No really, we've been doing this for 15 years and have a lot of experience - we now give instant free online quotes so come and check us out, we really are the absolute lowest price copy/print service for the bulk of SME's (unless you do 100s of millions of copies a year, of course, in which case buy your own machines!)
Just drop in to uploadandcopy (dot com, obviously)
I'm also curious about why you'd imply print jobs are a price driven market- I cant say I go with the cheapest quote on my marketing print shots etc as generally the quality of media, ink bleed, accuracy of copy is directly concurrant to the amount you pay...
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We're talking about the highest quality output. It's just that we've been in business a very very long time and have managed to reduce our costs so much that there is literally no one who can undercut us for anything but very large volume.
I can outsource to someone more expensive for you, however, if you want to pay more money for the same goods!
I know these are the best prices in Britain because I have done extensive checking - to give you a rough idea, our A4 colour costs 9p and goes down from there with volume. Digital printers and litho printers cannot begin to compete, unless volumes are high enough - and in the recession I'm sure less people are keen on overprinting - people are a bit more moderate in their demands.
But trust me (or simply get a quote and do a job with us) we have the best prices in britain and our quality is not cheap, but in fact totally proper quality.
Thanks for your feedback, all responses are highly appreciated. Hope some of the users here will be able to save money for britain by giving me all their future copy/print jobs.
(sadly there's nothing I can do if people have preconceived notions about lower prices! I am storming the entire market using price as my core weapon... I'm not kidding about the quality, it is the same quality you'd pay 50p a copy for, but we charge 9p and go down from there).
(I am fairly sure that raising my prices will reduce my conversions, not increase it - you are talking with a pre-2008 mentality, I fear - these days printing IS very price driven - I've seen the more prestigious copying brands I've worked with suffer terribly at the hands of reduced marketing budgets - my prices will definitely put me in a very good position by 2010, so you can be sure that if you use my company you will still get rock bottom prices even in 2 years, because we have no desire to exploit our clients! The age of that kind of printing company has totally ended.)
Personally, I looked at your site and it did not instill confidence that you can do what you say.
If i'm looking for a printing company, subliminally I expect a high graphic, asthetically pleasing site like Solo press or Vistaprint and unfortunately yours is not up to par... Even when getting a quote it was not an easy read with mathematics showing the workings out and no cosistency to the formatting.
It is certainly not always about price and i am surprised that you are 'storming the entire market'.
Whatever I have printed is a representation of my business so I would always move away from the cheapest option and go with who I know provides good quality. Occasionally we try someone new but they have to have a presence that states 'I know design and will do a good job'.
I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has tried the service from upload and copy and if the quality is up to par with the more mainstream printers.
Don't take the above personally. It was all meant constructively.
That's not an unreasonable point, although obviously you appreciate we sell copying services, not webdesign, or indeed graphic design (we do not take on design jobs any more since the widespread use of photoshop and other gd products makes that a little too competitive, in contrast to our copying).
However I myself also work in the field of online sales and my productfinder website is very plain indeed and yet has been able to generate 300k of sales from a mere 1k of running costs! So don't imagine that what one assumes to be true always is true. I have found that text advertising with very few frills has a much stronger conversion than fancy graphics - and I've been in the trade of online advertising since 2001 (it is the family business which is photocopying, so my family has been in that for 15 years indeed, whereas I have been in advertising for 7 years).
But that's not to say there's no value in your point. And I did my best to make it look very unique and tested it on some very fussy punters who felt that the uandc website does stand out from the usual run-of-the-mill type of site.
I will make sure that I shelve any plans to add webdesign services to our portfolio! Although I personally prefer my sites to the mainstream ones I appreciate that I can definitely not sell my sites as mainstream webdesign - but the shame of it is that my sites do convert stonkingly well (to sales) so maybe a little too much pzazz defocuses the average punter from their main purpose... buying the goods on offer!
