EPISODE
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:04] DC: It takes the right skills and the right innovation to design and manage meaningful print marketing solutions. Welcome to Podcasts From the Printerverse, where we explore all facets of print and marketing that create stellar communications and sales opportunities for business success. I’m your host, Deborah Corn, the Intergalactic Ambassador to the Printerverse. Thanks for tuning in. Listen long and prosper.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:00:33] DC: Hey everybody, welcome to Podcasts From the Printerverse. This is Deborah Corn, your Intergalactic Ambassador. And today, I am joined by Sarah Smith. She is the owner of Dynamic Print in the UK. I met Sarah last year at The Print Show in Birmingham, England, and her story is truly remarkable. She took a huge personal risk selling her house to buy a printing company and then built the business that stands out by doing things differently on purpose.
Sarah, welcome to the program.
[0:01:10] SS: Hello. Thank you for inviting me, Deborah.
[0:01:13] DC: It’s so lovely to see you again. We’re on video. I wish everybody could see your print samples, but they can on your socials. So I suggest everybody jumps on those. But I alluded to the fact of the amazing story you told me when we met in England. Can you share more about your background and what led you to the point where selling your house and buying a printing company felt like the right move to make?
[0:01:43] SS: Okay. Well, back in 1989, I first started as something that is known as an inside sales girl working for a company called James McNaughton Paper. And actually, coincidentally, around that time, I also met Barney, whose business I would buy nearly 25 years later. So, I was an inside sales girl for a paper merchant for the next sort of 16 years, and it gave me a really good insight into understanding what customers wanted in terms of paper, deliveries, etc., etc.
However, in the year 2000, I went and had a baby and came back as a part-time employee, and my bosses suggested that I might like to go and start visiting design agencies to show them some of the more unusual papers that were being introduced into the industry. Because back in 1989, there really was very few papers to choose from. You had gloss, matte, maybe an uncoated or two, and a little bit of tinted. Oh, and of course, carbonless material.
But back then, you jump forward into 2003, and suddenly we started having things like a silk or a satin, or we might have an ivory-tinted silk, which was very unusual for that time. So I started visiting design agencies and got quite a few orders specified. And then a couple of years later, sort of my bosses recognized that perhaps maybe I should be now focusing on dealing directly with printers instead of designers.
So, in 2005, I got on the road with my yellow pages and started flicking through all the different names of printers that we didn’t deal with, and started knocking on doors. And for the next 16 years became what I would call quite successful in selling paper.
So, in 2016, Barney approached me, who was the owner of Dynamic Print, and said to me that he had remembered that I had once said to him, if he ever wanted to sell his little unusual printing company, to talk to me first. And he’d actually remembered it. So, he sat me down, and he said, “Look, Sarah,” he said, “How about it? Would you fancy owning this business?” And I just burst out laughing and said, “One, you know, I live 60 miles away. How would I run a business? Two, I don’t know how to print. Three, I don’t have a lot of money,” I said,” And four, I’ve got a really good career going. You know, I actually really love what I do. And if I’m being honest, it wasn’t that difficult doing my job.” But anyway, I said I’d give it some food for thought.
For the next 18 months, it just kept sort of coming back to the surface, and I kept thinking, “Oh, wouldn’t it be lovely to be able to own a bespoke printing company?” I knew that his little business was very different to any other printing company that I visited because they were all investing in new technology, whereas Barney was still using vintage machinery dating back to the 1940s.
And what these machines could do was so different to anybody else’s business that was in and around East Anglia. So we’re saying like a 100-mile radius of my territory. So anyway, I sat back down with him, and I said, “You know what?” I said, “I think I want to give this a go.” I said, “But you’re going to have to bear with me. I’m going to have to sell my house.” I said, “I’m going to have to move 60 miles and find – relocate. I’ve got to sit down with my bosses and explain that I want to leave my very secure job and go and buy a print company,” which, to be fair, they all thought I was absolutely crazy at the time. But they did actually say to me, “If anyone could do it, then they knew I could.” So anyway, jumped to 2018 and bought the company. And yeah, the rest is history, shall we say?
