Help Please setting up leaflet etc printing business

[PoS-Adam]

Hi there,

I already have a well established Clothing Print and Embroidery business called Printing on Sea, the idea when we first set up 5 years ago was to start with clothing and then move on to paper and end up anything that could be printed we'd do it. However 2 years ago we moved into Embroidery as locally there is little competition and our customers we constantly asking for it, we now produce more embroidered clothing than printed.

That was a bit of a background for you, so we now want to move into printing leaflets, business cards and posters for our customers, again we have passed thousands of pounds worth of printing business to local companies but want to now expand our offering so we stay ahead of our competition when it comes to clothing, if we can offer it all in one place that would be awesome.

I'm pretty good at design I'd say an intermediate user of coreldraw and we have the space and capacity to start this up.

But.....

I have no idea where to start we have around £5k budget to get a printer, guillotine, booklet maker and folder (if possible) for that amount. Any advice as to where to look, who to speak to and suppliers etc would be greatly appreciated. Also where it's best to spend money and where best to get 2nd hand stuff or budget items to get going.

Thanks

Adam

 

[columbo]

Adam, I fully your understand your desire to diversify but the leaflet printing seems extremely competitive. And as you probably know, where too much competition exists to too do lousy margins.

You say you're an intermediate Corel draw user which suggests that you might be interested in doing some graphic design also. This could be a costly and time-sucking diversion for your core business.

So lets park this idea for a minute and look at the macro trends in the market. Loads of businesses are going to be opening up again soon. This is inevitable. They are also going to be opening up with processes very different than before. They want to project an image of cleanliness to their customers. Surely, there is a market here for your embroidery business? For example, for your local mom and pop pizza joint, having their staff wear an ordinary sweatshirt serving behind the counter is probably going to look a bit too casual when normal operations resume. Instead, they will need to wear a more hygienic-looking apron but an logo-embroidered apron is going to look much more professional. Heck, even thinking about this as a customer, next time I get my hair cut, I will expect my local barber to be wearing a hygienic-looking apron and mask. If I see them wearing an apron with a their name embroidered on it and the apron has another logo like "VirusX Anti-Microbial", I will be going "jeez, they really are taking hygiene seriously here". I'll be going back here..."

The two examples above are just short but I'm sure there are loads of market opportunities for your embroidery business.


Business Need = the need to project and image of cleanliness, to need to protect employees and customers

ALIGN THIS TO

Your Product Offering: embroidered clothing and fabrics etc.

I'm sure your suppliers will be bringing out all sorts of antimicrobial clothing in the next few months. Some are probably doing it already. (If you don't know who these are - make it your business to find out). Steal a march on this market - start your research today.

 

[PoS-Adam]

Columbo,

Thanks for the reply, I'm already looking at this market, we are a 2.5 man team so have time to invest in this.

Basically our competition are doing everything they can to compete with us, so my thinking was blow them away by offering cards and leaflets, even if I make little profit on those items I can make my money on the clothes side, it's just a play to get new customers to choose us for convenience

 

[MBE2017]

Not my area of expertise, but I do know that many of the big boys print for other companies, have for years now, so many smaller companies are acting as commission sales outlets, rather than investing in the equipment itself.

With next day delivery etc, have you considered just adding a mark up onto cost price? As mentioned it’s a very crowded market place, maybe consider adding promotional items, ie key fobs,magnetic signs etc to the embroidery side, which compliments it well.

 

[columbo]

If you really want to add printing Adam - as MBE2019 suggests you can just outsource it.

Just because your competition is doing something does not make it profitable.

Always invest your money and times in projects where you will get the greatest rewards.

 

[DavidWH]

Outsource it.

That's coming from someone with all the equipment you listed above, which will cost far more than £5000 to get, and he quality wont be anywhere near as good as the outsourced stuff.

Let someone else invest millions in machinery, and just put your work through them.

Unless customers need it sameday, and are willing to pay a premium, i wouldn't bother getting machinery.

Take your £5k and market your printing services.