Despite all of the doomsday reporting about our economy on the nightly news, some small business sectors are still doing well. Take, for example, trade printing. The trade printing industry is actually still growing (albeit slowly) as more printers and brokers start to outsource their printing.
On A Printing Office: A Blog for Small and Medium Printers, they sum up the phenomenon nicely along with a reference to the original research published in Print Solutions magazine. What’s interesting to note, and the blog entry mentions it too, is that 70% of the top 144 trade printing companies employed less than 100 people!
So, yes, small printers and small business can survive in what the media’s calling a cutthroat economy. In fact, small printers are usually better able to cut costs, be flexible, move quickly and weather the storm (provided they have the resources to get them through it).
But why trade printing specifically? I think it comes down to cash flow and equipment acquisition. A small, local printer may not have the reserves on hand to invest in a new piece of equipment or a down payment on a new lease, but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to offer those services. Instead, he’ll broker a relationship with a trade printer. Because for some small businesses, it doesn’t make sense to have all that equipment on hand if you’re only running those kinds of jobs a few times a year. So, the demand for trade printing goes up.
After being inundated with end-of-the-world reporting about our supposedly collapsing economy, it’s nice to read some good news for once. Yes, small business can succeed. Yes, it can grow and yes, it can be innovative. So, kudos to Print Solutions and Printing Office for reminding us.
