🚀 go-pugleaf

Date: Thu, 7 May 87 08:50:55 pdt
From: ames!styx!ihnp4!ihlpf!straka
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories

With regards to your questions about cost-effective printing:

My advice: Do what you do best.  Don't try to do everything yourself.

Basic business advice is that every company has an ideal size.  That is
related to economies of scale varying by business area.  Since economies
of scale tend to still be effective until companies get PRETTY big,
specialization has developed.  Your copy shop has economies of scale
that you can never hope to achieve (at least as long as you limit
yourself to your current type of endeavors, and don't go into
main-stream publishing).

The concept you are attempting to undergo here is called backwards
integration.  You have several barriers to overcome.  One is the initial
capital cost, which has gotten lower recently, but is still not
insignificant.  The other is "hassle".  Do you really want the hassle of
worying about the details of maintaining the copier yourself (or paying
for the service to someone else)?  Do you really have the time to devote
to these activities?  Could you have used this time to better advantage
in your area of expertise?  These are all basic questions which
businesses of all types ask themselves every day.  In an efficient
market (competitive), your hassle factor should typically balance off
the cost premium (profit) that your copy shop imposes on you.  If they
do not balance, the market is inefficient, and you should obviously go
in the direction of better cost-effectiveness (this is the real trick!)

I hope I haven't gotten too far off the deep end.  I guess it comes from
recently having gotten an MBA at a major school.  But your question was
about business, wasn't it? :-)

In summary, my guess is that you should stick to your area of expertise
and leave the mechanical details to someone else.  Otherwise, you may
not have enough resources left to develop you specialty.  Then again,
many of us probably spend inordinate amounts of time reading the net
anyway :-).

Best of luck in your endeavors.
-- 
Rich Straka     ihnp4!ihlpf!straka

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