One of the first questions I used to ask printers about their business was a general one: what do you print? I stopped asking that question because too often I got the answer to this question, “What print manufacturing processes does your business have?” In my mind, the first thing I want to understand about your print business is the communication product you manufacture and its job in the marketplace. 

I really want to know what job the stuff you print is doing for your customers.

If you print election ballots, they are providing a key part of the execution of a democratic government. If you print restaurant menus, they are enabling restaurant customers to make their meal decisions. If you print parking passes, you are enabling folks to safely park in restricted areas. You get the idea: I’m curious about the job the print product does for your customer. I prefer to start at the “job level” because the threat of a shift to digital alternatives is one of the first things I assess when I try to understand a print business. Is the job that your current print work is doing in the marketplace at risk of being replaced with digital alternatives? This is a fact of life in the market we live in—and COVID-19 just accelerated a lot of “jobs” from analog to digital that I thought would hang on for much longer.