Impressions - June/July 2014 - 23

With more
than 80 industry
awards under his belt,
Anderson has proven
he has what it takes to
consistently churn out
high-quality, four-color
simulated process
prints in the hundreds
of thousands.

If you're thinking about getting into
contract work, I'd recommend is ﬁrst taking
a close look at what your shop currently is
doing in terms of types and sizes of jobs, clients and sales numbers. Then, explore the
possibilities that exist in the marketplace
for contract work in areas that would be a
good ﬁt for your operation.
If there are one or two types of printing
you do especially well or that people come
to you for, try looking for a niche where
there is a demand for them. Build on your
existing reputation. Also, try networking by
letting consultants, suppliers and customers for other types of work you do know
that you're seeking contract business.
My company actually got its start in
contract printing when a client for whom
I'd done airbrush work began doing tour
merchandising for country music artist
Kenny Rogers. I had been experimenting
with four-color process printing for several
years, using it to reproduce artwork on Tshirts for a few clients. Not many people
were doing this type of work at the time,
which positioned us to get the job printing
Kenny's full-color portrait on garments.
You also may decide to use sales representatives to grow your contract business.
This is a marketing decision that will involve factors like whether you already use
salespeople and whether you plan to pursue other types of business.

EFFICIENCY IS KEY
The secret to success in contract printing is keeping the presses running. The
bottom line is if this isn't happening,
you're not making money. Bringing in
the business is just the start. You may not
have to add equipment like we did (our
ﬁrst contract job required buying our ﬁrst
impressionsmag.com

Anderson's ﬁrst contract job, a print
for a Kenny Rogers tour, ended up winning ﬁrst place
in the four-color process category of the Specialty
Graphics and Imaging Association (SGIA) Golden
Squeegee Awards in 1984.
automatic press), but you likely will have
to ramp up your efﬁciency throughout the
shop, both with respect to general procedures and in the speciﬁc context of contract work.
As in any type of operation, standardization plays a big role in maximizing
contract printing efﬁciency. If you haven't
already done so, develop and document
standard systems and procedures. In our
shop, the particulars of the artwork, screen
tension, squeegees, ﬂood bars, inks, press
setup, ﬂash times, dryer temperatures and
technical data for every job are clearly and
concisely written down, and ﬁled for quick
and easy reference. That way, there are no
issues that can slow things down.
Because everything is standardized,

everybody knows what is going on and
what needs to be done. Standardizing
also ensures consistency, predictability
and "repeatability" (master printer Mark
Coudray's "CPR" approach), which also
are key in minimizing rejects and keeping
contract clients happy. This doesn't mean
there's no room for ﬁne-tuning; it just
ensures that everyone understands the
expectations and doesn't waste valuable
production time.
Standardization also enables quicker
training. Everyone on our staff is crosstrained. They all know how to scrape ink,
clean screens, etc. This adds to our efﬁciency by focusing everyone's full effort
where it's needed. It also allows individuals to swap out for breaks and lunch without losing momentum. Training is critical
- and our expectations and how we do
things have to be constantly reinforced -
but it pays off.
It's really important that your staff understands the expectations when it comes
to the big orders typically associated with
contract printing. For our staff, we try to
lay out what we need to do each day and
during each week, and what it is going to
take to make it happen.
It's also important to explain certain
things to your staff that are unique to the
volume associated with contract printing.
For example, if the presses are running
100-dozen shirts an hour and your press
operators are missing two or three pallets
June/July 2014 | Impressions

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Impressions - June/July 2014

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