Three-Man Shop Captures National Clientele
With Web Site Perception of ‘Big’ Shop

[originally published on the now defunct Screenprinters.net website.]

California-based screen printer rises above local competition by offering top-quality printing, including foil and waterbase, for trendy niches.

By Deborah Sexton

It takes more than just great printing skills for a decorator with only a six-color manual press to attract customers from across the country seeking hip, edgy prints, including foil, discharge, and water-based work. It also takes some serious marketing and Internet savvy and the masterminds behind Forward Printing, Oakland, Calif., have that in spades.

Dan Corcoran and Dan Holzer, general partners for the four-year-old company, have a huge, diverse client list that includes clothing designers, retailers, schools, churches, and bands. Last year, the shop did $310,000 in sales, and they’re targeting $500,000 in sales this year—and that success is thanks in large part to their prowess at promoting Forward Printing via the Internet.

“People have the perception that we’re a big shop,” says Holzer, which consists of only three people working in a 4,000-square-foot area. “We’re not huge, but our Web site creates the perception that we are — and that’s good.”

Besides creating an impressive-looking Web site for their company (www.forwardprinting.com), Forward Printing also uses Craig’s List, a massively popular Internet site that features free classified ads.

“We tried a few print ads, including the phone book, and they didn’t work for us,” Holzer says. “Craig’s List (http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites.html) is a great marketing source for us. We also spent about $500 a month on Google AdWords (http://adwords.google.com/select/Login) and that has pretty much eliminated all other forms of marketing that we had.”

Google AdWords is a form of search engine optimization, Holzer explains, that helps direct traffic to the pair’s Web site. The marketing method works so well that it’s responsible for about 75% of Forward Printing’s new business. “When a person does a Google search for foil screen printing, we show up on the first page,” he says. “It’s all about keywords, and placement on Google searches.”

That kind of marketing savvy is important, given the plethora of printers in the Bay area. “There are probably 10 print shops within a five-mile radius of us — some automatic, some manual,” Holzer says. “But we don’t feel a need to compete directly with them because we market nationally. About 50% of our jobs are from out of state.”

Adds Corcoran: “One of the reasons that people come to us is that few people are advertising foil and water-based printing online,” he says — and Google allows the company to do just that.

The Baker Boys
Not surprisingly, Internet savvy also played a part in the company’s inception. The two Dans had worked together in management for years at a bread bakery when they started doing online research and cooking up a plan to launch their own business. “We saved money from our day jobs for a year, and we started researching the screen printing industry,” Holzer says. “We spent a lot of time on Scott Fresener’s Web site (http://www.screenprinters.net/), and we purchased his DVDs and books.”

Corcoran and Holzer were attracted to the industry’s low entry cost, and they had some familiarity with its supply channel, having purchased decorated apparel for employees and consumers of the bakery. “We spent a year coming up with a skeletal business plan, outlining our goals and getting our ducks in a row,” Holzer says. “We purchased our equipment in December 2004 and started printing.”

Like many successful start-up decorators, the two Dans built their fledgling business largely by word of mouth. “We did some cold calling, and we just got out there and talked about the business,” Corcoran says. “Since we came from the service industry, we started with all the bakeries. About 25% of our business is from referrals. We estimate that for every happy customer, we get four or five solid referrals.”

Modest Machinery, Rave-Worthy Results
Forward Printing’s relatively pared-down equipment list belies its deep, nationwide client list: The shop uses a six-color manual M&R Chameleon, a Workhorse 3011 dryer, and a homemade vacuum exposure unit. (Since this interview, in addition to incorporating, the shop added a 10-color, 12-station MHM E Type automatic, an Adelco JF150-3 60” wide dryer with a 1 meter drone extension, an M&R MSP3140 Imaging System, Newman Roller frames, a stretching table and other equipment.)

On the software side, the two Dans use Adobe Illustrator and PhotoShop for their orders, most of which are spot color for foil and water-based prints. “Only about 5% of Forward Printing’s customers need original artwork,” says Corcoran, who heads up artwork and production, along with Corcoran’s brother, while Holzer focuses on sales, marketing, customer service, and accounting.

Foil adhesive is traditionally printed onto shirts, but Forward Printing has developed its own process for the special-effects technique. “We put a release agent in the plastisol, we use a foil adhesive, and foil that comes in rolls,” Corcoran says. “If we’re doing foil as the only color, we screen print the foil adhesive onto the foil, like a plastisol transfer.”

Their expertise in foil and water-based printing has helped it grow in the clothing line and boutiques niche, which accounts for about 50% of the shop’s overall mix. “We set ourselves apart by with these techniques — and by quality too,” Corcoran says.

