business plan for a print shop

Print Shop Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Print Shop Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 500 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their print shop companies.

If you’re unfamiliar with creating a print shop business plan, you may think creating one will be a time-consuming and frustrating process. For most entrepreneurs it is, but for you, it won’t be since we’re here to help. We have the experience, resources, and knowledge to help you create a great business plan.

In this article, you will learn some background information on why business planning is important. Then, you will learn how to write a print shop business plan step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What is a Print Shop Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your print shop business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategies for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for a Print Shop

If you’re looking to start a print shop business or grow your existing print shop company, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your print shop business to improve your chances of success. Your print shop business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for Print Shop Businesses

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a print shop business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans, and angel investors. When it comes to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to ensure that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business. Personal savings and bank loans are the most common funding paths for print shop companies.

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How to write a business plan for a print shop business.

If you want to start a print shop business or expand your current one, you need a business plan. The guide below details the necessary information for how to write each essential component of your print shop business plan.

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your executive summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the kind of print shop business you are running and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a print shop business that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of print shop businesses?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan.

• Give a brief overview of the print shop industry.
• Discuss the type of print shop business you are operating.
• Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers.
• Provide a snapshot of your marketing strategy. Identify the key members of your team.
• Offer an overview of your financial plan.

Company Overview

In your company overview, you will detail the type of print shop business you are operating.

For example, you might specialize in one of the following types of print shop businesses:

• Digital printing : This type of printing is one of the most cost-effective and fast printing processes available today. Electronic files and digital images replace the need for paper, press set-up and ink, which helps reduce the carbon footprint on the earth.
• Offset lithography printing: Used for magazines, circulars, brochures and books, this type of print shop specializes in larger volumes and includes traditional methods of binding.
• Screen printing: Any material that is not flat is a candidate for screen printing: shirts, hats, fabric bags, etc. Screen printing forces ink through a screening process that is replicated onto fabric or other materials used.
• 3D printing: This type of printing is performed through design, initiated by a computer program, followed by the print process in a 3D printer. The 3D printer is calibrated and outfitted with special plastics to fulfill the specifications of the 3D computer program.

In addition to explaining the type of print shop business you will operate, the company overview needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of printing projects completed, the amount of revenue earned, or reaching X number of clients served, etc.
• Your legal business Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry or market analysis, you need to provide an overview of the print shop industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the print shop industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your marketing strategy, particularly if your analysis identifies market trends.

The third reason is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your print shop business plan:

• How big is the print shop industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential target market for your print shop business? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your print shop business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: individuals, schools, charitable organizations, corporations, and innovators.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of print shop business you operate. Clearly, individuals would respond to different marketing promotions than corporations, for example.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, including a discussion of the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the potential customers you seek to serve.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can recognize and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

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Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other print shop businesses.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t directly competing with your product or service. Stores that house copy machines or overseas service companies may be examples of indirect competitors. You will want to mention any direct competition, as well.

For each direct competitor, provide an overview of their business and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as

• What types of customers do they serve?
• What type of print shop business are they?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide bundled services including printing and binding?
• Will you offer large 3D printing projects that your competition doesn’t?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a print shop business plan, your marketing strategy should include the following:

Product : In the product section, you should reiterate the type of print shop company that you documented in your company overview. Then, detail the specific products or services you will be offering. For example, will you provide cover design, book layout and digital printing to create a niche service for authors?

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your plan, you are presenting the products and/or services you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the site of your print shop company. Document where your company is situated and mention how the site will impact your success. For example, is your print shop business located in a busy retail district, a business district, a standalone office, or purely online? Discuss how your site might be the ideal location for your customers.

Promotions : The final part of your print shop marketing plan is where you will document how you will drive potential customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Advertise in local papers, radio stations and/or magazines
• Reach out to websites
• Distribute flyers
• Engage in email marketing
• Advertise on social media platforms
• Improve the SEO (search engine optimization) on your website for targeted keywords

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your print shop business, including answering calls, planning and providing printed items or 3D printed items, billing customers and assisting with maintenance of equipment, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to book your Xth print project , or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your print shop business to a new city.

Management Team

To demonstrate your print shop business’ potential to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing print shop businesses. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act as mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in managing a print shop business or successfully running a small co-op of screen printers.

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.

Income Statement

An income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenue and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you see 5 new customers per day, and/or offer discounted packaged pricing? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets

Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your print shop business, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a lender writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement

Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and ensure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt.

When creating your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a print shop business:

• Cost of equipment and office supplies
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Other start-up expenses (if you’re a new business) like legal expenses, permits, computer software, and equipment

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your office location lease or a list of corporations on a monthly printing contract.

Writing a business plan for your print shop business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will understand the print shop industry, your competition, and your customers. You will develop a marketing strategy and will understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful print shop business.

Print Shop Business Plan FAQs

What is the easiest way to complete my print shop business plan.

Growthink's Ultimate Business Plan Template allows you to quickly and easily write your print shop business plan.

How Do You Start a Print Shop Business?

Starting a Print Shop business is easy with these 14 steps:

• Choose the Name for Your Print Shop Business
• Create Your Print Shop Business Plan
• Choose the Legal Structure for Your Print Shop Business
• Secure Startup Funding for Your Print Shop Business (If Needed)
• Secure a Location for Your Business
• Register Your Print Shop Business with the IRS
• Open a Business Bank Account
• Get a Business Credit Card
• Get the Required Business Licenses and Permits
• Get Business Insurance for Your Print Shop Business
• Buy or Lease the Right Print Shop Business Equipment
• Develop Your Print Shop Business Marketing Materials
• Purchase and Setup the Software Needed to Run Your Print Shop Business
• Open for Business

Where Can I Download a Free Business Plan Template PDF?

Click here to download the pdf version of our basic business plan template.

Our free business plan template pdf allows you to see the key sections to complete in your plan and the key questions that each must answer. The business plan pdf will definitely get you started in the right direction.

We do offer a premium version of our business plan template. Click here to learn more about it. The premium version includes numerous features allowing you to quickly and easily create a professional business plan. Its most touted feature is its financial projections template which allows you to simply enter your estimated sales and growth rates, and it automatically calculates your complete five-year financial projections including income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements. Here’s the link to our Ultimate Business Plan Template.

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OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You

Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.  

Click here to see how a Growthink business plan writer can create your business plan for you.

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

Print Shop Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Print Shop Business Plan

You’ve come to the right place to create your Print Shop business plan.

We have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their print shops.

Below is a template to help you create each section of your Print Shop business plan.

Executive Summary

Business overview.

Quick Process Print Shop is a startup printing company located in Cypress, Texas. The company is founded by Taylor Owen, a senior print manager who has been in business for over twenty years while working for a nationally-known chain of print shops. Taylor has garnered a high degree of respect and a large following of those who count on his printing abilities for every project they have. As a result, Taylor is confident he will be able to take his depth of experience and wide customer base with him as he opens his own print shop. The emphasis will be on commercial and individual clients seeking printing for any number of projects, including printing and binding of diverse materials.

Quick Process Print Shop will follow its name by offering unparalleled turnaround times for printing projects that competitors do not offer, in addition to offering numerous binding options, folder or book covers, paper stock assortments, and other customized ways to bring each customer’s vision to reality. The products and services will align to create the Quick Process Print Shop; the premier printing facility in Cypress, Texas.

Product Offering

The following are the services and products that Quick Process Print Shop will provide:

• One to four-color printing using CMYK color process
• Printing stock paper or custom, cut-to-size paper
• One-hour turnaround time on select printing projects
• Staple-bound or comb binding in wide variety of colors
• Print and bind corporate folders, presentation binders, brochures
• Custom designs, including holographic and 3D layout
• Printing wedding, birthday, anniversary invitations
• Printing personal/corporate letterhead, business cards

Customer Focus

The target audience for Quick Process Print Shop will be individuals and corporations, along with community, civic and government entities within the greater Cypress and Houston regions. The individuals with personal or business projects will be primary targets, as will administrative managers of corporations, and civic and government entities within the area. Also targeted will be non-profit organizations that will need printed materials on an on-going basis. Whether the client is an individual or corporate account, Quick Process Print Shop will dedicate the experienced full staff of the company to execute excellent results for each client.

Management Team

Quick Process Print Shop will be owned and operated by Taylor Owen. He recruited his former print coordinator, Derek Manahan, to be the Office Manager. His responsibilities will include overseeing employees and day-to-day operations of the print shop.

Taylor Owen is a graduate of the University of Texas, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Design. He has been working for a nationally-known chain print shop for over twenty years as the Print Manager, where he has developed his expertise and dedication to perfectly execute each printing project.

Derek Manahan has been the print coordinator, working under the direction of Taylor Owen, for the past ten years at the same chain print shop. Derek holds a commercial printing certification from Cypress Community College. Derek’s organizational and administrative skills have propelled the former print coordinator to new heights of efficiency and turnaround times for clients; as such, the high expectation is that he will do so again for the Quick Process Print Shop in his new role as Office Manager.

Success Factors

The Quick Process Print Shop will be able to achieve success by offering the following competitive advantages:

• Friendly, knowledgeable, and highly qualified team at Quick Process Print Shop
• Guaranteed fastest turnaround time on select print projects, making the company the fastest in the region to turn projects around.
• Quick Process Print Shop offers the best binding pricing in town. Their pricing structure for over twenty types of available bindings is the most cost effective compared to the competition.

Financial Highlights

Quick Process Print Shop is seeking $200,000 in debt financing to launch its print shop. The funding will be dedicated toward securing the office space and purchasing office and print equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated toward three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent, and marketing costs for the marketing campaigns and association memberships. The breakout of the funding is below:

• Office space build-out: $20,000
• Office and print equipment, supplies, and materials: $10,000
• Three months of overhead expenses (payroll, rent, utilities): $150,000
• Marketing costs: $10,000
• Working capital: $10,000

The following graph outlines the financial projections for Quick Process Print Shop.

Company Overview

Who is quick process print shop.

Quick Process Print Shop is a newly established full-service print shop in Cypress, Texas. Quick Process Print Shop will be the most reliable, cost-effective, and efficient choice for customers in Cypress and the surrounding communities. Quick Process Print Shop will provide a comprehensive menu of printing and binding services for individuals, corporations, civic, and governmental entities in Cypress. Their full-service approach includes a comprehensive set of standard and customized printing and binding processes, designed to meet every customer’s needs.

  Quick Process Print Shop will be able to manage small to oversized printing projects, as well as projects that include binding or other special treatments, and will do so on select projects within a very fast turnaround process. The team of professionals are highly qualified and experienced in printing and management of day-to-day operations and print coordination. Quick Process Print Shop removes all headaches and issues of the printing and binding process and ensures all issues are taken care of expeditiously, while delivering the best customer service.

Quick Process Print Shop History

Quick Process Print Shop is owned by Taylor Owen, a former Print Manager for a nationally-known chain print shop. Taylor Owen is a graduate of the University of Texas, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Design. During his many years of printing, Taylor developed a high degree of expertise within his craft and used that dedication to perfectly execute each printing project. He gained the trust of his clients during twenty years of printing and binding projects; those relationships will now stabilize the revenue for the Quick Process Print Shop while the clientele grows and projects increase in size and number.

Since incorporation, Quick Process Print Shop has achieved the following milestones:

• Registered Quick Process Print Shop as a C-corporation, to transact business in the state of Texas.
• Has a lease contract in place for 10,000 square feet at the building Quick Process Print Shop will utilize.
• Reached out to numerous corporate contacts to secure advance contracts for Quick Process Print Shop.
• Began recruiting a staff of Quick Process Print Shop employees.

Quick Process Print Shop Services

The following will be the services Quick Process Print Shop will provide:

• One to 4-color printing using CMYK color process
• Print and bind corporate folders, presentation binders

Industry Analysis

The Print Shop industry is expected to grow over the next ten years to over $483 billion. The growth will be driven by an increased print market for packaging, which is expected to rise by 66 percent in the coming decade. The market for printing books will decrease in the coming ten years by 15 percent; however, the need for commercial, business, and personal printing will increase as expectations for professionally-prepared materials will rise in every market sector. Future parameters, including an uncertain economy or supply-chain shortages, could impact the printing industry; however, all industry markets will have the same issues in play should such uncertainties come about. Costs will likely be reduced as print collaborations and partnership work together to lower costs, while increasing efficiencies, particularly on large-volume projects.

Customer Analysis

Demographic profile of target market.

Quick Process Print Shop will target individuals or entities required printing or printing and binding services in the Cypress, Texas region. They will target individuals, corporations, civic or governmental agencies, as well as non-profits, and other associations who need printing and/or binding services. .

Customer Segmentation

Quick Process Print Shop will primarily target the following customer profiles:

• Individuals
• Corporations (for-profit/non-profit)
• Civic/community entities
• Governmental agencies

Competitive Analysis

Direct and indirect competitors.

Quick Process Print Shop will face competition from other companies with similar business profiles. A description of each competitor company follows:

TJ’s Speedy Print Shop

PJ’s Speedy Print Shop provides customer self-service printing using copy machines. A customer can select a copy machine when bringing in documents or a flash drive document to be printed. The copy machines print and collate the projects per the instructions of the customer using self-instruction on a self-serve copy machine. Standard materials, such as paper and staples are provided for a fee. While copies are printed at-will and offer a fast turnaround, no binding services are offered. Color copies, customized print processes, high-quality color separation and other quality services are not offered within this self-serve model.

The owner of TJ’s Speedy Print Shop, legally registered as a limited liability company, has been in business for over thirty years and the shop is well-established as a neighborhood copy and print shop. The motto is “Your Printing Your Way” and the focus is on speed and accessibility, as the print shop is open 24 hours per day. An employee is always on site to assist customers who walk in and a full-time repair person oversees the copy machines. The print shop owner, Tomas Johanson, has been talking to customers about retiring; the outcome of his retirement for the print shop is unknown.

RiverEdge Printing & Packing Services

RiverEdge Printing & Packing Services is located in Houston, Texas and is a legal entity formed to serve the grocery store market sector within the regional area. Originally a sole proprietorship, the company was reframed legally as a C-corporation five years ago, when the family-owned business leadership changed from the father to the son. The company prints commercial projects only, focused on printing grocery bags, grocery boxes, packaging materials and other ancillary products that serve one national chain customer with 583 grocery stores in the chain. Products are printed, collated, glued, bound and packed according to the client specifications and the long-term contract is renewed yearly. The labor union is represented in this company, which requires contract negotiation on a yearly basis.

Excelsior Printing Company, Inc.

Excelsior Printing Company, Inc. is a nationally-recognized book printing company known for the 4-color printed, paper-over-board books they produce for children. This specialty printing company faces competition from Asian print providers; however the company provides a fast turnaround on projects that are short and follow a company template for printing production. Based in Houston, Texas, the company is held by two shareholders who take pride in the quality of books produced and the expediency offered in a process they’ve titled, “Fast Track” shipping. Fast Track shipping guarantees printed books will be delivered to bookstores within 4 weeks of a print order placed with Excelsior Printing Company, Inc. This guarantee provides the fastest delivery schedules of any printer in the U.S.

Competitive Advantage

Quick Process Print Shop will be able to offer the following advantages over their competition:

• Friendly, knowledgeable, and highly qualified team of Quick Process Print Shop employees, who will work with each client to ensure orders are correctly entered into the system, printed and delivered according to specifications.
• The comprehensive menu of services offered by Quick Process Print Shop outshines all other competitors in terms of the variety of printing and binding processes offered, quality maintained and turnaround delivery times guaranteed.
• Quick Process Print Shop offers comparable pricing for printing and binding. Their pricing structure is the most cost effective compared to the competition.

