Get Out Your Checkbook

Reed concurs, also citing orders and inquiries. "We have seen an increase in the number of customers looking to finance new equipment during the last several months," she says, "which includes large corporations as well as small family-held companies and mid-size companies."

Getting around

There's no road map between point A and point B when trying to finance a capital expenditure such as a printing press. What printers need to remember, is that the credit market is very different than it was as recently as five or six years ago. "Because the requirements for equity are higher, the requirements for better information are more substantial, the requirements for support from the principals are greater, so every aspect of what a lender used to do has tightened up," says Dugan. Preparation, therefore, is key.