C2S Laser Printing Woes

We have been using C2S from a certain supplier and noticed that we can't seem to maintain the quality of prints we are hoping for. Once we buy a new set of C2S, the first few days, the prints are ok. But for whatever reason, the prints become grainy after a few days. Also, when printing a business card on C2S 220gsm, the gloss is not there using our laser printer. So, when the opportunity came for us to print a menu, from a new, flashy restaurant and grill near our place, we are left with no choice but to look for alternatives.

First choice is photo paper, that must be compatible with laser printers. This is critical so as not to leave any residues on the laser printers if its not meant for laser printers. We are able to find one supplier. Aside from photo papers, they also supply CISS for Inkjet and Continuous Toners for Laser printers. So we bought some papers. We tested some prints, and the result was solid colors and clear prints. The downside is, our laser printer have a hard time feeding the photo papers.

So, our other option is to test the Digital Paper from Paperlink, which they call Imari. It is their brand of C2S. I noticed that the cost is twice that of C2S paper from other suppliers. I bought half a ream of 200gsm C2S paper. We tested the prints again and the output was very much similar to the photo paper's. It is well worth the try. And we have never looked back. We are dead set on using Imari papers for our prints.

Replaced Toner

This is my first time to replace the Black (K) Toner of our Develop/Konica Minolta MFP after 

Black Prints      19,626
Color Prints        1,560 

TOTAL Prints    21,186

The supplier have already delivered all four colors as replacement aside from the lone Black Toner I had before. 
 

Paper Supplier's Buzz Worthy Marketing

I've been reading the books Buzzmarketing by Mark Hughes and Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz and these truly inspiring books led me to seek my own buzz worthy news on my business. On the other hand, I'm hoping  that I could emulate this buzz worthy news I 'm going to share. I've been in this paper supplier's retail shop like 3 times, and what can I say, it is a word of mouth experience! The supplier, Prestige Paper, Inc., simply knows how to generate buzz that buyers like me will highly appreciate and will in turn get the word out to other people like what I'm doing now. 


For one, they maximized their space, and put all the sample of papers cut in rectangular pieces, pinned on a cork boards placed on horizontally moving wooden frames. This way, you can check on the selection of papers easily as you move from frame to frame. Secondly, they also gave me free sample of papers:

Figure 1. Prestige Paper Swatches 2009; these papers are good for offset printing presses while some are good for digital color laser printers.

Figure 2. Prestige Paper Swatches 2009 for Digital Color Laser Systems; these papers are good for digital color laser printers.

And third, they have very capable, efficient and helpful employees. Discussing the paper types and more than willing to go the extra mile to help. They are not the cheapest but I suppose you know now why I keep on buying from them.


However they don't have a website. But whatever they lacked in online marketing, their word of mouth marketing has more than compensate for their lack of it! So what's your buzz all about?

Entangle your Prospects on the Web

Most of our clients are from the web. We have not really marketed ourselves on print that's why I am quite grateful of using this marketing tool to attract prospects. There are quite a lot of marketing books and even copywriting books, that are one in saying what you should at least put in your ads:
1. What's in it for your prospects/clients?
2. The benefits that they are going to reap out of your products or services
3. The call to action. Tell them to get in touch with you as soon as possible.


Once you are complete with your ad. Where to do you post it? There is 88db.com, www.sulit.com, olx.com, and many others. 


What do you put in your ads?

Double Loop Wire Binding

Double-loop wire binding is one of the binding methods I enjoy doing. I think maybe part of the reason was my fascination with these wires during my school days -- those wire bound notebooks that I used to have. And maybe part of the reason as well could be that I enjoy "securing" the pages and making them "whole", more like a book which is one of my past time so to speak. Or simply perhaps the very reason is that I have chosen the easiest and most enjoyable to use, double-loop wire binding machine. The binding machine I am using is the WireBinder 3:1 from Rilecart:

3:1 meaning, having 3 holes every inch. It is a square hole, can punch up to 20pages of paper and can bind up to 120 sheets of paper. I am not sure if the wiremac and wirebinder are one and the same but judging by the looks of it, they are. The instructions are well-presented on the manual included and on the website and their even is a video on youtube, so you'll never get lost. I have binded reports, notebooks, prayer books, numbering from 1 to 64 in one sitting and this machine didn't let me down. Little did I know that while I was doing the "hooking", I was slowly getting hooked! 

Here's the actual picture with binding covers on the side: 

Why Laminate?

I finally got to do a lot of lamination lately -- around 25 of them at least, courtesy of our neighboring new business. The couple admittedly wanted to save on money on their POP displays and learning aids and one way to preserve them the best is through lamination. The posters are A3 in size and printed on C2S 80gsm paper stock. The pictures on the posters are of high resolution, so they came out pretty well and complimented well with the design made by the guy owner. Then I have them laminated, using GMP Laminator:

I used the laminating films, thickness 250micron, supplied by GMP Philippines, for quality since they are the leader in lamination technology. When I tried out the first poster to be laminated, the printing is great but lamination even made it look greater. The owners were so happy that they decided to have more of their A3 sized poster/pictures to be printed and laminated. We'll see how it goes once they open soon.  

