How we created a Print and Design company when times went bad
Laura Ashton • 30 June 2020
My phone rings.... "Hello" "Laura,
the printers has gone into administration. We've both lost our jobs"
Not the phone call I wanted when at home on maternity leave and we both work at the same company!
Such a sense of dread. Both out of work with a family to look after. Nightmare.
Look at the positives - at least with me on maternity leave we can focus on Rich getting a job first.
Rich was the Reprographics Supervisor. He had a job of many roles - running the digital and large format printing presses, planning his work load, putting together banners, exhibitions, signs, stickers and creating the plates for the litho guys. He enjoyed how varied it was. Problem now is no other job covers ALL those areas and they are shift work.
Trying to remain positive but I can see how unhappy the prospect of these unsuitable jobs are making Rich feel.
So he come up with an idea...... Lets do it ourselves. Let's start our own print and design company.
Got to admit I was very hesitant at first. What if it doesn't work out.... We'd loose a lot of money.
WE CAN DO THIS
But looking into it further I agree with him... Yeah we can do this.
Worst case scenario - we loose the redundancy money.... Money that we didn't have before.
THE PERFECT TEAM
We are lucky that together we have the skills for this. Rich has all the "know how" and skills on printing with various means..... And I can do the graphic design.
We both get a few extra hats to try on.... Rich doing the quotes and me doing the accounts - inputting invoices and receipts and keeping track on payments.
NOW LET'S MAKE ABOVE THE BELOW - DESIGN AND PRINT, MATTER
WHAT'S DIFFERENT ABOUT ABOVE THE BELOW?
Working at another print company before means we could see some areas that we would want to improve on. So this was our vision:
- Our knowledge is here for YOU. As soon as you call for that quote you are talking to someone who KNOWS what's possible. Not just someone who has a tick list or flow chart in front of them. We understand the processes involved and if we think that what you are asking for isn't suitable for its application then we will let you know and advise you of a better solution at quote stage.
- A streamlined process from quote to delivered job. We may not be a massive company (yet!) but this means we know what jobs are in the building and so they won't get left behind or stuck in a tray waiting to move to the next person. No uneccesary hold ups.
- We care about your print job. Your print jobs are our business. Every job that comes in we care about and put all our efforts in. It's so important to us that no customer is left unsatisfied. We want you to be truly satisfied with the full service, turnaround times, job quality and a reflected competitive price.
We want to see you again! If something wasn't to your satisfaction then let us know.
AND SO HERE WE ARE JUST OVER A YEAR LATER
Still room for growth but we're very happy with its progress for a new company (and during lockdown too).
So can we help you?
I think we can!
Take a look at our products page to see some examples of what we can produce.
If it's not there then ask.... Its hard to list everything.
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