It’s amazing how many people call me a month or several months before a job needs to be ready and ask for a quote. I prepare it for them and they have it within a couple of days, and just a couple days before they actually need the final job they call me to finally put it into production. Now more often then not, if you are asking for a quote in advance you know that you are eventually going to need this job. As well, there is always a reasonable time in which a job can be done. Sure, a simple 14 pt 1,000 piece business card order can be done in 1 day, however there are jobs that need a certain amount of time for production and there is nothing that can be done about it.
We once had a customer call us and say they wanted 400,000 brochures printed for them and in their hand by the next day. We told the customer that this job was physically impossible to do. If the machine runs 10,000 sheets an hour, just for the printing alone this job will take 40 hours. On top of the printing, the ink has to dry, the brochures need to be folded, boxed and shipped. So it was humanly possible to have the customer the job in 2 days, but one day was not doable. When we told the customer this they got angry and was unhappy with our response. After calling other printers, and being told the same thing by everyone else, they came back saying, “ok, so when can I have my brochures”.
Work can be very stressful, and one way to cut down on your stress is organization. When getting a quote from a supplier or a potential supplier ask how long this specific job needs for production so when it comes time to putting the order in you are not stressed you will not get it in time, and you are not stressing your supplier that they will not be able to produce it in time.
So the next time you are asking for a quote, make sure you know the production time needed and try and cut back stress for everyone so that a job can be delivered in a timely manner, nothing is rushed, and less mistakes are made.