Here, what do you think of my visually "best" site? It's at crm-systems.eu, and doesn't actually sell anything at all and has no commercial purpose (that's why I didn't mind making it a more graphic-centric design and refrained from designing it with user psychology in mind).
cheers for your feedback (vistaprint also pay me, as it happens, but I've tried their site out and I think that a large business purchaser, say buying 20k of copying a year, is much more likely to be turned off by vistaprint's gloss than my more "business-like" site - however, I will be looking to see if I've got it wrong, of course, since I am, at heart, a sales person).
I'd be interested to see your results and whether or not you did "get it wrong". I don't find anything gloss about vistaprint's site and, to be brutally honest, nothing business like about yours either.
I assume that these are copies / prints made by a photocopier/printing machine rather than litho or a digital machine? What is the quality like? dpi? can you print edge to edge? Any more information about the product as, for a "business-like" site, you site is lacking in detail.
Of course we can. We can print anything and everything mainstream, even canvas poster prints. But I think where we beat most competitors is on colour.
Edge to edge is hardly rocket science. We have very low costs. We can do anything our competitors can do and charge you less for it.
What we have that is a unique selling point in 2009 is the ability to print the same stuff people are used to putting out to their market but for much less money than it was costing those people before. In a recession like this we can't really lose (unless the boss, aged as he is, dies, and leaves it to me or someone else to manage the whole thing, and obviously it is in the exemplary management, holistically, that the price-cut is achieved - vista print would prefer you pay them extra so that they can make a website that you'd like to sit and look at, whereas we don't really want you wasting time or bandwidth or indeed money! Not yours and not ours).
Anyway, I have several classic episodes of the Russ Abbott Show to catch up on now, but all the best and thanks again for your comments. They have been very useful and I will not ignore this point about people needing to be overcharged to be confident! It reminds me of the Dario Fo play "Accidental Death of an Anarchist.."
Quote:
INSPECTOR BERTOZZO: You had the nerve to charge two hundred thousand lire for a single consultation...
CONSTABLE: [Standing behind the MANIAC] Jesus!
MANIAC: A reasonable rate for any self-respecting psychiatrist... Sixteen years studying before you qualify!
INSPECTOR BERTOZZO: Sure, but when did you ever study psychiatry?
MANIAC: Sixteen years I've studied... Thousands of lunatics like myself... day after day... And at night too! Because, unlike your normal psychiatrist, I slept with them... Often as not, three to a bed, because there's always a shortage of beds these days.
Anyway, feel free to check. I think you'll find that my diagnosis for the poor schizophrenic I was arrested for was spot-on.
INSPECTOR BERTOZZO: Your two hundred thousand lire was pretty spot-on too!
MANIAC: But Inspector, I had to... it was for his own good!
INSPECTOR BERTOZZO: Ah, for his own good, eh? So a big bill's part of the cure?
MANIAC: Sure! If I hadn't stung him for two hundred thousand, do you really think the poor bastard, and more particularly his family, would have been satisfied? If I'd asked for a mere fifty thousand, they'd have thought: 'He can't be a lot of use. Maybe he's not a real professor. Must be newly qualified...' But this way, it knocked them sideways and they thought: 'Who is this man? God Almighty?' And off they went, happy... They even kissed my hand... 'Thank you, Professor...' Kissy-kissy-kissy.
INSPECTOR BERTOZZO: I'll say this – you run a good line in patter!
MANIAC: It's true, though, Inspector. Even Freud says: 'Be you sick, be you ill, the best cure is a big fat bill – for the patient and for the doctor!'
INSPECTOR BERTOZZO: Now, let's take a look at your visiting card... [He shows the card] If I'm not mistaken, it says here: Professor Antonio Rabbi, psychiatrist. Formerly lecturer at the University of Padova... Come on, now, talk your way out of that one...!
MANIAC: First of all, I really am a lecturer... I teach drawing, actually... Decorative, free-hand, I do evening classes at the Church of the Holy Redeemer...
