We know how it goes. You want to get that report off your desk, or your business brochure printed quickly, or your event invitations sent out, or your important article published online, or whatever communications project you’re working on DONE! Time and time again, we’ve seen clients approve projects only to find there is a horrific spelling or grammatical error after printing a billion of them! Okay, maybe a billion is an exaggeration, but it feels like the end of the world! Maybe this has happened to you?

Anytime you get a proof of your project from your supplier, make sure you go through it thoroughly before you give the go-ahead to print or publish digitally.

If that means you need to get some proofreading help from your staff, a coworker, friend, spouse or anyone else, this will significantly reduce the chances of an embarrassing error from happening!  Often you’ll be surprised at the mistakes found when you get a second, third or even fourth set of eyes to go through your project! When your graphic designer, web designer, copywriter, print rep or whoever else you’re working with sends a proof of a document before sending it out to print or going ‘live’ it’s not because they want to add more work to your plate, or they need you to help them proofread their work. They send this to you because YOU, the Client, has the final signing authority on the project! When you tell them: ‘all looks good, please send to print,’ or ‘go ahead and publish’ or you sign your name on the ‘approved’ line of their proof, you are accepting liability for the final project. There is no one else to blame for missed errors because you have given the final approval. The only time you can question your supplier is if a mistake occurs during the printing or publishing process. This has been known to occur but in very rare cases!

Proofreading may not save lives, but it saves time, money and embarrassing mistakes!