Marketing Plan

Brand & value proposition.

Quick Process Print Shop will offer the unique value proposition to its clientele:

• Highly-qualified team of skilled employees that is able to provide comprehensive printing and binding services for each client, including customized sizes, materials, designs or other parameters needed for completion of the project.
• Competitive prices with on-the-job service representatives to assist every step of the way.
• Binding products and services to compile corporate reports, organization presentations, and other documents or materials.
• Guaranteed fastest turnaround service for select projects.
• Reasonable pricing for outstanding results.

Promotions Strategy

The promotions strategy for Quick Process Print Shop is as follows:

Word of Mouth/Referrals

Taylor Owen has built up an extensive list of contacts over the years by providing exceptional service and expertise to his clients. They have communicated to Taylor that they kept renewing their contracts because they were happy with the service Taylor was providing. Once Taylor Owen advised them he was leaving to open his own print shop, they agreed to follow him to his new company and help spread the word of the Quick Process Print Shop.

Professional Associations and Networking

Quick Process Print Shop will become a member of commercial and residential professional associations within the region, due to the fact that each entity will need print services internally for a variety of projects that will need completion. In return, Quick Process Print Shop can offer reduced pricing for community efforts at fund-raising or other worthy causes by way of reciprocation and appreciation for the associations.

Print Advertising

As a printing company, Quick Process Print Shop, will advertise via printed pieces that describe the full range of services offered by Quick Process Print Shop. These printed pieces will be delivered to each resident in Cypress, Texas as a drop-in card inside The Cypress Daily, a city newspaper with a circulation of over 500,000 residents.

Website/SEO Marketing

Quick Process Print Shop will utilize their in-house employees who designed their print ads to also design their website. The website will be well organized, informative, and list all their services that Quick Process Print Shop is able to provide. The website will also list their contact information and list the multiple print and binding services and products available. A short-term social media marketing manager will also manage the website presence with SEO marketing tactics so that anytime someone types in the Google or Bing search engine “Fast Printing Cypress” or “print and bind near me”, Quick Process Print Shop will be listed at the top of the search results.

The pricing of Quick Process Print Shop will be moderate and on par with competitors so customers feel they receive excellent value and quality when purchasing their services.

Operations Plan

The following will be the operations plan for Quick Process Print Shop. Operation Functions:

• Taylor Owen will be the Owner and President of the company. He will act as the Senior Print Manager to oversee all major print projects, build client relationships and represent the company within the greater Cypress region. Jay has spent the past year recruiting the following staff:
• Derek Manahan – Office Manager who will manage the day-to-day operations of print projects and oversee the employee team.
• Shelly Duhane – Staff Bookkeeper, who will manage the financial accounts and compile records for payroll and tax purposes.
• Kelly Martin – Social Media Marketing Manager who will develop all initial marketing strategies for Quick Process Print Shop during the first three months of business.
• Carl Snowdon – Maintenance Manager who will provide all equipment and premises maintenance at the property.

Milestones:

Quick Process Print Shop will have the following milestones complete in the next six months.

• 5/1/202X – Finalize contract to lease location space
• 5/15/202X – Finalize personnel and staff employment contracts for the Quick Process Print Shop
• 6/1/202X – Finalize long-term contracts for Quick Process Print Shop clients
• 6/15/202X – Begin networking at regional association events
• 6/22/202X – Begin moving into Quick Process Print Shop location
• 7/1/202X – Quick Process Print Shop opens its building for business

Quick Process Print Shop will be owned and operated by Taylor Owen. He recruited his former printing coordinator, Derek Manahan, to be his Office Manager to help manage the office and day-to-day operations.

Taylor Owen graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Design. He has been employed by a local printing company for over twenty years as a Print Manager. Jay has successfully secured the assurances of former clients that they will bring their business needs to the Quick Process Print Shop upon opening and he is in the process of obtaining new long-term contracts with corporate clients.

Derek Manahan has been the print coordinator, working under the direction of Taylor Owen, for the past ten years at the same chain print shop. Derek holds a commercial printing certification from Cypress Community College. Derek’s organizational and administrative skills have propelled the former print coordinator to new heights of efficiency and turnaround times for clients; as such, the high expectation is that he will do so again for the Quick Process Print Shop in his new role of Office Manager.

Financial Plan

Key revenue & costs.

The revenue drivers for Quick Process Print Shop are the fees they will charge to the clients for their services and products .

The cost drivers will be the overhead costs required in order to staff and equip the Quick Process Print Shop location. The expenses will be the payroll cost, rent, utilities, office supplies, and marketing materials.

Funding Requirements and Use of Funds

Quick Process Print Shop is seeking $200,000 in debt financing to launch its property management business. The funding will be dedicated toward securing the location space and purchasing printing equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated toward three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent, and marketing costs for the print ads and association memberships. The breakout of the funding is below:

Key Assumptions

The following outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and in order to pay off the startup business loan.

• Number of Projects, Services and Products Sold Per Month: 600
• Average Fees per Month: $55,000
• Office Lease per Year: $100,000

Financial Projections

Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, print shop business plan faqs, what is a print shop business plan.

A print shop business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your print shop business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections.

You can easily complete your Print Shop business plan using our Print Shop Business Plan Template here .

What are the Main Types of Print Shop Businesses?

There are a number of different kinds of print shop businesses , some examples include: Digital printing, Offset lithography printing, Screen printing, , and 3D printing.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Print Shop Business Plan?

Print Shop businesses are often funded through small business loans. Personal savings, credit card financing and angel investors are also popular forms of funding.

What are the Steps To Start a Print Shop Business?

Starting a print shop business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.

1. Develop A Print Shop Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed print shop business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include potential market size and target customers, the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast. 

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your print shop business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your print shop business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your Print Shop Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your print shop business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws. 

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your print shop business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms.

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations.

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events.

7. Acquire Necessary Print Shop Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your print shop business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation. 

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your print shop business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising.

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Printing Business

Back to All Business Ideas

How to Start a Printing Business

Written by: Howard Tillerman

Howard Tillerman is the Chief Marketing Officer for Step By Step Business and an award-winning marketing professional.

Edited by: David Lepeska

David has been writing and learning about business, finance and globalization for a quarter-century, starting with a small New York consulting firm in the 1990s.

Published on August 11, 2021 Updated on May 14, 2024

Investment range

$8,100 - $32,200

Revenue potential

$100,000 - $200,000 p.a.

Time to build

Profit potential

$50,000 - $100,000 p.a.

Industry trend

The global printing industry is worth more than $800 billion and presents a wealth of opportunities amid the shift to digital and 3D printing. You could grab a slice of this vast and growing market, but you may have to work hard and acquire the relevant entrepreneurial knowledge first.

Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place, as this in-depth guide lays out every step you’ll take to develop and launch your own successful printing business.

Let’s dive right in!

Looking to register your business? A limited liability company (LLC) is the best legal structure for new businesses because it is fast and simple.

Form your business immediately using ZenBusiness LLC formation service or hire one of the Best LLC Services .

Step 1: Decide if the Business Is Right for You

The first step is market analysis, to understand what’s happening in the industry and the prospects of building a successful business.

Pros and cons

Before you open a print shop, it’s best to weigh the pros and cons to help you determine if the risk is worth it.

• Highly profitable
• High customer retention rate
• Easy to start; work from home if needed
• Broad and exciting market
• Little experience required
• Cutthroat competition
• High overhead costs

Printing industry trends

The printing industry is seeing a rebirth. For starters, research firm Mordor Intelligence expects the global printing market to see steady annual growth of nearly 2.5% for the next five years.(( https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/commercial-printing-market )) 

That’s nothing compared to the explosive forecast for 3D printing, which is becoming more common in many sectors, including healthcare and manufacturing.

Industry size and growth

• Industry size and past growth – The US printing industry has seen a gradual decline in recent years and is valued at about $79 billion as of 2022, according to market analyst IBISWorld.(( https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/market-size/printing-united-states/ ))  
• Growth forecast – The US digital print market is headed toward impressive annual growth of almost 7% through 2026(( https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/05/10/2226163/0/en/The-digital-printing-market-size-is-expected-to-grow-from-USD-24-8-billion-in-2021-to-USD-34-3-billion-by-2026-at-a-CAGR-of-6-7.html )) while the 3D printing market is seen to grow from $14 billion in 2021 to $51 billion in 2028 — a more than 350% expansion in just seven years.(( https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/3d-printing-industry-analysis ))
• Number of businesses – There are nearly 45,000 printing businesses in the US.(( https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/number-of-businesses/printing-united-states/ ))
• Number of people employed – The industry employs more than 350,000 people.(( https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/employment/printing-united-states/ ))

Trends and challenges

Trends shaping the printing industry include:

• Growing preference for 3D and digital printing
• Emergence of erasable printing technology, security printing, and cloud printing

Challenges in the printing industry include:

• Declining demand due to adoption of digital technology
• High level of competition

What kind of people work in printing?

• Gender – Around 66% of all printers are male, while 34% are female.(( https://www.zippia.com/printer-jobs/demographics/#gender-statistics ))
• Average level of education – 36% of printers have a high school diploma and 28% hold a bachelor’s degree.(( https://www.zippia.com/printer-jobs/education/ ))
• Average age – The average age of an employed printer is 48 years old.(( https://www.zippia.com/printer-jobs/demographics/#age-statistics ))

How much does it cost to start a printing business?

The cost of starting a printing business depends on location, initial equipment, and upfront supplies.

You should expect to spend at least $40,000 for a barebones operation and up to $400,000 on the higher end. However, most in the printing business spend about $200,000 for a well-rounded print shop.

Signing on with a franchise such as the UPS Store boosts income. But if you’re not getting a franchise, your startup investment as an independent printing business will cover the following:

How much can you earn from a printing business?

Depending on industry segment and size of operation, a printing business tends to generate $100,000 to $200,000 in annual revenue, at a 50% profit margin. After costs, such as design software subscriptions, equipment maintenance, supplies, salaries, rent, and insurance, you’ll have a pre-tax profit of $50,000 to $100,000 per year.

Of course, if you add another printer, move to a larger space, or open a second and third location, you can make significantly more.

What barriers to entry are there?

The biggest barrier to entry in the printing industry is the high level of competition. Printing is a relatively popular market, attracting a lot of entrepreneurs. Your ability to offer competitive pricing and custom print options can help you gain a share of the market.

The high cost of equipment is another barrier. Printing equipment is expensive, and unless you have adequate capital, you’ll have a problem running a well-rounded service or outperforming your competitors.

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Step 2: hone your idea.

The second step to starting a printing business is to get more clarity about what you need to do to achieve success. Here’s what you need to do during this phase:

Market research will give you the upper hand, even if you’re already positive that you have a perfect product or service. Conducting market research is important, because it can help you understand your customers better, who your competitors are, and your business landscape.

Why? Identify an opportunity

Your competition will be other businesses offering the same services in your area. You will also be competing against larger companies with a nationwide presence, such as American Printing.

One of the easiest ways to establish a strong presence quickly in the printing industry is to leverage franchising. Partnering with printing franchises such as The UPS Store can provide your business a steady stream of business cards, brochures, and other marketing materials to boost income.

These materials are an integral part of fostering relationships during seminars, trade shows, and other promotional events.

What? Determine your services

Running a print shop typically involves providing one or more printing services, including screen, offset, 3D printed products , or digital printing. You could also offer a combination of services, such as screen and digital. Most printing businesses offer various specialized services such as T-shirt printing, signage, brochures, magazines, business cards, catalogs, and more.

Knowing which commercial printing service to start will help you determine your target customers, competition, and how to stand out.

• Digital printing involves creating designs on a computer and then printing it on various materials, including paper, canvas, fabric, and more. The leading digital printing technologies include inkjet and laser. Inkjet is commonly used for signages, short print runs, and posters. Laser printers are used for direct mails and brochures.
• Traditional offset printing, also known as lithography, is ideal for high-volume commercial jobs. Ever seen a video of newspapers running through big rollers? That’s offset printing.
• Screen or silk printing involves pressing ink through a stenciled mesh screen to create a printed design. It is popular for T-shirts, mugs, and billboards.
• The newest and fastest growing market segment is 3D printing, which involves the construction of a three-dimensional object from a computer design. This is not your grandfather’s printing method.

With a niche strategy, you can leverage your expertise in a particular area to stand out from your competition.

Think of it as a way to help you focus on printing services that your competitors aren’t offering in your area.

Decide whether you want to provide digital, screen, or offset printing services, or a combination of these services. That way, you won’t have a problem identifying your ideal customers.

While most print shops run from Monday through to Friday, operating hours depend on your current orders, which means you might work on weekends and late hours if you have a deadline to meet.

How much should you charge for printing?

Your pricing structure can make or break your printing business. Here are a few pricing strategies you can use:

Cost + markup pricing

This model involves determining the price by forecasting the cost of printing for a specific project then adding the desired profit markup on top.

Gain market share pricing

This strategy involves setting low prices to gain market share against competitors. The model works well if you’re offering multiple printing services.

For instance, you may lower prices for 3D printing to attract new customers knowing that you’ll later sell these clients more profitable services such as long-run offset printing. Research industry rates to help you determine the best pricing model for your business.

Once you know your costs, you can use this Step By Step profit margin calculator to determine your mark-up and final price points. Remember, the prices you use at launch should be subject to change if warranted by the market.

Who? Identify your target market

You’ve chosen your niche. The next thing you want to do is pinpoint your target customers. Targeting specific groups of potential clients can help reduce your marketing costs and maximize profits.

For instance, if you run a 3D printing business, your target customers would be display companies, ad agencies, marketing firms, and manufacturers. If you’re operating a screen printing business, your customers would include college students and T-shirt design firms.

When you know the printing customers to target, you can easily reach them, not to mention that you’ll be in a better position to provide quality services.

Where will your business be based?

While you can run your printing service from home, you’re better off with a storefront location. Ideally, you’ll want an area that’s visible and accessible.

Even if you don’t plan to attract many walk-in customers, a visible location can help spread the word about your business to local customers. You’ll also need a site that offers quick access to clients picking up their orders and people delivering supplies.

Also, as you evaluate a potential location for your print shop, consider zoning regulations to ensure that your chosen site allows for the legal operation of your business. Lastly, make sure that the cost of renting and running your selected location is within your budget.

You can find commercial space to rent in your area on Craigslist , Crexi , and Commercial Cafe . When choosing a commercial space, you may want to follow these rules of thumb:

• Central location accessible via public transport
• Ventilated and spacious, with good natural light
• Flexible lease that can be extended as your business grows
• Ready-to-use space with no major renovations or repairs needed

Step 3: Brainstorm a Printing Company Name

Here are some ideas for brainstorming your business name:

• Short, unique, and catchy names tend to stand out
• Names that are easy to say and spell tend to do better 
• The name should be relevant to your product or service offerings
• Ask around — family, friends, colleagues, social media — for suggestions
• Including keywords, such as “printers” or “digital printing”, boosts SEO
• Choose a name that allows for expansion: “Inkwell Printing Solutions” over “T-Shirt Printing Hub” or “Business Card Printing Solutions”
• A location-based name can help establish a strong connection with your local community and help with the SEO but might hinder future expansion

Once you’ve got a list of potential names, visit the website of the US Patent and Trademark Office to make sure they are available for registration and check the availability of related domain names using our Domain Name Search tool. Using “.com” or “.org” sharply increases credibility, so it’s best to focus on these. 