Photo Booth Survey

My friends are putting up a photo booth service. I help him gather some information for their conquest, so kindly fill up the ff questions:

1. What is your sex? Your Age?
2. Do you like to take pictures of yourself and of/with your friends?
3. Do you like the photo booth?
4. How many times have you tried a photo booth? What was/were the event/s then?
5. Which photo booth service providers have you tried?
6. Have you availed for your event a photo booth service? Why or Why not?
7. Did you like the service rendered to you by the photo booth provider? Why? 
8. In which aspect of the photo booth you are hoping that needs improvement? 
9. Have you wished you can pay the photo booth service via credit card?
10. Did you find the photo booth service provider website easy to navigate?
11. Would you avail the services of the photo booth(or again)?
12. Do you have other comments or suggestions?

             Thank you!

The Colored Bond Paper

There are a lot of kinds of papers out in the market as much as there are a lot of suppliers. There are those suppliers that offers the cheapest prices while some offer a premium. Some paper suppliers wanted you to order in bulk while some rely on a minimal amount of purchase for free delivery. One of my main considerations in choosing a supplier is their colored bond papers. I will be needing to stock with bond papers for this upcoming elections. Colored bond papers are popular for RISOgraph printing of flyers, posters, receipts, forms, etc. I have tried the one of the cheapest colored bond paper with our Riso MZ-770. The paper costs 40% less than most popular bond papers out there so it's really a bargain and I figured I would definitely earn more. But when I tried out printing a 100 copies, there were unusually so many paper jams. Cheap price but only going to waste my ink and time, I thought. So I tried another brand from a different supplier, which costs more. Lo and behold, there were no paper jams out of the 100 copies printed. So I did a visual and touch comparison of the two colored bond papers, the cheap one has a silky feel and it is lighter in color while the other one is a little rough but darker in color. Then I remembered that the RISOgraph printer is not capable of coated papers, or of the silky variety. If truth be told, just like most retail goods, buying cheaper brand of paper will not always offer you better alternative until you experience the brand.

Securing a Business Permit in Quezon City

Securing a business permit in Quezon city took me 3days. That is 3days at least and may take up to 7 days depending on how many applied especially on the months of January to March. Luckily for me, I didn't have to endure the long lines which I thought would happen but it wasn't the case, really. If you're new to securing a business permit for your highly anticipated new business, here are the requirements before you set foot at Quezon City hall:

1. Barangay clearance 2010 (Original) - make sure you photocopy first before giving it out. You will be needing the copy to securing the Locational clearance and Fire clearance
2. Photocopy DTI certificate, if you are a proprietor, or SEC certificate if you are a corporation.
3. Photocopy of Contract of Lease or Certification. Must be with notary public.
4. Photocopy of 2 valid IDs(Driver's License, SSS, Passport, etc)

On the main building of City hall, proceed to Window 1. There is a bespectacled guy(or girl) going to provide you with an application form for business permit. Then right after filling them up, proceed back to him/her along with the requirements. If he/she finds them complete and correct, he/she will give you a small paper, where a number provided for your application and date to come back is written. Don't lose this one. On the day of your return, you will proceed to Window 1 again but you will be meeting with the assessment group. They will asses how much you need to pay in taxes based on your type of business, capitalization, size of your  space or rented space. Right after the assessment, they will ask you to go to Window 12. This is where you will be given a Tax Bill, the amount of the fees you need to pay. You will need to photocopy the Tax bill, then give this to the assessment group of Window 1. Then they will ask you to pay for the fees to the cashier in the new building at the back. Then photocopy again the Official Receipt and give it back to the assessment group of Window 1. They will ask you to come back the next day for getting your business permit, along with the sticker and plate.

So right after you get your business permit, withing 30days you will just need to wait for the inspectors of your location for locational clearance and the fireman inspectors for fire clearance.

Cheers!

