Advice: I want to start home based printing busines

[mikew]

Hello,
I have some experience in the printing industry and I`m interested to start home based printing business.
Can you help me with some advices for what digital printer I need /basically I`m looking to buy Xerox DC 12 - it's cheap/ What do you think for Xerox DC12 I know it's old but is cheap and my idea is to print mostly business cards and small orders.
Do you have any suggestions for different machine which is cheap with good price per copy?
And what else do I need - what cutter and other equipment.
I know there are so many questions but I really want to do this
Thanks for your understanding and help!!!

Regards,
Mike

 

[Keith]

Congradulations! I love seeing new businesses. Small business is the backbone of America (Where are you located by the way?). At least until SuperDuperMicroWalGoogle.gov (did everyone catch all the references?) swallows up all small businesses and everyone is working for a dollar over minimum wage.
Anyway, I'm going to ask what everyone else would ask- what are you trying to achieve? What specific products/services do you want to offer. I'd be careful starting with used equipment- you'll spend more time fixin' and less time sellin'. Is leasing out of the question? There are plenty of affordable (meaning: costs less than the industry standards- Xerox, KM, and Canon) machines out there. Take a look at Ricoh, Toshiba, Sharp, Xante just to name a few. I started my shop over three years ago with a brand new $7000 (they now cost $9000) Xante Ilumina. Great machine, lousy service. So, make sure you find a good dealer. In other threads, I have mentioned therichardsonco.com. The machine is very expensive to run but it will print on stocks MOST other machines can't even dream about touching. When you factor in the law of averages, you can actually make money with it. I did for over two years before I outgrew it and bought a DC252. Here's a list of equipment that I bought to start my shop:

Xante Ilumina
44" wide format printer
18.75" MANUAL cutter
imac with Adobe CS2
cheap Dell PC with Quickbooks
Franklin Estimating BOOKS
perforator/scorer
automatic folder (I HATE manually adjusting folders)
55" mounter/laminator for the wide format stuff
Bookletmate tabletop folder/stapler for booklets (I actually bought it off Ebay for $400)

And I still use all that equipment, with the exception of the Ilumina (envelopes only now) and the Franklin books (replaced with Morning Flight- check it out now, it's FREE!)!

I just realized this post is very long and is starting to feel like work. I'm gonna go ride bikes with my daughter. And one last thing, I don't work for any of the companies I suggested above. I just get excited about printing and new businesses. Keep me updated and don't hesitate to contact me off the forum!

Keith

 

[mikew]

Thanks for your reply.
It's a long but is very helpful I didn`t know about Xante.
I`m in Northwest suburbs of Chicago, IL.
Now I just asked Xante for offer from them and I`m continuing my research for starting this business so any suggestions, comments and offers are welcome.

 

[hpress]

Why not start your business as a print broker and buy space at already established printers first. Build up a customer base and start making money, before you make any capital investment in machinery.

 

[jminrod]

I agree with hpress, try to sub out work to get your customer base started. I would also recommend that you purchase some type of 40" large format printer. The mark up is great on our large format work. Good luck and keep us posted. You can also look into the ASI or Sage work where you can find anything printed to offer customers. Everything is marked up at 20-60% discounts so you can make money buy selling it as your own.

 

[Ian Mackenzie]

Why not start your business as a print broker and buy space at already established printers first. Build up a customer base and start making money, before you make any capital investment in machinery.

This is probably the best advice I have ever read here at PP.
Business is not about how much revenue you make, it is about how much NET profit you keep. With all the overhead necessary to run a REAL home-based business, you are well advised to be a broker. That way you are not limited to what a DC-12 can or cant do. You could sell wide format, short run, long run, digiatl, prrofs, etc.

 

[postnetnc133]

Start as a broker for sure. No need to invest in equipment etc etc if you dont have the work for it. Team up with an online gang run printer, local offset printer, local quick printer (if the offset printer doesnt do short short runs etc etc) and grow into your business and into buying equipment and possiblhy space.

You mentioned you have printing experience does that include graphic experience? Will you be doing all of the graphic work or will you need to farm that out? If so your local offset or local quick printer most likely can assist with this as well until you can either hire an experience designer or take over yourself.

 

[jasonic77]

Everything you need:

Everything you need:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d63/crystald820/3n23o83l95V35Y05Q0aao66e41fb1ee961e04.jpg

Everything you need to start a small or home based print operation. I have been doing exclusively letterhead and envelopes but, am getting out of the printing business.
I have:
-2009 Xante Illumina DEP 4 color digital press, runs most envelopes and other paper stock up to 15pt laser-safe board 18.9"Wx47"L. only 35,000 impressions
-replacement fuser, transfer belt, toner cartridges, and imaging drums.
-Color management software, with job preview, cost analysis, file manipulation, and quality control features.
-2010 Perfect 19" electric guillotine paper cutter.
-5000 sheets of 11x17 #60 Husky offset (enough for 10,000 letterhead)
-5,000 Athens #10 envelopes
-1,000 Western Sulphite #10 envelopes

All you need is a computer and a way to generate templates (I use Adobe CS3), and you are set.

 

[Shibby07]

Great advice! Especially on replacing Franklin Books with Morning Flight. Its like going from a black and white television to HD!

 

[WiseGuy]

Why not start your business as a print broker and buy space at already established printers first. Build up a customer base and start making money, before you make any capital investment in machinery.

This is what a good friend of mine did. No equipment. Can offer a wide variety of products and often barely touches the job other than verifying the art and uploading to a vendor. It would be the way to start.

 

[ondemandbindery]

The best advice going for sure. Prove to yourself that you can get a book of business and grow it. Getting the equipment is the easiest part of the industry. Having the properly trained people to handle your manufacturing is a whole different ball of wax. Pony up with a few Printers and go get some work. As much as the industry is changing and downsizing, you may can figure out a way to make a comfortable living and not deal with the production side of Printing.

Good luck,

John Weaver

 

[RoganJosh]

not deal with the production side of Printing.

but that's the best bit