INSPECTOR BERTOZZO: I'm impressed, my compliments! But it says here: 'Psychiatrist'!
MANIAC: Well done – but after the full stop! Are you familiar with the rules of grammar and punctuation? Read it properly: Professor Antonio Rabbi. Full stop. Then there's a capital P. Psychiatrist! Now look, you can't tell me it's going under false pretences to say: 'psychiatrist.' I presume you're familiar with the grammar of the Italian language? Yes? Well in that case you should know that if a person writes 'archaeologist' it doesn't mean he's studied – it's like saying 'stamp collector', 'vegetarian', 'arthritis sufferer'...
INSPECTOR BERTOZZO: Yes, but what about this: 'Formerly lecturer at the University of Padova'?
MANIAC: I'm sorry, now you're the one trading under false pretences: you just told me that you knew the rules of grammar and punctuation, and now it turns out that you can't even read properly...
INSPECTOR BERTOZZO: I can't even what...?!
MANIAC: Didn't you see the comma after the 'formerly'?
INSPECTOR BERTOZZO: Oh yes... You're right. I didn't notice it.
MANIAC: So you didn't notice it! You didn't notice it, and just for that you're ready to send an innocent man to prison?
INSPECTOR BERTOZZO: You're really mental, you know... What's a comma got to do with anything?
MANIAC: Nothing, for someone who knows nothing about grammar...! I think you should come clean – I want to see your school reports... Who was responsible for promoting you... [The INSPECTOR tries to interrupt him] Let me finish...! Remember, the comma is the key to everything! If there's a comma after the 'formerly', the whole meaning of the phrase changes.
The comma indicates a pause for breath... a brief hiatus... because 'the comma always indicates a change of intentionality.' So it goes like this: 'Formerly', and here we could do with a sarcastic sneer, and if you want to add an ironic chuckle, all the better! 'Formerly...' [He grimaces and gives a high-pitched laugh] 'Lecturer at the University, another comma, of Padova...' It's like it's saying: 'Come on, what do you take me for... Pull the other one... Only an idiot would fall for that!
INSPECTOR BERTOZZO: So I'm an idiot, am I?
MANIAC: No, you're just a bit short on grammar... I could give you lessons if you like. Do you a decent price... I say we start straight away... There's a lot of ground to make up. Recite me a list of the personal pronouns.
However I myself also work in the field of online sales and my productfinder website is very plain indeed and yet has been able to generate 300k of sales from a mere 1k of running costs!
The website was only created on 21st April. To make 300k in that time is impossible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by uploadandcopy
I have found that text advertising with very few frills has a much stronger conversion than fancy graphics.
Completely against human psychology. Remember the age old adage "a picture speaks a thousand words"?
Quote:
Originally Posted by uploadandcopy
And I did my best to make it look very unique and tested it on some very fussy punters who felt that the uandc website does stand out from the usual run-of-the-mill type of site.
Unique is true... I find it hard to believe that these 'very fussy punters' were farther reaching than friends and family. I am confident that any serious punter would have picked the website up on its shortcomings.
Quote:
Originally Posted by uploadandcopy
I will make sure that I shelve any plans to add webdesign services to our portfolio!
Probably a good idea. The site is sound, the domain name is sound and getting the site professionally developed would be a good idea.
Quote:
Originally Posted by uploadandcopy
Although I personally prefer my sites to the mainstream ones I appreciate that I can definitely not sell my sites as mainstream webdesign - but the shame of it is that my sites do convert stonkingly well (to sales) so maybe a little too much pzazz defocuses the average punter from their main purpose... buying the goods on offer!
Oh dear God.... where do I start? I honestly believe that everyone who has answered this post has been quite tame with your site. I have seen forums where if you had posted that site up for a review they would have torn you a new a*se. But that said we only have your word on it's performance, maybe you are right... I doubt it, but maybe. To much pizazz does detract from the company messages but your site has no pizazz at all... it barely has a call to action.
