How Margriet grew a print business that specialises in quality and superior banding materials for other businesses!

Featured

13 Apr

Margriet is a graphic designer who owns and runs print company Pinc, specialising in premium print finishes. Here she shares some of her journey and lessons as a woman in business.

What’s your biz?

Graphic design and print studio specialising in premium print finishes like foil, embossing, debossing etc

Who do you work with?

Our ideal customer is someone who wants premium print collateral to backup the quality of their brand.

It doesn't have to have all the fancy expensive finishes, even standard printing that's well executed shows quality, care and attention to detail.

Cheap printing, poor quality stocks, wonky trimming - these things all undermine your brand and don't reflect well on how clients perceive your business.

Our ideal client is someone who appreciates the quality of what we do and sees how these details help elevate a premium brand.

What sparked the idea behind your business?

I knew I wanted to do graphic design the moment I took design in Y12/Form 6 at high school.

I did design (home business by myself) for years, we were presented with an opportunity to purchase foiling machines in 2015, and that's when Pinc changed into the business it is now (moved to a commercial site, hubby works in the business and we employ 2 graphic designers).

What does a typical day look like for you as a business owner?

I find it easy to separate work from personal (even when we had a home business) - I have plenty at home to keep me occupied (kids, pets, horses) so I find it easy to switch off from work when I leave our studio.

A typical day here is a small super busy studio with a great team and lots of coffee!

What are some of the key milestones in your business journey so far?

We've been in a few magazines, we were a finalist for Best Emerging Business in the Westpac Business Awards in 2018, and we've received a gold for 5 years with our entries in the NZ Pride In Print Awards.

What have been some of the biggest challenges you've faced so far?

Our biggest challenge is always finding the right team members, people with that really high attention to detail who are passionate about what we can achieve with the machines and finishing options we have available to us.

What are your future goals in your business?

We have our eye on a few machines, but we're limited for floor space and power capacity in our current location.

We're quite happy as we are for now.

What’s worked best for you to build brand awareness and get customers?

Maintaining the quality of our work, which supports word of mouth referrals.

We're lucky in that we can use photos to accurately showcase our work and what we can offer. We always try to be very helpful, offering suggestions, couriering out samples - we put a high focus on giving clients a really good customer experience.

We also love collaborating within our industry - we love working with other graphic designers and other printing studios. We really enjoy working together and discussing ideas and options to achieve an outstanding print result.

What is one of the important lessons you've learnt as a business owner? What advice would you share to someone starting out?

Trust your gut - if something doesn't feel right you don't have to move forward with the situation. Not everyone is your ideal client, and that's okay. It's okay to say no to people who are not a good fit for you (that's clients, suppliers, everyone).

⚡️ FAST 5:

1. One thing you’d tell your younger self starting out?
I'd tell my younger self not to try to take everything to heart, and it's okay to say no when you need to.

2. Your favourite biz or personal development books or podcasts?
I don't really listen to podcasts

3. How many tabs do you have open right now?
9

4. What's your go-to power song?
Michael Jackson's "Leave Me Alone" or Bob Marley's "Jamming" (Joking!! Those just lighten the mood when there's a not-so-nice client, or the printer's jamming paper)

5. A quote you love?
"Rage against the machine never specified what machine they were furious with, but I reckon it was probably a printer" (Also joking!)