How much does it cost to open a printing house from scratch. Equipment for digital printing. What equipment is needed for printing

Printing is a fairly common type of business. Despite the great competition, there are more and more new players in this field every year. One of the reasons for such a high popularity of printing houses in the field of small business is the relatively low entrance ticket to the business, as well as the variety of modern equipment that makes it possible to provide a variety of printing services.

The average profit of a promoted printing house starts from 100 thousand rubles per month. The total turnover for the year reaches 5 million rubles. The most valuable client of the printing house is commercial structures. These are companies that do not spare money for advertising their company through printed materials. For one order, such a client can bring a profit of tens of thousands of rubles. It is on commercial structures that it is most profitable to focus on the printing business.

Mini-printing houses always find orders among the population, as they are able to provide the widest range of services, including:

• digital and black-and-white printing;
• large format printing;
• full-color printing of files;
• printing on objects (mugs, t-shirts, etc.);
• scanning;
• lamination;
• binding with plastic and metal springs;
• stitching;
• design services - production of business cards, flyers, certificates;
• printing photos.

Often in mini-printing houses they order printing of business cards, letterheads, sales receipts, calendars, printing on bags, magnets, folders and envelopes.

Many people use the services of printing houses: from ordinary citizens to private firms and large enterprises. The average check for printing services by region is 3,000 rubles. For this amount, for example, you can make 300 booklets or 15 color posters 80x40 cm.

Printing house registration

Opening a business begins with the registration of a company with the tax service. A small printing house can be registered as an individual business. Opening an individual entrepreneur requires a minimum package of documents and takes only 5 working days from the date of submission of documents for registration. This is the optimal form if the business is opened by one person. If there are several founders of the company (for example, friends open a printing house), then you need to register an LLC - a legal entity. When filling out the application, indicate the OKVED code 22.2 "Printing activities and the provision of services in this area".

As a taxation system, a simplified system is most often chosen: 6% of revenue or 15% of profit.

room

As a room for a small printing house, an area of ​​40 sq. m. Too small areas will not work due to the fact that they will not allow to place all the equipment (and this is at least 5-6 cars). In addition, it is necessary to give space to operators, to allocate a warehouse for storing materials and finished products. You also need to allocate an area for visitors, put a soft sofa and chairs. Rental payments for an area of ​​40 sq. m., depending on the location, will be from 30 to 50 thousand rubles per month.

The best places to place a mini-printing house are the busy, office streets of the city. The rental price here is higher than in residential areas, but almost all customers are nearby. It also makes sense to stay in residential areas if you find a very profitable rental space. Often, small printing houses are located in the basements of multi-storey buildings and on the basement floors of shopping centers. Although such an arrangement will force you to invest a significant part of the budget in the advertising of the company, especially in the first months of work.

Equipment for mini-printing house

The complete set of the printing house may differ depending on the tasks that are set for production. Standard set of services: black-and-white printing and scanning, post-press processing and stitching - allows you to perform the following set of equipment:

• digital printing machine with raster offset printing,
• cutting plotter,
• epson printer,
• stitcher,
• laser MFP,
• thermopress multifunctional,
• cutter,
• manual corner cutter
• laminator,
• a computer,
• consumables: paper, thermal film, oracal, magnetic vinyl, paint, mugs, t-shirts.

The most expensive in this kit is a digital printing machine. The price of a good offset machine starts from 250 thousand rubles. The offset printing method allows you to transfer a full-color digital image to a material in high photographic quality. Although the purchase of this technique is justified only if you are sure of a sufficient number of orders. Otherwise, the cost of the machine will pay off in at least 3 years.

The offset machine can be replaced with a cheaper option - a risograph. Such a machine is designed to replicate products at high speed, but mostly in black and white. Color risographs produce simple images in 3-4 colors. Such a machine is advantageous to use if small print runs, fast pace of work and low cost of printing are required. The most popular risograph model is Riso machines, which have been produced since 1980 and have been improved to this day. A brand new risograph can be purchased in the amount of 140 thousand rubles.

In addition, at the start of the business, you will need to purchase licensed programs for working with graphics: the use of pirated copies is punishable by law.

Among other costs at the start, one can single out the purchase of furniture: tables for equipment, tables for staff (operators, designers), office partitions, paper racks and furniture for visitors. The approximate budget for opening a mini-printing house is from 600 thousand to 1.0 million rubles.

Advertising

One of the most effective ways to advertise printing services is advertising on the Internet. First of all, this is your website, a group in the social. networks and Yandex Direct. Without a doubt, investing in the Internet is justified. According to Wordstat, up to 650 people a month search for the phrase "printing business cards in St. Petersburg" through the Yandex search engine. And the phrase "printing house in St. Petersburg" - about 6,500 people a month:

There are also a lot of other requests, such as: "large format printing", "printing on T-shirts", "photo printing" and so on. The audience of customers on the Internet is very large. In fact, attracting a client today via the Internet is even easier than attracting in reality (in the ratio: costs - effect).

