Operating a print shop

My sister and I run a small print shop. The majority of our business comes from the schools and athletic organizations in the surrounding area. We print a lot of jerseys for the little league football teams. We print shirts advertising the spring musical at the various high schools. We handle all the shirts for fundraisers, bowling teams, the French club, the cheerleaders, the local karate studio and so much more. We are extremely busy. My sister and I spend six days per week at the shop. We’re often there for ten to twelve hours, trying to finish up rush orders. We often get calls from people who need to place an order and have it completed in a very short period of time. They don’t seem to realize that we don’t have an inventory of purple polos in every imaginable size. We don’t stock a selection of hoodies or sweat pants in our back room. There isn’t the space to maintain such a large collection of items. We offer a wide selection of fabrics, colors, styles and sizes because we order them. The turnaround time on completion depends a lot on how quickly the company fulfills the order and shipping. I obviously can’t begin the shipping process until the order has arrived and I’ve checked to make sure there’s no mistakes or flaws. There’s also the process of creating the screen for printing. A lot of our customers demand very intricate designs and multiple colors. This takes more time. Not only is it more difficult to create the screen but each color needs to be applied separately. Screen printing layers of colors is a lot more labor-intensive and time-consuming. The machine generates a great deal of heat and our little shop feels like an oven. My sister and I often have sweat dripping down our faces while we work. We are always the busiest right around the holidays.

 

New printer