prepressprinting
Member
Hi everybody
I have a question to ask, we're thinking into getting into the printing business...again.
We still have a lot of reasons not to, but I need some feedback from somebody to prove us wrong, especially a printing salesperson who is reading this thread.
Not too long ago we had a shop with 4/c Heidelberg GTO 52 and a direct to plate system, including a nice Polar cutter and bindery equipments, all these machines were bought brand new from Heidelberg. The business lasted 10 years, back from 1995 until 2005. the first 5 years were great until year 2000, when everything after that went down hill, until we decided to sell, reason being is that Xerox and Cannon and all these players came in with their gadgets competing with the offset world, charging their clients an arm and a leg on the clicks, by the time the end user knew what they were getting into, it was too late, anyway...
Here comes the question and I hope somebody would tell me a good reason why should we go back in:
With printing machines going sky hi in price, being so automated and fully electronic, not to mention that they're most likely have to be backed up with a hefty service contract, maybe around $5000 a month.
A good pressman to run a nice 4 or 5/c press that at least has to be above 28" so you can compete with this lousy market, say $4500 to $5000 a month, plus workman comp, plus health insurance, plus the rest of the crew that comes with the package.
A good sales team that works on commission, will suck your pockets dry.
Materials cost; ink, plates, solvent with the right VOC so the AQMD doesn't come in and shut you down.
Make sure you don't have a lot of redo just because the pressman or the prepress person
forgot a letter that was hidden or was checked to overprint by mistake.
Some graphic artist, figure they know what they're doing, check the files, bleeds, overprints, the right CMYK, etc...
Add all this to the list and start your new venture just to find out that some other printer around the corner knocked your price down by $2 dollars on a set of 1000 business cards that's selling for $19.95
Did I mention that we used to charge $250.00 to $300.00 for a set of 1000 business cards
printed 4/0 only and 1 pass without any UV on that press that we bought for 250k back then and it's probably one and a half times more now.
I think Printing manufactures are flooding the market with automated presses, soooooo automated that they'll tell you that these are money making machines and you'll start making money from day one.
Any thoughts?
Thanks
I have a question to ask, we're thinking into getting into the printing business...again.
We still have a lot of reasons not to, but I need some feedback from somebody to prove us wrong, especially a printing salesperson who is reading this thread.
Not too long ago we had a shop with 4/c Heidelberg GTO 52 and a direct to plate system, including a nice Polar cutter and bindery equipments, all these machines were bought brand new from Heidelberg. The business lasted 10 years, back from 1995 until 2005. the first 5 years were great until year 2000, when everything after that went down hill, until we decided to sell, reason being is that Xerox and Cannon and all these players came in with their gadgets competing with the offset world, charging their clients an arm and a leg on the clicks, by the time the end user knew what they were getting into, it was too late, anyway...
Here comes the question and I hope somebody would tell me a good reason why should we go back in:
With printing machines going sky hi in price, being so automated and fully electronic, not to mention that they're most likely have to be backed up with a hefty service contract, maybe around $5000 a month.
A good pressman to run a nice 4 or 5/c press that at least has to be above 28" so you can compete with this lousy market, say $4500 to $5000 a month, plus workman comp, plus health insurance, plus the rest of the crew that comes with the package.
A good sales team that works on commission, will suck your pockets dry.
Materials cost; ink, plates, solvent with the right VOC so the AQMD doesn't come in and shut you down.
Make sure you don't have a lot of redo just because the pressman or the prepress person
forgot a letter that was hidden or was checked to overprint by mistake.
Some graphic artist, figure they know what they're doing, check the files, bleeds, overprints, the right CMYK, etc...
Add all this to the list and start your new venture just to find out that some other printer around the corner knocked your price down by $2 dollars on a set of 1000 business cards that's selling for $19.95
Did I mention that we used to charge $250.00 to $300.00 for a set of 1000 business cards
printed 4/0 only and 1 pass without any UV on that press that we bought for 250k back then and it's probably one and a half times more now.
I think Printing manufactures are flooding the market with automated presses, soooooo automated that they'll tell you that these are money making machines and you'll start making money from day one.
Any thoughts?
Thanks