my own business

[New2theGame]

Hello all,

I am a commercial electrician who is curious about starting my own digital printing business (in my garage of 350 sq ft). I live in the silicon valley and have a few contacts at various companies who are fed up with fedexkinkos and would be interested in giving me some work if I were to start my own place. I stumbled on to this website while researching digital printers. Obviously I am not going to be doing anything as exotic as any of you who do this for living but the work needed to be done doesnt need to be. Mostly its legal, h.r. and marketing stuff that are in binders or folders.

Please no insults or negative comments, if you dont approve or have anything constructive to say please move on. To those of you who admire my bravery/foolishness and have some tribal knowledge please feel free to comment.

Heres what I would like to know right of the bat,

machines= new or used?
lease or purchase?
which brand? (xerox seems to be the 800lb gorilla)

I want machines that are the first entries in commercial printing (not high end office printers). Someone suggested three machines. One color(xerox 700), one b&w (xerox 4110), and one machine that makes spiral and comb style binders [is that what the plastic binders are called?]. These are just a few of my many questions, Im data mining right now and all the info I can gather will help me determine if this venture is worth doing. Im not in any hurry this is just something Im looking into and would like to do if feasible.

Thank you in advance

 

[rbailleu]

I admire your foolishness. dont let the democratics count this as job created or saved. but i digress.

try ricoh 907ex. km 6501 for comparisons. we had canon for years but switched I think it was mostly a dealer issue though.

depends on your mix whether you need 2 machines or not. a decent black click on a color machine might get you in on one machine to start with.

if youre doing this on the side can you get service outside of 8-5, m-f. not everyone does and that may be important to you.

you can add small bindery later. folder, drill. spiral, coil, cutter etc. now is a good time to buy used.

 

[Tbiller]

My 2¢

My 2¢

As your post is a few months old, you may have taken the plunge, but if you are looking for low cost color, The Konica 6500/6501/Océ CS665 might be a good option, I have heard that they can be bought for under 10 grand used. If you go the used option, make sure that you have investigated service options well though. Steer clear of Xerox, we have had a terrible experience with them, and they are very environmentally picky, so the garage might be a really bad thing. In general they seems to need far more service than is reasonable. Some have had to place service calls every 2-3 days. Ours hasn't usually been quite that bad, but not far off.