Images_Digital_Edition_February_2020

www.images-magazine.com 32 images FEBRUARY 2020 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT The squishy things Tony Palmer looks at how best to handle the lifeblood of all printing enterprises – the people who print the shirts I have been very fortunate to visit lots of different print shops. These range from the single operator/ owner trying to earn extra money by printing shirts for his mates in the garage, to vertically integrated corporate entities operating over 50 presses on a three-shift rotation. The common factor I find in all these places is not the brand of press, nor the type of ink (water-based or plastisol will continue to be a point of preference in all shops) – it is that all these places employ people. “Do you know any printers?” People, aka ‘the squishy things’, are the lifeblood of all enterprises; they also create the most complex issues. Good employees are hard to find and even harder to keep. Bad employees are easy to find and difficult to remove. The most common question I get asked is not: “What’s the best shore of blade?” or “What’s the ideal mesh count?” I t’ s : “Do you know any printer s ?” The question of skilled press operators is easy to solve – my advice is always: “Make a printer, don’t buy a printer.” If you find an employee with a high level of intelligence (not necessarily academic), you can teach them the fundamental principles of garment decoration. Mesh selection and picking the optimum colour order sequence, finely balancing speed angle and pressure, expert heat management – all of these are skills that can be learned. Exposure to problems and finding solutions is a basic human skill, and I believe we all possess this skill. Another reason to make, not buy, is that when you employ a printer from another shop, you run the risk of inheriting someone else’s problems. More often than not, you’ll have to deprogram a new employee before you can start to introduce the best working practices you’ve worked so hard to instil in you r own print sho p. Star management Two of the basic requirements for a truly gifted press operator are passion and pride. Passion in the work they produce, and a true, deep-rooted pride in the tiny pieces of art they create daily. I once asked a young, gifted press operator what printers need in order to advance to the next level: their one- word answer – “Pride”. When an operator brings me a perfectly opaque and immaculately registered three-colour print for the hairy-arsed builders down the road, my chest swells a little as I can see the pride practically emanating from this apprentice in the dark art of print. Managing these star employees is a true skill. I have heard the phrase before that ‘your best press operator is not always your best manager’. The same is true if you both share the last name. Most shops start off small and usually consist of frie n ds or family, most often both . Th i s c an a l so present problems as disputes from wor k can easily m igr a t e t o the home personal life. It is