The creation and promotion of the site will cost 60 - 80 thousand rubles, a group can be promoted for 10 - 15 thousand rubles. The budget for advertising through Yandex-Direct can be different, on average, it will take at least 30 thousand rubles.

Mini typography business plan

Investments to start a business:

• Purchase of equipment - 500 thousand rubles.
• Repair and design of the premises - 100 thousand rubles.
• Furniture - 100 thousand rubles.
• Consumables - 50 thousand rubles.
• Advertising and website creation - 50 thousand rubles.
• Other expenses - 30 thousand rubles.
• Reserve fund - 200 thousand rubles.

TOTAL - 1030 thousand rubles.

Fixed monthly expenses:

• Room rental - 40 thousand rubles.
• Salary + insurance contributions (5 people) - 120 thousand rubles.
• Utility expenses - 15 thousand rubles.
• Other expenses - 30 thousand rubles.

Total - 205 thousand rubles.

Income:

• Average check - 3000 rubles
• The average cost of materials in an order is 10% or 300 rubles.
• The average number of orders per day is 5 pcs.
• Working days in a month - 22
• Income per month - 297,000 rubles

Hence, the profit per month: 297,000 - 205,000 = 92,000 rubles. Excluding taxes (STS, 15% of profit), the net profit of the printing house is 78,200 rubles. The profitability of the printing house is 38%. The return on investment with such indicators will come after 15 months of work (taking into account 3 months for business promotion).

For several years now, economic observers have not been able to agree on the prospects for the development of the printing business. Some predict a catastrophic collapse in demand for printing, others, on the contrary, positively assess the emerging trends and advise entrepreneurs to work calmly and develop the printed products market. In any case, regardless of the conclusions of analytical reviews, anyone who is considering how to open their own print shop from scratch should work out a plan for developing their business in detail, and then the chances of succeeding in this business will increase significantly.

Opening your own printing house: where to start

The modern printing business develops in three main directions:

• publishing house;
• production of commercial printed products (for example, catalogs, brochures, leaflets, as well as);
• provision of printing services.

Each of the directions requires special training, special equipment and hiring specialized specialists. Opening a printing house from scratch that could fulfill orders for all types of printed work is only possible for a beginner if he has a large start-up capital and there are specialists who can set up and run the business, and then supervise it for several years.

If you have a small budget and do not have many years of practical work in the printing industry behind you, then you need to decide on its specialization before organizing and opening your own printing house. There is an opinion that the narrower the specialization of a printing house, the better its product is and the more interest arises in it from customers from different regions.

Beginners are advised to start by making commercial prints. For this type of activity, it is not required to purchase expensive equipment and take dubious orders. It is enough to invest about 20 thousand US dollars and work for the development of the enterprise over the next two years.

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Requirements for the premises and equipment of the printing house

A small production of printed materials can be organized in a room up to 30 sq. m. Requirements for such a place are minimal:

• good ventilation;
• high-quality lighting;
• availability of a warehouse;
• bathroom.

In addition, it must be a building with non-residential premises. It is prohibited to place a printing house in the housing stock. Before starting work, it is necessary to register a business with the tax service (see) and obtain approval for the use of the selected premises in Rospotrebnadzor and the local agency of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

The location of the printing house does not affect the flow of customers and production turnover, therefore, when choosing a premises, first of all, you need to pay attention to how it meets the requirements of the printing house and whether there is an opportunity to expand production space.

The second crucial point is the equipment.

If you don’t know where to start looking for printing equipment, you can take the advice of entrepreneurs who have been working in this business for a long time. Experienced printers advise beginners not to take new printing equipment. There are several advantages to buying used equipment:

• lower prices;
• lack of difficulties in setting up and maintaining;
• the ability to immediately produce a wide range of products.

Today in the market of printing equipment you can buy offset printing machines, risographs and color copiers. The cheapest ones are risographs, and the most expensive ones are color copiers. The cost of the first is about 10 thousand US dollars, the price of the second can reach up to 200 thousand US dollars.

Important! The cheapness of the risograph is explained by the fact that it only prints in black and white. With modern requirements for printing, it will be practically impossible for a printer to satisfy customer requests using only a risograph. This equipment can serve as an auxiliary.

The heart of the printing house should be either an offset printing machine or a color copier. With a small start-up capital, the right decision is to purchase a used offset press.

In addition to a printing press, before opening a printing house, an entrepreneur must purchase additional equipment. It includes: guillotine for cutting, folding (bending) apparatus, binders for spring fastening, equipment for the production of cardboard boxes, etc.

When choosing a manufacturer of equipment, experts recommend paying attention to German and Japanese technology. Although Chinese equipment is cheap, it has a lot of complaints from working printers. If the budget does not allow purchasing high-quality additional equipment, then for the first time you can buy Chinese devices, but the priority for business development is to put financing for the purchase of high-quality auxiliary equipment.

