When I took over Jeffries Printing, my work day consisted of equal parts sales, guillotining, deliveries and tablehand work. The same as anyone who runs a small shop.

I had friends in the trade who were in similar situations. One in particular was very similar – running a family company the same way the previous generation had, with all the responsibilities of being the owner on his shoulders. Potential client? Dust off your suit and go see them. Horizon operator didn’t turn up? Stay back and do their work. Floor dirty? Here’s a broom.

And as for a mid-year holiday – forget it. If you weren’t there things just didn’t
get done. Then one day there was a new bloke working for my mate. He was an older gent, who we’ll call Ron, who’d had enough of working at a big company where the executives didn’t care about his department. He wanted to work in a small place where he was appreciated.

I watched as my mate started to rely on his new 2IC. Ron did the stuff he didn’t want to do and also brought in new ideas from his long experience in the trade. My mate could concentrate on the work he enjoyed and his business started to grow at a faster rate. And then my friend did the unthinkable and went on holiday – not at Christmas shutdown but during the year. For weeks.

Once I told my wife about it – an actual holiday! – our search was on for our own Ron. However the decision to hire for this role was still fraught. I had never had anyone working for me who could reasonably be called a manager, with a manager’s wage. Was it an unaffordable luxury? I had seen so many places go bad by being overstaffed that I had developed a rule of thumb – once a printer with less than 50 staff hires a receptionist, they are doomed. Was this hire starting down this path?

And then I thought about all the things I could do to grow the business if I was freed from supervising the factory and I put the ad up. I found my Ron working at another small place, where he had been boxed up in estimating. Like Ron, he was an older gent with years of experience to bring to our place.  Sure, I found it difficult at first to share the responsibility, and I struggled to manage someone into my role. 

But eventually it worked and his hiring has allowed me to concentrate on dealing with clients and developing the next phase of our business, including taking on two to three times the amount of work we had done previously.

And holidays? In the 10 years I ran the place without a 2IC I had one – during the Sydney Olympics shutdown. Since I hired a 2IC, I’ve taken at least two weeks mid-year, every year. As I write this I am about to jump on a plane to Thailand and I’ve got another trip to New York planned this year.

Our industry is full of underappreciated, grey-hairs working in the big companies. If you are like I was, struggling to live a life running a shop on your own – take my advice and get yourself a Ron.

Baden Kirgan is the MD of Jeffries Printing Services and Black House Comics

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