Someone with sage advice has probably told you not to keep all of your eggs in one basket. It is an idiom meant to teach you to manage risk. The lesson, however, seems to never truly be learned. The recent mortgage crisis saw too many banks putting all of their collective eggs into mortgage back securities. Some of those institutions made it out of the mess, some through government intervention, while others perished.

Printers largely seem to keep most of their eggs in one basket. They have the one or few customers who represent 80% or more of their revenue. In a slightly different twist, some printers face the same problem by producing for a niche that might be too small or prove to be too volatile. Printers who print software boxes, pharmaceutical boxes, consumer product manuals, or plant seed packets might find their customer’s markets shifting or changing. Software, for instance, is rapidly shifting to digital download.

Niche markets are not the problem. Depending on one niche market could be. Instead of focusing on the eggs, maybe it is better to find other markets with similar needs to make more baskets? 

photo: Michael Hodge