[0:06:05] DC: I mean, it is such an incredible story. And in all of those difficult decisions that you had to make, the fact that you believed in yourself enough to make them is why I admire you so much for that leap of faith in yourself and all you have accomplished since then. And just thank you for being a shining example of following your dream to do what you’re doing now.
[0:06:44] SS: It kind of got to an age where I thought, “You know what? If I don’t do this now, I’m always just going to sell paper and make a lot of money for obviously the corporates above me or the paper merchants.” And I thought I’d like to make a little bit of money for myself. So why not?
[0:07:02] DC: Yeah. So, not only did you buy this business, but you also made a deliberate decision to keep the focus on specialized finishing, traditional craft, and short-run, high-value work. You didn’t say, “Okay, let’s expand into all these.” What made you want to stay with that focus? And how does it shape the kind of clients you work with and, more importantly, the role that your business then ends up playing in their projects?
[0:07:42] SS: Okay. Well, you’re right. It was already working with high-end, high-value products. And I didn’t think I needed to change that at the time. So this is pre-COVID. So 2018, the first six months I spent in the business was getting control of my costs because I wanted to – well, I just basically renegotiated with all of my suppliers, my paper, my bin, my electric, my telephone, because I don’t think it had ever been looked at for some time.
Immediately getting control of my costs. Put on around about 16 grand worth of savings for that year. So that then enabled me to then sort of look at other ways to invest that saving into other projects. Okay? Once I did that, I then spent a lot of time getting sample packs ready and making sure that we then sent out a handwritten letter in a really nice envelope, so it sort of landed and popped on someone’s doorstep, if you know what I mean. I needed to get that person to open it.
And of course, once you open it, and then you see traditional hot foiling, embossing, debossing samples on good quality paper, they sell themselves. They really do. And of course, at the same time, I had to make sure that my website was also portraying high-end quality prints and products. So I invested in a photographer, and we spent a lot of time just capturing different photos.
And then what I did was I learned how to – or I had a basic understanding of how to run a website. Because, again, pre-COVID, we were still sort of talking to each other like traditional selling, go and make an appointment, go in, show what you have to sell. But websites were then starting to become more and more popular. And I thought, “Right. I really need to get my head around technology.”
Because when you sold paper for 25, 30 years, the only bit of technology I needed to understand was a mobile phone, and ring up my office and go, “Can you order such and such?” Put the phone down, drive to the next appointment, make another phone call. To learn and understand how to run a website was a challenge. But I’m so glad I did because what I then was able to do was upload all this photography.
I also sort of started writing all about the foiling and hot foiling in words that I hope people would understand. And then I basically put on free samples on the website and then thought, “Right. Let’s see what happens.” And then what happened was COVID.
[0:10:47] DC: My god.
[0:10:48] SS: Oh, dear.
[BREAK]
[0:10:49] DC: Get ready to turn up the volume on print. PrintFM is a global internet radio station dedicated exclusively to print and graphic communications, accessible around the clock in every time zone. No more searching across channels and apps. PrintFM brings relevant topical programming from Print Media Centr, Girls Who Print, and an array of industry contributors who bring their own perspectives, guests, and conversations to the mix. PrintFM also broadcasts from industry events, with live shows being scheduled throughout the year. Visit printfm.com to explore our daily programming, event schedules, and opportunities to share your content or sponsor our shows. Expert discussions, real-world insight, and industry voices are just a click away. Listen long and prosper.
[EPISODE CONTINUED]
[0:11:49] DC: So, how did you manage that?
[0:11:50] SS: Yeah. Oh my goodness me. Well, I think I was one of the first companies to feel the pain because I’d joined various networking groups. I’d literally gone in on the January and told everyone I’d had a record month in terms of the whole business in 20-odd years. The following month, I walked in and said, “My business is dead.” And they all looked at me and said, “What do you mean?” And I said, “It’s dead.” I said, “We’re not getting any emails. The phones have stopped ringing.”
And I think what it was is because we were dealing with all the corporates, we felt it first because they suddenly had to stop doing events. They weren’t mixing anymore. So no one wanted any high corporate invitations or brochures printing. And I think suddenly we felt that pain far, far quicker than anyone else in any other industry. Well, I certainly did.
