Starting new business!

Angela,

I too, am starting up a new business and I’ll be curious to read the responses to your post. I’m learning that there’s a lot more to it than I thought.

Jay

There are already a few threads on this subject that are very helpful.

Are you talking about an order form or price sheet for custom printing? You’ll find that a lot of printers work on a estimate/quote system. “Custom work — custom price!” Concrete prices can easily hurt you in the beginning unless you can accurately estimate the labor, materials, and margin of error… all of which are things you need experience to guesstimate.

So, dealing with your first customers:

1) Know your overhead? What do you need to make hourly in order to not only keep the doors open, but also make a profit in order to keep things going?

2) Know your limitations. Can you diecut? Can you print large floods? Your customer very well may bring you artwork composed in microsoft word. Tell them in the beginning what you require on their end, explicitly. Don’t assume anyone knows how to design for your press (even designers!). Have disclaimers.

3) Stay organized!

This is just a start of course, but you really should look inside the archives here. Most printing businesses usually support themselves as either “printers” or “publishers” with the printers printing work for clients and the publishers printing and marketing their own designs & work.

This is great, thanks! :)