                           BROKERING FOR PROFITS
                    A Blueprint For Increasing Profits
                                    or
                      Starting Your Own New Business
                             On A Shoestring

              Outline for Cy Stapleton's Talks on Brokering

    This  outline  was originally written for the small to medium size
    commercial and quick printer. However, the same information  holds
    true for the entrepreneur who is tired of having someone else tell
    him  or  her  what he or she is worth and wants to be in charge of
    all earnings.

    With today's fast growing technology it  is  virtually  impossible
    for  even  the  largest  of  printers to have all of the equipment
    required to produce everything their customer requires.  More  and
    more printers are taking advantage of other vendor's equipment and
    more  and  more  individuals  are setting up their own printing or
    advertising specialty brokerage businesses out of their home.

    In my particular case, over the years I have been  both  a  broker
    working  out  of my home and have operated my own small print shop
    with brokering as a major profit center. Operating out of my  home
    was  better,  and in November 1994 I placed my printing company on
    the market and as soon as it is sold I intend to move back  to  my
    home and continue Brokering for Profit.

    ==================================================================

    Quick Printing Magazine's "Supplies and Services Survey" indicates
    that  the  average small printer spends almost $18,000 on brokered
    items. Some 95% purchase business cards;  87%  purchase  social  &
    wedding  printing,  etc. Those figures should be 100%, and $18,000
    would be a reasonable figure only for a very small  shop.  I  love
    brokering.  If  it weren't for those "quick printing" jobs that my
    customers require today or in the next couple  of  days,  I  might
    very  well  think  seriously about closing my shop, move my office
    back to my home, and to my neighbors, look like I was retired.

     Some experts have the philosophy that you  should  do  everything
    possible  in-house.  There are undoubtedly cases where that may be
    valid, but from my personal experience, that is not the case  most
    of the time. Nor, is it the case of a lot of small printers I have
    spoken  with.  I can assure you that I certainly enjoy that $3,000
    to $8,000 bonus I take out of my order-out account each month.

My Shop

    In most ways my shop is a pretty much average small  shop  in  the
    beautiful  pineywoods  of deep East Texas. Lufkin has a population
    of about 30,000 (but for 21 years  I  operated  the  same  way  in
    Houston  -  the  only difference was that the market was larger in
    Houston) The shop  is  operated  by  myself,  my  wife  and  three
    outstanding  employees  -  they  have  to  be to put up with me. I
    produce about what I am supposed to produce with  that  number  of
    employees,  but  I  only  try to keep enough work in house to keep
    them busy and cover my overhead. As long as I keep  them  busy,  I
    broker  everything  I can - even though I might be able to produce
    it in house.

    IMPORTANT NOTE...do not go overboard and try to broker  everything
    that  comes  through  your  doors.  Do  enough of the work you can
    produce most profitably, then broker the rest. If you follow  this
    philosophy  you  can  substantially  increase your profits with no
    additional equipment or employees.

    I am not the run-of-the-mill consultant whose expertise is  theory
    or  passing on what someone else has done. I can't learn enough to
    write or talk about it unless I have done it myself, and  when  it
    comes  to  brokering,  I certainly feel comfortable in writing and
    talking about it to other printers.

Let's get on with getting on...

    But,  let's  look  at  brokering  from  a  different  perspective.
    Suppose I didn't have these great employees. Suppose I had to make
    my  living  exclusively  from  brokering.  Suppose it were just my
    wife, Libby, and myself. Could we survive and prosper? I think the
    answer to that is a definite maybe!

What Do I Personally Broker

    The numbers I am quoting here are  actual  number  of  jobs  taken
    from my job ticket log. I did not, however, actually broker all of
    these  items.  I wish I had, because I certainly couldn't typeset,
    print, box, deliver and  invoice  those  business  card  orders  I
    produced at a the $15 or so I would have paid had I brokered them.
    Some  of  the  mentioned jobs we actually printed in our shop. The
    "average" month was determined by taking the total number of  jobs
    produced  during  the period and dividing by the number of months.
    My gross sales will range from  the  $16,000  range  to  the  high
    $40,000  range,  or a total of about $350,000. In early 1991 I had
    two back-to-back months of less than $15,000 each, then jumped  up
    to  almost  $45,000  the  third  month.  Ain't the life of a small
    printer hell?

    IMPORTANT NOTE - when I speak of "gross sales", I am  speaking  of
    in-house  printed jobs. As you will see a little later, I keep all
    brokered items separate.

    In an average month in 1990, we produced  some  50  business  card
    orders,  at  an average billing of about $30 per order. My average
    cost is about $15 per order, or a gross profit of about $750.

    I then had about 10 orders for wedding invitations  or  the  such,
    averaging  about  $125  per  order.  Figure a 40% gross profit, or
    about $500.

