Why Being Good at Print Isn’t Enough Anymore
Jun 02, 2025
Most print business owners I meet are incredibly good at what they do. You know how to produce stunning results, hit impossible deadlines, fix breakdowns on the fly, and win clients with a quick turnaround.
But here’s the bit no one warns you about: Being great at print doesn’t mean you’re ready to run a successful print business.
Running a print company requires a totally different skill set. Pricing for profit. Managing people. Navigating cash flow crunches. Setting strategy. Building systems. These aren’t skills that come from the shop floor. And they’re not taught at college or university either.
So, what happens? You dive in, head first. You learn on the job, usually through mistakes, late nights, and sheer force of will.
And you do it because you care. But if you're not careful, you end up building yourself a job instead of a business. A job with longer hours, more stress, and zero holidays.
Here’s the shift: You need to evolve from print professional to business leader. That doesn’t mean abandoning your craft, it means building something sustainable that doesn’t rely on you doing everything.
Start by asking this: What parts of your business are dependent on you? What happens if you’re off sick for a week? Or away for a family holiday? If the answer is chaos, you don’t have a business, you’ve got a pressure cooker.
Your first step? Pick one task this week that you do repeatedly, estimating, proofing, client updates, and document how you do it. Then train someone else to do it your way. You’ve just taken your first real step toward freedom.
It’s not about scaling for the sake of it. It’s about building something that serves your life, not swallows it.
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