Diversify Your Printing Business

By Author: Irene C. Thompson
Total Articles: 100
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If you are already a commercial printer accepting big-time printing jobs like school magazines and tabloids, annual reports and newsletters of companies, yearbooks, brochures, posters, and the like, why not get into sheet fed printing to cater to a small yet big market? Small yet big, you may ask? Small means they bring in small orders of only a few pieces. Big because there are a lot of them out there who need these smaller services and there are only a few sheet fed printers around.

Catering to these big jobs only mean that you are catering to a limited market, such as big companies, small to medium-scale enterprises, schools, and clubs for professionals. But there also many individual with printing needs and you can get a share of this market if you also cater to them.

So how do you go about it? This is actually simple because you already have an existing operation and you can just add this service. You do not need to start the business from scratch.

1. You may want to purchase a sheet fed printer for this purpose so that ...
... the job of your big presses will not be hindered with the small stuff. There are many kinds of sheet fed printers and you can always get a good unit that is not too big for a good price. After all, it is not as pricey as your big machines.

2. Hire a separate person to handle this. Much like those booths at the malls that only have one person manning the booth, you can also do this for your sheet fed printing venture. He can be all in one, doing layouts, accepting orders, and printing. But the billing and payments will just be handled by the finance officer.

3. Instruct the artist to develop different products for the small printer. While you can now accept the printing of simple birthday invitations, special wedding invitations, and business cards, which are all customized items, you can also offer those products that can be printed from a template. These could be big stationeries, small memo pads, sticker name, thank you cards, greeting cards, and postcards of the locality. You can prepare several design templates for these items so that the customers can just choose what they want.

4. Since this is an in-house venture, you can ask your layout artists in the creative department to also make templates for you. The more ideas you can get the better because each one has different tastes. Just give them the specs, like the size (4” x 4”-notepads, 1” x 2”-sticker names, the resolution (e.g. 300 dpi, etc.) and the format (.cdr, .jpg, etc.) for each template.
5. Have them prepare a nice presentation format for the templates. Whatever the format is, it should be easy to present to walk in clients and for them to see all your designs.

6. The finishing like cutting and binding could be done in your finishing department.

7. Get any of your artists to prepare a post layout of your new business so that you can post them in strategic areas. And do not forget to make an announcement in front of your office building announcing this new service.

Being a commercial printer means that you are already enjoying great sales and profits because of the demand of printed materials. But you have to remain viable by adding more products and services. Sheet fed printing could provide you with a steady stream of income from those small orders that could come in every day. Surely, in no time you can become one of those successful sheet fed printers in your community.

For more easy tips and wise ideas about cost effective and impressive print materials visit: Sheet fed printing.