Find a Domain

Powered by GoDaddy.com

Finally, make your choice among the names that pass this screening and go ahead with domain registration and social media account creation. Your business name is one of the key differentiators that sets your business apart. Once you pick your company name, and start with the branding, it is hard to change the business name. Therefore, it’s important to carefully consider your choice before you start a business entity. 

Step 4: Create a Printing Business Plan

Here are the key components of a business plan:

• Executive Summary: A concise overview of the business plan, summarizing key points and objectives.
• Business Overview: A detailed description of the printing business, including its mission, vision, and core values.
• Product and Services: Clearly outline the printing services offered, such as digital printing, offset printing, and additional services like graphic design.
• Market Analysis: Research and analysis of the printing industry, including target market demographics, trends, and potential opportunities.
• Competitive Analysis: Assessment of competitors in the printing market, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and strategies to gain a competitive edge.
• Sales and Marketing: Strategies for promoting and selling printing services, including pricing, advertising, and sales channels.
• Management Team: Introduction to key members of the management team, highlighting their skills and roles in the business.
• Operations Plan: Details on the day-to-day operations of the printing business, covering production processes, equipment, and workflow.
• Financial Plan: A comprehensive financial forecast, including startup costs, revenue projections, and a break-even analysis.
• Appendix: Supplementary materials, such as resumes, additional market research, or legal documents, supporting the information presented in the business plan.

If you’ve never created a business plan, it can be an intimidating task. You might consider hiring a business plan specialist to create a top-notch business plan for you.

Step 5: Register Your Business

Registering your business is an absolutely crucial step — it’s the prerequisite to paying taxes, raising capital, opening a bank account, and other guideposts on the road to getting a business up and running.

Plus, registration is exciting because it makes the entire process official. Once it’s complete, you’ll have your own business! 

Choose where to register your company

Your business location is important because it can affect taxes, legal requirements, and revenue. Most people will register their business in the state where they live, but if you are planning to expand, you might consider looking elsewhere, as some states could offer real advantages when it comes to printing. 

If you’re willing to move, you could really maximize your business! Keep in mind, it’s relatively easy to transfer your business to another state. 

Choose your business structure

Business entities come in several varieties, each with its pros and cons. The legal structure you choose for your printing business will shape your taxes, personal liability, and business registration requirements, so choose wisely. 

Here are the main options:

• Sole Proprietorship – The most common structure for small businesses makes no legal distinction between company and owner. All income goes to the owner, who’s also liable for any debts, losses, or liabilities incurred by the business. The owner pays taxes on business income on his or her personal tax return.
• General Partnership – Similar to a sole proprietorship, but for two or more people. Again, owners keep the profits and are liable for losses. The partners pay taxes on their share of business income on their personal tax returns.
• Limited Liability Company (LLC) – Combines the characteristics of corporations with those of sole proprietorships or partnerships. Again, the owners are not personally liable for debts.
• C Corp – Under this structure, the business is a distinct legal entity and the owner or owners are not personally liable for its debts. Owners take profits through shareholder dividends, rather than directly. The corporation pays taxes, and owners pay taxes on their dividends, which is sometimes referred to as double taxation.
• S Corp – An S-Corporation refers to the tax classification of the business but is not a business entity. An S-Corp can be either a corporation or an LLC , which just needs to elect to be an S-Corp for tax status. In an S-Corp, income is passed through directly to shareholders, who pay taxes on their share of business income on their personal tax returns.

We recommend that new business owners choose LLC as it offers liability protection and pass-through taxation while being simpler to form than a corporation. You can form an LLC in as little as five minutes using an online LLC formation service. They will check that your business name is available before filing, submit your articles of organization , and answer any questions you might have.

Form Your LLC

Choose Your State

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Step 6: Register for Taxes

The final step before you’re able to pay taxes is getting an Employer Identification Number , or EIN. You can file for your EIN online or by mail or fax: visit the IRS website to learn more. Keep in mind, if you’ve chosen to be a sole proprietorship you can simply use your social security number as your EIN. 

Once you have your EIN, you’ll need to choose your tax year. Financially speaking, your business will operate in a calendar year (January–December) or a fiscal year, a 12-month period that can start in any month. This will determine your tax cycle, while your business structure will determine which taxes you’ll pay.

The IRS website also offers a tax-payers checklist , and taxes can be filed online.

It is important to consult an accountant or other professional to help you with your taxes to ensure you are completing them correctly.

Step 7: Fund your Business

Securing financing is your next step and there are plenty of ways to raise capital:

• Bank loans : This is the most common method, but getting approved requires a rock-solid business plan and strong credit history.
• SBA-guaranteed loans : The Small Business Administration can act as guarantor, helping gain that elusive bank approval via an SBA-guaranteed loan .
• Government grants : A handful of financial assistance programs help fund entrepreneurs. Visit Grants.gov to learn which might work for you.
• Venture capital : Offer potential investors an ownership stake in exchange for funds, keeping in mind that you would be sacrificing some control over your business.
• Friends and Family: Reach out to friends and family to provide a business loan or investment in your concept. It’s a good idea to have legal advice when doing so because SEC regulations apply.
• Crowdfunding: Websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo offer an increasingly popular low-risk option, in which donors fund your vision. Entrepreneurial crowdfunding sites like Fundable and WeFunder enable multiple investors to fund your business.
• Personal: Self-fund your business via your savings or the sale of property or other assets.

Bank and SBA loans are probably the best option, other than friends and family, for funding a printing business. You might also try crowdfunding if you have an innovative concept.

Step 8: Apply for Printing Business Licenses and Permits

Starting a printing business requires obtaining a number of licenses and permits from local, state, and federal governments.

Federal regulations, licenses, and permits associated with starting your business include doing business as (DBA), health licenses and permits from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ( OSHA ), trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other intellectual properties, as well as industry-specific licenses and permits. 

You may also need state-level and local county or city-based licenses and permits. The license requirements and how to obtain them vary, so check the websites of your state, city, and county governments or contact the appropriate person to learn more. 

You could also check this SBA guide for your state’s requirements, but we recommend using MyCorporation’s Business License Compliance Package . They will research the exact forms you need for your business and state and provide them to ensure you’re fully compliant.

This is not a step to be taken lightly, as failing to comply with legal requirements can result in hefty penalties.

If you feel overwhelmed by this step or don’t know how to begin, it might be a good idea to hire a professional to help you check all the legal boxes.

Step 9: Open a Business Bank Account

Before you start making money you’ll need a place to keep it, and that requires opening a bank account .

Keeping your business finances separate from your personal account makes it easy to file taxes and track your company’s income, so it’s worth doing even if you’re running your printing business as a sole proprietorship. Opening a business bank account is quite simple, and similar to opening a personal one. Most major banks offer accounts tailored for businesses — just inquire at your preferred bank to learn about their rates and features.

Banks vary in terms of offerings, so it’s a good idea to examine your options and select the best plan for you. Once you choose your bank, bring in your EIN (or Social Security Number if you decide on a sole proprietorship), articles of incorporation, and other legal documents and open your new account. 

Step 10: Get Business Insurance

Business insurance is an area that often gets overlooked yet it can be vital to your success as an entrepreneur. Insurance protects you from unexpected events that can have a devastating impact on your business.

Here are some types of insurance to consider:

• General liability: The most comprehensive type of insurance, acting as a catch-all for many business elements that require coverage. If you get just one kind of insurance, this is it. It even protects against bodily injury and property damage.
• Business Property: Provides coverage for your equipment and supplies.
• Equipment Breakdown Insurance: Covers the cost of replacing or repairing equipment that has broken due to mechanical issues.
• Worker’s compensation: Provides compensation to employees injured on the job.
• Property: Covers your physical space, whether it is a cart, storefront, or office.
• Commercial auto: Protection for your company-owned vehicle.
• Professional liability: Protects against claims from a client who says they suffered a loss due to an error or omission in your work.
• Business owner’s policy (BOP): This is an insurance plan that acts as an all-in-one insurance policy, a combination of any of the above insurance types.

Step 11: Prepare to Launch

As opening day nears, prepare for launch by reviewing and improving some key elements of your business. 

Essential software and tools

Being an entrepreneur often means wearing many hats, from marketing to sales to accounting, which can be overwhelming. Fortunately, many websites and digital tools are available to help simplify many business tasks.  

You can use design software such as The Print Shop , Canva , and Printavo , to create professional print layouts, adding flair to your projects.

• Popular web-based accounting programs for smaller businesses include Quickbooks , Freshbooks , and Xero . 
• If you’re unfamiliar with basic accounting, you may want to hire a professional, especially as you begin. The consequences for filing incorrect tax documents can be harsh, so accuracy is crucial. 

Develop your website

Website development is crucial because your site is your online presence and needs to convince prospective clients of your expertise and professionalism.

You can create your own website using services like WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace . This route is very affordable, but figuring out how to build a website can be time-consuming. If you lack tech-savvy, you can hire a web designer or developer to create a custom website for your business.

They are unlikely to find your website, however, unless you follow Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ) practices. These are steps that help pages rank higher in the results of top search engines like Google. 

Here are some powerful marketing strategies for your future business:

• Local Partnerships: Forge partnerships with local businesses, such as event planners, schools, and restaurants, to offer exclusive printing services, creating a mutually beneficial relationship.
• Sample Kits: Develop eye-catching sample kits showcasing your printing capabilities and distribute them to potential clients, leaving a lasting impression and tangible evidence of your quality.
• Social Media Engagement: Leverage social media platforms by regularly sharing visually appealing content, highlighting your printing projects, and engaging with your audience through contests or polls to build a strong online presence.
• Referral Programs: Implement a referral program where existing clients receive discounts or perks for referring new business, turning satisfied customers into advocates for your printing services.
• Specialized Packages: Create specialized printing packages for occasions like weddings, corporate events, or product launches, demonstrating your ability to tailor services to specific needs.
• Community Events Sponsorship: Sponsor local events or community gatherings to increase brand visibility, and consider providing on-site printing services to showcase your capabilities directly to potential customers.
• Interactive Workshops: Host workshops or seminars on printing techniques, design trends, or DIY printing projects, positioning your business as an authority in the field and attracting a diverse audience.
• Customer Loyalty Programs: Develop loyalty programs offering discounts or exclusive deals for repeat customers, fostering long-term relationships and incentivizing clients to choose your printing services consistently.
• Targeted Direct Mail Campaigns: Design and execute targeted direct mail campaigns to specific industries or demographics, showcasing how your printing services can meet their unique needs.
• Testimonials and Case Studies: Collect and showcase client testimonials and case studies that emphasize successful collaborations, building trust and credibility with potential customers.

Focus on USPs

Unique selling propositions, or USPs, are the characteristics of a product or service that sets it apart from the competition. Customers today are inundated with buying options, so you’ll have a real advantage if they are able to quickly grasp how your printing meets their needs or wishes. It’s wise to do all you can to ensure your USPs stand out on your website and in your marketing and promotional materials, stimulating buyer desire. 

Global pizza chain Domino’s is renowned for its USP: “Hot pizza in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed.” Signature USPs for your printing business could be:

• Fastest printing service in town!
• If you can design it, we can print it
• No job is too small, or too big

You may not like to network or use personal connections for business gain. But your personal and professional networks likely offer considerable untapped business potential. Maybe that Facebook friend you met in college is now running a print shop, or a LinkedIn contact of yours is connected to dozens of potential clients. Maybe your cousin or neighbor has been working in printing for years and can offer invaluable insight and industry connections. 

The possibilities are endless, so it’s a good idea to review your personal and professional networks and reach out to those with possible links to or interest in printing. You’ll probably generate new customers or find companies with which you could establish a partnership. Online businesses might also consider affiliate marketing as a way to build relationships with potential partners and boost business.

Step 12: Build Your Team

If you’re starting out small from home, you may not need any employees. But as your business grows, you will likely need workers to fill various roles. Potential positions for a printing business would include:

• Designers and Printers
• General Manager
• Marketing Lead

At some point, you may need to hire all of these positions or simply a few, depending on the size and needs of your business. You might also hire multiple workers for a single role or a single worker for multiple roles, again depending on need. 

Free-of-charge methods to recruit employees include posting ads on popular platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or Jobs.com. You might also consider a premium recruitment option, such as advertising on Indeed , Glassdoor , or ZipRecruiter . Further, if you have the resources, you could consider hiring a recruitment agency to help you find talent. 

Step 13: Run a Printing Business – Start Making Money!

In the near future, 3D printing and digital printing will likely come to dominate the market. Other trends to look out for include erasable printing technology, security printing, and cloud printing. A smart entrepreneur would get in now while the market is still taking shape.

You’re now ready to start printing and making money! Thought you might want to bookmark this page, just in case.

• Printing Business FAQs

Yes, you can. However, you’ll need to partner with the right people and stores. Also, you must have a well-thought-out marketing plan and, of course, sell high-demand products. One of the critical determinants of how much money you can make with a print-on-demand business is the quality of your designs – so create high-quality designs to attract customers.

The amount of revenue you can generate with a t-shirt business depends on several factors, such as your customer base and location. You can make about $573 with an average order of 72 custom t-shirts which takes one hour to print. Wages and materials cost about $169, leaving you with a profit of $304.

Yes, it is. Even so, revenue may vary depending on your target market and location. Industry insiders say the prospects look good since 3D printing is still at its infant stage. The trick is to invest in the right equipment to produce work that customers can buy at a premium price.

Printing companies can acquire clients through networking, referrals, online presence, direct marketing, local partnerships, and participating in industry events.

Digital prints can be profitable due to cost efficiency, quick turnaround times, and the ability to offer customized prints, but profitability may vary.

To make a printing business successful, focus on high-quality products/services, excellent customer service, strong branding and marketing, staying updated with industry trends, building relationships, expanding service offerings, efficient operations, and continuous improvement.

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• Decide if the Business Is Right for You
• Hone Your Idea
• Brainstorm a Printing Company Name
• Create a Printing Business Plan
• Register Your Business
• Register for Taxes
• Fund your Business
• Apply for Printing Business Licenses and Permits
• Open a Business Bank Account
• Get Business Insurance
• Prepare to Launch
• Build Your Team
• Run a Printing Business - Start Making Money!

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How to Start a Print Shop

Printing shops offer a variety of print and copy services to the public. This includes online printing, direct mail, and business printing. Most printing stores offer additional services to the public, depending upon the specific needs within the community.

You may also be interested in additional low cost business ideas .

Learn how to start your own Print Shop and whether it is the right fit for you.

Ready to form your LLC? Check out the Top LLC Formation Services .

Start a print shop by following these 10 steps:

• Plan your Print Shop
• Form your Print Shop into a Legal Entity
• Register your Print Shop for Taxes
• Open a Business Bank Account & Credit Card
• Set up Accounting for your Print Shop
• Get the Necessary Permits & Licenses for your Print Shop
• Get Print Shop Insurance
• Define your Print Shop Brand
• Create your Print Shop Website
• Set up your Business Phone System

We have put together this simple guide to starting your print shop. These steps will ensure that your new business is well planned out, registered properly and legally compliant.

Exploring your options? Check out other small business ideas .