    Over the past two years, we have averaged about $4,000  per  month
    in  snap-outs and continuous forms at a profit of about 30%, for a
    total of $1,200. My milk cows each year are two  theme  parks  for
    whom  I  may  broker  as  much as $125,000 in business at about 5%
    after all expenses, or a profit of  $6,250  -  broken  down  to  a
    monthly  profit  of  about  $520.00.  Then there are the Christmas
    cards, which, depending upon how much effort my  customer  service
    person  and I put forth, can amount to a gross of less than $5,000
    to $25,000 or more (when I had a girl on the street several  years
    ago  starting  in September selling nothing but Christmas cards at
    50% of my profit - TATEX loved us that year) at a 25% profit, or a
    possible $6,250. Broken down to a monthly profit,  that  is  about
    $520  per  month.  Each  month  we  will  do a few bucks in rubber
    stamps, nameplates, buttons, plaques, etc.

    Labels and decals will amount to a couple  of  hundred  dollars  a
    month  at  50%  profit  or  another $100 profit. High speed copier
    services will average about $225 per month at  a  100%  profit  or
    another  $112  per  month  (this  kind  of a markup won't fly in a
    metropolitan area where there are many high speed copiers, but  in
    a  small  community  where  there  are  none,  people  like Copies
    Tomorrow in Houston can both improve your  bottom  line  and  make
    your  customers that are used to paying at best $.06 per copy love
    you). Etc., etc., etc.

If Brokering Is This Profitable, Why Have A Shop?

    Forgetting about everything else, we could probably survive  if  I
    were  to  just  take the aforementioned brokered items. Working at
    home there would  be  virtually  no  overhead  other  than  a  few
    telephone  calls,  a  little  postage  and  a little in the way of
    business forms and stationery.

    But, can you make it  by  putting  yourself  in  the  position  of
    brokering  all  of your work? If you didn't have a shop to produce
    those fast turn-around jobs would you be able  to  get  that  much
    business?   I  am  confident  that you can by working with a local
    small printer to handle those jobs, but that's not the reason  for
    the  above.  The above drivel is simply to show that brokering can
    be very profitable to any small printer if you have suppliers  you
    can depend upon.  This piece was written as a blueprint to put you
    on  the  road  to  additional  profits.  My  purpose is to get you
    started. Once you get started you will massage the idea, set  your
    own  methods of operation and customize it to best fit your needs,
    and hopefully get back in touch with me to let me know how you are
    doing.

The Secret to Brokering for Profit

    The secret to making big profits brokering is:

    1). Work hard to develop a rapport with reliable trade houses.  In
    your  shopping  for  a  supplier, look for a combination of price,
    turnaround time knowledgeable CSRs and quality that you  can  live
    with.  Try several of them. When you find a supplier that can fill
    these bills, be loyal to him.

    2). Be reasonable in your mark-ups. If you do your  job  well  you
    will lose few jobs. Making a couple of hundred dollars on a couple
    of  thousand  dollar  job  is  a heck of a lot better than letting
    someone else have the job.

    3). Look for those printers who are not in direct competition with
    you, but who have capabilities you may not  have.  These  you  can
    find  by asking other friendly printers who they use for one thing
    or another. Except for very large jobs where freight  is  a  major
    factor,  don't  worry  about  where  the vendor is located. I'm in
    Texas and one of  my  best  snapout  vendors  is  located  in  the
    Northeast.  UPS  is wonderful. Shop vendors until you find one you
    like, then stick with him. Establish that rapport. Once  you  have
    established  that rapport, don't dump him for another because of a
    minor misunderstanding or a few cents difference in price. Let him
    know what the problem is and I bet he will bend over backwards  to
    correct  it  - if it was his fault. Have you ever messed up a job?
    If you can answer "no" to that question, you must have just opened
    your doors.

    4). Take advantage of the expertise of your  vendor.  Quite  often
    they  can show you how to produce a job more profitably, assist in
    design, even give you ideas as to how you can sell more  of  their
    product.

    5). Dedicate a portion of every day to  make  calls.  There  is  a
    great   deal   of   truth  in  that  old  saying "The relationship
    between the amount of mud that will stick on a  wall  is  directly
    proportional  to  the  amount  of  mud you throw at that wall." In
    otherwords, the more calls you make the more orders  you  will  be
    favored with.

    6). Always, always, always ask your customer about other products.
    Suggest  such  things  as  labels, rubber stamps, raised printing,
    business announcements, proposal covers, etc. It  doesn't  cost  a
    cent to ask, and many of these prompts will result in orders.

    IMPORTANT  NOTE - Policies of vendors change over a period of time
    just like your own change. Check their prices periodically to make
    certain you are still getting the best deal possible.