So anyway, that was February. By March, I was tearing my hair out. And I thought, “Oh my god, I’m going to lose everything.” And people had chosen to go home because obviously they had that decision, stay or go, because you don’t want to spread it. And I was left with me and my partner at the time just sitting there thinking, “Well, what are we going to do?”
So behind this curtain that you can see me is actually – we’re on an industrial estate unit. And out the back, there is quite a nice piece of land which was full of tires and rubble and just crap basically. And because it’s south-facing, and I’m a bit of a keen gardener in my spare time – and I don’t know if you remember, but during that COVID months, the first few months, it was really hot. So I was sitting outside, and I suddenly thought to myself, “I know what I need to do. I need to sort of look at my resources. What do I know? What can I bring to the party that is different to the business?”
And as I was planting potatoes on an industrial estate, I came up with the idea of seeded paper. Now, seeded paper is basically paper that grows into wild flowers. So I started planting this paper. I started documenting it. Started doing social media about the seeded paper. And within the next year, I’d sold over 80,000 pounds of paper, print on seeded paper, which really did save my business. And so, obviously, seeded paper became our new number one product of selling. And it was just literally digital print on a substrate.
[0:14:32] DC: I mean, absolutely incredible. You really turned lemons into lemonade there, barren land into a garden of prosperity.
[0:14:43] SS: Yeah. Vegetables. Yeah.
[0:14:45] DC: I mean, just incredible. And by the way, I want to echo, of course, you were in the event space. You were going to get killed by that. And I have to say, though, I spoke to a gentleman right before March 15th, which I only know because that’s my birthday. So that’s kind of when everything shut down right around then. But I spoke to a gentleman shortly after that, and he actually only worked for the cruise industry.
And I don’t know if you know from over there, but here in the United States, there was a cruise ship that we wouldn’t let into America. I mean, to be in the cruise – I mean, the guy was just like – but you know what he did? He worked with a chemical company, and they created an antimicrobial coating for print. Because he’s like, “I’m never going to get back on these cruise ships.” I mean, eventually they’ll come back. But, I mean, just think of all the things. He ended up doing that. People in the printing industry really do are – I mean, that’s where I would go if there’s a zombie apocalypse. I would go to the nearest print shop because printers are very crafty.
[0:15:59] SS: Well, we have to be very resourceful at this moment.
[0:16:01] DC: You do.
[0:16:01] SS: Print is still very much declining. And so we do have to sort of be salesmen and saleswomen of this industry, and educate.
[0:16:11] DC: I’m going to have to push back on you just a little there. It’s declining in the areas where there’s been no innovation, where it’s the same old thing you’ve been getting for 20 years, that is completely meaningless to your life. When someone gets something that you produce, it is not meaningless, you know? So, it’s going to be relevant and important as long as people are having events and want to differentiate themselves.
[BREAK]
[0:16:43] DC: Print Media Centr provides printspiration and resources to our vast network of global print and marketing professionals. Whether you are an industry supplier, print service provider, print customer, or consultant, we have you covered by providing resources and strategies that enable business marketing and creative success, reporting from global events, these podcasts, Project Peacock TV, and an array of community-lifting initiatives. We also work with OEMs, suppliers, industry organizations, and event producers, helping you connect and engage with our vast audience and achieve success with your sales, marketing, and conference endeavors. Visit Print Media Centr and connect with the Printerverse. Links in the show notes. Print long and prosper.
[EPISODE CONTINUED]
[0:17:38] DC: That’s what I want to focus on right now because you are in a very specialized lane. You’re not trying to be everything to everybody in any sense. And you don’t even take on all the clients that come to you if their order is too big or you don’t think that you can do the justice for your reputation and what you want your customers to have. So, how do you decide who you work for, who you don’t? And how do you market your business with those parameters?
[0:18:14] SS: Well, do you know what? I don’t actually decide it. My website decides it. And what I do or what my website has been very lucky to now be on some pages of Google on page one. So, basically, we all know that when we –
[0:18:29] DC: I’m going to interrupt you again because that’s not luck. You put work into it, and Google recognizes that work, which is why you move up the search engines. Stop selling yourself short. Please continue.