What specialists to hire

For a small printing house, you will need to hire three employees: a manager, a designer and a printer. Without these specialists, the printing house as a business will not be able to work effectively. In this case, it is not recommended to practice part-time. If at the initial stage the printing house does not work at full capacity, then a good option is to hire each specialist on a part-time basis or enter into contract agreements for the performance of certain works. Such a personnel policy will allow us to create really high-quality products.

Due to the fact that a novice businessman will not be able to immediately offer good wages to all specialists, it is recommended at first to hire only one experienced specialist - a printer. He will be able to immediately perform his tasks with high quality and point out to less experienced employees the nuances of the practical implementation of certain orders.

Financial component of the printing business

With an initial investment of about 1.5 million rubles, a businessman must have approximately the same amount of financial resources to ensure the operation of the printing house for the first couple of months, until the enterprise can cover its costs on its own.

The monthly expenses of a small printing house are about 800,000 rubles. Of which 100,000 rubles are wages, 600,000 are the purchase of consumables and maintenance of equipment, 100,000 rubles are transport and administrative expenses, taxes and advertising.

To earn 1 million rubles a month, the printing house must complete about 100 orders, with an average cost of about 10,000 rubles. For example, at current prices for printing, for 10,000 rubles you can purchase: 6,000 A4 booklets; 2,000 Euro flyers; 6,000 business cards. These are standard orders, and working printers do not lack them.

With such volumes of loading and competent management, the initial costs will pay off in 2.5 years. And help in the implementation of this commercial idea.

Conclusion

The success of a printing house depends primarily on the specialists who work in it, and secondly, on the equipment. Providing normal conditions for the work of the team, as well as monitoring the condition of the equipment and updating and improving it in time are the main tasks of a businessman who has decided to engage in the printing business. In order to fulfill them qualitatively, the entrepreneur himself must be a good organizer and economist. If you have these professional qualities, you will succeed.

The printing business has good profit margins. If you pragmatically calculate all the options for a long-term investment of free financial resources, then think about opening a workshop or salon.
Do your own monitoring:

• find out how many similar enterprises there are in your city;
• compare prices and list of services;
• make sure that each print shop is crowded with customers;
• write a business plan and start implementing it.

Refuse spontaneous steps and strictly follow each item of your program. In this industry, you can very accurately calculate all the costs and make them not burdensome for the family budget, and the first profit will appear in a year or two.

Sometimes the desire to learn a new profession is broken by financial insolvency. Where to get the initial capital? If the inheritance from the great aunt remains an ephemeral dream, then an alternative program will be needed.

Give yourself some time for the preparatory period and devote it to earning money to purchase equipment. You can try to print photos edited in Adobe Photoshop on a modest home three-color printer. Among your neighbors and relatives there are grateful customers.

In a month, you will draw two conclusions:

First, print design is an extremely exciting activity.
The second is that to create a full-fledged business, a bank loan is needed, otherwise attempts at amateur performance of booklets in the Publisher program may be delayed until retirement age. You will need composure and perseverance.

While you are doing paperwork, sign up for evening printing courses in parallel. The theoretical base is always useful, in addition, there is a chance to meet an enthusiastic person who is ready to become a business partner.

Pay a friendly visit to your competitors, perhaps they have quite usable equipment gathering dust in their warehouse, which they are ready to give up at the lowest price. Serious firms are trying to get rid of outdated models, and such machines may still be of benefit to you.

Particular interest should be shown not to small design offices, but to printing houses. There, after the modernization of production, very attractive models of printing equipment are sometimes put up for auction. Sign a long-term contract with suppliers of consumables, because wholesale and regular customers are always provided with bonuses and discounts.

To obtain the status of a private entrepreneur, you will have to take care of a package of permits and perform the following steps:

• get a license;
• register with the tax office;
• open a bank account;
• obtain the opinion of the fire inspector on the full compliance of the premises with safety standards;
• allow representatives of the SES to inspect the workshop and make their verdict.

Choosing the right space is the first step to success.

A printing workshop in a residential area is doomed to vegetate. The exceptions are branches of well-established prosperous firms. Even if you are a happy owner of your own premises on the outskirts of the city, it is advisable to castling: rent it out, and use the proceeds to pay for a premises located in the business center of the city, or at least in close proximity to metro stations, busy highways.

The best option is to rent a small area in a large shopping and entertainment center. The cost of maintaining the workshop will be balanced by a decrease in investment in advertising promotion.

Why is it profitable to settle in the neighborhood of hypermarkets and boutiques?

• you get a special status, eminent brands give a special touch of respectability to all nearby ateliers and workshops;
• monitoring confirms that every tenth visitor running in a dense crowd around the trading floor is a potential customer - you just need to find a way to attract his attention;
• there is an opportunity to sell products developed by the designer according to his own sketches: wall calendars, posters of fashionable music groups, T-shirts with funny inscriptions and drawings, mugs decorated with stylish photographs.

But you will see a line snaking at the counters of the workshop only on one condition - the designer must really be creative and talented. Who wants to buy a primitive stamping that does not differ from Chinese consumer goods?