    While this blueprint was not put together as a commercial  for  my
    software  program,  BFP,  it  can  be  the key to making those big
    profits. If you decide to go for these profits, that will  be  the
    best  $99  investment you ever made. However, don't feel bad about
    trying this blueprint before jumping in and ordering.

    Most important is to use BFP or develop a similar program on  your
    own!!!  If  you do, I absolutely guarantee that you will add many,
    many dollars to your bottom line. If you  get  an  inquiry  for  a
    fairly  large  number  of  "widgets", then contact every vendor of
    widgets in your database for pricing. You will be  amazed  to  see
    those  extra bottom line profits build fast. One of our very first
    users of BFP tells us that the first two  times  he  used  BFP  he
    picked up an EXTRA $700 profit on two jobs he already had in house
    -  a  pretty  good  return on a $99 investment. He simply FAXed an
    inquiry to the various  vendors  and  ended  up  finding  two  new
    vendors  who  quoted  him a total of $700 less than the vendors he
    had intended to use.

    Other sources for potential vendors will be discussed later on.

    I always prefer using the smaller vendors wherever  possible.  The
    reason  for  this is that I am generally dealing with the owner or
    decision maker - the one who can make an  exception  occasionally.
    The  most  menial  employee  can tell me "no". I want to deal with
    that person who has the authority to say "yes". In my book, one of
    the all-time best trade printers  is  the  giant,  Ennis  Business
    Forms  -  with  one  exception. While they have very knowledgeable
    customer service persons, are consistent in their pricing, quality
    and delivery, in the decades I have been dealing with them I  have
    never  been able to get that little extra price concession to help
    me get a job, nor have I been able to squeeze an  extra  few  days
    off their normal scheduled delivery time on a rush job. The upside
    to  that  is that you know every one else quoting on that same job
    is getting the same price and delivery quote that you  are  -  and
    they are masters at making their promised delivery dates.

    Many  printers  feel that they must double (or more) their cost to
    come out on a brokered job. Hogwash!!! That will cost you a number
    of very profitable jobs. The philosophy of doubling  the  cost  of
    brokered  items  is  about  as  valid as the philosophy of pricing
    in-house printing at 3-times your paper cost.  On  business  cards
    and other low ticket items, you certainly want to double your cost
    (or  more)  to cover the inevitable error that is your fault. But,
    you have as good a chance of getting that 100M 4-color brochure as
    does the local large printer who does it  in-house  on  a  4-color
    Komori  -  providing  you  aren't  too  greedy. Just remember, you
    naturally aren't going to be as careful on a $30  dollar  business
    card  order as you are on a job that costs you $8,000. However, if
    you handle your brokered jobs properly, there should  never  be  a
    case  where there are errors that are your responsibility. Bid the
    jobs carefully, and watch those profits grow. (We keep a  separate
    "order-out"  checking  account  where all of this income goes into
    and all order-out payments are paid from. How  fast  that  account
    grows  will surprise you.) You will also find that there are small
    jobs where you can more than double your  cost.  I  seldom  pay  a
    great  deal  of  attention  to  the "suggested retail". If a label
    manufacturer offers me a 35% discount off his published prices and
    my  customer  wants  only  1,000  labels,   depending   upon   the
    competitive  situation,  that label order that retails for $50 and
    has a cost of $32.50 might go for $75 or more. Remember,  many  of
    your  customers  are  not  just buying 1,000 labels. They are also
    buying you. Don't get greedy. Settle for a fair margin of  profit.
    Sometimes that margin is high, sometimes it is low.

    As  an  example,  we  recently  did  an  $11,000  job for a school
    district. We only did the typesetting in-house - a total  of  11.8
    hours  and  a  little  black-on-white part of the job. Most of the
    rest of the job was brokered. The brokered part of  the  job  took
    two  phone  calls  and  about  a  half  hour  of my time, and cost
    $9,100. I took a markup of about 14% and made about $1,300 on  the
    brokered  part.  A long way from a keystone markup, but I beat out
    all of the larger printers who had the capability of doing it  all
    in house, and still made a handsome profit for the time and effort
    involved. And to top it all, I have a plaque on my wall awarded by
    the State Education Board for the finest packet of its type in the
    state.

    On  another  $8,000  job,  I  took  a  5%  markup, got the job and
    pocketed $400 for about 15 minutes work. On yet another, I took  a
    300%  markup  on  a  wedding  invitation order that no other local
    printer could turn around in two days - even though we all bid  on
    the  same  invitation  from  the same vendor. I delivered on time,
    made about $250 profit and the customer thought I was wonderful. I
    just FAXed the copy and had the out-of-state vendor ship the order
    via next day air.

