Course to help printers spell out quotes

Print work that costs you more to produce than you can make is simply not worth doing. That is the Printing Industries message expressed through its Digital Print Estimating course, to be held in Auburn on 28 September.

According to Ian Walz (pictured), national manager of learning and development at Printing Industries, it is imperative that all printing companies understand the true costs of producing print jobs.

“If you don’t fully understand and include the actual costs, you are doing your business a disservice that will ultimately come back to bite you.

“No one should be trying to run a business that under quotes simply to get ‘the job’. Once you factor in material costs, staff and machine time some jobs simply are not worth taking on.

“But unless you or your estimating staff knows how to properly prepare a quote based on real costs, particularly for digital print, you are doing disadvantaging yourself and your industry,” he says.

The one-day course will cover price sheet estimating, different digital format estimating, estimating standards and finishing and what printers should be putting into the preparation and presentation of accurate quotes.

“Quotes need to be detailed covering all the things that the job will involve so that the customer knows upfront what’s actually involved and what they are getting for their money.

“A detailed quote is usually better trusted by clients as opposed to one-liners that simply provide a price and potentially raise suspicion about possible further charges. If everything is spelt out in detail, the client knows everything has been covered and there will be no surprises.

“They also have a better appreciation of what goes into producing the job to meet their requirements,” he adds.

Information is available from Ian Walz on (02) 8789 7362 E-mail: ian@printnet.com.au