Experimenting with the interior

Your task is to make the interior profitable. There is some truth in such a bold statement. The lack of repair with the use of modern finishing materials is perceived by visitors as an extreme degree of decline and financial instability of the workshop. If you are renting a space, discuss your plans with the owner. Perhaps he will agree to partly finance the repairs.

With his obvious desire to shift all the hardships of repairs onto you, choose an alternative option - use mobile structures that you can take with you during a forced move.
For example:

• The walls are covered with banners of their own production. To visually expand the space in their composition, they use a linear and aerial perspective.
• Vertical planes are decorated with their own interior print. This is a luxurious version of the renovation, which even the super-expensive Venetian plaster cannot resist.
• The walls of the room are completely covered with modular racks, while the shelves play the role of a demonstration stand.

Typical mistakes: in a fit of creative enthusiasm, the owners of printing salons like to fix a collage on the walls, consisting of samples of work performed. An amateur performance of such a decor will provoke the opposite effect. If there is no good interior designer nearby, then it is better to arrange all the printing samples in beautiful piles at the reception desk.

In the salon of operational printing, retro elements should not be used for decoration. If the silhouette of a typewriter appears on the logo, customers will cautiously pass by. Perhaps you meant the continuity of traditions, but customers will regard such a pattern as a hint of the use of outdated equipment.

Your assistants are high-tech and minimalism

When the premises are in personal ownership, more effort can be devoted to repairs. When choosing a color, it is advisable to focus on unobtrusive pastel shades.

They will make a pleasant contrast with bright printing products. Finishing materials are purchased with an eye to the upcoming daily cleaning. All surfaces must be smooth, not lose their original color, constantly in contact with detergent chemicals.

Try to avoid the glamor style, whimsical baroque curlicues and fake gilding are appropriate in the boudoir, not in the workplace. Plain plastic, mineral glass and a little metal - this is the perfect set of materials for furniture designs.

Hi-tech or minimalism will always look organic. A printing workshop does not need extra items; functionality is implied in every element of the interior.
The following zones are distinguished in the room:

• the workspace in which the equipment is located;
• a place for receiving visitors and placing orders;
• the designer's workplace is allocated at least nominally: they raise a computer desk and chair on a ten-centimeter podium or model a low transparent plexiglass wall;
• according to the standards, the storage room should be located separately; in its absence, you will have to limit yourself to the minimum amount of consumables.

Mastering graphic programs

Perhaps print design has always been your dream, and finally, the opportunity for self-realization has come. It is problematic to study programs without the help of a mentor, the process will stretch for a long time, and technological subtleties will go unnoticed.

Now you can easily find stationary and distance courses designed for group and individual training. In such training, the practical component prevails. You can even take real work orders and do them under the supervision of a teacher as laboratory exercises.

If the business goes well, then some money can be earned only on sketches, even before you purchase printing equipment. You can search for customers among your friends and acquaintances. Having opened their workshop, many owners focus only on management, therefore they consider studying to be an unprofitable waste of time.

They will remember their mistake when they have to panic looking for a replacement for a sick employee, instead of calmly fulfilling his duties. Yes, and subordinates, realizing that the boss does not understand anything about programs, will deliberately delay work, hoping to receive a bonus for complexity.

The only way out for you is to give the impression of an omniscient boss.

Do you know how to succeed in business thanks to the experience of successful entrepreneurs?

Don't forget to master:

• CorelDRAW Graphics Suite is a vector graphics program, one of the key elements for creating polygraphic sketches;
• Adobe InDesign is a program for layout designers, with its help they perform page layout. Popular simplified counterparts are QuarkXPress and PageMaker.
• Adobe Photoshop is a bitmap-oriented program used for photo editing;
• Adobe Illustrator is a handy tool based on the use of vector graphics, mainly used to create concise and expressive layouts;
• Cutting Master - a special program for plotter cutting;
• Sevit Print Shop Manager - the program helps to streamline and systematize the work of the workshop: orders are controlled, time spent by employees on work is taken into account.

We purchase equipment

If you are adventurous and believe in your talent as a manager, let a heat press be your first purchase. Printing on mugs and t-shirts looks very stylish and original. Why not consider it as a version of modern arts and crafts.

The possibilities for implementation are unlimited. T-shirts with printed logos will be gladly ordered for themed festivals, corporate sporting events. Try to interest the administration of a nearby school with the possibility of purchasing inexpensive t-shirts with the symbols of the school.

Thermopresses

The presence of a thermal press significantly increases the profitability of production. Models with a mechanical type of control are 2-3 times cheaper than electronic and touch. It is better to focus on universal devices that are adapted to work with various materials.

Such heat presses have 6-8 different nozzles that allow you to transfer images to baseball caps, caps, mugs, plates, rugs, T-shirts. A high-quality print will turn out on ceramics, metal, textile fabric, plastic, leather, cardboard.

Brands such as Bulros, Insta have proven themselves well. Overtly amateur versions should be avoided. For example, a miniature Hobby Print will not live up to your expectations either in terms of productivity or print quality. Schulze Profi-Trans XXL

Plotters

The plotter can cut paper, cardboard, self-adhesive film. Contour lines of any complexity and configuration are created. Simple types of work: making stickers, stickers, signs, stencils. Difficult tasks: full-color graphics for the design of shop windows, appliqué banners.