Quote:
Originally Posted by uploadandcopy
Here, what do you think of my visually \"best\" site? It's at crm-systems.eu, and doesn't actually sell anything at all and has no commercial purpose (that's why I didn't mind making it a more graphic-centric design and refrained from designing it with user psychology in mind).
If i'm honest.... Terrible. How can you state that you 'didn't mind making it more graphic-centric' and 'refrained from designing it with user psychology in mind'? It says nothing, it states nothing and the biggest design feature you have put on there is 3 pictures centred on the page! Please tell me this is a wind up as even the authors name is..... Wait for it...... "Sham"!
Quote:
Originally Posted by uploadandcopy
cheers for your feedback (vistaprint also pay me, as it happens, but I've tried their site out and I think that a large business purchaser, say buying 20k of copying a year, is much more likely to be turned off by vistaprint's gloss than my more \"business-like\" site - however, I will be looking to see if I've got it wrong, of course, since I am, at heart, a sales person).
Sorry, but this it ridiculous.... I buy my print runs in the 50-60 thousands, several times a year and Vistaprint is not gloss but a useful user interface. I can log in and it remembers my designs, It remembers my delivery addresses, it provides me with a central point online to run my marketing from. The service is quick, professional and I have never had a badly produced product from them. Your website offers none of this and for me it would be a chore to use. I can recommend several professional website designers if you are genuinely interested in selling to businesses online.
FYI. 9p per page is very cheap, the cheapest I could find elsewhere is 20p per page for cr*p printing so if your service is as good as you say it is I would suggest spending 10k on a spectacular site as I could nearly guarantee that you could still come in cheaper than the other companies if your '15 years of cost cutting' is true.
Again, not trying to have a go but even you must be struggling believing the sales pitch that you have put in this post?
Your site doesn't conform to Business Names legislation.
It isn't clear whether you are a sole trader/partnership (if so, partners' names, please) or a limited company (registered number please).
This isn't nit-picking, it is vital information to give confidence to anyone buying on line and is one of the key things a card complaints department will take in to consideration. In fact, I'm surprised your merchant services have allowed this site without clears T & Cs.
The website was only created on 21st April. To make 300k in that time is impossible.
The goldenbough.co.uk productfinder which I was telling you about was created in summer 1999 and began operating profitably in October 2001, although it didn't make its huge sales revenues until 2002 to 2004.
Why is it that forums are 99% inhabited by nitpickers! Silly billies.
re uandc:
We have a telephone number and address and vat reg all on the site available to people who want to buy from us, there is nothing remotely non-transparent about it!
Quote:
FYI. 9p per page is very cheap, the cheapest I could find elsewhere is 20p per page for cr*p printing so if your service is as good as you say it is I would suggest spending 10k on a spectacular site as I could nearly guarantee that you could still come in cheaper than the other companies if your '15 years of cost cutting' is true.
That's not entirely true - when I ran google adwords ads on it, I got 5 quote requests and 1 sale from ten quid of ads. That's very high, I've been working with google for a while. The reason uandc's site works better than other photocopy site formats i have in the past used, is that it gives immediate quotes, no messing about.
Yes, you're right, as I in fact said, 9p is lower than anywhere in britain, and we drop well below that for people with regular gigantic jobs.
I don't think that spending lots of money on websites is a very wise thing - in fact taking vista print as an example, i work with affiliate window and know that they have to pay 2 to 4k per month in admin fees (vista print pay affiliate window) - they also pay commissions to people like me for sales we generate - all in all, when you buy copies from them you are also paying for admin fees of advertising, commissions, glossy websites, and who knows what else. Thanks to the spartan approach uandc takes to business, we are able to charge 9p and less for colour copies - that's what I think you are failing to see.
Anyway, running forum ads was just a little test - and I think the trouble is that forum ads are nowhere near as targeted as google adwords. Still, it has been fun testing it!