    Use "perceived value" in pricing - not a percentage of mark-up.

    If you are one who insists on working  on  a  certain  "margin  of
    profit",  consider  that  a  20%  markup will generate a margin of
    16.7%; a 25% will generate a 20% margin; a  30%  will  generate  a
    23.1%; a 35% will generate 25.9%; a 40% will generate 28.6%; a 50%
    will  generate  a  33.3%;  a 100% will generate a 50%; a 200% will
    generate 66.7%, etc. Or, take your SALES  PRICE  minus  your  COST
    divided  by  your SALES PRICE to get your margin of profit. To me,
    that's too much trouble. All I want to know is that I am going  to
    end  up  with more in my order-out account at the end of the month
    than I started with. I couldn't begin to tell you what  percentage
    of  profit  I  made  last  month,  but  I can tell you that I took
    several thousand dollars out of that account for me last month and
    there was still enough left in  the  account  to  operate  another
    month.

Payment Terms

    One  very  important thing to consider on brokered (as well as in-
    house printed items) is your payment terms. It is our policy  that
    if  a  brokered job is going to cost us $100 or more, we negotiate
    payment terms - even with old customers. As an example on the  job
    for  the  school district I showed the school district how I could
    save them a substantial amount of money if I could work  on  their
    money  rather than on mine. I got payment in advance, sent payment
    with my order to my vendors, got an extra 5% for cash  in  advance
    (on  top  of the 9% I had originally figured on), and everyone was
    happy. I do the same thing with the two theme parks I  work  with.
    These  are  large volume print buyers. There are few printing jobs
    they require that I can't save them a substantial amount of  money
    on.  Every  printer  in  the  area attempts to get their business.
    But, for 5% of the best price I can come up with,  the  parks  can
    buy  me,  and  in  over  a  decade  I have never let them down. If
    someone comes in with a lowball price, they let me  know,  I  shop
    the price, and if I can beat it, I get 50% of what I save them. If
    I  can't  beat the price, I lose that one, but the person who came
    in with a lowball to get his foot in the door is going to have  to
    do the same thing on every other job. My vendors don't worry about
    when  they  will  get  paid, because I send a check with my order.
    With many smaller vendors that can get me all kinds of perks. With
    others, that is their normal way of  doing  business.  BFP  is  an
    incredibly  powerful tool in shopping for that best price when you
    need it.

    Other tactics I use are one price for jobs paid in advance  and  a
    substantially  higher  price  for  jobs  that  must be billed. Our
    policy is strictly cash with order on  business  cards,  Christmas
    cards,  socials,  and  stock  forms  unless the customer is a well
    established one with an excellent payment history. On  other  type
    jobs,  we require 50% with order and the balance upon final proof.
    If there are overs on the  finished  job,  that  amount  plus  any
    shipping  charges  are  paid  on  delivery. The customer okays the
    proof and we send either camera ready art or  a  negative  to  our
    vendor.  In  over  three  decades in this business, I can remember
    being stung only three times when I stuck to this policy.  Two  of
    those  times  it  was  the  buyer's  fault and I lost in trying to
    protect their position (which neither appreciated) and  the  third
    was a dumb thing on my part for giving a large job to a new vendor
    who  shut his doors (after receiving payment in advance) before my
    job was completed.

    That is not to say that I have not lost on  other  brokered  jobs,
    but  where  I  have  lost  is  when I deviated from my established
    policies.

Keep the Bookkeeping Simple

    I keep a  separate  checking  account  for  my  brokered  jobs.  I
    started  off  with $1,000 seed money in that account. All brokered
    income goes into that account and all vendor payments are made out
    of that account. It will astound you how that account  will  grow.
    Once a month my wife writes us a bonus check with the excess money
    in  that account, and more often than not, that bonus is more than
    our salary. If brokering is not now a major profit center for you,
    why not consider starting brokering and dedicating  those  profits
    for something you really want but think you cannot afford? It will
    not be long before the money is there for that "something" and you
    will be sold on Brokering for Profits.

    I  am somewhat unconventional in the way I look at brokering. I do
    not assign any overhead to the order-out portion of  my  business.
    All  overhead  is  charged  to the work we produce in- house. That
    means that with the exception of any sales tax (which is  uncommon
    for   us  in  that  most  of  our  customers  are  non-profits  or
    institutions who are tax exempt, or larger companies who pay their
    own sales tax), what is in the order-out account  is  bottom  line
    before tax profit. From an accounting standpoint, come tax time we
    simply  give  the order-out account statements to our CPA firm and
    let them do whatever  it  is  they  have  to  do  to  satisfy  the
    bureaucracy.   The  highly  respected  industry  consultant,  John
    Stewart, feels that this a very foolish and unorthodox  method  of
    accounting.  That  may  be  the case for a larger operation, but I
    ain't no GM or  EXXON  (both  of  whom  are  in  deeper  financial
    trouble  than  I  have  ever  been).  My philosophy is that it has
    worked for me for over three decades and if something ain't broke,
    don't fix it. I also know that I  have  gotten  many,  many  other
    small  printers working in this manner and they like what they see
    (or at least that is what they tell me).