[0:18:41] SS: Thank you. Well, one of the things that we do is obviously, like you say, we have worked really hard on the website. And so what that tends to give us is people will search on Google for say foiled invitations, and we will come up on say number one or number two on their search. And I think most people are quite lazy. So they kind of click on their first or second option under the ads on Google.
So we then kind of get these inquiries, maybe three to five a day, through people that actually want our product. So it’s very easy for me to choose the right clients. And then what else I do is the existing client base that I have, I try and keep nurturing. So, for instance, 2 years ago, when we hit quite a quiet period, I spent 2 or 3 weeks just going through all of my corporate clients and sending them a EcoSwatch.
So, regardless of what they bought from me, whether it was foiled invitations, or brochures, or whatever that looked like, certificates, for instance, I then sent them a handwritten note with a paper swatch that is now made out of various other products. And so what they then had was not just a company that was doing high-end corporate events and products. We were now offering eco products, so environmental, like paper made out of coffee husk or paper made out of seaweed that smell.
So again, we were capturing the existing customer base because they’re an easy win, aren’t they? because they’re already in your database and hopefully been impressed with you so far with the work that you’ve done. And then, “Oh, here you go. Here’s a nice little swatch. And look at these fancy new ideas.” And then we might send them some printed samples as well.
And I am allowed to say this company because we have to sign a lot of NDAs. So I have got to be careful. But CNBC actually came about getting all their menus printed on the coffee husk paper because I’d sent them a swatch with a little handwritten note saying, “Oh, look at what else we now do.”
[0:21:03] DC: CNBC? The media network you’re talking about?
[0:21:06] SS: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because we’ve done a few certificates on a different project. Completely different. I had their details in my obviously database. I’m allowed to contact them because we’ve already gone through the GDPR, all those rules. And yeah, we’ve had three or four orders off the back of that swatch. I wouldn’t say I was desperate during those weeks, but it was tough. Yeah.
[0:21:31] DC: I did go to your website, and I have to tell you that my favorite thing on your website is how to submit files. It’s brilliant. I love it. There’s visuals there. You explain to people. You don’t just say, “Bleed this size.” You say, “Let me explain to you what ‘bleed’ is and why this matters.”
And I just think that it is so clear for anybody who’s unsure. And at the end of the day, it helps you. Because what are you supposed to do? You’re going to have to kick all the jobs back. So, good on you for spending that time and just making it easy for people to do business with you, which is not as common as you might think. I look at a lot of printing websites, and I even tell printers sometimes, I’m like, “Why don’t you try ordering something on your site and get back to me?” And they get in touch, they’re like, “Oh my god, Deb. I get it now.”
[0:22:29] SS: You know what? Somebody once told me how important it was to write blogs. And I thought, “Oh my god. Where do I start writing a blog?” And what do you talk about? And then something happened, and it was when – because, again, I was so naive before I bought this business. I do chuckle when I look back now. But I didn’t know that certain products in the UK, you do not have to add VAT. So like leaflets and brochures. Okay?
Of course, I’m sending plus VAT to the client, and he just ordered say a thousand brochures. And he soon came back and challenged me, and I thought, “Well, he’s wrong. Of course, you have to charge VAT.” But anyway, where I’m going with this little story is I basically then decided to write a very basic blog about what to charge on VAT and what not to. So the blog was called VAT & Printing.
Now that blog is now on page one of Google. And I often have HMRC look at me on LinkedIn, and I always think, “Oh god. Don’t look too hard.” Do you know what I mean? But I do chuckle to myself. And the amount of times that I have attached that blog to an email has been really quite a few times, explaining what I can and can’t do.
[0:23:43] DC: I mean, a website is a resource for people. Now, just to translate, VAT is like tax. Taxes? Like sales tax?
[0:23:51] SS: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. In the UK, we don’t have to pay sales tax on certain products in print. And I think it was something to do with the government many years ago wanting to encourage businesses to actually use print as a way of communication in their marketing. And it’s so valuable. It’s so frustrating that if people actually understood that I think it’s something like a 4% response rate if you send a direct mail campaign, compared to something like 0.2% if it was through a website or an email campaign.