STEP 1: Plan your business

A clear plan is essential for success as an entrepreneur. It will help you map out the specifics of your business and discover some unknowns. A few important topics to consider are:

What will you name your business?

• What are the startup and ongoing costs?
• Who is your target market?

How much can you charge customers?

Luckily we have done a lot of this research for you.

Choosing the right name is important and challenging. If you don’t already have a name in mind, visit our How to Name a Business guide or get help brainstorming a name with our Print Shop Name Generator

If you operate a sole proprietorship , you might want to operate under a business name other than your own name. Visit our DBA guide to learn more.

When registering a business name , we recommend researching your business name by checking:

• Your state's business records
• Federal and state trademark records
• Social media platforms
• Web domain availability .

It's very important to secure your domain name before someone else does.

Want some help naming your print shop?

Business name generator, what are the costs involved in opening a print shop.

Before identifying your budgetary needs, you must first determine the exact services you intend to offer. Industry leaders report spending between $146,000 and $400,000. Your initial investment will include the following:

• Location - Many novice printers start out working out of their homes. To realize significant success, however, a storefront location is recommended. To offer a full menu of services, you will need enough space to house all your printing equipment and enough workspace to spread out and work on multiple projects at once. Start-up costs for your brick and mortar will include first and last month’s rent and a security deposit, which could range from $4,000 to $12,000, depending upon location.
• Electrical upgrades - Prior to opening your doors and testing out equipment, make sure you have an electrician out to inspect your shop’s electrical needs.
• If you want to do digital printing, you need to start out with $300k-$400k and will need to get the electric upgraded in your new shop
• Equipment - The equipment you invest in will be defined by the specifics of the services you offer. This could include: embossing machine, offset printing press, plate maker, color copier, standard copier, laminator, and finishing equipment. Each item ranges from $1,500 to $12,000 in cost, but can be purchased used for a fraction of the cost. To save on start-up costs, many entrepreneurs choose to lease the equipment, paying for their equipment over time.
• Computers - You will need at least one computer to handle your design and administrative needs. Many print shops also invest in at least one floor computer, which can be used by clients for a by-the-minute fee.
• Software - Design software such as Adobe, should also be purchased. Many software companies now offer software licensing for a monthly fee. It is also recommended that you invest in business management and accounting software, to insure proper management of your organization.
• Franchise fees - Entrepreneurs realizing significant profits report having invested in a franchise such as The UPS Store or PostNet . While start-up costs are higher, the expertise and support of industry leaders has proven invaluable.
• Marketing materials

What are the ongoing expenses for a print shop?

In addition to the standard overhead costs that come with running a business, there are a number of items you will need to budget for each month:

• Design software - Software vendors offer monthly contracts, ranging anywhere from $30 to $150/month, depending upon the product and your specific needs.
• Equipment leasing fees - Varies depending upon a variety of factors
• Maintenance and replacement of equipment
• Payroll costs

Break-even monthly sales average between $10,000 and $15,000 a month, with approximately half of that going to materials. This number varies, depending upon your area.

Who is the target market?

The most successful print shops target a number of different audiences including: small businesses, large businesses, and individuals. While each group will require a slightly different marketing strategy, this diversity sets your business up for greater success.

How does a print shop make money?

Print shops generate revenue from each account they attend to. The more services your store offers, the better you’re able to thrive and serve the needs of your community.

Fee specifics will vary from project to project, depending upon the specific needs of the client, the intricacies of the project, and how much printing the client needs. As indicated, working with reputable vendors will help insure quality products at a fair price. Business owners who pass that savings on to their clients will gain a loyal following.

How much profit can a print shop make?

New print shop owners are urged to plan for one to three years of little to no profit. This offers ample time to develop relationships with clients and vendors, and establish a name for yourself within the community. Business owners in larger cities realize quicker profits than those from smaller communities.

How can you make your business more profitable?

While quality work will help your profits grow year-by-year, there are a number of additional services you can provide to accelerate growth:

• Expand your target audience to include online customers
• Offering premier services, such as delivery, will make your business more memorable
• Sell office supplies and products
• Offer additional services such as notary, passport/ID photos, and shredding
• Many print shops have also found success offering packaging services and partnering with the postal service and other shipping companies. PO boxes have also proven to increase annual profits.

Want a more guided approach? Access TRUiC's free Small Business Startup Guide - a step-by-step course for turning your business idea into reality. Get started today!

STEP 2: Form a legal entity

The most common business structure types are the sole proprietorship , partnership , limited liability company (LLC) , and corporation .

Establishing a legal business entity such as an LLC or corporation protects you from being held personally liable if your print shop is sued.

Form Your LLC

Read our Guide to Form Your Own LLC

Have a Professional Service Form your LLC for You

Two such reliable services:

You can form an LLC yourself and pay only the minimal state LLC costs or hire one of the Best LLC Services for a small, additional fee.

Recommended: You will need to elect a registered agent for your LLC. LLC formation packages usually include a free year of registered agent services . You can choose to hire a registered agent or act as your own.

STEP 3: Register for taxes

You will need to register for a variety of state and federal taxes before you can open for business.

In order to register for taxes you will need to apply for an EIN. It's really easy and free!

You can acquire your EIN through the IRS website . If you would like to learn more about EINs, read our article, What is an EIN?

There are specific state taxes that might apply to your business. Learn more about state sales tax and franchise taxes in our state sales tax guides.

STEP 4: Open a business bank account & credit card

Using dedicated business banking and credit accounts is essential for personal asset protection.

When your personal and business accounts are mixed, your personal assets (your home, car, and other valuables) are at risk in the event your business is sued. In business law, this is referred to as piercing your corporate veil .

Open a business bank account

Besides being a requirement when applying for business loans, opening a business bank account:

• Separates your personal assets from your company's assets, which is necessary for personal asset protection.
• Makes accounting and tax filing easier.

Recommended: Read our Best Banks for Small Business review to find the best national bank or credit union.

Get a business credit card

Getting a business credit card helps you:

• Separate personal and business expenses by putting your business' expenses all in one place.
• Build your company's credit history , which can be useful to raise money later on.

Recommended: Apply for an easy approval business credit card from BILL and build your business credit quickly.

STEP 5: Set up business accounting

Recording your various expenses and sources of income is critical to understanding the financial performance of your business. Keeping accurate and detailed accounts also greatly simplifies your annual tax filing.

Make LLC accounting easy with our LLC Expenses Cheat Sheet.

STEP 6: Obtain necessary permits and licenses

Failure to acquire necessary permits and licenses can result in hefty fines, or even cause your business to be shut down.

State & Local Business Licensing Requirements

Certain state permits and licenses may be needed to operate a print shop business. Learn more about licensing requirements in your state by visiting SBA’s reference to state licenses and permits .

Most businesses are required to collect sales tax on the goods or services they provide. To learn more about how sales tax will affect your business, read our article, Sales Tax for Small Businesses .

Certificate of Occupancy

A print shop business is generally run out of a storefront. Businesses operating out of a physical location typically require a Certificate of Occupancy (CO).  A CO confirms that all building codes, zoning laws and government regulations have been met.

• If you plan to lease a location :
• It is generally the landlord’s responsibility to obtain a CO.
• Before leasing, confirm that your landlord has or can obtain a valid CO that is applicable to a print shop business business.
• After a major renovation, a new CO often needs to be issued. If your place of business will be renovated before opening, it is recommended to include language in your lease agreement stating that lease payments will not commence until a valid CO is issued.
• If you plan to purchase or build a location :
• You will be responsible for obtaining a valid CO from a local government authority.
• Review all building codes and zoning requirements for your business’ location to ensure your print shop business will be in compliance and able to obtain a CO.

STEP 7: Get business insurance

Just as with licenses and permits, your business needs insurance in order to operate safely and lawfully. Business Insurance protects your company’s financial wellbeing in the event of a covered loss.

There are several types of insurance policies created for different types of businesses with different risks. If you’re unsure of the types of risks that your business may face, begin with General Liability Insurance . This is the most common coverage that small businesses need, so it’s a great place to start for your business.

Another notable insurance policy that many businesses need is Workers’ Compensation Insurance . If your business will have employees, it’s a good chance that your state will require you to carry Workers' Compensation Coverage.

FInd out what types of insurance your Print Shop needs and how much it will cost you by reading our guide Business Insurance for Print Shop.

STEP 8: Define your brand

Your brand is what your company stands for, as well as how your business is perceived by the public. A strong brand will help your business stand out from competitors.

If you aren't feeling confident about designing your small business logo, then check out our Design Guides for Beginners , we'll give you helpful tips and advice for creating the best unique logo for your business.

Recommended : Get a logo using Truic's free logo Generator no email or sign up required, or use a Premium Logo Maker .

If you already have a logo, you can also add it to a QR code with our Free QR Code Generator . Choose from 13 QR code types to create a code for your business cards and publications, or to help spread awareness for your new website.

How to promote & market a print shop

To insure potential clients understand the services your enterprise offers, have a simple, yet informative website built. Position yourself as a thought leader in the industry by regularly publishing a blog. This content marketing strategy educates your clients and helps search engines like Google target your business. As your experience and projects expand, make sure to update your online portfolio. Prospective clients who are surfing the web are more likely to partner with an organization whose work is available for viewing.

Additionally, it is recommended that your shop regularly offer business promotions to attract and retain customers. Partnering with reputable vendors and negotiating the best prices is also critical. This insures each client receives the fairest price, without sacrificing quality. Allow your work to speak for itself by printing your own quality marketing materials. Consider your target audience(s) and design promotional material to fit each niches’ needs.

Online directories such as Printguide also offer unique, cost-effective ways to reach prospective clients. It is also recommended that you join local business associations and attend networking events. National Print & Sign Owners Association and Printing Industries of America   are a great resources for both novice and experienced print shop owners. Convention booths will set you back approximately $3,000, but the connections you make will be well worth it. Entrepreneurs who have included car wraps in their marketing strategy have realized a significant return on their investment. One $2,500 car wrap stands to bring in an average of $15,000 in profits annually.

How to keep customers coming back

Delivering consistent, quality service will be your primary retention tool. This, combined with your strong interpersonal skills, is what will set you apart from the competition. Building long-standing relationships with vendors, community business leaders, and customers will insure a positive reputation. We live in an information-rich business landscape, meaning there is no room for error or poor customer service.

STEP 9: Create your business website

After defining your brand and creating your logo the next step is to create a website for your business .

While creating a website is an essential step, some may fear that it’s out of their reach because they don’t have any website-building experience. While this may have been a reasonable fear back in 2015, web technology has seen huge advancements in the past few years that makes the lives of small business owners much simpler.

Here are the main reasons why you shouldn’t delay building your website:

• All legitimate businesses have websites - full stop. The size or industry of your business does not matter when it comes to getting your business online.
• Social media accounts like Facebook pages or LinkedIn business profiles are not a replacement for a business website that you own.
• Website builder tools like the GoDaddy Website Builder have made creating a basic website extremely simple. You don’t need to hire a web developer or designer to create a website that you can be proud of.

Recommended : Get started today using our recommended website builder or check out our review of the Best Website Builders .

Other popular website builders are: WordPress , WIX , Weebly , Squarespace , and Shopify .

STEP 10: Set up your business phone system

Getting a phone set up for your business is one of the best ways to help keep your personal life and business life separate and private. That’s not the only benefit; it also helps you make your business more automated, gives your business legitimacy, and makes it easier for potential customers to find and contact you.

There are many services available to entrepreneurs who want to set up a business phone system. We’ve reviewed the top companies and rated them based on price, features, and ease of use. Check out our review of the Best Business Phone Systems 2023 to find the best phone service for your small business.

Recommended Business Phone Service: Phone.com

Phone.com is our top choice for small business phone numbers because of all the features it offers for small businesses and it's fair pricing.

Is this Business Right For You?

Industry leaders indicate that, due to the services offered, the individual with a background in printing is most suitable for this business venture. If you have the background, necessary capital, and are ready to work hard to insure a stable financial future for you and your family, now is the time to consider becoming your own boss.

Want to know if you are cut out to be an entrepreneur?

Take our Entrepreneurship Quiz to find out!

Entrepreneurship Quiz

What happens during a typical day at a print shop?

Since your print shop will likely offer a wide variety of services, each day will be fast-paced and very different from the last. Modern day print shops typically offer the following:

• Professional small business printing - digital printing, offset printing, binding, laminating, and other document finishing services.
• Online printing - client uploads and submits documents for printing and finishing.
• Personal and professional copying - both self and full service
• Package and mail services

In addition to managing your client’s printing needs, you will also want to dedicate a portion of your time to your own business’ demands. Marketing is a critical component to every business owner’s day, as is administrative duties such as accounting and corresponding with representatives from various accounts.

What are some skills and experiences that will help you build a successful print shop?

Whether you plan to take an active or inactive role in the day-to-day operations of the business, it is important that you fully understand the particulars before formulating a business plan. It is recommended that you work in the industry for at least a year or two. This will give you an opportunity to familiarize yourself with the equipment, processes, terminology, and pricing. Those taking an active role should not only be an astute businessman, they must also possess design and printing skills. Strong leadership skills, including attention to detail, delegation, and communication, will also prove critical to your enterprise’s long-term success.

What is the growth potential for a print shop?

Collectively, the printing industry is poised to grow at an astounding 30% over the next few years. Entrepreneurs who have led the market, however, urge novice business owners to strive to provide a full menu of services. While this business strategy requires employing a more educated and talented workforce, the long-term benefits far outweigh the increase in payroll costs.

TRUiC's YouTube Channel

For fun informative videos about starting a business visit the TRUiC YouTube Channel or subscribe to view later.

Take the Next Step

Find a business mentor.

One of the greatest resources an entrepreneur can have is quality mentorship. As you start planning your business, connect with a free business resource near you to get the help you need.

Having a support network in place to turn to during tough times is a major factor of success for new business owners.

Learn from other business owners

Want to learn more about starting a business from entrepreneurs themselves? Visit Startup Savant’s startup founder series to gain entrepreneurial insights, lessons, and advice from founders themselves.

Resources to Help Women in Business

There are many resources out there specifically for women entrepreneurs. We’ve gathered necessary and useful information to help you succeed both professionally and personally:

If you’re a woman looking for some guidance in entrepreneurship, check out this great new series Women in Business created by the women of our partner Startup Savant.

What are some insider tips for jump starting a print shop?

The printing industry is very competitive. Therefore, it is critical that you stand out for your exemplary service and dedication to your clients. If someone calls the shop at 5pm, hoping you are able to print a complex report by 10 am tomorrow, be realistic when considering the job. If you are able to complete the work, without sacrificing quality, do so. Such a service is what sets you apart from the competition and gets your shop recognized within the business community. Enterprises are willing to pay a significant rush-job fee, as long as the job is completed accurately and on time. To insure you work efficiently and remain competitive, stay aware of industry trends and adjust accordingly.

How and when to build a team

Many business owners start out working every aspect of the business themselves. To avoid burnout, consider starting out with at least one team member, even if it is just to handle administrative tasks. As the business grows, more staff members will be necessary. Since customer service is your primary marketing and retention tool, make sure you hire individuals with prior experience. While a well-rounded employee will cost $22 to $26 per hour, they will save your budget in the long-run. Industry experts cite reprints from employee mistakes as one of their largest business costs.

Useful Links

Industry opportunities.