The self-adhesive film application technique is often found on the windows of cafes, in the foyer of public buildings. It is applicable for outdoor and indoor surface decoration. The plotter only recognizes lines in vector graphics, so each bitmap needs to be converted.

Good models are equipped with an optical control system, marks are displayed that allow you to determine that the image that has been cut has not shifted. There are many models with similar functionality. If you are looking for something from a democratic price category, you can buy Graphtec, Roland, Mimaki.

Digital Printing Equipment

Xerox, Canon, Konica Minolta devices are suitable for professional and commercial printing. They are compact, adjustable for color and black-and-white images, provide duplex scanning of materials and high copy speed.

Miniature metal staples are used to fix brochures, so a mechanical or electric stapler should be available in the workshop.

Recommended brands: MicroShuttle, Shark / KW-TriO, Vektor, Rapid. Over time, you will have to purchase laminators that cover printed materials with a transparent polymer film. At the initial stage of a business project, you can do without them. Customers prefer to laminate certificates, badges, business cards, photos.

Since business cards are a popular type of printing products, it is advisable to purchase machines for cutting them, for example, Cyklos or Warrior.

Where to look for employees?

You can't do this kind of business alone. If you have siblings, you can organize a family business and share responsibilities among themselves, then the grown-up children will hint that it is time to transfer the management of affairs to a new generation. Solo swimming encourages the search for colleagues.

When a business owner wants to remain only a coordinator, not to spend a working day near the plotter and scanner, then he will have to expand the staff to 3-4 people. The minimum number of employees is limited when they agree to combine the duties of an administrator, printer and cleaner. However, in small print shops this range of duties is not burdensome.

The budget of a newly minted company usually does not allow hiring highly qualified specialists. Standard searches on Internet job exchanges do not guarantee that you will come across someone executive and responsible. There is also an age nuance:

• people of pre-retirement age do not refuse to work for little pay, but it is difficult for them to maintain the desired pace;
• it is almost impossible to meet a middle-aged person who agrees to the minimum wage;
• we have to bet on young people, best of all, on the graduates of the current year.

Find out if there is a professional lyceum or college in your city that offers a specialty close to printing. These can be working specialties of an offset printer, bookbinder, layout designer, or printing equipment adjuster.

Call the school administration. Employers there are greeted kindly, invited to final exams or provided with telephone numbers of graduates who have not yet been employed. Your contingent and high school graduates who have not entered the university and are trying to find a job before the start of the next introductory campaign. Sometimes it is useful to contact the employment service, which specializes in retraining the unemployed.

Who creates layouts?

The basic knowledge of the designer is Adobe Photoshop, CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign. But not everyone can please demanding customers, layouts and sketches are always meticulously checked and often ruthlessly rejected. To succeed, you need either the gift of persuasion, or impeccable artistic taste and a creative style of thinking.

The future of the printing salon to some extent depends on the designer. If he manages to attract clients with his skill, you will systematically move into the advertising business. It will not be possible to interest visitors - mechanical stamping of price tags, price lists, posters will remain your destiny.

How to find a designer? The first way is to offer a class specialist a part-time job or work from home. It is not necessary to go in cycles in finding a professional printer. A painter who knows graphic programs well, a school art teacher, an animation or landscape design master can cope with the work.

He already has a standard training, in all art schools they study the laconic language of applied graphics, fonts, and the basics of composition. Therefore, retraining will take no more than a couple of weeks.

The second way is to invite a beginner who has completed regular computer courses and is familiar with graphic editors. Sometimes a person who does not know how to draw by hand at all works very confidently with a mouse and a stylus, processes images with high quality, intuitively feels texture and color. It is highly likely that over time he will learn how to create real printing masterpieces.

Starting a PR campaign

The policy of dumping prices did not bring success to anyone. Most likely, customers will begin to suspect you of unprofessionalism. Such is the Russian mentality: when they see a low price tag for a service, everyone starts looking for a catch. Competitors, having learned about the emerging lover of the minimum wage, will begin to actively oppose.

There are many options to put the upstart in his place: from an extraordinary visit of SES inspectors to a staged flow of complaints from outraged customers. So follow the simple rules. First, make a calculation and find out the real cost of your printing products. Secondly, be guided by the average prices in your region.

Success strategy

First you need to decide on the direction of specialization. The work of a printing workshop can only be aimed at the technical replication of printed products. Customers bring flash drives with an electronic version of a professionally made sketch.

The printer can only check the conformity of the parameters, format compatibility, and perhaps introduce a slight correction of the image. Further trust technology. Approximately half of the small printing enterprises present on the market are limited to just such a range of duties.

Standard set of digital printed products:

• business cards;
• booklets;
• publications;
• flyers;
• stickers;
• wobblers.

After purchasing equipment for large format printing, you can produce:

• banners;
• firewalls;
• exhibition stands.

