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PRINTING

I had my printing done by a local company the first year. But when most of my subscribers renewed at the end of the year and I continued getting new orders each month, I began looking for ways to cut my costs and quickly discovered that my biggest expense was printing. I'd planned from the outset to hold off buying any major equipment until I could see the business growing . . . and since it looked as though I'd reached that point, I went looking for a printing machine.

The cheapest type of printing apparatus is a mimeograph machine (about $100 for a good used one), but it has definite disadvantages: It doesn't print well on both sides of a page; the stencils or masters are difficult to prepare; only a hundred or so good copies can be made from one master. At the other end of the spectrum is offset printing equipment, which, though expensive (used presses start around $2,500), produces excellent copies and is suitable for long runs. An offset press also takes a fair amount of space, though, which I didn't have.

So I decided to look at xerographic, or photocopy, machines, which I felt might provide a good compromise between price and quality. Most office supply and copier stores that sell new equipment take used machines on trade and recondition them for sale. I visited area stores, explained to the salespeople how I planned to use a copier, and after several tries, found a three-year-old IBM office copier, just reconditioned and suitable for my needs, for only $1,000.

There are three important questions to ask about a photocopier: [1] Will it print on both sides of the paper? [2] How much does the toner or ink cost per copy? [3] How many copies a minute will it produce? My machine does print on both sides of a sheet, but I have to run the paper through twice. Toner ranges from 20e to $3.00 for 100 copies. My copier makes 11 copies per minute. . . which seems fast enough until it's the night before my mailing deadline and there are 2,000 copies to make! Of course, I try to avoid a lastminute hassle by spacing the work over several days, but occasionally there is a rush to meet the deadline.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

There are machines that collate, or put pages together in the correct order, but they're costly when new, and I haven't yet located an inexpensive used one. I still do things the oldfashioned way: I lay out my five stacks of paper on the desk, put them together by hand, and staple each issue together. It takes me about an hour to do 175 copies. I then go back through the assembled copies and fold each over once, staple the bottom, and apply the stamp and selfstick mailing labela process that takes another hour. Inciden tally, you don't want to try typing the name and address on each newsletter: It would take days! It's much simpler to use a roll of inexpensive peel-and-stick labels (mine were $21 for 5,000). For several issues I addressed the labels on my typewriter; later, I used my profits to purchase an inexpensive computer with a mailing program.

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