by Andrew Simmons on July 21, 2010
We had an open house a few weeks ago, and while the turnout wasn’t real big, the people that came were genuinely interested in what we were doing. So, quality over quantity, I guess. It’s probably also a good thing, since the newer bigger space is already pretty tight with the TEC Lighting UV Coater and the MGI Meteor DP60 digital press on the floor. We also had on display an EFI SendMe unit, which is used to scan and fax documents in an office environment. (In fact, having a digital press means not having a scanner, so if anyone is interested in purchasing this cool machine, we’ll let it go at our cost of $1800).
I took a few pictures of both the space and of the other vendors that came to support us. Kelly Paper was there with all of their digital stocks; Manny from TEC Lighting came in; as did Steve Enstad from PageDNA. Steve was kind enough to do a presentation to some of the guests that came to our open house, including Nathaniel from Olympus Press in Seattle, Washington. Nathaniel also brought down some beautiful press samples off their new MGI DP60 press, some with UV coatings and some without. (They also purchased a TEC Lighting UV coater at the same time that they purchased their press).
Some of the local printing companies came by, too. Dave Butel from AAA Printing in El Cajon stopped in. I’ve known Dave for years, and he runs a traditional and digital printing company with an offset press and two Kodak NexPresses. I like talking with him, as he is a pioneer in buying digital presses off eBay and getting them to work without the help of the manufacturer. He’ll be the subject (hopefully) of a future interview I’ll be doing with him in regards to his adventures with his NexPresses. Buying a NexPress on eBay is not for the faint of heart.
Jon Melcher from Emagine Digital came by as well. He recently purchased an HP Indigo 5500 with the white ink option – the only one that I know of in San Diego – and also spent some time with PageDNA here. The web to print software from PageDNA is a popular choice among printers who want a great product at an affordable price. We use PageDNA for our own web to print site, and we’ve been very happy with it. I did get Steve to give me a deal for our friends that want to try out PageDNA for free for 30 days, just click on this link to get it: http://www.pagedna.com/spe. In typical PageDNA fashion, they also include free training and support in using the trial, so you’re not left without help during the trial.
We also got a deal on TEC Lighting UV coaters for anyone that is a Social Print Experiment follower for their new mini UV coater that was released this month – a free startup kit for the unit (a $600 value). This new mini unit is built for the digital copier (as well as digital press) market, with a UV coating formulated for dry toner/ink from Xerox, Canon, HP Indigo, Konica Minolta and the Ricoh C900. Street price of the new mini unit is $12,000. Coating ends up costing about .008 cents an impression. If you’re interested in ordering it, call KW Graphic Consulting at 619-696-9160.
On the second day of the open house, we picked up a rush job for a company in Las Vegas that needed 600 prints 13″ wide by 36″ long printed for a short deadline. We ran the job with guests milling in and out of the open house, and the customer sent his driver from Vegas to our office to pick up the job and take it back that evening. Word has it that their customer was thrilled with the way the job turned out.
Overall, the open house was a great success for us, and we’re already planning a second one for late September or early October. I hope you’ll be able to attend, and let us share the data we’ve collected so far over the past 6 months of the Social Print Experiment.
by Andrew Simmons on June 24, 2010
After a few weeks of running the promotion for 10 Cent Color, we’ve decided to kill it. It’s too much of a distraction to what we are doing, trying to sell a premium product price on one side of the fence, and a loss-leader on the other side. The bottom feeders that have come to that site end up needing more hand-holding than the customers who visit Printelope. They are also more likely to complain about something, in an effort to get an even better price than what they just paid. And if you can believe it, there is someone out there selling 9 cent color prints, a penny cheaper than us.
Of the work we did do, it was profitable, but at a much lower profit margin than our other products. The 10 cent color product was designed as a loss leader to bring in customers for our other products, but they did not migrate to those products – they focused on the one cheap product we had, and nothing else. Our primary customers were print brokers and realtors. Who needed more hand-holding? It was the print brokers. Who, incidentally, did not adjust their prices to their customer to reflect a lower cost. They continued to charge their full price but ate away at our remaining margin through file fixing and output issues.
So, after a very short discussion at our marketing meeting, we pulled the plug. And smiled about it. Anyone want to buy the domain name?
by Andrew Simmons on June 16, 2010
We’re moved into our new space, and the press is once again installed and up and running. The new digs look nice, less industrial than our last space but more spacious – we can walk back and forth without bumping into each other. And finally, we can get back to the business of selling, which has been entirely lacking since we started preparing for the move.
We have new equipment & software coming in next week which we’re pretty excited about! The first item is a UV coater from TEC Lighting, an 18″ wide model that handles digital print coating very well. The footprint isn’t very big, only about 8 feet long, so it will fit nicely in our new space. Offering UV coating with our services will enhance our product offering, and the cost to UV coat a 13×19 page is only about .008 cents an impression – less than a penny. Considering that we can get 6-8 cents an impression for UV coating, it will make for a nice profit margin to our print costs. On top of that, it will coat our long sheets that we produce – the 13″ x 47″ sheets the MGI press is well known for. Purchase price of the equipment, including startup supplies, training, and installation, is about $18K (or about $400 a month). The UV coater does very well with digital printing, including HP Indigo output.