When the Customer Worries About an Order-Out

    Quite often customers want to be assured that  you  are  going  to
    produce their job in your shop. I never attempt to indicate that I
    am  going  to  produce  a job in house that I intend to broker. My
    response to this type of question is that I am associated  with  a
    printer  who has specialized equipment that enables him to produce
    this job more economically than I can in  my  shop.  This  printer
    prints  only  these  types  of  jobs  for  other  printers  he  is
    associated  with  and  not  for  the  general  public.  Where  the
    commercial printer may receive a half dozen or so of this type job
    each  month,  this  specialty printer may produce hundreds of this
    type job for printers all over  the  country  each  month  -  thus
    saving  the  customer a substantial amount of money. The example I
    use is a typical 2-  color  business  card  produced  in-house  or
    through  a  specialty printer who will produce hundreds of similar
    jobs each day. I emphasize that  these  specialty  printers  print
    only  for  other  printers, that we have dealt with them for quite
    some  time,  that  they  are  totally  reliable,  and  that  their
    turnaround  time  is  as fast or faster than I could produce it in
    house. I also let them know that I only send out that part of  the
    job  that  the  trade  shop can do more economically. I may do the
    typesetting, layout and camerawork in house, then send  that  plus
    the paper stock for a trade shop to throw the ink on it for me. Or
    I  may  print  the job in house and send it to a trade bindery for
    finishing.

Building Your Own Database

    I have made a concerted effort over the years to develop a list of
    reliable  vendors  and  during  the  fifteen  years  I   published
    Printer's  News  I  was  considered a major source for information
    about  hard-to-find  sources.  I  still  get  regular  calls  from
    printers  all  over the country wanting to know where to find this
    or that. For the first time I will  expose  how  I  compiled  this
    source directory so that you can start building your own.

    I  started  building  a  list  of vendors on 3x5 cards in the late
    1960's. In the late 1970's I started putting them into a  computer
    database.  Building  the  list  was easy. I subscribe to virtually
    every English language graphic arts publication. When  a  magazine
    comes  in,  the first thing I do is turn to the classified section
    and start entering new  advertisers  of  trade  services  into  my
    database.  I also look for the mention of unique printing services
    in  other  than  graphic  arts  publications,  and  contact  those
    companies  for  information  about  their  company,  talk to other
    printers about their sources, and carefully search out  potentials
    at  trade shows. Even so, invariably I will periodically receive a
    request for an item that I don't have in my database. I will  take
    a  few  minutes to go through my collection of telephone directory
    Yellow Pages; look in the Thomas Register; contact  the  reference
    librarian  at  my  local  or  the state library; contact our trade
    association; or call one of a number of other printers I know  who
    are  willing  to  share  their  sources.  On occasion I will see a
    prospect for my database in a retail store and I will contact  the
    manufacturer  to see who his vendor is (as an example, hologram or
    3-D postcards or beer coasters).

    It is seldom that I get stumped. When I get a name and number,  it
    goes  into my database. Occasionally something comes up that makes
    all of this effort worthwhile. As an example,  recently  the  late
    Helene  of  Coast Publishing's "Helene's Hotline" called me to see
    if I knew of anyone who printed business cards on wood. Helene  is
    another great source for hard to find items. The question was most
    timely  in  that Cards of Wood was one of the very latest addition
    to my database. I had read an article about unusual business cards
    in some nondescript  magazine  I  found  in  my  doctor's  office,
    contacted  the  publisher of the magazine for the addresses of the
    companies mentioned - one of which was Cards of Wood - added  them
    to my database. Helene was impressed when I had her information in
    her  hands  within minutes. That might not sound like much to you,
    but to me, it was like having the Encyclopedia Britannica call  me
    to  request  the  answer to a question that they couldn't find the
    answer to. Another caller needed to find a  2400  baud  modem  and
    serial  card  for  an  old  Commodore computer. It took four phone
    calls before I found a  California  supplier  who  specializes  in
    impossible-to-find computer parts and accessories.

    In  BFP  you  will  find  a  classification  under  products named
    "Publications". These are the various graphic arts publications  I
    am  aware  of. You should subscribe to each of these and check out
    their articles and ads for unusual  or  interesting  products  and
    sources.  When you find one, add it to BFP. You never know when it
    might come in handy.