• National Print &Sign Owners Association

Real World Examples

• Greko Printing and Imaging
• The Print Shop LA

Further Reading

• What Do I Need to Open a Print Shop Business

Have a Question? Leave a Comment!

Print Shop Business Plan Template [Updated 2024]

Print Shop Business Plan Template

If you want to start a print shop or expand your current printing business, you need a business plan.

The following Print Shop business plan template gives you the key elements to include in a winning printing company business plan. In addition to this template, a solid plan will also include market research to help you better understand the printing industry, your competitive advantage and your specific target market. It will also help you prepare your marketing strategy and financial statements.

You can download our Ultimate Business Plan Template (including a full, customizable financial model) to your computer here.

Example Business Plan For Print Shops

Below are links to each of the key sections of a sample business plan for successful print shop businesses.

I. Executive Summary – The Executive Summary provides an overview of your business opportunity and summarizes the business plan.

II. Company Overview – The company overview includes information about your business concept, print shop services and legal structure.

III. Industry Analysis – The industry analysis includes market research that supports your business and provides insights into market trends and print shop industry data on all print shop services including digital printing, lithography printing, screen printing and

IV. Customer Analysis – The market analysis provides an overview of your target markets and customer segments.

You can download our business plan template (including a full, customizable financial model) to your computer here.

V. Competitive Analysis – The competitive analysis should identify your direct and indirect competitors and their printing services. It should also highlight your competitive edge and unique value proposition.

VI. Marketing Plan – The marketing plan includes your marketing strategy, sales strategy, pricing strategy and search engine optimization plan.

VII. Operations Plan – The Operations Plan includes information on your company’s day to day operations and processes.

VIII. Management Team – The management team section includes a profile of the business owner and business management, their experience and company responsibilities.

IX. Financial Plan – The financial plan includes financial projections, a cash flow statement, profit and loss statement and balance sheet.

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Print Shop Business Plan Home I. Executive Summary II. Company Overview III. Industry Analysis IV. Customer Analysis V. Competitive Analysis VI. Marketing Plan VII. Operations Plan VIII. Management Team IX. Financial Plan

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How To Start A Print Shop Business: Create A Business Plan

• Posted in Business Tips / Digital Printing / Screen Printing
• Business Tips
• Digital Printing
• Screen Printing
• Post author: Colin Hubbard
• Post published: Jan 13, 2022
• Reading time: 7 mins read

Have you been thinking about starting your own print shop? 

The calendar has turned to the year 2022 and what better time to finally act on your dream of owning and operating a print shop than right now. 

Owning your own business isn’t easy. There are a lot of steps involved and the capital needed to get you started. Whether you’re ready to pull the trigger, or if you’re still on the fence, we’re here to help. 

We here at DecoNetwork want to give you a guide on how to start your own print shop and what you will need to do in order to get the ball rolling. 

In this first article, we will give you information on how to form a business plan. This will include costs of operation, what type of shop you want to run, and more. 

Creating a Business Plan

The first thing you need to decide on is what kind of business you want to run. Print shops come in all shapes and sizes. If you’ve clicked on this article and have made it this far, you probably already have an idea of what you want your business to look like. 

Finding a niche, or two is always a good idea when starting a business. If there are already several people in your area doing what you have in mind, your success might be hindered. Make sure that what you plan to do fills a need in your local market. At the end of the day, you will need customers to make your business successful. 

Do research on your local market and make sure that your business model is achievable. Whichever model you go with will impact every move you make from here on out. 

The location in which you intend to operate will dramatically affect your startup costs and month-to-month expenses. The beauty of this business is that you don’t have to work out of a brick-and-mortar location. You can own and operate a business right out of your own home and work your way up from there. 

If you want to operate your business out of a storefront, your cost of operation will increase rather quickly. Depending on your area, you will be spending thousands of dollars a month on rent. But if you want to have a large operation with the potential of making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, that will be a necessary investment. 

The size of your location will directly affect how much and what type of equipment you will need to purchase. 

From a screen printing standpoint, your startup cost varies depending upon the size of your operation. But it is reasonable to assume that you can start screen printing for less than $10,000. The list of things needed to get started will include a manual press, flash dryer, exposure unit, screens, ink, emulsion and a handful of other miscellaneous items. 

If you plan on going big from day one and you have the required square footage at your disposal, an automatic screen printing machine will run you upwards of $100,000 depending on the number of colors it can handle. A high-quality 8-color automatic press is in the neighborhood of $75,000. 

There are payment plans for these machines, however, that will allow you to not spend as much money up front if you’re looking to purchase a piece of equipment that’s on the higher end. 

And while that might sound like a lot of money to be shelling out for one piece of equipment, the speed at which the machine can print shirts will allow your business to produce more shirts per day, ultimately leading to more revenue per day. 

DTG Pricing

If you’re looking to get into DTG printing, you will likely be spending anywhere from $5,000-$15,000 for one machine. You will also need to purchase a heat press and a pretreat machine. But just like the screen printing equipment, DTG machines can be financed, too. This will allow you to make a monthly payment rather than one lump sum. 

If you go the finance route, finding out what your daily break-even point would be one of your next moves. If your monthly equipment costs are $500 and you profit around $10 per shirt, your break-even point per month would be 50 shirts. Anything over the 50 shirt-per-month mark would be your profit. 

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to how much money you will need in order to get your operation underway. It all depends on what type of printing you’re looking to do, what size operation you’re going to have and whether or not you will want to finance those things. 

Miscellaneous Purchases

There are other miscellaneous things you will need to purchase to get your business up and running. A computer, software programs like Adobe, and a print shop management software like DecoNetwork to help with production workflow, and eCommerce and help set you up with a website. You’ll also need some type of insurance and payroll if you have employees working for you. 

One of the last major things you will need to do when creating your business plan is to come up with a name for your business. It doesn’t have to be elaborate or super catchy, but it needs to be something customers can easily remember and recognize. Creating a good logo to pair with your business name can go a long way in helping your business. 

To summarize everything, formulate a business plan. Figure out where you are going to operate your business. Decide on what equipment you need to purchase. Budget for the remaining miscellaneous items you will need such as software programs and come up with a business name. 

In the next article, we will talk about forming a legal identity, registering for taxes, opening business bank accounts, obtaining permits and more.

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Printing Press Business Plan

The extensive marketplace, ever-increasing demands, and abundant opportunities for scalability make the printing press business an exciting opportunity for anyone to start.

Is your business idea financially feasible? Is it capable of achieving desired growth? What would be the approximate costs to run this business? Answering foundational questions gets much easier when you have a comprehensive business plan for your printing press business.

Need help writing a business plan for your printing press business? You’re at the right place. Our printing press business plan template will help you get started.

Free Business Plan Template

Download our free business plan template now and pave the way to success. Let’s turn your vision into an actionable strategy!

• Fill in the blanks – Outline
• Financial Tables

How to Write A Printing Press Business Plan?

Writing a printing press business plan is a crucial step toward the success of your business. Here are the key steps to consider when writing a business plan:

1. Executive Summary

An executive summary is the first section planned to offer an overview of the entire business plan. However, it is written after the entire business plan is ready and summarizes each section of your plan.

Here are a few key components to include in your executive summary:

Introduce your Business:

Start your executive summary by briefly introducing your business to your readers.

Market Opportunity:

Products and services:.

Highlight the products and services you offer in your printing press business. Highlight the USPs and differentiators to establish a competitive edge.

Marketing & Sales Strategies:

Financial highlights:, call to action:.

Ensure your executive summary is clear, concise, easy to understand, and jargon-free.

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2. Business Overview

The business overview section of your business plan offers detailed information about your company. The details you add will depend on how important they are to your business. Yet, business name, location, business history, and future goals are some of the foundational elements you must consider adding to this section:

Business Description:

Describe your business in this section by providing all the basic information:

Describe what kind of printing press company you run and the name of it. You may specialize in one of the following printing press businesses:

Offset printing press

Digital printing press, online printing press, specialty printing press.

• Describe the legal structure of your printing press company, whether it is a sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership, or others.
• Explain where your business is located and why you selected the place.

Mission Statement:

Business history:.

If you’re an established printing press service provider, briefly describe your business history, like—when it was founded, how it evolved over time, etc.

Future Goals:

This section should provide a thorough understanding of your business, its history, and its future plans. Keep this section engaging, precise, and to the point.

3. Market Analysis

The market analysis section of your business plan should offer a thorough understanding of the industry with the target market, competitors, and growth opportunities. You should include the following components in this section.

Target market:

Start this section by describing your target market. Define your ideal customer and explain what types of services they prefer. Creating a buyer persona will help you easily define your target market to your readers.

Market size and growth potential:

Describe your market size and growth potential and whether you will target a niche or a much broader market.

Competitive Analysis:

Market trends:.

Analyze emerging trends in the printing press market like advanced technologies and equipment, emerging demand for novelty printing solutions, etc. Explain how your business will cope with all the trends.

Regulatory Environment:

Here are a few tips for writing the market analysis section of your digital printing business plan:

• Conduct market research, industry reports, and surveys to gather data.
• Provide specific and detailed information whenever possible.
• Illustrate your points with charts and graphs.
• Write your business plan keeping your target audience in mind.

4. Products And Services

The product and services section should describe the specific services and products that will be offered to customers. To write this section should include the following:

Describe your offerings:

Mention the printing press products and services your business will offer. This list may include products and services like,

• Printing services like digital printing, offset printing, 3D printing, wide format printing, etc.
• Graphic services
• Print Finishing solutions like binding, lamination, cover, etc.
• Stationery products
• Packaging and label solutions

Describe each service:

Provide a detailed description of each service you provide.

Graphic designing and printing services include:

• Getting clients’ requirements and getting creative designed by graphic designers.
• Getting approval from the client.
• Choosing appropriate printing techniques and beginning printing.
• Giving final touches to printed materials.
• Packing it appropriately and getting it delivered.

Quality measures:

This section should explain how you maintain quality standards and consistently provide the highest quality service.

Additional Services:

In short, this section of your printing press plan must be informative, precise, and client-focused. By providing a clear and compelling description of your offerings, you can help potential investors and readers understand the value of your business.

5. Sales And Marketing Strategies

Writing the sales and marketing strategies section means a list of strategies you will use to attract and retain your clients. Here are some key elements to include in your sales & marketing plan:

Unique Selling Proposition (USP):

Define your business’s USPs depending on the market you serve, the equipment you use, and the unique services you provide. Identifying USPs will help you plan your marketing strategies.

Pricing Strategy:

Marketing strategies:, sales strategies:, customer retention:.

Overall, this section of your printing press business plan should focus on customer acquisition and retention.

Have a specific, realistic, and data-driven approach while planning sales and marketing strategies for your printing press business, and be prepared to adapt or make strategic changes in your strategies based on feedback and results.

6. Operations Plan

The operations plan section of your business plan should outline the processes and procedures involved in your business operations, such as staffing requirements and operational processes. Here are a few components to add to your operations plan:

Staffing & Training:

Mention your printing business’s staffing requirement, including the number of employees needed. Include desired qualifications, skill sets and training requirements, familiarity level with advanced technologies, and their duties.

Operational Process:

Equipment & machinery:.

Include the list of equipment and machinery required for a printing press, such as printing machines, inkjet technologies, finishing tools and equipment, etc.

Adding these components to your operations plan will help you lay out your business operations, which will eventually help you manage your business effectively.

7. Management Team

The management team section provides an overview of your printing press business’s management team. This section should provide a detailed description of each manager’s experience and qualifications, as well as their responsibilities and roles.

Founders/CEO:

Key managers:, organizational structure:, compensation plan:, advisors/consultants:.

Mentioning advisors or consultants in your business plans adds credibility to your business idea.

This section should describe the key personnel for your printing press services, highlighting how you have the perfect team to succeed.

8. Financial Plan

Your financial plan section should provide a summary of your business’s financial projections for the first few years. Here are some key elements to include in your financial plan:

Profit & loss statement:

Cash flow statement:, balance sheet:, break-even point:.

Determine and mention your business’s break-even point—the point at which your business costs and revenue will be equal.

Financing Needs:

Be realistic with your financial projections, and make sure you offer relevant information and evidence to support your estimates.

9. Appendix

The appendix section of your plan should include any additional information supporting your business plan’s main content, such as market research, legal documentation, financial statements, and other relevant information.

• Add a table of contents for the appendix section to help readers easily find specific information or sections.
• In addition to your financial statements, provide additional financial documents like tax returns, a list of assets within the business, credit history, and more. These statements must be the latest and offer financial projections for at least the first three or five years of business operations.
• Provide data derived from market research, including stats about the printing press industry, user demographics, and industry trends.
• Include any legal documents such as permits, licenses, and contracts.
• Include any additional documentation related to your business plan, such as product brochures, marketing materials, operational procedures, etc.

Use clear headings and labels for each section of the appendix so that readers can easily find the necessary information.

Remember, the appendix section of your printing shop business plan should only include relevant and important information supporting your plan’s main content.

The Quickest Way to turn a Business Idea into a Business Plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

This sample printing services business plan will provide an idea for writing a successful printing press plan, including all the essential components of your business.

After this, if you still need clarification about writing an investment-ready business plan to impress your audience, download our printing press business plan pdf .

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Frequently asked questions, why do you need a printing press business plan.

A business plan is an essential tool for anyone looking to start or run a successful printing press business. It helps to get clarity in your business, secures funding, and identifies potential challenges while starting and growing your business.

Overall, a well-written plan can help you make informed decisions, which can contribute to the long-term success of your printing press company.

What is the easiest way to write your printing press business plan?

A lot of research is necessary for writing a business plan, but you can write your plan most efficiently with the help of any printing press business plan example and edit it as per your need. You can also quickly finish your plan in just a few hours or less with the help of our business plan software .

How do I write a good market analysis in a printing press business plan?

Market analysis is one of the key components of your business plan that requires deep research and a thorough understanding of your industry. We can categorize the process of writing a good market analysis section into the following steps:

• Stating the objective of your market analysis—e.g., investor funding.
• Industry study—market size, growth potential, market trends, etc.
• Identifying target market—based on user behavior and demographics.
• Analyzing direct and indirect competitors.
• Calculating market share—understanding TAM, SAM, and SOM.
• Knowing regulations and restrictions
• Organizing data and writing the first draft.

Writing a marketing analysis section can be overwhelming, but using ChatGPT for market research can make things easier.

How detailed should the financial projections be in my printing press business plan?

The level of detail of the financial projections of your printing press business may vary considering various business aspects like direct and indirect competition, pricing, and operational efficiency. However, your financial projections must be comprehensive enough to demonstrate a comprehensive view of your financial performance.

Generally, the statements included in a business plan offer financial projections for at least the first three or five years of business operations.

What key components should a printing press business plan include?

The following are the key components your printing press business plan must include:

• Executive summary
• Business Overview
• Market Analysis
• Products and services
• Sales and marketing strategies
• Operations plan
• Management team
• Financial plan

Can a good printing press business plan help me secure funding?

Indeed. A well-crafted printing press business will help your investors better understand your business domain, market trends, strategies, business financials, and growth potential—helping them make better financial decisions.

So, if you have a profitable and investable business, a comprehensive business plan can certainly help you secure your business funding.

