I run a £5m-turnover print shop and am looking for some expert financial help to grow the business. I’m considering a part-time or interim finance director. Can you give me some advice?

Growing an SME can be tough but there are good networks you can tap into for help. I would recommend contacting Business Link (www.businesslink.gov.uk), which can put you in touch with small business advisors. Its network will include finance directors who work part-time for a number of businesses local to you. You could also try a reputable firm of chartered accountants such as RSM Bentley Jennison (www.rsmbentleyjennison.com).

As you would expect, they will provide accounting services but they will also give commercial advice such as assisting with writing business plans, cashflow forecasting or negotiating with your bank. Business Link or Bentley Jennison will help you find a bookkeeper to do your monthly accounts, as can your local office of financial recruiter Hays (www.hays.com).

If you are looking for a part-time resource, you could also ask your bank manager. However, the best advice I can give is to identify an independent full-time finance director who can advise, oversee accounts and act as a sounding board for big decisions. The best way of identifying this type of candidate would be through a reputable interim management provider such as our business, Interim Partners.

There are a number of applications for interim management. Typical assignments include restructuring and turnaround, gap management and project or programme role. We supply interim managers with a range of experience. Our client base includes FTSE 100 companies, local and central government but we also have a track record of working within the SME market and have numerous case studies where we have introduced a finance director into a small company.

Doug Baird, managing director, Interim Partners

My company is producing longer and longer runs on the digital press and the operator is having problems with unstable colour. What can we do?

Colour quality management (control of colour accuracy and consistency during the print run and from run to run), is a challenge whatever technology you use. ‘Accuracy’ is getting the colour appearance to where it should be, which usually means matching a standardised print appearance like ISO 12647, or matching a previously printed example or a proof. ‘Consistency’ means maintaining that accuracy during the course of the print run, and from run to run.

Most variables in the printing process can be measured and, therefore, controlled. This means that either a calibration process can be implemented that improves accuracy, or more to the point, good housekeeping and maintenance programmes can be developed that improve colour consistency. There isn’t a printing technology that has significantly less variables than any other: they each have different variables.

In offset lithography, there are probably 20 or so known variables that directly affect print appearance. At the top of the list are paper type, ink/water, temperature, paper transport and blanket performance.

With digital printing technology, what constitutes good housekeeping really depends on the device, as well as whether it uses dry toner, such as Xerox, or liquid toner, such as HP Indigo. However, both score highly for convenience when compared with offset. Where colour consistency is a requirement, it is not uncommon for users to spend up to one hour at the beginning of each shift on housekeeping, such as cleaning and calibration. The manufacturers of high-end digital presses include sophisticated calibration software in their package and recommend strict housekeeping procedures to improve consistency.

Basic calibration consists of printing a test sheet to check the state of the device. Then the operator should measure the colour swatches on the sheet against whichever standard is being used in the print shop and recalibrate accordingly. At the high end, some machines allow for a degree of internal calibration, which can be done automatically for each job. However, this will generally only handle colour drift of, say, 5-10%. Any more will need to be addressed through external calibration. In more extreme circumstances, a technician will need to be called.

Alan Dresch, founder, Mellow Colour

My customers repeatedly send faulty files for print. Do you have advice on how I can help them improve and supply proper print-ready creative?

Commercial printers suffer the most from this type of problem. Unlike printers that specialise in publication printing and deal with the same clients all the time, the very nature of the commercial print business means clients come in all shapes and sizes. Some are proficient at creating files, but unfortunately most are not. This industry insists on clients being able to create quite complex and highly technical documents to exacting standards in order for things to get printed efficiently. This requirement is bound to be difficult for clients to comply with, and for printers to enforce.

Fortunately, creating good files is a lot easier today than it ever has been because of the work of organisations like Ghent Workgroup (GWG, www.gwg.org) and the commitment that its members have made to make things easier for people to create good files. Most common professional desktop applications now either come with built-in settings to create decent files, or can be easily set up by downloading settings from the GWG website. This didn’t happen by chance – it took a lot of effort from a lot of people to co-ordinate what has amounted to an unprecedented level of co-operation in the industry. If your clients use a professional graphic arts package, such as Adobe InDesign and Illustrator or QuarkXPress, then it has never been simpler to create good files.

Not everyone uses professional graphic arts software. If your clients create files in applications that were never meant to create anything that will be printed professionally, such as common office applications like Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint, they won’t be able to easily meet your requirements. Once again, help will be freely available on the GWG website.

With such a wealth of information available, it’s unfortunate that a large majority of file creators still get it wrong. Pointing your clients to the GWG website is a good start. Reality dictates that most of them won’t bother to look or make the effort to try to understand what it is they should be doing because they don’t see the value in it. I believe the challenge for most printers is to make it clear to their clients why the client benefits when they create the file right.

Andy Psarianos, director, FE Burman