What’s the biggest downfall for most screen printing shop owners?

The biggest downfall for most shop owners is a lack of focus.

This happens in several ways:

• Owners are spread too thin: they’re answering too many questions, causing extreme distraction
• Owners are doing tasks they’re not good at, or worse, they’re stuck doing tasks they don’t even like
• Owners aren’t focused on high-value jobs: they’re swamped but not doing things that will help improve the business
• Owners are focused on short-term fixes and problems: they’re just trying to get through the day

Screen printing is a notoriously tricky industry. There are real barriers to growth and improvement. From garment suppliers, low margins, misfit customers, difficult employees, to a lack of industry standards. There’s no lack of headaches.

I sat down with Steven Farag from Campus Ink to talk candidly about how hard it is to own a business. It’s not easy, and we both struggle to know how we should best spend our time.

There are shared problems throughout the screen printing industry, but a lack of focus is the primary challenge for many screen print shop owners. Way too many screen print shops are trying to be everything to everyone because they can put virtually anything on a T-shirt. That’s a mistake.