Attesting to that quality is the company’s 1st place award in the Manual Screen Printing category of the 2007 Impressions Awards, “It was a discharge job, a dark shirt with a couple of layers of puff built up,” Corcoran says of the award-winning shirt. “It has metallic ink on top of the puff, and little flakes of foil on top of the metallic. We get the foil flakes on there by crumbling up the foil sheet while the ink was still hot.”

Let the Music Play
Bands make up only about 15% of Forward Printing’s client list, although a group called Michael Franti and Spearhead is its single largest customer. “The band has a high profile in the political community, so they get a huge amount of exposure,” Holzer says. “They sell shirts on their Web site, and at their shows. We do a couple of jobs a month for them.”

Of course, many bands are struggling financially and on an extremely tight budget, which is why Forward Printing focuses more of its efforts on designers. “Most people with an understanding of the industry start their clothing line with a fair amount of capital,” Holzer says. “Much of our growth will come from them—especially when you consider that these designers sell T-shirts for $150 or more.”

Holzer, a lifelong skateboarder, also sees the skateboard market as another growth area. “There are lots of small skateboard companies with their own decks and wheels,” he says. “We even had one of our biggest hip-hop customers have his own skateboards and wheels pressed, and he sells those right next to his shirts.”

When customers request embroidery, the company simply farms it out rather than trying to tackle it in-house; it’s a lesson in focus that the two Dans learned long ago. “When we started, we wanted to do everything,” Corcoran recalls. “We realized that there are only three of us. It hurts the company to spread it too thin. Our core business is screen printing.”

Adds Holzer: “Our focus will remain on being the best at screen printing. We hope to grow into a 10,000 to 20,000 square-foot area,” he says. “We’re not going to give up, and we’re not going to stop. We don’t want to be just another screen printer. We want to be a name that people recognize in 10 years."

Installing Your First Automatic

[originally published on the now defunct Screenprinters.net website.]

Two owners of a growing screen printing company recap their adventure in adding an automatic—and offer helpful information for other decorators adding one.

By Dan Holzer and Dan Corcoran

After four years of sore forearms from pulling squeegees on a manual press, as well as quite a few requests for allover prints and countless impending deadlines, we decided that our business — Forward Printing, Oakland, Calif.,— was ready for an automatic press. Our journey in adding this high-ticket item was an adventurous one, and along the way we had a few missteps — and learned a few lessons worth sharing with other decorators — but in the end, it proved to be one of the best decisions our business has made.

Taking the Plunge
We had known that when we reached a predetermined revenue level, we would need to add an automatic to sustain our growth. We were conservative about our revenue level, opting to play it safe rather than doling out money for a shiny new toy before we truly needed it.

Finally, though, we reached a point where we were sourcing out enough jobs to local contractors that it made financial sense to purchase the press. In other words, we had the jobs to pay for the press before we bought it — an important point for decorators considering purchasing equipment.

After ordering the automatic, we were told it would take between five and eight weeks for delivery so we timed our preparations so that we’d be ready in five weeks. Unfortunately, we got a call after three weeks that it was on its way. So instead of being 100% prepared as we had originally planned, we were actually scrambling at the last minute to get everything ready.

In fact, it’s a good idea to talk with your supplier’s technical department, as there’s so much preparation for you to do that the salesman isn’t likely to know it all. Talking with the tech guys will ensure that you’ve done your homework before the press arrives. We did receive a pre-install checklist but it was pretty vague. Not being made completely aware of all the things we needed to do definitely resulted in a lot of extra time and stress once the press arrived. So be sure and ask.

One example: Make sure that your air compressor and chiller are big enough for your automatic. The salesperson told us ours was big enough, but when the tech person arrived he informed us it was too small. You also want to nail down a specific ship date, as you’ll have other supporting equipment (a dryer or a new exposure unit, for example), and you want to have it in place before the press arrives. In our case, all of our equipment did not arrive at the same time, but in separate shipments. There are other tools and supplies you’ll likely need including various electrical and plumbing connectors. We were making two to three trips to Home Depot a day because we didn’t know ahead of time everything we’d need.

Spend, Spend, Spend
When you add an automatic press, you’re adding a whole new system to your shop, which is a new way of doing things that requires new equipment. For instance, we purchased a roller frame package with 40 new frames. We also purchased a new exposure unit to accommodate our larger screens, and we bought a bigger dryer.

As a rule of thumb, set aside at least 10% of the cost of the equipment as capital that’s ready to spend. If your press costs around $60,000, for example, have about $6,000 for various expenses associated with getting the equipment up and running.