    Who are my favorite vendors? I have a lot  of  them.  As  I  noted
    above,  my  favorites  are generally the smaller companies where I
    have a rapport with the owner. In the  database  that  accompanies
    BFP  you will find the details on some of my all-time favorites. I
    am not attempting in any way to promote one over another, nor do I
    attempt to claim that these are the only  reliable  sources.  Some
    are  strictly  trade shops and some are simply commercial printers
    who have  capacities  I  don't  have.  Some  I  have  worked  with
    personally  and  others  I  know  by reputation. Others are simply
    names I have come across at one time or another that I felt  might
    come  in  handy some day. Some will protect your accounts and some
    won't. The best bet is for you to develop your  own,  and  a  good
    starting place is BFP.

    I  like  to  tell the story of one of these trade houses I used to
    deal with. The only reason I say "used to deal with" is that Buerl
    passed away a few years ago. I don't remember who referred  me  to
    Burel, but he operated what I thought was a very large letterpress
    trade  shop  in  Dallas.  Whenever  I  called his customer service
    person was extremely courteous and knowledgeable. I seldom got  to
    talk  to  Buerl,  but  his  CSR was always able to give me pricing
    information and quite often gave me ideas as to how to  print  the
    job  so  that  they  could do the numbering, diecutting, etc. more
    economically. They never missed a delivery and when they shipped a
    job to me it had my label on the outside of each  carton,  and  my
    customer's  address  was printed on my label. That was long before
    computers. While I was working my booth at  Southwestern  Graphics
    in  Dallas  one  year  Burel  dropped  by the booth and introduced
    himself and invited me to dinner.  I  accepted.  We  went  to  his
    home,  his  wife served a nice meal, then he proudly invited me to
    see his shop. We walked out the back door of his home and  into  a
    converted  2-car  garage  that had the equivalent of another 2-car
    garage added on behind it. The shop was immaculate. He had several
    letterpresses, a Linotype and Ludlow, diemaking equipment, etc. In
    the addition behind his shop he had customer's jobs waiting to  be
    worked on.

    I  had  perceived  Burel's shop as a 10 or 15,000 sq. ft. facility
    with 40 or 50 employees. The entire operation was handled by Burel
    and his wife and handled out of  their  home.  They  did  such  an
    excellent  job  of  keeping  their business and home separate that
    until we walked into his shop I had no  idea  he  was  working  at
    home.

    Burel passed away a couple of decades ago, but I will never forget
    this outstanding craftsperson.

    Until  a  couple  of  years  ago  there was a similar operation in
    Houston under the sign of Anderson  Printing.  Andy  Anderson  was
    (and  is)  an  incredible craftsperson. Andy worked for many years
    out of his garage printshop, doing high quality overload  sheetfed
    work  for some of the largest printers in Houston. A master of the
    Davidson press, Andy could turn out work that looked like it  came
    off a 5-color Heidelberg. I was sorry to see him retire.

Bindery Services

    To  go  into the subject of services such as trade binderies would
    not be appropriate in this program because of the fact that BFP is
    marketed internationally. Each area  has  its  own  complement  of
    trade  binderies,  and I am only familiar with the few I deal with
    in this area. Except for very specific applications, you will want
    to deal with a local bindery. However, there are  some  things  to
    look  for.  There  are  the  newcomers who do a marvelous job with
    state-of-the-art equipment, but who have little if any of the  old
    work-horse  equipment  found  in  companies  that  are over a half
    century old. Where would you go if you had 25,000 paint can labels
    and need two bail holes  put  in  each  of  them?  Anyone  with  a
    letterpress  department  could diecut those two 1" bail holes, but
    you need to go to an old timer like A.V. Emmott & Sons in  Houston
    or  Ellis  Bindery  in  Dallas to find someone who can "punch" the
    holes 1,000 at a time with their bale hole punch. Know  what  type
    of  equipment  your  area  binderies  have  -  not  just the major
    pieces, but those oldies that sit around gathering dust until just
    the right job comes along. Let your competition wonder how you got
    those 50,000 bail holes "diecut" so cheap. There  are  many  other
    local  services  such  as  embossing, diecutting, proposal covers,
    rubber stamps, tubes, cones,  etc.  that  you  may  not  have  the
    capability  of  producing.  Don't  turn  down those jobs. Look for
    vendors in your area. If you run into a dead end,  contact  me  in
    and  I  almost  guarantee that I can point you in a direction that
    will offer additional bottom line profits. All you need to  do  is
    change  your  way  of  thinking.  Your philosophy should be "if it
    involves ink or paper, I am the source." Why not  be  the  largest
    small printer in your market area?