About the Author

Upmetrics Team

Upmetrics is the #1 business planning software that helps entrepreneurs and business owners create investment-ready business plans using AI. We regularly share business planning insights on our blog. Check out the Upmetrics blog for such interesting reads. Read more

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How to Start a Printing Business

Last Updated: May 7, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Helena Ronis . Helena Ronis is Co-founder and CEO of AllFactors, a unified web analytics software to drive company's marketing and business growth. She has worked in product and marketing in the tech industry for over 8 years, and studied Digital Marketing & Analytics at the MIT Sloan School of Management Executive Program. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 516,739 times.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, most printing business enterprises employ fewer than 10 people. As more printing business owners utilize digital printing equipment, fewer skilled technicians will be needed to operate this machinery. Modern digital printing equipment is smaller and more affordable than ever before and practically anyone with capital can purchase and operate digital printing equipment, even from a home office.

Finding a Printing Niche

• One of the best examples of this strategy can be seen by the success of franchise sign printing businesses, which target budget-minded business owners who only need occasional signs and banners, which can be spotty (inconsistent demand) or loaded with competition. They do not attempt to offer anything but quick-turnaround signs and leave brochures and envelope printing to traditional offset printing businesses. [2] X Research source

• Product match, excellent quality – very precise color, hue, and tone for high end products.
• Color match, excellent quality – usually precise Process Matching System (PMS Colors) by screen values (tones created by dot sizes) of the 4 process colors (cyan, magenta, process yellow, and black).
• Or just pleasing color , of medium quality – which is not so precisely matched. Caution : that means pleasing to the customer , not to you.
• Commercial quality printing is probably a cut above desktop publishing, done in your-office (above typical office printer, copier, or duplicator quality). It requires sharp line art and text – fineness of line work does not vary from page to page, screen color or halftone detail is consistent.
• Any choice of printing process (or brand of paper) shown on a quote to your customer is for them to choose. No, you can not substitute a more profitable method or material. Unless they agree in writing to a change, they can demand that it be redone at your expense -- if you did not follow written specifications precisely.

Determining What Equipment You’ll Need

• At the very least, you’ll need a desktop computer, some design software, and a high-quality digital printer that is able to handle jobs up to 11in x 17in. [3] X Research source

• You should familiarize yourself with Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) requirements, including their and other agencies such as Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) “postings” (required posters about safety and employment opportunity, etc.).
• If you only use independent, outside printing contractors to do occasional printing that you cannot do personally, then you could be a "printing broker" (non-affiliated, wholesaler) and not have employees.
• Quarterly estimates of income, record keeping, reporting of actual proceeds, and paying your personal proprietorship or corporate (limited liability corporation [LLC]) taxes and social security for yourself is your responsibility to learn and complete each year.

• After you become established and have enough credit and show volume and potential, you might be able to lease equipment, which can bring flexibility, but leases may have penalties and balloon notes, etc. to return or to keep the item, respectively.

Offering Profitable Services

• You can look at locations online via realtor websites or hire a realtor to help you find the perfect location for your new printing business.

Community Q&A

• Plan to outsource complimentary services you cannot do in-house. If you can print business cards but lack a good paper cutter, establish relationships with a local print shop who has one. Instead of competing with one another for business, learn how to work together to partner on jobs and create more prosperity for both printing businesses. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ http://www.technifoldusa.com/bindery-success-blog/bid/34727/How-Can-I-Generate-More-Sales-in-My-Printing-Business
• ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140829080534-39488528-the-emerging-digital-printing-business-versus-offset-printing/
• ↑ http://www.entrepreneur.com/businessideas/digital-printing-service
• ↑ https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/launch-your-business/pick-your-business-location
• ↑ http://www.noobpreneur.com/2012/06/11/how-to-start-a-successful-printing-business-with-minimal-investment/

About This Article

To start a printing business, start by finding a niche that fulfills a specific need for your customers, such as digital printing or budget-friendly sign printing. Then, find a location for your business that’s easy to get to and is large enough for your equipment. Once you have a storefront, research the equipment that you’ll need to buy, such as a computer, design software, and a high-quality printer. Next, create a menu of services to offer customers exactly what they need, such as a portable tabletop sign that can be used for events or sales meetings. For advice on how to promote your printing business online and in your community, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Writing a business plan for a photo printing shop

Table of Contents

Business description

Mission statement, products and services, unique selling point, market analysis, competitors, target audience, goals and strategy, financial projections, how countingup can help make projecting and managing finance easy.

If you want to start a small photo printing business to help people relive their favourite memories, you’ll need a plan. A business plan can provide you with clear objectives to get started and refer back to as you progress. Your aims may change over time, but you can analyse your success by comparing your positions to your expectations.

More than that, you may need to cover costs for a shop location or require equipment to get started. A business plan will help you secure funding to make your print shop possible. 

This guide will cover writing a business plan for a photo printing business, including:

• Aims and strategy

Describe what the company is and what it represents in your plan, this will help explain the idea when approaching an investor or bank for a small business loan . 

One way to do this is by writing a mission statement for your company. It is a declaration of your business’ purpose and what it will add to customers’ lives or the local community, in the case of a small business. For example, you could seek to bring back an appreciation for the experience that photos provide and make that appreciation accessible.

With a mission statement, you have an idea behind the business, but to communicate that to your customers, you need a brand that suits it. Branding is the public identity of your business. How the brand presents itself goes further than a name and logo as well. To have branding that is cohesive, you can also put together brand guidelines . 

Your guidelines include what to follow in your marketing strategy, such as: 

• Name — what variations of the name to use.
• Logo — what variations of the logo to use.
• Colour scheme — two or three colours the brand will use.
• Tone of voice — the way you speak to customers (e.g. friendly and casual or corporate and serious).

Having a solid brand represented in your business plan shows that your photo printing company will build a relationship with customers and have growth potential. Branding is crucial to see for professional investors, especially.

Another significant section to include within your business plan is what products and services you intend to offer customers. Your products and services should be fully explained through the plan. You may be presenting it to investors or lenders with little knowledge of your industry.

Your unique selling point (USP) to your business is the core reason for customers to buy from you. Your point will either be a specific product you offer or a unique service you provide. 

Your unique selling point should be something that customers can’t get anywhere else. Your key selling point communicates the strengths of your business, which can also be used in marketing.

Market analysis is another important section for your business plan. Your analysis will feature two main things: what competition you have and who your customers are .

To find as much out as you can about your competition, conduct market research . This activity involves visiting competitors’ sites or stores and noting their services and which marketing channels they use. 

If they sell similar products, purchase them and directly compare them with yours. Carrying out comparative physical research is called benchmarking, which may help you to create a better quality product than competitors. For example, perhaps you could look at the prints that competitors sell. 

Continuing with your research, you should be investigating the groups of people who are most likely to want to engage with your business. You can speak to the public directly to help find this out. Surveys and interviews allow you to ask questions about what people want.

Suppose you start to find similarities between the people who respond positively to what you offer. In that case, these form your target audience. A helpful way to present those findings in your plan is to put together a customer profile (sometimes called customer avatar). A profile is a hypothetical person that represents an ideal customer.

Customer profiles should include:

If the purpose of your business plan is to help you secure funding, include your business goals. Beyond funding, including short, medium, and long-term plans for the business gives you something to work towards and track your progress. To make that easier for yourself to compare, make sure the goals can be measurable and set timeframes for reaching them.

When you establish goals, it’s also crucial to produce strategies to achieve them. For example, if you aim to have a hundred customers in the first month, you can plan how to market your launch. After the first month is over, you can look back to see if you reached a hundred purchases.

Financial projections is another crucial section that investors and lenders will look for. In this part, create a sales forecast to provide your plan with a detailed prediction of the expected money coming into the business.

A sales forecast includes your expectations for the number of sales you expect to earn multiplied by the amount customers will spend. Calculating that forecast can give you a picture of how much revenue you expect for a month, quarter or year.

As you complete your photo printing business plan, and start your business, you’ll need to manage your finances well. By setting up a separate account for your photo printing business, you will be able to keep track of everything going in and out. Staying on top of your finances will also be useful when it comes to filing tax returns. Countingup can provide you with cash flow insights so you can keep a record of finances easily.

Countingup is the current business account with built-in accounting software. It includes an expense categorisation feature that lets you sort your costs together to look at different financial information for each business area. 

Start your three-month free trial today.  Find out more here .

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Sales & Marketing Plan for a Printing Business

• February 26, 2024
• Business Plan , Sales & Marketing Strategy

Establishing and succeeding in the printing industry demands more than technical proficiency—it requires strategic marketing and sales approaches. We have prepared this guide aims to help craft a tailored sales and marketing plan specifically for the business plan of a printing business.

We’ll begin by dissecting the market through competitive analysis and understanding client needs. Then, we’ll focus on shaping your brand identity and positioning it strategically. Finally, we’ll explore diverse marketing channels to engage potential clients. Additionally, we’ll delve into varied sales strategies to maximize revenue generation.

This guide aims to equip your printing business with the tools necessary for strategic positioning, effective client engagement, and revenue optimization in the competitive printing landscape. Let’s dive in!

Printing Company Business Plan

Fully editable 30+ slides Powerpoint presentation business plan template.

Download an expert-built 30+ slides Powerpoint business plan template

Market Analysis

Understanding the market landscape is a pivotal step before implementing sales and marketing strategies. It involves a comprehensive evaluation of both the competitive environment and the target audience’s preferences and needs.

Competitive Analysis

Identifying and comprehensively analyzing competitors is essential for formulating effective strategies:

• Competitor Identification: Beyond merely acknowledging competitors, delve into their strengths, weaknesses, market positioning, pricing strategies , customer base, and unique selling propositions.
• SWOT Analysis : Conduct a thorough SWOT analysis to pinpoint your business’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats in relation to competitors. It helps in recognizing areas where your printing business can outshine others and areas that require improvement or differentiation.

Target Audience Profiling

Understanding your prospective clients in-depth aids in aligning services with their needs and preferences:

• Demographics and Psychographics: Dive deeper into your ideal client characteristics, including industry sectors served, company size, printing volume, preferred print materials, and timelines. This information will facilitate more targeted marketing and service offerings.
• Client Needs Assessment: Conduct surveys or interviews to understand client pain points, preferred printing specifications, delivery timelines, and expectations from a printing service provider. This insight will be crucial in tailoring services to meet their specific requirements.

Branding and Positioning

Developing a distinctive brand identity and positioning strategy is crucial to stand out in a competitive market:

Brand Identity Development

• Defining Brand Values: Craft a compelling brand narrative that highlights your commitment to quality, innovation, sustainability, or exceptional customer service. Infuse this narrative across all brand communication channels.
• Visual Identity: Design a consistent and visually appealing brand identity, including a logo, color palette, typography, and design elements that resonate with your target market . Ensure this visual identity is cohesive across all touchpoints, from your website to print materials and social media.

Market Positioning Strategy

• Unique Offerings Emphasis: Highlight your printing business’s unique selling propositions prominently. Whether it’s specialized printing techniques, environmentally friendly practices, or outstanding customer service, these unique aspects should be central to your market positioning.
• Crafting a Clear Positioning Statement: Develop a succinct and compelling positioning statement that encapsulates your brand’s value proposition . This statement should clearly communicate what sets your printing business apart from competitors and resonate with your target audience .

Marketing Channels

Effectively utilizing various marketing channels is key to reaching potential clients and enhancing brand visibility:

Digital Marketing

• Website Optimization: Create a user-friendly website that not only showcases your services but also offers resources, such as downloadable print templates, industry insights, and FAQs. Optimize it for SEO to improve online visibility.
• Content Marketing Strategies: Produce informative and engaging content, such as blog posts, infographics, or video tutorials, addressing common printing queries, emerging trends, and case studies showcasing successful projects.

Social Media Engagement

• Platform Selection: Identify the most suitable social media platforms for your business. LinkedIn is effective for B2B outreach, while Instagram and Pinterest can showcase visually appealing print designs and creative concepts.
• Engagement and Interaction: Regularly engage with your audience by responding to comments, sharing user-generated content, and hosting interactive sessions like live Q&A sessions or design challenges.

Local Networking and Advertising

• Networking Events and Partnerships: Participate in local business networking events, industry conferences, and trade shows to establish connections, build partnerships, and generate leads.
• Local Advertising Strategies: Consider investing in targeted local print ads in newspapers, and magazines, or sponsoring community events or local sports teams to boost brand visibility within your immediate vicinity.

Promotional Activities

Attracting and engaging clients through compelling offers and initiatives:

Introductory Offers

• Discounts and Bundled Deals: Offer first-time client discounts or package deals for bulk orders to entice new clients to experience your services at a reduced cost.
• Seasonal Promotions: Launch seasonal promotions like “Back-to-School Printing Specials” or “Holiday Greeting Card Packages” tailored to current market needs and trends.

Referral Programs

• Incentivizing Referrals: Encourage satisfied clients to refer others by providing them with discounts, free add-ons, or credits on their next order for successful referrals.
• Client Testimonials and Case Studies: Highlight satisfied client testimonials and case studies showcasing successful projects on your website and marketing materials to build credibility and trust.

Sales Channels

Optimizing sales channels to maximize revenue streams and customer satisfaction:

Online Ordering System

• Seamless User Experience: Ensure a seamless online ordering system on your website, allowing clients to easily request quotes, upload files, track orders, and make payments securely.
• E-commerce Integration: Integrate an e-commerce platform into your website to sell printing-related products like custom stationery, promotional items, or design templates directly to clients.

Client Engagement Strategies

• Upselling and Consultative Selling: Train your sales team to upsell by suggesting additional services, premium finishes, or design consultations tailored to each client’s specific needs and project requirements.
• Exceptional Customer Support: Provide personalized and prompt customer service, guiding clients through the printing process, offering expert advice, and ensuring satisfaction with every interaction.

Membership and Loyalty Programs

• Tailored Membership Plans: Introduce membership options offering discounts on recurring orders, bulk printing, or exclusive access to new services or products.
• Rewarding Loyalty: Develop a robust loyalty program where clients earn points for every purchase, which they can redeem for discounts or exclusive offers on future orders.

Privacy Overview

Digital Print Shop Business Plan [Sample Template]

By: Author Tony Martins Ajaero

Home » Business Plans » B2C Sector

Are you about starting a digital print shop? If YES, here is a complete sample digital printing business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE .

Printing shop business does pretty well if it is properly located in the right location. It has been proven over and over again that a printing hubs and commercial centers are indeed a thriving location for a printing shop. This is the reason why any entrepreneur who is interested in starting a printing shop business will be willing to pay much to locate the business in any of the locations stated above.

A Sample Digital Printing Shop Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

Operators in the printing industry mainly print on paper, textile products, metal, glass, plastic and other materials, excluding fabric. Printing shops engage in a variety of printing processes which include lithographic, gravure, screen, flexographic, digital and letterpress.

It is important to state that this industry does not include publishers that also perform printing, nor does it comprise companies that perform pre-press or post – press services without traditional printing.

A close study of the Printing industry shows that the industry has been struggling over the last half a decade due to the fact that digital products and services have increasingly displaced traditional printed materials. Printers were historically central to both publishing and advertising; though, over the past 20 years, rapid technological change has toppled both markets and sent the industry into structural decline.

It was predicted that going forward, the printing industry will continue to struggle as digital media replaces traditional paper products. In the interim, profit margins are expected to slightly increase, mainly due to a drop in labor expenses as a result of industry consolidation.

The Printing Industry is indeed a very large industry and pretty much active in all the parts of the world. Statistics has it that in the united states of America alone the industry rakes in a whopping sum of billion annually. There are about 48,698 registered and licensed printing shops scattered all across the length and breadth of the United States and they are responsible for employing about 458,145 people.