Besides purchasing supporting equipment for the press, you’ll also have to make sure you have the right power — another expense. We hired an electrician and plumber to run high-voltage, three-phrase power lines and gas lines (the latter for our dryer). This isn’t an easy task, and it’s not something that your supplier is responsible for, so plan accordingly. Get the press specs from the supplier so that you’re providing the required power and gas pressure. We had to fill out an application with our utility company to get our gas pressure increased, and the process took a number of calls to get sorted. There’s also a wait involved.

Workflow Issues
You’ll also need to spend time thinking about your shop’s new workflow, and move your equipment accordingly. Using Adobe Illustrator, we made a scale diagram of our shop based on its measurements, noting things like doors, walls and obstructions. Then we plotted out our workflow, from where we wanted garments to arrive to where we wanted them to end up. We noted on the grid where the press and dryer would go, making sure that the physical space could accommodate the equipment comfortably.

This workflow planning stage is a critical one that allows you to really make sure you’re operating in a smooth, efficient manner, so don’t shortchange this step. We actually read books about the Toyota Production System to help us understand all of the considerations in building a logical workflow. (If you’re interested, check out “Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production,” and “The Kaizen Revolution.”)

Move It
Our sales rep partnered us with a rigging company to help bring the press into our facility. The shipping company is responsible only for driving up to your facility, nothing more. The riggers were extremely helpful, because they had the appropriate equipment — forklifts, cranes, etc. — to get the press off the truck and into our production area. Make sure you discuss this point with your sales rep; it’s not as if you and a few buddies are going to lift the press off the truck yourselves.

Given how tricky it can be to put a press in place, we had planned ahead and put down chalk lines that the rigger could use as a guide for where to put the equipment. These chalk lines helped us figure out where to pipe the gas and electricity — which, of course, was done before the press arrived.

By the way, don’t expect the press supplier to help with installation on auxiliary equipment from other suppliers, such as your compressor and chiller; that’s your responsibility, not his. (On a side note: You may want to consider getting a service maintenance agreement on your compressor, because if it goes down, your whole shop goes down. A service agreement will help ensure speedy maintenance and repair. In some cases, you may even get a loaner compressor while yours is being fixed.)

We helped our technician during the installation, after he recognized that we were technically savvy. However, we also recognized the times when it was better to step aside and let him do his thing. Even when we weren’t helping, though, we were at least watching, or having our production manager watch — not because we didn’t trust him, but because we wanted to learn what he was doing and make sure we understood the processes, such as calibrating the press.

Up and Running
Things often take longer than you expect, and for us, getting the press up and running was no exception. We had planned for three or four days of downtime, but it took about ten business days for installation — which meant we weren’t generating revenue for those 10 days. That may be a bit on the long side, but the point is, you’ll need to set aside a chunk of downtime to get everything operating, and it’s better to over-estimate than under-estimate. This time probably would have been shorter if we had been more aware of everything we needed to do in advance.

(We also had taken time out, well before our press was installed, to watch installation of an automatic press at another shop. This first-hand look at what’s involved helped us better prepare for our own installation. For instance, we saw the problems that ensued when gas wasn’t properly installed for their dryer.)

Once the press was installed, we spent a few hours with the technician learning to operate the press. We had already done our homework by attending trade shows and visiting other shops to learn the gist of running an automatic press. True, we had a manual that came with the press, but we found that it was better for us to simply dive in and learn by trial and error.

We had a fairly stressful weekend after the technician left, learning to operate the equipment. That’s just part and parcel with new equipment though—especially when you skip the entry-level model, as we did, and go right for a large one. We jumped from a six-color/four-station manual to a 10-color/12-station automatic. In any case, you have to set up jobs, print them, tear them down, and repeat the process until you get comfortable with your new press.

A Higher Level
Switching to an automatic is like supercharging your shop’s production speed. Jobs that used to take hours now take minutes. We can go home at 5 p.m. instead of 10 p.m. Our prints are better-looking and more consistent. Our forearms aren’t so fatigued. We have more time to sell — and the list of benefits goes on and on.

Best of all, we haven’t even realized the machine’s full potential, so we’re likely to save even more time down the road. Most importantly, the machine has made more growth possible for us. We had maxed out our manual press, so doing more business meant adding more shifts of expensive labor.

We’re also making a number of ongoing changes in our shop to accommodate the automatic press. We’re in the process of building a new screen room. Before the auto’s arrival, we used a screen drying cabinet that we built ourselves. Now we’ll be working in a 10-foot square room with a few racks, a film positioning unit and a dehumidifier. We also may need to get a bigger washout sink.

The point is installing an automatic press to your shop isn’t the end of a journey; it’s the beginning of one. It’s a huge step on the never-ending road to more efficient production, higher-quality prints, and a more successful, profitable business.