  Zing the Competition

    If  you  really  want  to zing the competition, on that next extra
    special business card, post card or advertising bookmark,  contact
    Cards  of Wood, 1267 House Rd., Belmont, MI 49306, (616) 887-8257.
    They print on 120 varieties of wood veneer. And, while they do not
    have a dealer price structure, for something as  unique  as  this,
    you can make a nice margin by marking up their normal prices, plus
    have  your  customer telling everyone he gives one to where he got
    them.

    If  you  have some real zingers in your list of suppliers, I would
    appreciate it if you would share them with me so I can add them to
    my growing list. Just drop me a note at Box 151107, Lufkin,  Texas
    75915-1107,  call  me  at  (409)  637-7468,  or  FAX  me  at (409)
    637-1480.

    If All Else Fails

    If  you  are at wits end and simply cannot find a product that you
    need, FAX me all of the details at (409) 637-1480 . I will make  a
    concerted  effort  to  get  the information to you in the shortest
    time possible. On the truly difficult requests I can generallycome
    up with an almost immediate answer. The  impossible  requests  may
    take  a little longer. In either case, you don't need to follow up
    if you haven't gotten an answer in an hour or even a day.  Wait  a
    couple  of  days to follow up. Your request may be taking a little
    longer to find. Secondly, please don't ask for a list of suppliers
    of XYZ. In an attempt to get the information back to you  ASAP,  I
    provide  you  with  the  first  one  or two suppliers I am able to
    locate, or in the case of a product where I have numerous vendors,
    I will give you one or two in your area. There is no cost for this
    service. However, if you do not have a FAX, I will  mail  you  the
    information  unless  you need it faster than you might expect from
    USPS. In that case, I  will  telephone  you  the  results  of  the
    investigation  providing you give me the authorization to call you
    collect. I can't promise how long that might take.

    When you request a source for  a  product,  give  me  all  of  the
    information  you would give a vendor who was going to quote on the
    job. That includes quantity, stock, color of  ink,  is  it  camera
    ready,   finished  size,  bindery  work  required,  delivery  time
    required, etc.



    How We Verify Vendors In BFP

    Most of the entries in BFP have been verified. We do this  in  one
    of  two  ways. First of all, we FAX a questionnaire to the vendor,
    briefly explaining what BFP is and the reason for our inquiry.  If
    we  have  only a voice number for the vendor, we call that number,
    ask for their FAX number and the  name  of  their  Sales/Marketing
    Manager.  If  they  have  a  FAX,  we  FAX  the  inquiry  to  that
    individual. If they do not, we attempt to  complete  the  form  by
    voice phone.

    When  we  send  out  the FAX, we enter a product, company name and
    phone numbers in a master copy of BFP. When we get a response,  we
    pull  up  that  company  and  complete the filling out of the data
    fields with the information provided by the vendor.  Periodically,
    we do a print-out of the ones who have not responded and follow up
    in  an attempt to get the information from them. If, after a third
    contact we have not heard from the vendor we remove them from  the
    master database.

    A  copy  of  the form we use is included with BFP as an ASCII text
    file named FAXREQ.TXT and also as  a  .PCX  file  which  is  in  a
    self-extracting  archive  to  save space. That file is FAXREQ.EXE.
    While I cannot guarantee the accuracy of  any  of  the  individual
    entries,  I  have made every effort to see that each is correct as
    of the date it was entered into  the  database.  The  earliest  of
    these   entries   is   June  1,  1991.  Some  6,000  requests  are
    outstanding.  NOTE:  You may find some really unusual dates in the
    date section of your copy of BFP. We  have  no  idea  as  to  what
    happened,  but when we converted from Version 1+ to Version 2, the
    date field did not convert properly. It is automatically corrected
    when you update a vendor record.

    No fee is  charged,  requested  from,  or  accepted  from  vendors
    included in BFP.

  Being A Registered BFP User

    Being  a  registered  user  has  its  benefits. You have technical
    support for 12 months from the date you purchased  your  copy.  In
    addition,  you will receive notice of any database updates (mailed
    around January and June). These  updates  are  on  disk  and  will
    contain a minimum of 500 new verified vendor/product records. As a
    registered user, you can purchase these updates at $25 each. Minor
    upgrades  may  be downloaded from our bulletin board at no charge.
    Your copy is registered to you by us the day we ship it to you.

  For Technical Support

    If  you  require  any  technical  support,  please  describe  your
    problem  and  FAX  it  to  us  at (409) 637-1480. Include your FAX
    number, the version of BFP you have, your serial number,  and  the
    problem  you  are  having. During normal working hours (9am to 5pm
    CST, Monday-Friday) you should have a response within the hour. If
    you do not have a FAX, call (409) 637-7468 and  leave  your  name,
    telephone  number,  the  version  of  BFP  you are using, your BFP
    serial number, authorization to return the  call  collect,  and  a
    brief  description  of  your  problem with the operator. Your call
    will be returned promptly. FAX requests  take  priority  over  all
    other requests.

