Seven Things Screen Printers Can Do With Your Downtime:
Things All Size Print Shops Can Do
With the novel Coronavirus causing big changes in both the economy and our everyday lives, many screen printers are left with the question of what to do with our time now that the new “business as usual” is anything but. Keeping yourself busy provides a good distraction and will help you be ready for when things return to normal. It might seem dire now, but business will pick back up, events will start happening and people will want their decorated t-shirts, garments and stickers. Plus, getting things accomplished makes you feel satisfied and puts the power back in your hands.
Some tasks and projects you could work on during this time are:
1. Deep clean your showroom and workspace. Disinfect all surfaces, doors, handles, and other areas people often touch. The CDC recommends you already start doing this. This includes your automatic and manual screen printing presses, Roland printer/cutters, Epson DTG machines and pre-treat sprayers. Wipe down your squeegees, buckets of ink and emulsion coaters.
2. Equipment maintenance. Remember those little repairs you’ve been meaning to fix but haven’t gotten around to? Get out your toolbox and give your machines a tune-up. Even if there’s nothing that needs to be fixed, it never hurts to perform routine maintenance checks. Every manufacturer recommends routine maintenance so go ahead and do it. Just last week a customer told us how they cleaned and then waxed their Trooper PC.
3. Test New Products. Do you have a shelf of ink or emulsion you always wanted to test but never had time? Now you do. Be mindful that the stuff on the shelf might be expired, but now is a great time to explore alternative suppliers and products.
4. Print Your Best Work. For any new products you’ve brought in, create samples to show off to those customers who will be walking through the front door when things settle back down. No new products on hand? Have some fun replacing your current samples with new ones
5. Website Review. Give your website a check-up. Now you have time to look through your entire website. Edit the text for grammar and spelling errors. Update or add new text for relevancy. Check that all hyperlinks are working and that the pages show up how you want them to. Post new images to give your regular customers something fresh to catch their eye.
6. Building Maintenance and Repair. Are there holes in the drywall that need patching, or something that needs to be mounted on the wall? Could the walls use a fresh coat of paint? When is the last time your vinyl or linoleum floors were waxed? If you have carpet or rugs, when were they last steamed? Go ahead and eliminate clutter too. Throw out those things you had been saving because you thought they may come in handy one day.
7. Talk to Your Customers. Practice compassion and humanity. We are all going to need help in some form or another in the coming weeks. And we all have something to offer that could help someone else, too. Reach out to your industry friends. Just because people are practicing social distancing does not mean you need to stop communicating. Now more than ever is the time to chat.
If nothing else, at least you won’t be bored
