Starting a New Digital Printing Business

[eddyg87]

Hello Everybody,
I am starting a new business with my brother. He and I have a little bit of experience with the Digital Printing Business. He is really good with photoshop and has a descent portfolio of work he has done in the past (business cards, banners, Flyers, T-shirts, Logos, Menus). We are talking about starting a new business. I dont know much about designing but I have more knowledge on the Sales and Accounting Area. (Wich I think will be helpful) What we have decided is to start as a Broker (advises will be greatley appreciated)
So, our plan is to start as a broker and at the same time come up with a website to start selling products online also as a broker and In the future, if as a broker we build a strong customer list then we will think of opening a small shop.
Please give us some advice.
Thanks!

 

[airyk]

Printing is a dying occupation and now with so many digital printers it is even harder to maintain work.

If I had never been in printing before, I certainly wouldn't get into it now

 

[ondemandbindery]

You can search for some threads on this topic. I always say one mans junk is another mans treasure.....


The industry is extremely saturated right now. If you want an example of what is going on go to ThomasAuction and look at the Hardware getting liquidated. This will at least let you understand what I mean by the term "saturation".

If you want to test the market for yourself go the Broker route and get your feet wet. Selling on price is so critical right now so I would advise getting a handle on what your intended market will bear. And lastly, if you are networked with the right contacts that may offer some good opportunities then you can make a go of it even in a dwindling market. But as it was said if I were to start a business today it would not be in this industry. Think Niche, Niche, Niche!

HTH,
JW

 

[imagesetting]

Yes everybody is right to say the market is saturated, the entry level is too low.
I have run a print, prepress and now exhibition display business for 25 years. It is certainly not easy - if you want easy go get a job, but you never clock watch and each day is different with challenges.
My advice with my pre-press hat on is to make sure you get work correctly proofed and approved prior to print, proofs must be contract quality, soft proofs may suffice depending on the client and type of work (make sure they are Parsed and Ripped proofs) - this is most important if you are brokering - hopefully your supplier can direct you in this regard. Your goal is to make profit, not be paying for reprints.
At some point you will be tempted to invest in equipment, avoid the slick sales men in shades offering buffet lunches in smart airless offices. You will glance lovingly in swanky show rooms at well designed machines quietly hissing and whirring away as you avoid dipping your tie in your coffee.
Take a long hard look at what you are considering investing in, a whole industry exists to lead us down the route to buying expensive heavy kit, that often is outdated before the lease is up. On the flip side you have control, but unless your in the right place at the right time - you will always struggle to fill capacity - regardless what the men in shades tell you with elaborate charts and numbers. Watch out for those consumables deals - if you do volume it'll cost you in the long term.
If you go second hand, you must have some form of maintenance contract - and these can be expensive - but believe me, you will become a slave to the equipment if you decide to not have one, you are their to run a business, not learn how to become a hack engineer.
And remember the law of unintended consequences prays heavily on those in print with the means of production - that day you receive a huge order that needs to be out same day - a utility companies digger will sever the power cable out in the street and leave you looking at each other in candle light - yep its happened to us, £1000's worth of work on a CD got collected and biked off else where whilst we froze without power. Factor it all in, it will happen.

Remain focused on sales, and do not get too heavily involved in equipment - it will suck you away from this core activity, get out - meet and greet your customers, they buy from you - not just that lumbering beast in the corner (no matter how good it maybe).
Keep your eye on the figures, print is very capital intensive, build up your brokering to a comfortable level first.
Get busy with the web ... although I think that is reaching saturation as a selling medium.

Ignore the negative comments, follow your passion, thats what will drive you.
Try and become niche, the print industry is huge, its not just business stationary.
Get your suppliers to show you the process so you fully understand what they do - vital if mistakes in brokering are not to be made.

Good Luck.

Exhibition Display Services, Cromalin Proofing & Prepress

 

[TheProcessIStheproduct]

Best time ever to get into the business... Any industry in transition has opportunity and this is no different.

Build a nice book of business as a broker then see what happens. Equipment is ridiculously cheap, I've seen million dollar presses sell for 100K. And just think of the competitive advantage, if you get into the commercial printing business with a 200-300K total investment and you are competing head to head with bloated 50-150 person printing companies who paid 3.5 million for their press you will destroy them in overhead.

I've also seen commercial printers taking their eyes off of commercial printing, and thinking that mailing or large format, or packaging is going to save them, this is another opportunity to go after that work they are not focusing on.

No rose colored glasses, it is very hard to learn this craft and you would need a lot of help along the way, but if you could get rolling you would have tons of potential work, I cannot get it all out the door and routinely say no to jobs and fire shitty clients to focus on higher margin work...