The industry is projected to enjoy -0.2 percent annual growth within 2011 and 2016. It is important to state that the establishments with the dominant market share in the printing industry in the United States are Quad / Graphics and R.R. Donnelley and Sons.

Research carried out by IBISWORLD shows that the Printing industry’s long-term struggles have continued over the past five years as digital products and services have increasingly displaced traditional printed materials. Printers were historically central to both publishing and advertising, yet over the past two decades, rapid technological change has upended both markets and sent the industry into structural decline.

The report further states that the migration of media content and ad dollars to digital platforms has only accelerated since 2011, precipitously reducing demand for the Printing industry. Amid this trend, industry revenue is expected to decline at an annualized rate of 0.2 percent over the five years to 2016 to $85.7 billion.

If you are looking towards starting your own printing business, then you should endeavor to learn the trade. The truth is that the technology and processes involve in this line of business is one that will require a period of time (months) to learn.

Over and above, the printing industry is pretty much open to new entrepreneurs and investors to come in and build a successful business.

But they must first and foremost ensure that they conduct thorough feasibility studies and market survey before situating the business in any location. This is very important because if this type of business is better located in an area that has available market for its services.

2. Executive Summary

F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC is a standard and registered printing company. We have been able to secure a standard and well – positioned office facility in a busy business district in Los Angeles – California. We are a world class printing company that is set to compete in the highly competitive printing industry not only in the United States market, but also in the global market.

F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC will be involved in the all aspect of printing services such as commercial lithographic printing, commercial gravure printing, commercial flexographic printing, commercial screen printing. Quick printing, digital printing, manifold business forms printing, book printing, blank book, loose-leaf binders and devices and other related printing services.

Our business goal is to become one of the leading printing companies in the United States and we will make sure that every printing job that leaves our printing press can favorable compete with the best in the industry. Our workers are going to be selected from a pool of talented and highly creative professional printers in and around Los Angeles – California and also from any part of the United States as the business grows.

We will make sure that we take all the members of our workforce through the required trainings that will position them to meet the expectation of the company and to compete with leading printing companies in the United States and throughout the globe.

At F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC our client’s best interest come first, and everything we do will be guided by our values and professional ethics. We will ensure that we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards by delivering excellent and neat jobs and also meeting our client’s needs precisely and completely.

We will cultivate a working environment that provides a human, sustainable approach to earning a living, and living in our world, for our partners, employees and for our clients. F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC is a private business that is owned and managed by Mr. Felix F. Robin and his immediate family members.

F.F Robin studied Printing Technology from Illinois Institute of Technology and he has well over 10 years of hands on experience working with one of the leading printing companies in the United States of America. He will be bringing his wealth of experience to grow F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC to become a national brand.

3. Our Products and Services

F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC was established with the aim of maximizing profits in the Printing industry. We want to compete favorably with the leading printing companies in the United States of America which is why we have but in place a competent quality assurance team that will ensure that all our printing jobs and other related printing services rendered meet and even surpass our customers’ expectations and match – up with international best practices.

We will work hard to ensure that F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC is not just accepted in Los Angeles – California but also nationally throughout the United States of America. Our service offerings are listed below;

• Commercial lithographic printing
• Commercial gravure printing
• Commercial flexographic printing
• Commercial screen printing
• Quick printing
• Digital printing
• Manifold business forms printing
• Book printing
• Blank book, loose-leaf binders and devices
• Other related printing services

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• Our vision is to establish a standard and world class printing company whose services and brand will not only be accepted in Los Angeles – California but also throughout the United States of America and the global market.
• Our mission is to build a world class printing company that will be known to execute top notch printing projects and to become the number one choice for branding, advertising and promotion agencies and other stake holder in the industry.
• We want to build a printing company that can favorably compete with other leading brands in the industry.

Our Business Structure

F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC is a printing company that intend starting small in Los Angeles – California, but hope to grow big in order to compete favorably with leading printing companies in the industry both in the United States and on a global stage.

We are aware of the importance of building a solid business structure that can support the picture of the kind of world class business we want to own. This is why we are committed to only hire the best hands within our area of operations.

At F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC, we will ensure that we hire people that are qualified, hardworking, creative, customer centric and are ready to work to help us build a prosperous business that will benefit all the stake holders (the owners, workforce, and customers).

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our senior management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of five years or more as agreed by the board of trustees of the company. In view of the above, we have decided to hire qualified and competent hands to occupy the following positions;

• Chief Executive Officer
• Creative Director
• Human Resources and Admin Manager
• Sales and Marketing Executive

Printing Machine Operators

Client Service Executive

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Executive Officer – CEO:

• Increases management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results; developing incentives; developing a climate for offering information and opinions; providing educational opportunities.
• Creates, communicates, and implements the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• Responsible for fixing prices and signing business deals
• Responsible for providing direction for the business
• Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
• Evaluates the success of the organization.

Creative Director:

• Serves as project manager of the organization; works directly with employees
• Responsible for designing and approving concepts for printing of materials for client
• Develops strategic plan by studying technological and financial opportunities; presenting assumptions; recommending objectives.
• Accomplishes subsidiary objectives by establishing plans, budgets, and results measurements; allocating resources; reviewing progress; making mid-course corrections.
• Coordinates efforts by establishing procurement, production, marketing, field, and technical services policies and practices; coordinating actions with corporate staff.
• Builds company image by collaborating with customers, government, community organizations, and employees; enforcing ethical business practices.
• Maintains quality service by establishing and enforcing organization standards.
• Maintains professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops; reviewing professional publications / journals; establishing personal networks; benchmarking state-of-the-art practices; participating in professional societies.
• Makes certain that production and development department perform efficiently, coordinate employee efforts, and facilitate communications between management and printing machine operators and rapid prototyping specialist
• Ensures that the organization work in line with international best practices.

Admin and HR Manager

• Responsible for overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the organization
• Designs job descriptions with KPI to drive performance management for clients
• Regularly hold meetings with key stakeholders to review the effectiveness of HR Policies, Procedures and Processes
• Maintains office supplies by checking stocks; placing and expediting orders; evaluating new products.
• Ensures operation of equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; calling for repairs.
• Defines job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
• Carries out staff induction for new team members
• Responsible for training, evaluation and assessment of employees
• Responsible for arranging travel, meetings and appointments
• Updates job knowledge by participating in educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks; participating in professional organizations.
• Oversee the smooth running of the daily office activities.

Sales and Marketing Manager

• Manages external research and coordinate all the internal sources of information to retain the organizations’ best customers and attract new ones
• Models demographic information and analyze the volumes of transactional data generated by customer
• Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts; participates in the structuring and financing of projects; assures the completion of development projects.
• Writes winning proposal documents, negotiate fees and rates in line with organizations’ policy
• Responsible for handling business research, market surveys and feasibility studies for clients
• Responsible for supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s needs, and communicate with clients
• Develops, executes and evaluates new plans for expanding increase sales
• Creates new markets cum businesses for the organization
• Empowers and motivates the sales team to meet and surpass agreed targets

Accountant / Cashier:

• Responsible for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports; analyzes financial feasibility for the most complex proposed projects; conducts market research to forecast trends and business conditions.
• Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis.
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for one or more properties.
• Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
• Responsible for administering payrolls
• Ensures compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC
• Serves as internal auditor for F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC
• In charge of handling commercial lithographic printing, commercial gravure printing, commercial flexographic printing, commercial screen printing. Quick printing, digital printing manifold business forms printing, book printing, blank book, loose-leaf binders and devices and other related printing services.
• Liaises with clients to determine their requirement and budget
• Working to a brief, which details what the space will be used for, and finding out the client’s personal ideas and requirements
• Responsible for creating patterns and operating printing machines cum equipment
• Responsible for developing detailed designs and choosing materials
• Responsible for preparing drafts or material based on an agreement brief.
• Researches and advices the organization on style, genre and other trendy info as it relates to printing et al.
• Welcomes clients and visitors by greeting them in person or on the telephone; answering or directing inquiries.
• Ensures that all contacts with clients (e-mail, walk-In center, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
• Through interaction with clients on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s products and services
• Manages administrative duties assigned by the HR manager in an effective and timely manner
• Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the organizations’ products, promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to potential clients when they make enquiries
• Receives parcels / documents for the company
• Distributes mails in the organization
• Handles any other duties as assigned by the human resources and admin manager.

6. SWOT Analysis

We are quite aware that there are several printing companies both large and small in the United States of America which is why we are following the due process of establishing a business so as to compete favorable with them.

We know that if a proper SWOT analysis is conducted for our business, we will be able to position our business to maximize our strength, leverage on the opportunities that will be available to us, mitigate our risks and be welled equipped to confront our threats.

F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC employed the services of a core professional in the area of business consulting and structuring to assist our organization in building a well – structured printing business that can favorably compete in the highly competitive printing industry in the United States and the world at large.

Part of what the team of business consultant did was to work with the management of our organization in conducting a SWOT analysis for F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC. Here is a summary from the result of the SWOT analysis that was conducted on behalf of F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC;

Our core strength lies in the power of our team; our workforce. We have a team of creative and highly proficient professional printers, a team with excellent qualifications and experience in various niche areas in the printing industry.

Aside from the synergy that exists in our carefully selected professional printers and support staff members, we have some of the latest and efficient printing machines and equipment and of course our work output and services will be guided by international best practices in the industry.

As a new printing company in Los Angeles – California, it might take some time for our organization to break into the market and gain acceptance especially from the government and other high profile clients in the already saturated and highly competitive printing and industry; that is perhaps our major weakness. Another weakness is that we may not have the required cash to promote our business the way we would want to.

• Opportunities:

Beyond every reasonable doubt, the opportunities in the printing industry are massive considering the number of individuals and corporate organizations that would need the services of standard printing companies. As a standard printing company, we are ready to take advantage of any opportunity that is available in the industry.

Just like any other business, one of the major threats that we are likely going to face is economic downturn. It is a fact that economic downturn affects purchasing / spending power.

Another threat that may likely confront us is the arrival of a new printing shop or even a 3D printing and rapid prototyping services company in same location where our target market exists and who may want to adopt same Business model like us. We are not ruling out the fact that unfavorable government policy can also affect our business.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trends

The trend in the Printing industry shows that the industry has been struggling over the last half a decade due to the fact that digital products and services have increasingly displaced traditional printed materials. Printers were historically central to both publishing and advertising; though, over the past 20 years, rapid technological change has toppled both markets and sent the industry into structural decline.

The Printing industry over time has experienced rapid growth and this is due to rapid technological advancements, falling costs and new uses for printing technology. Going forward, the demand for printing service and of course the revenue generated is projected to increase rapidly.

As a printing company with the aspiration to favorably compete in the industry, you are expected to keep tab with new trends and products that are always coming up in the industry. It is important to state that in recent time, for a printing company to continue to stay in business and grow, they must continue to come up with highly creative design and concepts and also engage in other printing related services.

8. Our Target Market

Before starting our printing company, we are certain that there is a wide range of both corporate and individual clients who cannot successfully carry out promotions and branding of their products and services without hiring the services of a standard printing company like ours.

We will ensure that we develop strategic pacts with corporate organizations, advertising and branding agencies, and religious organizations et al.

This will give us several options to generate revenue for our company. In view of that, we have created strategies that will enable us reach out to various corporate organizations and individual who we know can’t afford to do without our services.

We have conducted our market research and survey and we will ensure that all our printing services are well accepted in the marketplace. Below is a list of the people and organizations that we have specifically market our products and services to;

• Banks, Insurance Companies and other related Financial Institutions
• Blue Chips Companies
• Corporate Organizations
• Manufacturers and Distributors
• Real Estate Owners, Developers, and Contractors
• Research and Development Companies
• The Government (Public Sector)
• Schools (High Schools, Colleges and Universities)
• Celebrities, Politicians, Public Figures and Public Speakers
• Sport Organizations
• Religious Organizations
• Political Parties
• Television Stations
• Printing Press (Publishing Houses) and Authors
• Branding and Advertising agencies
• Aspiring celebrities
• Entrepreneurs and Startups

Our competitive advantage

It is a fact that the competition in the printing industry is getting stiffer by the day, you have to be highly creative and come up with appealing designs and concepts and very neat jobs in order to survive in the industry.

The printing industry is indeed a profitable and at the same time a highly competitive industry; it enjoys strong demand as organizations and individuals continue to print materials for promotional purposes. Clients will only hire your services if they know that they can get nothing but the best from you.

We are quite aware that to be highly competitive in the printing industry means that you are not only expected to be able to deliver consistent and highly creative designs, but you must be able to meet set targets. No one would want to continue to hire your services if don’t always meet up with the target date of completion of projects.

Our competitive advantage lies in the power of our team; our workforce. We have a team of creative and highly proficient professional printers, a team with excellent qualifications and experience in various niche areas in the printing industry.

Aside from the synergy that exists in our carefully selected professional printers and other support staff members, we have some of the latest and efficient printing machines and equipment and of course our work output and services will be guided by international best practices in the industry.

Lastly, all our employees will be well taken care of, and their welfare package will be among the best within our category (startups printing companies in the United States) in the industry. It will enable them to be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and achieve all our business aims and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

• Sources of Income

F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the printing industry and we are going to go all the way to ensure that we do all it takes to meet and surpass the expectations of all our clients. F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC will generate income by offering the following printing services and other printing related services;

10. Sales Forecast

One thing is certain, there would always be corporate organization and individual who would need the services of printing companies whenever they have to conduct promotions and branding and also other related printing services.

We are well positioned to take on the available market in the printing industry and we are quite optimistic that we will meet our set target of generating enough income / profits from the first six month of operations and grow our printing company to enviable heights.

We have been able to critically examine the printing services market and we have analyzed our chances in the industry and we have been able to come up with the following sales forecast. The sales projections are based on information gathered on the field and some assumptions that are peculiar to similar startups in Los Angeles – California.

Below are the sales projections for F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC, it is based on the location of our business and of course the wide range of our printing services and target market;

• First Fiscal Year-: $250,000
• Second Fiscal Year-: $400,000
• Third Fiscal Year-: $750,000

N.B : This projection is done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and there won’t be any major competitor offering same printing services or even 3D printing and rapid prototyping services as we do within same location. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

• Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

We are not ignorant of the fact that there are stiffer competitions in the printing industry; there are loads of printing shops and even 3D printing and rapid prototyping services companies jostling for contracts; which is why we have been able to hire some of the best marketing experts to handle our sales and marketing.

Our sales and marketing team will be recruited based on their vast experience in the general printing industry and they will be trained on a regular basis so as to be well equipped to meet their set targets and the overall business goal of F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC.

Our goal is to grow F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC to become one of the leading printing companies in the United States of America which is why we have mapped out strategies that will help us take advantage of the available market and grow to become a major force to reckon with not only in Los Angeles – California but also in other cities in the United States of America.

F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC is set to make use of the following marketing and sales strategies to attract clients and win printing contracts;

• Introduce our printing company by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to corporate organizations, advertising and branding agencies, religious organizations and key stake holders.
• Promptness in bidding for printing contracts from the government and other cooperate organizations
• Advertise our business in relevant business magazines, newspapers, TV stations, and radio station.
• List our business on yellow pages ads (local directories)
• Attend relevant international and local expos, seminars, and business fairs et al
• Create different packages for different category of clients in order to work with their budgets and still deliver excellent printing services
• Leverage on the internet to promote our business
• Engage direct marketing approach
• Join local chambers of commerce and industries to network and market our services
• Encourage word of mouth marketing from loyal and satisfied clients

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

We have been able to work with brand and publicity consultants to help us map out publicity and advertising strategies that will help us walk our way into the heart of our target market.