Yes, 9p is less than anyone in britain, and we go even lower than that.
The business which owns uandc, is very diverse and owns somewhere in the region of 10 million pounds of properties in London - so I think we know what we're doing, eh?
ekm - you are more qualified in a$$ kissing than in doing business. i have sold print/copy/scan services to some of the biggest companies in britain, but up until now i felt no need to brag (the way you do) about that sort of thing. however, since i don't like saying this i'll draw the line here and abandon this thread/forum/marketing-campaign... it is a bit of a worthless waste of time, i'm obviously better off just paying google. i've had numerous law firms seeking very vast jobs from me, i've had engineering firms, training firms, even a space agency, as it happens. I'm very good at what I do, I have even worked as a salesman in the weapons industry. And with all my experience I can safely say that you have a somewhat annoying personality! Don't take it personally - it's just constructive advice.
I'm only doing this photocopying lark as a way to pass the time while I wait for the next phase of my online profits to surge upwards - even though we are in a recession, my site is operating at a 40k annual passive income, with costs running up to as much as 900 pounds in that time.
But hey, as you say, I must be "struggling". The view of central london from up here in my luxury israeli-built central london flat is just an illusion, I'm actually stuck in some office somewhere doing boring shite paperwork...
(ps muqtada, I don't suppose there's any harm in helping the competition when NO ONE can compete with my prices, but may I suggest you use an advertising name which does not happen to coincide with a major terrorist leader in Iraq! I suspect you will lose a fair few clients in Middle England with such a name)
Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten, being the cheapest isn't always a good thing.
You would say that! I'm cheaper than you. And our clients always come back for more. That's our quality for you. Perhaps you could outsource to me? It may be the best survival plan you have.
Quote:
Originally Posted by uploadandcopy View Post
However I myself also work in the field of online sales and my productfinder website is very plain indeed and yet has been able to generate 300k of sales from a mere 1k of running costs!
The website was only created on 21st April. To make 300k in that time is impossible.
just one last thing - ekm, for someone in charge of such vast budgets, you are very quick to make stupid mistakes. where will ekm be in 5 years with someone like you able to randomly bow 180k a year, as you claim!???
seriously, mate. your post began with a ridiculous false accusation. look up goldenbough.co.uk and you'll see what year it was founded.
i suppose if i had the time to sit with you over coffee and mentor you i could show you the inside of various account control panels to see the 300k itself, which is all fully documented and very real indeed.
but i don't. so i guess you'll just have to carry on in the somewhat misguided direction you are in.
i'm sorry to come back but it does upset me how frequently people ignorantly knock those who do things properly. i have indeed made 300k of sales for a wide range of retailers using a very minimal budget. it seems to be the common theme in my life - lots of money, hardly any costs. and somehow you can seriously sit there and tell me i'm no good at business. what planet are you from? did you learn maths at school or did you have some exemption from it?
anyway, i suspect an apology for your false accusation will not be forthcoming, so i shall just leave you to it. the more people like you chatter on forums the better it is for me - if it were me chattering, far too many people would learn how to make money properly, and then maybe my earnings would start to drop!
You would say that! I'm cheaper than you. And our clients always come back for more. That's our quality for you. Perhaps you could outsource to me? It may be the best survival plan you have.
Its a dreadful shame when these threads turn into slanging matches. We are all in business and we all have the right to earn money legitimately.
My interest in print is only as an occasional buyer; whilst price is relevant I would place far more emphasis on a trusted and proven source - particularly if I was paying in advance (I always operate 30 day credit on print due to past quality issues). As you have 15 years experience in the business you must have the background to bring this credibility to your site?
I would re-iterate my comments about business names. Neither of your sites give any reference to who owns the business, as such it is impossible to make any checks on your business credibility. Many rogue traders live in big London flats (and few genuine business people would brag about it!).
The price vs quality argument will rattle on (and features on many other forums) best of luck whichever route you choose..
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Lowest price copy/printing in britain