Printing is carried out on different types of paper, translucent mesh, banner fabric, self-adhesive film.
When a position of a designer appears in the printing workshop, the list of works expands. Services become complex, the customer only needs to tell in general terms about the expected product.

The designer will develop a sketch, after discussion will make adjustments to it, if necessary, will perform prepress processing. As a result, the customer receives significant time and cost savings, because he does not have to agree on design and printing with different people and in different organizations.

Create your website

Schoolchildren standing on the sidewalks with business cards cause tenderness, because the children are trying to earn money on their own. Passers-by willingly take leaflets and, not bothering to read them, throw them into the nearest trash can. You don't want such an inglorious end to your promotional campaign, do you?

The cheapest methods usually bring zero results. You can put on a suit and tie yourself, look into all the offices that come across on the way and leave booklets and your contact details there. Such a waste of time is highly unproductive. Security guards will not be allowed into serious organizations without an appointment. If you manage to get inside, it is unlikely that anyone else besides the reception employees or the secretary will see the business cards.

Toward evening, your booklets will fly into the paper shredder. Carefully store the business cards of only those specialists with whom they have previously successfully collaborated.

A reasonable PR option is to create your own website. An ordinary inhabitant of the planet Earth is accustomed to trust the Internet. If your enterprise is not in the virtual space, no one will believe that you are creative and modern. Advantages of the site as an advertising tool for a printing workshop:

• the audience that listens to you is limitless;
• operational communication with clients;
• creation of a gallery and demonstration of samples of their work;
• possibility of remote work with the customer.

The last point will eventually take precedence. A circle of entrepreneurs has already formed, who do not bother to visit the workshop. They consider examples of work, leave a request with a list of parameters. The print designer then emails the sketch for approval. When all the nuances are agreed, printing is performed, and delivery is entrusted to the city courier service.

This is important: the design of the site of the printing workshop must be impeccable. It is used to judge the degree of skill, the artistic taste of future performers. Try to avoid templates, but extreme graphic creative is also undesirable. In advertising products, the semantic part should dominate, and the pictorial part is designed only to create an attractive entourage.

Generously distribute bonuses, hold promotions

Maintain relationships with regular customers. Word of mouth recommendations are still considered one of the most effective. Design beautiful bonus cards with a half discount for every tenth order.

If customers bring their friends to you, give them a 1-5% discount. Pragmatists communicate with service providers via the Internet, while people who prefer personal visits are more conservative. They value attention and kindness. Show refined courtesy, and they will forget about the existence of other printing shops in the city.

Organize promotions before the holidays. For example, a person who places an order for the largest amount during the pre-holiday day is awarded some exclusive printing souvenir.

The path from printing to high art

To achieve financial well-being, you should consider familiar things from a new angle. The inventor of the disposable razor King Kemp Gillette imposed his idea on all mankind, and yet he only subjected a familiar and well-known object to a slight modernization.

Why not look for options among printed products that will interest not only businessmen-entrepreneurs? Are you tired of the flow of monotonous leaflets and advertising booklets? Look for other areas of application of your talent. Why not look into the registry office and the wedding salon? Design a large format wedding flip wedding calendar template.

It must be done on the best glossy paper, choose an exquisite color, and give all the images a light veil of sentimentality so beloved by the newlyweds. For a small fee, leave samples at the front desk along with your business cards. If the calendar is worthy of becoming a family heirloom, then after a while a queue of couples with wedding photos will line up at your workshop, who want to order an exclusive photo album in calendar format, the New Year in which will begin not from January 1, but from the wedding day.

Just negotiate with the demonstration of your advertising samples not with ordinary employees of the registry office and the store, but with the administration. Promise a certain percentage of the cost of the order, which will be received by the person who handed the business card. Then the photo-calendar will not be thrown on the shelf, on the contrary, it will be enthusiastically demonstrated to each visitor. The situation is similar with kindergartens and elementary grades of the school.

Try to convince your parents that calendars depicting Chinese horoscope animals are "not comme il faut." They should show off pictures of babies. Here there is a chance to get a wholesale order by photographing each child at the matinee, and then processing the photos in the style of a fairy tale or comic book. Educators will agree to cooperate for free execution of the same order for them.

Offer T-shirts with thermal transfer printing of children's photos. If the image is accompanied by the inscription “beloved grandfather” or “best grandmother”, then such knitwear will definitely be ordered as an original present for older relatives.

Participate in contests

There are many opportunities for free self-promotion. The printing industry is experiencing a renaissance, and as a distant prospect, one can think of the most prestigious international competitions, such as the Creativity Awards. Companies that develop software for graphic designers or produce special equipment regularly hold competitions.

And don't be confused by experienced rivals, in most cases there are also student nominations. And in your newly opened workshop, design meters will not want to work, but there are many ambitious part-time students or full-time students who dream of improving their financial situation in the evening and gaining practical skills in their future specialty.