Behind the Printshop Business' Location and Opportunity

Its final. I have decided to stick with the location along Timog Avenue, Quezon City. I admit I was too enamored with the business space in Robinson's Pioneer complex that I overlooked how costly it would be to renovate the place. It was only then that I realized when the contractor sent to us the quotation of the renovation! So right there and then, I politely turned down their offer and also asked the Lessor that I would be withdrawing my reservation even if that means losing the non-refundable reservation payment(Ouch!). Good attitude dictates good business, or so I thought. Anyway, I was also informed by our printers' supplier that good thing we have decided to stay away from the place since they too have clients, which are similar to our nature of business, operating on the other side of the complex, inside the mall which we would inevitably compete with should we have decided to operate there. Never thought finding a location would be this hard. As days gone by, the more I have to keep my act together and move on. And now that we have already found our second home, we are more than happy to be along Timog Avenue, Quezon City. For those of you who are not familiar, Timog Avenue is home to a lot of businesses and it won't hurt much to have another print shop especially near the Timog/Morato circle or aptly called the boy scout circle. So there are two established printshops located on the intersection of Timog Avenue and EDSA. The advantage we have is we are not near them. The way I see it, we can take advantage of the residentials and businesses near our domain, if thats the proper way to put it. My dilemma now is we are located on the second floor of the building without visibility from the road! This will require more aggresive marketing strategy I said to myself. Its worth take the risk anyway since on the medium rise building we are located in, there are also other new small businesses, like a pasta resto, dental clinic, eyelash/nail spa, and an auditing/accounting firm. Our very first client is the auditing/accounting firm. They had to process tax and income returns so I beg in even if we are not really fully operational to begin with. Opportunity is already presenting itself. I grabbed it. Off to work, I printed quite a number of papers. Then on the last set of what I printed, I made a terrible mistake on the printout. So they have to be redone as what the owner has asked which I readily obliged to do. I didn't asked or even got payment for the wrongly printed documents even if the owner was already paying me up for my own mistake. I am going to build a business built on trust and satisfaction of the customer. These are what we are going to standby with and where we want to be known for. As much as we can provide, under reasonable demands, we are willing to give in. I believe what Stephen R. Covey has to say about effective people, "Effective people are not problem-minded; they're opportunity minded. They feed opportunities and feed problems." As we are starting small, we are more than willing to grow personally and professionally. I wouldn't know for sure what the owner would think had I accepted his payment for my print mistakes but I guess he liked what he has seen as he was already asking us to print them a lot more of their documents. The numbers are astonishing, far from my expectations! And today, he came into our shop and asked what else we can do and we fit the bill as he also needed someone to do logo, brochures and flyers. I told him that we will be more than glad to be of service to him and his partners' endeavors. Me and brother are excited what the next days hold for us. We are ready. May God help us.
For your viewing, here are some pictures of our still "un-signage" print shop:

My brother on his workstation:

That's me:

Basic Training for our Printing Machines

I believe that training is one of the most fundamental aspect of running a printshop business. Trainings basically provide new learnings, inspire creativity, give fresh insights and trigger inspiration. Today, me and my brother had the benefit of basic hands-on training that Copylandia, the distributor of our printing machines, Risograph MZ-770 and Laser Multifunction Printer Develop Ineo +253, have laid out for us to get up, run and operate our printing machines.

There were two persons from Copylandia that came, one person each for the said machines. First off, we tackled the Risograph. The MZ-770 can print, scan and copy upto A3 size paper and print on one- or two-color spot printing jobs. The MZ-770 has a small touch screen interface alongwith the various buttons on the front panel. We had a black and bright red color ink. The copying functionality went out smoothly. We were able to scan a 2-color document and produce a one-color output. Scanning the document doesn't necessarily provide the expected output. The dark colors on the original document will be printed out black while the lighter colors will be printed out bright red. Printing from the PC provided more consistent results. In order to take advantage of the 2-color output, the proper way of preparing the document, be it in some graphic image editing software, is to put the area in orange that is, if you want this area to be printed out red while the darker areas be put in black, to be printed black. Since this Risograph can print 2-colors in one pass, there are some minor misalingments that can be corrected with the setting of the print area which can be found on the front panel, one for each drum. You can always check first with the "proof" button if the misalignment have been corrected, prior to full scale printing. Each color on the Riso is a set of drum unit and ink. Using different color for the drum unit is not possible. The first drum is usually the black color. Me and my brother took turns trying to familiarize ourselves with the operation while the trainor guided us on how to perform simple checks as well.

Then we proceeded with the hands-on training of the Ineo +253. We first tried how to explore photocopying, one side copies and then back-to-back copies. It has a fairly intuitive touch screen interface which makes it easy to operate. There are three trays on the Ineo +253, one and two for plain paper while bypass tray for thick papers or boards. Printing from the PC is easy. We just need to figure out the orientation of the paper inside the trays to match with the orientation on the PC. That is, if you want to print in landscape mode, one of the trays should have paper put ala landscape. The printing/copying is set by the trainor to print black in default, in order to minimize mistakes like printing a grayscale document using all the inks. Take note that black ink is formed with cyan, magenta and yellow combined, but not necessarily in that order. We were able to print a color document and it is really a treat to see it and hold it. The output is WYSIWYG.

The trainor provided us tips on how to make the most of our machines. Though everything tackled are just basic stuffs, they are still, after all the fundamental ones. Soon after the trainors left, someone entered our print shop and asked us to photocopy their business documents, all 12 pages of them. One of the pages is beyond A4 size and can fit into a long bond paper, but since we don't have yet long bond papers on stock, we reduced the document in order to print it on A4 sheet. We were able to make clear copies and our first customer was more than happy to thank us. What a great way to start. We will be working on more testing to prepare our marketing collaterals in time. Thanks for reading!

Let there be light!

Finally we already have electricity in our shop! Our machines had already been cold started and I feel good that there were no problems whatsoever! We have availed our machines from Copylandia, the leading provider of Digital Printing equipments here in the Philippines. They are number 1 for nothing so that's why I have put my trust in partnership with them to be there for us in the long haul. The machines that I have procured by the way  for now is one Riso MZ-770, for up to 2-color spot printing and one Ineo +253 for full color copying and printing. Me and my brother look forward for more intensive training on the said machines soon!