Starting your own business can be one of the most exciting yet stressful things you ever do and it’s definitely not an endeavour for the faint of heart. The majority of new businesses fail in their first year and this can be attributed to a range of factors – mostly inexperience and overconfidence.
If you want to be one of the successful new businesses like Carbon8, you need to be careful about how you plan the opening of your print shop. This is a competitive industry and failing to adequately research the best deals to supply you could mean you lose a great deal of money before you’ve even sold your first can or rolling brush.
If you follow these tips then you will have a better chance of turning a profit in your first week and creating the invaluable momentum a new enterprise needs to get off the ground and secure itself. Let’s take a look at 3 essential tips for opening your own print shop so that you can achieve your dreams.
1. Stock and service selection
The first and most obvious element of opening a print shop is deciding what types of card you are going to stock and what kind of services you will offer. There’s no shortage of choice out there when it comes to brands and your final decision should come down to the type of customer you want to attract.
If you want to attract larger clients than you need to invest in the capacity to be able to meet the volume, they will inevitably demand of you. As the old adage goes, you need to spend money to make money and this is no less true when opening your own print shop.
2. Staffing
Once you have your inventory sorted out, the next step is the work out who is going to help you run your new print shop. Are you going to run mom and pop operation or are you going to employ uniformed retail professionals?
There are advantages and disadvantages to different types of staffing arrangements and you should do some investigating to find out which is best for you. While doing everything yourself or with your partner might save you money in employee salaries, are you losing money because you’re trying to juggle everything without help?
Often hiring and retaining valuable employees can generate greater long-term revenue for your business as they can help you achieve things you couldn’t otherwise. For example, a Christmas rush period can be really profitable but only if you have adequate staff to keep up with demand.
3. Marketing
The next step is to consider your outreach strategy for you print shop, or in other words; how you’re going to let people know about your business. Marketing is one of the most difficult areas to get right and it often requires a significant investment with less guarantee of a return.
One important element of the marketing mix is to invest in is digital marketing. Digital marketing refers to services like search engine optimisation (SEO) which are important in making sure your website appears high in search result when your customers search for the products you stock.
Another thing to think about is public relations and how your brand will communicate with the public once it gets big enough.
Hopefully this information will help you in opening your own print shop. Opening a print shop from nothing may seem like a daunting task but it is possible if you set your mind to it.