The owner of the workshop will only have to inform his employees about the upcoming competition, and they will not miss this opportunity. Browse regional periodicals and professional publications, look for information on the virtual network. Why immediately tune in to the laurels of the winner? At first, it will suit you when the employee gets the diploma of the participant, and you find the appropriate place for it on the wall of the workshop.
Additional bonuses:

• at the competition you get acquainted with fashionable trends in print design;
• in parallel, exhibitions and sales of equipment, consumables are held;
• contest photos will decorate your site;
• if you are lucky, you will become the hero of a news report, there are always a lot of correspondents at such events.

Make friends with the municipality

Fairs, exhibitions, symposia, conferences are constantly held in each city. After reviewing the announcements of the official city portal, you can always find something interesting and useful:

• "Job Fair" - employers offer jobs for graduates of universities, colleges, and schools. This is a real chance to find a diligent employee, albeit without work experience, but with a specialized education.
• Charity projects. All participants do part of their work for free, receiving in return PR in the local press. After evaluating the theme of the event, printers can offer the execution of invitation cards, brochures, banners or design T-shirts and caps for promoters. What is profit? If city authorities are interested in this event of public life, they will thank all active participants with laudatory articles in the press. In addition, many people will see your work, try to impress them with the quality and originality of performance. With a successful combination of circumstances, new customers will appear immediately.
• Career guidance at school. People who colorfully talk about their profession are willingly allowed to the "class hour" and the parent meeting. You talk about the prospects of the profession, indicate in which educational institutions it can be obtained.
  In fact, you are interested in another audience: parents of students and teachers. Among those present at the meeting, there will definitely be people working in trade and the financial sector. They have to constantly use the services of a printing house, so your business card will come in handy. Teachers are immersed in methodical work; they must prepare didactic material for each lesson. If you offer free formatting and design of brochures and publications, they will become loyal and regular customers of your printing center. In one day, you can visit 4-5 classes, limiting your visit to 10-15 minutes.

Free TV advertising

Sky-high prices per minute of air time make many entrepreneurs not even think about TV advertising. But there is also a very original loophole that allows you to get on the screen without paying a single ruble for it. Unfortunately, this method is not applicable in the capital, but it is quite suitable for provincial cities.

In the schedule of almost all local TV channels there are programs designed for housewives. They do not go to prime time, and are a kind of training master classes. The names of the programs may be very different, but the essence is the same. They are "omnivorous" and talk about applying makeup, making toys, growing indoor flowers, etc. As a rule, correspondents have to constantly look for new stories.

So come up with something unusual printing, offer your services to the transfer staff. For example, paper modeling.

Sanitary standards

A printing workshop cannot be placed in a reconstructed basement or a glass summer pavilion. The room should have windows that let in a sufficient amount of natural light. Local and general sources of artificial light are needed. You can not increase the staff if there is no free space.

The norm of the area intended for the equipment of one workplace is 4.5 meters. If a computer is to be installed, then the indicator increases to 6 meters. The temperature regime of the room must be kept at 18-20 °C. Do not do without exhaust ventilation. Although manufacturers are trying to completely eliminate the smell of paint and paper, they have not achieved 100% success.

A closed environment without air circulation in the evening will respond with fatigue and headache.

business is always a risk, but the printing industry is still considered promising, and all investments will be justified. The return on investment comes in a year and a half.
Your benefits:

• in this area, competition is relatively low, there are still unoccupied niches;
• the demand for services is not decreasing, on the contrary, its growth trend is predicted;
• competitors are loyal, not prone to aggressiveness, because a hard redistribution of the market is not expected;
• the profession is not one of the most difficult: you can master it yourself, get basic skills in short-term courses, go through distance learning;
• minimal dependence on intermediaries;
• it is easy to find suppliers of professional equipment and consumables;
• in the future, a transition to a higher level is possible - a printing workshop becomes a design bureau or an advertising agency.

We offer an interesting video: Modern printing

Today, the demand for printed products is getting higher and higher, which means that the need for printing houses is constantly growing. The success of a printing house largely depends not only on what volumes of products it can produce, but also on how quickly and efficiently the order will be completed. With proper organization, this type of business can bring considerable income, even if the company will provide a very narrow range of services. The equipment will fit perfectly in a small office.

Choosing a typography type

Before you open your own printing house, you need to decide on its format. Will it be a full-fledged printing shop focused on the production of books, newspapers and other large paper products, or will it be a mini-printing house, the main activity of which is aimed at providing printing services for smaller products - business cards, booklets, posters, calendars and others.

In most cases, opening a mini-printing house will be the right decision. There are several reasons for this:

• Opening a small printing house does not require significant investments - the minimum amount is from 500,000 rubles.
• At the beginning of work, you are unlikely to be able to provide the printing house with large volumes of orders for printing books and magazines, but with small ones - completely.
• A mini-printing house with the right business can always grow into a more serious company.
• It can be a great addition to your core business. Quite often they open their printing houses, magazines and newspapers.

Printing house registration

Like any other type of business, opening a printing house requires registration with the tax office. To register a mini-printing house, it is enough to obtain the status of an individual entrepreneur. In this case, you do not even need a business permit. If you plan to open several branches, you need to think about registering an LLC.

