If you are making an effort to increase the profits for your print shops, the first step is to measure where you are at already. This will give you bench mark measurements to track your progress and help you make the necessary changes.
Here are some of the key measurements you should take and keep track of throughout your journey to a more successful business:
Your average net profit per job you complete
Your average gross revenue per job you complete
Your total sales
Your costs of production
Let's go over each of these, so you know what to look for.
Average Net Profit Per Job
In order to plan for marketing accordingly, it's important that you know how much profit you can expect to receive for an order.
If you don't know how much revenue a sale will bring you, determining the appropriate amount to spend on marketing is going to be a challenge.
Take a sample of data from your orders over the past few betters (the more the better), and calculate how much was left in profit after costs of production on average. This will be a valuable metric for knowing if you are successfully reducing your bottom line.
Average Gross Revenue
Knowing the average revenue you produce for each job will give you a good idea of your profit potential. Have a look at how much revenue is being produced from each of your departments/services to be able to compare them to one another over time.
Total Sales
Of course, total sales is going to be an important measurement to have for your print shop. This is going to be a great indicator on how you are doing with your sales and marketing.
Production Costs
It's important that you know how much production costs for every type of print product or service that you provide. Without knowing what goes into your costs, you will have a hard time reducing them down the line.
The major costs to keep track of include labor, materials, business overhead and consumables.