Any printing job is actually a series of steps, and each of them take time.
Even in the best situation, where the job comes to the printer truly “ready
to go,” the order seldom is ready as quickly as the customer had hoped.
Few customers understand all that must be done between the time the
order comes in and when it goes out the printer’s door.

• Getting the project to “camera ready,” unless it arrives that way
• Getting all the custom input from the designer (or anyone else
  involved)
• Performing prepress activities—stripping, camera work, making
  plates, etc.
• Ordering special paper stocks or inks required
• Getting ink colors matched or mixed
• Preparing the dies for embossing, hot stamping, die cuts
• Scheduling the project with other jobs (with the sequence often
  dictated by the limits of the equipment or the complexity of a
  particular job)
• Adjusting for poor planning, whether it’s the customer’s or
  printer’s fault
• Preparing proofs and getting approvals, permissions, or releases
• Incorporating any last-minute changes
• Correcting any errors caught at the proof or color match stages
• Printing the job—the actual press time
• Changing plates if a split run (cards printed with more than one
  person’s name)
• Allowing inks to dry between press runs
• Waiting for work to come back from subcontractors for stages
  not done in-house (like lamination or foil stamping)
• Additional press runs for special effects, like two-sided or multiple
  colors
• Folding or scoring
• Wash up, ink changes
• Quality checks, packaging

Your projects deserve to have every necessary step done right. Don’t
rush your printer—it often backfires.

       Dr. Lynella Grant is an expert on the signals that make up the body
       language of a business. Author of The Business Card Book and
       Stop Looking Like Small Potatoes    http://www.giantpotatoes.com
       Off the Page Press (719) 395-9450