Before opening, you need to obtain permission from:

• fire inspection;
• supervision services for compliance with labor protection rules.

Naturally, sooner or later you will have to hire staff to work in your company, and it follows that you also need to register with the pension fund and the employment service.

Premises selection

An important step when opening is the choice of premises. On average, for a mini-printing house, a room of 40-50 square meters is enough, equipped with ventilation and electrical wiring with a power of more than 280 watts. It is also important to have a toilet and a room for workers, where they can rest in between work.

Also, the room should be divided into several zones:

• to receive an order;
• working;
• stock.

It is desirable that there is a separate room for each of the premises.

It is better to rent a room not in a residential building, but in the building of business centers or educational institutions. So the operation of the equipment will not interfere with the neighbors, especially if the order is carried out at night. There should also be a convenient access to the building for loading finished products.

It does not matter where your printing house will be located - in the city center or on the outskirts, the main thing is that a lot of people pass nearby. The ideal option is to open near universities, business centers. That is, in those places where there will be a high demand for printing services.

Every self-respecting company, even the smallest, must have a printer, or even several. However, this does not reduce the huge demand that exists in the market for printing services today.

And every year it grows more and more. Moreover, if large enterprises quite comfortably cooperate with no less large printing houses, then small firms have a hard time.

In most Russian cities, apart from Moscow and St. Petersburg, there are not many companies that offer high-quality printing services in a short time. And to get to the giants of the market, you have to stand in line, because they are always more than provided with orders.

Here is a niche for business - for a novice entrepreneur in a small and even medium segment, there will be enough space. And there will still be.

The market for such services is growing every year, the demand is increasing, so why not make another offer? In this article, we will look at questions that will help you develop a business plan for a mini-printing house. And starting small, you can always grow into something big and successful.

We plan questions to be reflected in the business plan for creating a printing house

Starting a small printing company is not nearly as difficult as many people imagine. Moreover, depending on the equipment that is planned to be purchased, the costs can be quite adequate. Of course, in this business, as in any other, there are nuances. They need to be known and taken into account. We will help you with this by sorting out everything you need to open a printing house. The following points should be considered and included in your business plan:

• choice of location and search for premises;
• the range of services offered;
• implementation of services and pricing policy;
• purchase of printing and other equipment;
• recruitment of printing house staff;
• advertising your company;
• financial plan - costs, profitability, profitability.

As you can see, you will have to think through a lot of details before starting any specific actions. But by including all these questions in the business plan of the printing house and analyzing them, you will be able to start your business more confidently, having a good understanding of what and to whom you offer, how much you invest, what kind of return you expect to receive. Let's start with the most simple questions - the place of future action.

Place to open your printing house

Naturally, supply must be created where there is demand. And the highest it is in the business center of the city - where a large number of firms are concentrated. Large and small, engaged in various activities, existing for a long time or just opened. They all need to print something. For some, these are advertising booklets and business cards, for some, forms of business documentation, for some, booklets, manuals, magazines, and the like.

As a rule, in such busy places in terms of business, there are already small print shops or departments that provide various types of printing services. But believe me, there will be enough demand for everyone. After all, your potential customers are not only those firms that are located in the nearest area, but also partners / clients of these companies who have come on business and may need your work, among other things.

As for the premises, a lot of space is not required to work in a mini-format. You can settle down on forty squares, and on eighty. It all depends on what equipment and how much you plan to purchase, as well as on the budget available for this purpose. In the end, you can always expand the available space by moving to a larger room or "pressing" the neighbors, taking up additional territory.

Mini-printing services: creating an offer

How to open a mini-printing house? Cut the range of services offered or limit the offer for each type to a specific amount of work? You can choose any option, but it's better not to save on variety. After all, it may turn out that the demand for some services on certain days will be greater, and you can provide any of them.

So, we settled on the fact that we will offer various services in the field of printing. Then the range of activities will be quite wide. It can be attributed to:

• development of layouts for various printed products (forms, brochures, business cards, leaflets, calendars);
• replication in small batches;
• copying, including color;
• lamination and binding.

Not bad for a mini print shop. However, it should be understood that in order to engage in such a diverse activity, you will have to invest in special equipment and hire staff who can provide all of the listed services at a high level.

Implementation of printing services

A new company that wants to make itself known must appeal to customers, attract them and make them loyal. This is largely achieved through diversity (for example, an offset printing house can offer more), quality (which should be higher than that of competitors), and also the cost of services.

Before setting prices, analyze the policy of competitors in this matter. Let them be insignificant, but still lower than those of neighboring companies - 5% is quite enough to seem "nice" to customers.

Also focus on your other advantages in order to gradually raise the price level in the future. Work faster - what some people do in three days, you do in one. Always remember high quality, whether it is a large client or a small office. Appreciate everyone.

With a large order, make a small discount if further cooperation is important to you. Or, for example, offer the next print "as a gift" (in an adequate size, of course). So you teach customers to contact you, and not go to any printing house.