I had a great meeting with Dan Caldwell and Kevin Burke from ICS Color regarding color proofing for our digital press, and following that meeting we’ve set up to evaluate their Press Director software with the MGI press. They are coming in next week to load it onto our network, and we’ll share the results of the testing with you once we’ve had a chance to play with it.
On a side note, we have our open house coming up next week on the 23rd and 24th. We’ll video as much of it as we can, and get back to producing our SPE videos with the content we get from it. If you’re in the neighborhood and would like to stop by, the hours are 12 noon to 8pm, the 23rd and 24th of June. Our new address is 3930 Oregon Street, San Diego, CA 92104. Ken’s going to show envelope printing on the MGI press, so if you have a job you would like to see printed on it, we’ll do the printing for 9 cents an envelope, plus the cost of the envelope. That’s $90 a thousand, plus the cost of envelopes. If you’re interested, let me know.
Hope to see you there!
by Andrew Simmons on June 8, 2010
Now that we’re moving into our new space (this week!), we thought it might be fun to do an open house, invite a few friends, and bring in some of the people who’s equipment we’ve been using in our Social Print Experiment. Since we don’t know all of you personally, we’d like to extend the invite via this post here if you’re close to us in southern California. Please RSVP as space is very limited (info at bottom of article).
June 23rd and 24th, 12 Noon to 8pm
3930 Oregon Street, San Diego 92104
The agenda for the two day event is:
Web2Print – Selling Print on the Cloud
Steven Enstad, Co-Founder of PageDNA, will share case studies of companies who implemented SaaS Web2Print solutions and propelled exponential growth to their commercial & digital print operations.
Wednesday, 1:30pm & Thursday, 4:00pm
UV Coating – Capturing Additional Finishing Revenue
Manny Coloso, TEC Lighting, discusses the pros and cons of UV coating digital printing press output, and why lower cost UV coaters may have a detrimental impact to your business.
Wednesday, 2:30pm & Thursday, 6:00pm
Innovation in Digital Presses & Finishing
Carmen Pacella, MGI USA, gives a broad overview of the MGI DP60 digital press; the new JetVarnish digital spot UV coater; and the DF360 digital nisher. Sample output from each product will be available for review. The MGI DP60 will also be available for demos.
Wednesday, 3:30pm & Thursday, 7:00pm
Printing with Digital Papers
Bobby Naylor, Kelly Paper Company, speaking on the innovations in digital printing substrates. Can you di fferentiate your business with unique paper products not offered by your competitors?
Wednesday, 4:30pm & Thursday, 1:00pm
The SPE: Exploring Social Media As A Business Model
Bob Lambie, CEO of the Social Print Experiment, presents a primer on Social Media and the impact (or lack) it can have on your own print business.
Wednesday, 6:30pm & Thursday, 2:30pm
Please RSVP to 619.696.9160 or email connie@graphicconsulting.net
Space is limited; reserve early.
We had an open house a few weeks ago, and while the turnout wasn’t real big, the people that came were genuinely interested in what we were doing. So, quality over quantity, I guess. It’s probably also a good thing, since the newer bigger space is already pretty tight with the TEC Lighting UV Coater and the MGI Meteor DP60 digital press on the floor. We also had on display an EFI SendMe unit, which is used to scan and fax documents in an office environment. (In fact, having a digital press means not having a scanner, so if anyone is interested in purchasing this cool machine, we’ll let it go at our cost of $1800). 
I took a few pictures of both the space and of the other vendors that came to support us. Kelly Paper was there with all of their digital stocks; Manny from TEC Lighting came in; as did Steve Enstad from PageDNA. Steve was kind enough to do a presentation to some of the guests that came to our open house, including Nathaniel from Olympus Press in Seattle, Washington. Nathaniel also brought down some beautiful press samples off their new MGI DP60 press, some with UV coatings and some without. (They also purchased a TEC Lighting UV coater at the same time that they purchased their press). 
Some of the local printing companies came by, too. Dave Butel from AAA Printing in El Cajon stopped in. I’ve known Dave for years, and he runs a traditional and digital printing company with an offset press and two Kodak NexPresses. I like talking with him, as he is a pioneer in buying digital presses off eBay and getting them to work without the help of the manufacturer. He’ll be the subject (hopefully) of a future interview I’ll be doing with him in regards to his adventures with his NexPresses. Buying a NexPress on eBay is not for the faint of heart.
We also got a deal on TEC Lighting UV coaters for anyone that is a Social Print Experiment follower for their new mini UV coater that was released this month – a free startup kit for the unit (a $600 value). This new mini unit is built for the digital copier (as well as digital press) market, with a UV coating formulated for dry toner/ink from Xerox, Canon, HP Indigo, Konica Minolta and the Ricoh C900. Street price of the new mini unit is $12,000. Coating ends up costing about .008 cents an impression. If you’re interested in ordering it, call KW Graphic Consulting at 619-696-9160.
On the second day of the open house, we picked up a rush job for a company in Las Vegas that needed 600 prints 13″ wide by 36″ long printed for a short deadline. We ran the job with guests milling in and out of the open house, and the customer sent his driver from Vegas to our office to pick up the job and take it back that evening. Word has it that their customer was thrilled with the way the job turned out.
