Need ideas with printing business

[donnyalwayz]

Hi Everyone,

Finally registered but been reading and researching on this forum for 9 months now.

I need some ideas on how to start a printing business from home. I have 2 laser printers, numerous inks available either in black and color(I usually get these free since my father owns a printer shop). I also have plenty of paper which I can get for dirt cheap to free. So my operating cost is very low. What type customers can I attract with just the equipment that I have now? In the future, I am willing to expand my inventory from business card prints to vinyl prints and t-shirt prints.

Thanks

[MyITGuy]

I need some ideas on how to start a printing business from home.


I have 2 laser printers, numerous inks available either in black and color(I usually get these free since my father owns a printer shop)

First, why don't you ask your father and see how he got started? I'm sure he can provide some insight.
Second, While your father may be willing to give you a cartridge here and there for personal use, I wouldn't expect him to support your business venture with free ink as you will now be a competitor of his.

[donnyalwayz]

First, why don't you ask your father and see how he got started? I'm sure he can provide some insight.
Second, While your father may be willing to give you a cartridge here and there for personal use, I wouldn't expect him to support your business venture with free ink as you will now be a competitor of his.

his printer business is acutally alot different, he gave me an insight but didn't really fit with what i'm trying to do. But my father is willing to supply me with ink and other supplies to get my business going.

[Wozcreative]

It really depends on the type of printer you have. This will determine who your customers are. Your cost for printing on digital is more than if you printed on n offset press.

How are you going to deal with paper sizes, thicknesses, will you offer big runs?
What is the minimum amount you'll print?
Can your printers handle big runs or will they overheat and cause streaking/dull color?
What will be the turn around for each product?
How will you handle poorly set up printer files?
How will you handle clients with no design files at all?


Some of these questions will help determine the type of client. If its just a printer or two you have, you are most likely looking at a kinkos type of client. A student, a secretary, small businesses, someone in hurry for a meeting, even a school.

[huggytree]

id look into making a relationship with a larger printer who DOES labels, magnets, cards, etc

Sell everything and pretend your a big time printer....sub out what you cant do!

as you grow you stop subing out and do it in house..

i use a local printer who only does ink jet copies....she subs out everything....they are called Print,Pack and Ship.....

3 things that may work together for your new business....i dont think my printer is rich, but they survive

ive known an owner of a larger print shop...everything in house....he had low prices....and just went out of business 1 year ago....its a hard business and may never have a good profit margin....just something else to think about...you may work harder and make less than someone else who choose a more profitable type of business......now is the time to reconsider

(im always a ray of sunshine)

[Wozcreative]

As a freelance designer, the printers that attract me are those that are only trade printers. They offer crazy low pricing like $10 for 1,000 business cards. They can afford to charge so little because they batch everything together and get loads and loads of printing done for designers. For giving them business, I in tern can make some money on the process. They even offer free shipping so I don't have to budge from my office.

The printing industry can be hard to move into as it is such a big commodity. Only way to compete is: Free shipping, quick turn-around, low pricing, many locations (for easy pick-up), providing digital, offset and large-scale printing. It's all difficult to do without a big client base to make a profit to begin with.

[MyITGuy]

id look into making a relationship with a larger printer who DOES labels, magnets, cards, etc

Sell everything and pretend your a big time printer....sub out what you cant do!


My thoughts exactly... unfortunately without knowing the specifics on the printers and what they can handle...I wouldn't expect much out of them.
I.E. Check out https://www.uprinting.com/resellers.html as a start. They are a company I have worked with frequently for my printing needs

[donnyalwayz]

Thanks guys very good info.

[huggytree]

@ $10 for 1,000 business cards and including free shipping that doubles down on my point that the printing industry is NOT a good choice for a new business

there's just no money there...the market has killed itself into no profitability

[Harold Mansfield]

I need some ideas on how to start a printing business from home. I have 2 laser printers, numerous inks available either in black and color(I usually get these free since my father owns a printer shop). I also have plenty of paper which I can get for dirt cheap to free. So my operating cost is very low.


Not to beat a dead horse, but it seems like you already have a golden opportunity to work in the family business and run an expansion into the niche that you want to capitalize on.
Why wouldn't you take that rout, rather than merely taking supplies from your fathers business and trying to run it out of your home?
Just curious.

I also have to agree with Huggy. I can't for the life of me see how anyone can break into printing services and succeed right now. It's just too easy for people to do it on thier own, or order from a dirt cheap online service.

But if I was going to do it, I'd get in where you already have a base of operation and ready made mentor with all of the connections.

[BNB]

Huggytree is DEAD ON.

The hardest part is selling. Link up with a larger shop (your dads?) - sell their stuff. If you are successful getting clients, then start to purchase the needed equipment.

Having a couple laser printers and some white paper - I mean, come on man!

[Wozcreative]

Having a couple laser printers and some white paper - I mean, come on man!

This made me laugh! ;)

[ThomasTroy11]

Since you only have 2 laser printers, I think you can only attract the locals around your neighborhood or small business owner. If you want to expand your business, I would suggest getting a few more printers. For example, you can get into the printing wedding card business. I also want to suggest using security features printers if you are printing senstive documents. Use MICR printers or something. Here is a great article you can read about the importance of security printing features and to prevent fraud. Here's the link: Protecting Yourself from Fraud (http://www.squidoo.com/protecting-yourself-from-fraud). I hope this helps.

[PrintingSolutionsAZ]

A lot of information has been given to you, have you acted on any of it?

Nowadays with the internet being as big as it is, companies can do it a lot cheaper than a starting business now. They have mass amount of customers, so they can offer the cheaper prices. It's why small business are hard to start off with, if you don't have a steady income to pay to beat out the online companies prices.

[yellowprinting.com]

well, printing just a part of the whole printing process. How about the post-printing assembling process? How about the finishing ? So, you just can work on some simple printing like flyers, posters...

[BusinessBySusan]

There's various avenues you can go into depending on the type of equipment you have specifically. You can be:

-- Marketing material printer for (other business owners). They will need pamphlets, brochures, business cards etc. printed

-- Promotional material printer for (other business owners). Bigger companies love putting their logo on things other than paper

-- You can be like a mini kinkos if they order from you online and you deliver locally.

[PHCProducts]

Good for you man. Take down Kinkos and Staples haha.

[stevenfies]

I've worked in the screen printing / embroidery / DTG industry before, and invariably many of my clients had paper printing needs as well. At the time, I'd partnered with 2-3 local litho shops that had big warehouses and the capacity to do big volumes and multiple types of items easily and cheaply. We're talking business cards with UV coating, rounded corners, and heavy bright white paper... full-color, full-bleed brochures and pamphlets, and everything else you could imagine. Many of these shops had tens of thousands of square feet of floor space and the lowest pricing in town.

The reason I mention all this is because it's likely your competition is going to be stiff. It will be tough to get any B2B type accounts that will really bring in legitimate income for you without these capabilities. In my eyes, this means you could at best form a partnership with a local shop and act as a broker, passing through any orders you can't handle (due to not having the right equipment, supplies, etc.) with a small markup so you make something from the sale.

Regardless, you'll need a sales and marketing strategy in order to get on your feet, too, unless you're going to start borrowing/inheriting clients from your father or someone else. Just something to think about. You can absolutely do whatever you set your mind to, but it's good to know the lay of the land with any particular venture before diving in.