old or Outdated Equipment - New equipment is constantly being engineered and developed with the goal of being able to increase production and efficiency, yet many shops (who have the money to invest) refuse to do so because 'things are running just fine as they are'.  Upgrading equipment is especially important to higher volume shops as an increase in efficiency can often mean the difference in having to hire another person or not, which can be a considerable expense for any shop.  Are your exposures taking too long?  Have a look at some of the new LED units, or perhaps your dryer won't hold a consistent temperature.  These things cost you time and money. 

Not Marketing Yourself Properly - There was an excellent article here written earlier this month on this very issue.  The successful shops I see are the ones that keep their name in front of their customers.  In this age of electronic media, many avenues are open to you that cost you nothing more than some of your time - take advantage of that and watch your business grow.

Ignoring Industry Trends - This is a big one; business owners will get in a 'rut' where they are simply offering the same products over and over.  The market has changed. The customer wants softer prints. They want what they see hanging in stores. They want edgy graphics.  They want the distressed look. Do you print with discharge ink? No? Why not? You heard it was too hard? Discharge ink gives a softer feel to the print. OK, it is waterbased and can have an odor but a LOT of printers have found out that this is what the customer wants – no hand to the print. How about ink additives that give your plastisol a waterbased feel? How do you find out these things? You read the trade magazine, follow industry forums and get out to trade shows.

Take Advantage of Additives - These days many brands of ink are very rich and work well through high mesh screens. If your ink is too thick, simply add a little reducer and thin it. Get it creamy and smooth. It will flow through high mesh screens and on all of your multi-color jobs you will get less pickup, cleaner and softer prints and higher production.

Avoiding some of these common problems will lead to business growth and enable you to be a more versatile and in-demand screen printer.

  Texsource Screen Printing Supply  www.screenprintingsupply.com

Promoting Your Screen Printing Business

Learning to successfully market your screen printing business means following some tried and true methods, and also learning to think outside the norm in some cases.

Paging through marketing ideas can be a tedious task, and many screen printing businesses simply ignore creative marketing altogether, opting instead to print some shirts with their logo and give them away, or perhaps some tried and true business cards.  It is true that some of the older established methods such as yellow page listing may not be as effective as they once were, so it is important to take advantage of every avenue available to you.  With name recognition being extremely important, your reputation will definitely precede you when a customer is looking for a company to do business with.  You must have a reputation for value, honesty, and quality above all other things.  

Generate Return Business

You may look at new customer rate as an important metric, and it is; but a more telling number is your return business.  Show your established customers that you want to keep their business by periodically offering return customer discounts or specials.  This will also let a new customer know that yours is a company that appreciates and works with established clients. 

Stay Active on Social Media

Social Media of today are excellent ways to keep your name in front of customers, both new and established.  Platforms like Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all free and fast ways to have your work be seen and keep up name recognition.  Remember that customers are not always looking for a print job, but it is important that when they are that your name comes to mind first.

Take Advantage of Other Outlets

There are numerous other outlets to stay active in front of your customers - write and promote a screen printing blog, have your local newspaper do a feature on your company, participate in screen printing online forums, get listed on as many business indexes as you can online.  

Almost everything mentioned so far are methods that will mostly cost you nothing more that time.  Compare this to marketing 10-15 years ago when you had to count on word of mouth and paid advertising and you can see how important these opportunities are to take advantage of.

  Texsource Screen Printing Supply  www.screenprintingsupply.com