  Our Bulletin Board:

    Give  our bulletin board a call when you have a chance. The number
    is (409) 637-4973. You will find some great programs that you  can
    download,  as well as any updates to BFP. This is a different type
    of bulletin board in that we  do  not  attempt  to  have  as  many
    programs and nodes as possible. It is a support board for printers
    and a forum for printers who wish to share ideas. The downloadable
    programs  range  from  outstanding  utilities  to  type  fonts and
    Windows applications. We are  not  looking  for  huge  numbers  of
    callers,  but  rather to provide an easy access to support for our
    BFP users.

  Registration

    The registration fee for BFP is for a single  computer.  The  dis-
    tribution  copy normally shipped is not network compatible. If you
    wish  a  network  or  multiple  site  license,  contact   DataWare
    Productions  at  (409)  637-7468  for  further  details.  Multiple
    registrations are priced as follows:


        1 $99
        2-9 Less 25%
        10-24 Less 40%
        25 up Less 50%

    Note, the pricing  for  the  IBM  compatible  or  the  ASCII  text
    quote/comma  delimited  format  program  is the same. PC users can
    export to either straight ASCII text or a "," delimited ASCII text
    file from within  BFP.  Mac  users  must  request  a  special  Mac
    formatted  ","  delimited  ASCII  disk.  The  full  PC  version is
    included with the Mac formatted file in anticipation that most Mac
    users will purchase a PC as their next computer system. If you are
    interested in becoming a dealer for BFP, contact  our  office  for
    details.

    We  also  have available SoftPC, a third-party program that can be
    used by any Mac user to automatically create an IBM 286PC  on  the
    Mac's  hard  drive. With SoftPC BFP as well as many other IBM type
    programs can be run. This program carries a list price of $169 and
    we offer it at $131. This is the best way for a  Mac  user  to  go
    since creating your own database software with all of the features
    that are available in BFP would be a huge undertaking.

    MasterCard, VISA, DISCOVER, or check is accepted.

 Cy Stapleton
 The House of Gutenberg
 Box 151107
 Lufkin, Texas 75915-1107
 (409) 637-7468
 FAX (409) 637-1480
 BBS (409) 637-4973


IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE...

    I love hearing from users as to how they use BFP. I  am  going  to
    start  collecting  those ideas and passing them on to other users.
    One Louisiana user came up with a great idea. He exported the data
    to an ASCII file, then brought that  data  into  another  database
    program  that enabled him to create a user-defined report. He then
    generated a report of all of the various products that are in BFP.
    Once that report was generated, he imported it into PageMaker  and
    created  a  mailing  piece  that  listed  all  of the products and
    services his company offered. He mailed that piece to all  of  his
    customers  and  prospects, and from what he tells me, that mailing
    not  only  generated  new  business  from  some  of  his  existing
    customers,  but also generated some new customers.

    IF YOU FIND ANY INCORRECT PHONE NUMBERS OR ADDRESSES IN BFP...

    We  make  a  concerted  effort  to make certain all entries are as
    accurate as is possible. But there is also the  unfortunate  typo,
    and  businesses  do  move,  change  their phone numbers, go out of
    business, etc. If you attempt to contact a vendor  listed  in  BFP
    and  find  he  has  moved,  changed  phone  numbers,  gone  out of
    business, or no longer produces the product  we  have  him  listed
    for,  please  fax  that information to us at (409) 637-1480 and we
    will immediately update that information in our master file.

    IF YOU HAVE SOME FAVORITE VENDORS WHO ARE NOT LISTED IN BFP...

    If you find that one or more of  your  favorite  vendors  are  not
    listed  in  BFP,  please  fax them a copy of our FAX REQUEST form,
    which is included on this disk. Hopefully they will complete  that
    form  and  return  it  to  us so that we can enter them in BFP. An
    alternative to that is to fax us their names and fax  numbers  and
    we will fax the form to them.

    IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS AS TO ENHANCEMENTS WE CAN MAKE TO BFP...

    Virtually  every  enhancement in Version 2 of BFP is the result of
    "wish lists" sent to us by readers.  If  there  is  something  you
    would  like  to  see  in the program, let us know. If you have any
    ideas as to how we might improve the program, please let us  know.
    Some  of  the requests we are working on for Version 3 include the
    ability to generate a  request  for  prices  and  fax  it  to  the
    vendor(s) from within the program; mouse support; Windows support;
    user  defined  reports;  printer  drivers for specific rather than
    generic printers; etc.
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