[BREAK]
[0:24:26] DC: Leadership isn’t a title, it’s a journey. And Girls Who Print membership supports you at every step, with resources to grow your skills, boost your confidence, and expand your professional network. Through our member-exclusive programs, you’ll tap into industry expertise, connect with mentors and peers, and access opportunities that open doors you didn’t even know existed. Whether you want to lead a team, launch a business, or explore new possibilities in print, we are here to help you do it with community, not competition. Join Girls Who Print today and take the lead in your career. To learn more about our comprehensive membership program, visit girlswhoprint.org. Empower long and prosper.
[EPISODE CONTINUED]
[0:25:18] DC: Well, I’m going to put a link to that blog in the show notes so people can read that, too. Okay. For anyone listening who’s standing on the edge of a big decision, whether it’s selling their house and buying a business, changing direction, or committing fully to a specialty, what advice would you give them about weighing the risk, listening to their instincts, and then making a move that they can truly stand behind?
[0:25:52] SS: Okay. You must follow your instincts. That’s for sure. I’ve always done that. My gut instinct, I do rely on that heavily. But also at the same time, they must make sure it’s a niche market. It’s no good trying to buy something that everyone else can buy. I only bought this business and gave up a 30-year career because I felt it was completely different. Well, I knew it was different because I’d seen all the competition. So, they must make sure it is a niche.
Now, I also had the privilege, whatever, that I didn’t actually have to convince anyone else. I wasn’t married. I had my own house. I didn’t actually have to ask permission or go down that route of convincing someone to up their life and move 60 miles. It was only me that it really affected. My daughter was either going to come with me or move out, you know. So that plays a big part in it all.
What else? They must accept that if they do take on a business, it is a lot of hard work. I have spent many, many weeks just working probably 80 to 100-hour weeks year after year. However, this is now my eighth year. I walk into my office, and I feel that I glow when I walk in. It’s where I feel at home. It’s where I get the best from me as a person. I’m passionate. I feel passionate about it. You know what I mean? I feel good when I come to the office.
[0:27:28] DC: Yeah. You’re proud of what you do.
[0:27:31] SS: I love it. I absolutely love it. But of course, there will come a time when I will have to either look for some sort of collaboration, maybe, because what I have – and I’ve sort of diversified a little bit of the question. But what I think I’ve realized is that you do actually have to look at the future. We get a lot of inquiries that don’t suit our little business. And so at some point, you would look to collaborate and then maybe merge as well.
Really, what I’m trying to say to anybody that wants to go and do what I did, definitely go for it, but understand there’s a lot of hard work. You need grit and determination to succeed and a few sleepless nights, but go for it.
[0:28:19] DC: Everything you need to connect with Sarah and dynamicprint.co.uk is in the show notes when you visit the site, not if. Run, don’t walk. Go there now. Make sure that you click on their socials to see their incredible work. There’s also a page where, if you’re in the United Kingdom, you can request samples. And if you’re out of the United Kingdom, there’s a link to Sarah’s LinkedIn in the profile and the website. Get in touch and discuss with her how to get your hands on some.
Sarah, I will reiterate that you are an inspiration. You are truly somebody who just should be speaking at every event and talking about the passion that you have for what you do and why it matters. And I want to echo what you said that every year I have a mission as far as what I think everybody should be doing, myself included. And this year, it is collaboration.
As the industry is condensing, I think the best way to be able to say yes to people or offer them – look, you could do a bespoke invitation. But do they also need t-shirts? Do they also need something else that you don’t do? And create an ecosystem of yes. And so, I love that you’re going that way. Thank you so much for your time and for everything you do to help everybody. Until next time, thank you for listening. Print long and prosper.
Thanks for listening to Podcasts From the Printerverse. Please subscribe, click some stars, and leave us a review. Connect with us through printmediacentr.com, we’d love to hear your feedback on our shows and topics that are of interest for future broadcasts. Until next time, thanks for joining us. Print long and prosper.
[END]