We are set to become the number one choice for both corporate clients and individual clients in the whole of the Los Angeles – California and beyond which is why we have made provisions for effective publicity and advertisement of our printing company. Below are the platforms we intend to leverage on to promote and advertise F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC;

• Place adverts on both print (newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
• Sponsor relevant community based events / programs
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook, twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote our services
• Install our Bill Boards on strategic locations all around Los Angeles – California
• Engage in road show from time to time in targeted neighborhoods
• Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas
• Contact corporate organizations and residence in our target areas by calling them up and informing them of F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC and the services we offer
• List our printing company in local directories / yellow pages
• Advertise our printing company in our official website and employ strategies that will help us pull traffic to the site.
• Ensure that all our staff members wear our branded shirts and all our vehicles and trucks are well branded with our company logo et al.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

If you are conversant with the printing industry or even the 3D printing and rapid prototyping services industry, you will realize that the pricing structure ranges from fixed price rate to per square foot billing and even to the quantity of materials to be printed on.

Almost all companies adopt all the available pricing system as it applies to the quantity of the job or project they are expected to execute.

At F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC we will adopt all the pricing system as is obtainable in the industry but we will ensure that we keep the prices of our services a little below the average market rate for all of our customers by keeping our overhead low and by collecting payment in advance from corporate organizations who would hire our services to help them print on their promotional materials.

In addition, we will also offer special discounted rates to all our customers at regular intervals. We are aware that there are some one-off printing services jobs or government contracts which are always lucrative; we will ensure that we abide by the pricing model that is expected from contractors or organizations that bid for such contracts.

• Payment Options

The payment policy adopted by F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC is all inclusive because we are quite aware that different customers prefer different payment options as it suits them but at the same time, we will ensure that we abide by the financial rules and regulation of the United States of America. Here are the payment options that F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC will make available to her clients;

• Payment via bank transfer
• Payment with cash
• Payment via online bank transfer
• Payment via mobile money
• Payment via Point of Sales Machines (POS Machines)
• Payment via check
• Payment via bank draft

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will enable our client make payment for printing services without any stress on their part. Our bank account numbers will be made available on our website and promotional materials to clients who may want to deposit cash or make online transfer for our printing services.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

In setting up any business, the amount or cost will depend on the approach and scale you want to undertake. If you intend to go big by renting a place, then you would need a good amount of capital as you would need to ensure that your employees are well taken care of, and that your facility is conducive enough for workers to be creative and productive.

This means that the start-up can either be low or high depending on your goals, vision and aspirations for your business. When it comes to setting up a standard printing services business, the machines and equipment that will be used are nearly the same cost everywhere, and any difference in prices would be minimal and can be overlooked.

As for the detailed cost analysis for starting a standard printing services company; it might differ in other countries due to the value of their money. However, this is what it would cost us to setup F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC in Los Angeles – California, U.S;

• Business incorporation fees in the United States of America will cost – $750.
• The budget for liability insurance, permits and license will cost – $3,500
• Acquiring an office space or warehouse that will accommodate the number of employees for at least 6 months (Re – Construction of the facility inclusive) will cost – $150,000.
• Equipping the office (computers, standard printing machines and equipment, servers / internet facility, furniture, telephones, filing cabinets, and electronics) will cost – $10,000
• The amount required to purchase the needed software applications – $3,500
• Launching an official website will cost – $500
• The amount need to pay bills and staff members for at least 2 to 3 months – $70,000
• Additional Expenditure such as Business cards, Signage, Adverts and Promotions will cost – $5,000
• Miscellaneous – $2,000

Going by the report from the market research and feasibility studies conducted, we will need about two hundred thousand ( 250,000 ) U.S. dollars to successfully set – up a medium scale but standard printing company in the United States of America. Please note that the salaries for the payment of staff members for the first 3 months is included.

Generating Funds / Startup Capital for F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC

F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC is a privately registered family business that will be owned by Mr. F.F Robin and his immediate family members. They are the sole financial of the business which is why they decided to restrict the sourcing of the start – up capital for the business to just three major sources. These are the areas we intend generating our start – up capital;

• Generate part of the start – up capital from personal savings and sale of his stocks
• Generate part of the start – up capital from friends and other extended family members
• Generate a larger chunk of the startup capital from the bank (loan facility).

N.B: We have been able to generate about $100,000 ( Personal savings $85,000 and soft loan from family members $15,000 ) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $150,000 from our bank. All the papers and document has been duly signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

The future of a business lies in the numbers of loyal customers that they have the capacity and competence of the employees, their investment strategy and the business structure. If all of these factors are missing from a business (company), then it won’t be too long before the business close shop.

One of our major goals of starting F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC is to build a business that will survive off its own cash flow without the need for injecting finance from external sources once the business is officially running.

We know that one of the ways of gaining approval and winning customers over is to offer our printing services a little bit cheaper than what is obtainable in the market and we are well prepared to survive on lower profit margin for a while.

F.F Robin & Sons® Printing™, LLC will make sure that the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare are well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and retraining of our workforce is at the top burner of our business strategy.

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of ten years or more as determined by the board of the organization. We know that if that is put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry; they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List / Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check: Completed
• Business Incorporation: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts various banks in the United States: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Securing a standard office facility plus renovation of the facility: Completed
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of All form of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Generating part of the start – up capital from the founders: Completed
• Writing of Business Plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
• Design of Logo for the business: Completed
• Secure trademark for our products: In Progress
• Graphic Designs and Printing of Packaging Marketing / Promotional Materials: Completed
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of the needed printing machines and equipment: Completed
• Purchase of the needed furniture, office equipment, software applications, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
• Creating Official Website for the business: In Progress
• Creating Awareness for the business: In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
• Establishing business relationship with vendors and key players in the industries: In Progress

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Printing and Photocopy Business Plan Sample

Fill the form to download printing and photocopy business plan example.

Starting a 3D printing business or other types of printing business has many benefits. It is very easy to get started with a very low investment from your home, or you can increase its size depending on your investment.

In order to launch this business successfully, you will need to prepare comprehensive printing and photocopy business plan which will lay the foundations for future business operations and decisions.

If you are wondering how to write one, then here is a printing and photocopy business plan sample  to help you write your own.

Executive Summary

Thinktank will be a business service provider based in Miami, Florida. Founded by Mrs. Cindy Smith, Thinktank will offer a variety of business services including postal, shipping, faxing, and copying to the local residents. While these services will comprise the initial market entry core, long-term plans call for the integration of storage and relocation capabilities to the business mix. The local area has been in dire need of a service of this type for some time and Thinktank plans to adequately serve them through the consistent delivery of real-time business solutions.

The market is definitely filled with opportunities but in order to capitalize on them, a strong infusion of working capital must acquiesce. The founder projects needing 100K for their business venture with repayment being made out of the profits that are driven annually. Funding that is secured will be used in a variety of areas including marketing, logistics, management, site procurement as well as the day-to-day operations of the organization.

To read the complete executive summary click here

Useful Resource:   How to write an executive summary for a business plan

Financial Highlights

View the full financial highlights by downloading the pdf

Startup Summary

For a detailed startup summary, click here to download a pdf

Industry at a Glance

Click here to read more about the industry at a glance.

Key External Drivers

Industry activity is mostly affected by the level of outsourcing of non-core activities. A growing trend of outsourcing administration functions has resulted in significant growth in revenue in the past. Although rising competition from other industries is now occurring.

Download the pdf file here for a complete guide on key external drivers

SWOT Analysis

1. Location. The location is one of the primary strengths of the Thinktank business model as there are currently no other organizations that have the capabilities to offer the types of services that will be introduced to the market.

1. Lack of funding. Funding is the sole weakness of the Thinktank business venture. While funding is a weakness it should be noted that the founder is confident that if adequate funding is secured, she will be able to develop a viable, sustainable business.

Opportunities

1. Limited competition. The limited amount of local competition  is the primary opportunity for Thinktank as it will give the  organization the opportunity to develop a loyal customer base  while erecting barriers to entry.

1. Larger organizations. Larger organizations could possibly realize the opportunities that can be found in the local region and begin entering the market. While this is a threat, the founder believes that with strategic marketing, community efforts and customer service, this threat can for the most part be mitigated.

Click here to download the pdf for complete detail of the SWOT analysis.

Financial Indicators

To learn more about financial indicators, click here to download the pdf

Projected Cash Flow

Click here to download the pdf to view the full projected cash flow

Projected Balance Sheet

Click here to download the pdf to view the full projected balance sheet

Click to view the faxing and printing and photocopy business plan. Our experienced MBA business plan writers professionally write each business plan and work with you to develop a winning plan.  Your business plan can look as polished and professional as this sample business plan, we provide real sample business plans free of charge.

Business Plan Sample for Printing and Photocopy Business

Download Printing and Photocopy Business Plan Example PDF

We will show you some real-world business plan examples so you may know how to write your own, especially if you are seeking a bank loan or an outside investment and need to use SBA-approved formatting.

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Print Shop Website Business Plan

Start your own print shop website business plan

PrintingSolutions.com

Executive summary executive summary is a brief introduction to your business plan. it describes your business, the problem that it solves, your target market, and financial highlights.">.

PrintingSolutions.com is being designed as a global Internet printing services/print shop who is focused on reducing the overall printing price structure, in addition to enabling business-to-business transactions for printing presses and the graphic art design industry. PrintingSolutions.com will also attain a competitive edge by offering services such as website development and e-commerce, which have become essential for any business presence.

PrintingSolutions.com intends to establish and operate an Internet print shop with services costing significantly less than the prices of its competitors, while supplying superior quality. Incorporating its website and graphic art services, Printing Solutions will enable both start-up and existing companies to reduce their printing and e-commerce costs.

Highlights of PrintingSolutions.com

• Breakthrough services. PrintingSolutions.com will develop a unique website that provides customers various ways to create business stationery, including business cards, envelopes, notepads, and door hangers. A graphic art design center will also be provided, enabling customers to create company logos and other designs essential to their company’s identity.
• Trademarks. The company plans to register a corporation under the name of PrintingSolutions.com and operate under the same name.
• Large markets. Recent studies by Forrester Research Inc. reveal that business-to-business (B2B) commerce will total $2.7 trillion in revenue by Year 5. The data emphasize that e-marketplaces will be responsible for 53% of all online business trade.
• Seasoned management. The company’s management is highly experienced and qualified.
• Customers. The company will primarily target small and start-up businesses throughout the country. The company will also develop plans to negotiate deals with big businesses.

The biggest competitive threat for PrintingSolutions.com will come from iPrint.com. However, we will have a competitive advantage over iPrint.com by offering lower prices on all products and services. Customers in this industry are sensitive to both quality and price, and at PrintingSolutions.com they will benefit from both offerings.

PrintingSolutions.com has a world-class management team with direct knowledge of the industry, extensive research experience, and unique administration skills. The team will be led by Mr. Dalton Grant.

The company projects that during the second half of Year 1 it will generate revenues of $250,000. Projected revenues for Year 2 and Year 3 are $2.91 million and $5.82 million, respectively. PrintingSolutions.com is seeking $830,000 in venture capital to be used for:

• Establishing an organization and office presence in both the United States and overseas.
• Completing development of the Internet print shop.
• Marketing the website and its services and products.

1.1 Mission

The mission of PrintingSolutions.com is to become a global company, utilizing the power of the Internet to become the market leader in providing online printing, website designs, graphic art designs, and a B2B portal for the untapped printing press and graphic art design industries. To accomplish this, the company will combine high-quality workmanship with the lowest costs in the industry.

Company Summary company overview ) is an overview of the most important points about your company—your history, management team, location, mission statement and legal structure.">

PrintingSolutions.com will be incorporated as a C-corporation, with principal offices located in Bluegene, Oregon. All operations, from administration to website development, will take place at this leased office location of approximately 1,000 square feet. The company also plans to establish an office offshore to facilitate, control prices, and monitor the quality of work.

2.1 Start-up Summary

The company’s product selection will not need a high initial investment. The staff that develops websites is capable of many other projects, too. In addition, the materials required for printing do not expire and can be utilized for other printing purposes as well.

PrintingSolutions.com will be an online provider of printing and B2B print services, focusing on the business market. This will be fortified with the company’s graphic art and website design services.

The online print shop will offer customers a one-stop shop for addressing their printing needs. Customers will be able to easily design and order customization on thousands of products, primarily small-quantity printed products. By automating and enhancing the print order process and electronically connecting our online printing services to carefully-selected commercial print vendors, it is believed, based on experience in the printing industry, that the company will significantly reduce the costs and inefficiencies associated with the traditional printing process. Our online print services are designed to be more convenient and cost-effective than printing alternatives provided through traditional print channels.

PrintingSolutions.com will simplify the design and ordering process in several ways, including the elimination of manual steps and handwritten forms used by traditional print shops. The company believes this will significantly reduce reprint-due-to-error costs and the associated print wastage incurred by commercial print vendors. Exact re-prints of previous orders will be available at a reduced cost. At the same time, the company will lower costs and improve capacity utilization for its commercial print vendors since it will electronically route orders to commercial print vendors that have idle capacity. PrintingSolutions.com also believes that these efficiencies, incorporated with lower overhead costs due to the online nature and automation, will allow the company to be more cost effective than traditional printing alternatives. Furthermore, the cost of printing will be greatly reduced by using the offshore printing press affiliate, Creative Designs and Printers.

In addition to providing customers with online print services directly through the PrintingSolutions.com website, the company will be conducting B2B through PrintingSolutionsB2B.com.

Graphic Art Design: PrintingSolutions.com will provide a graphic art design center where customers will describe their company to enable a graphic art designer to create a logo for them.

Website Design: Customers will also be able to have website designers create effective websites for their company. Customers will choose from either a template or a customized website, whichever suits their business needs.

Business Stationery: This will initially include:

• Business cards
• Writing tablets
• Door hangers
• Greeting cards
• Logo designs

3.1 Fulfillment

All services provided by PrintingSolutions.com (business stationery products, website designers, and graphic art designs) originate overseas; when necessary, a United States-based team will provide assistance.

Customers will be able to work with the designers online for any changes or enhancements once the initial designs have been completed. Delivery of graphic art designs and websites will be done electronically, with the option of receiving a compact disk.

In the event that an error is made in printing an order, customers will have the option of returning it to have it reprinted. Otherwise, all sales will be final, since the printing will be customized and cannot be resold. Customers will not be able to cancel the order once the materials are printed.

Customers will be able to contact the company via the Internet through email, and interactive tools such as AOL instant messenger and Microsoft net-meeting. Additionally, the company will provide traditional telephone customer service.

3.2 Technology

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3.2.1 Challenges

The challenges for an online print shop which are not typically faced by other electronic commerce vendors include:

• Customer-driven product creation. Customers do not order from a static, pre-set product catalog. Rather, customers can create sophisticated desktop publishing design projects, requiring the ability to freely mix text, graphic images, fonts, styles, and colors on printed items.
• Intensive customer interaction.  Our websites are not presenting static content pages; customers are engaged in intensive design activities which require constant system monitoring and optimization as visitor traffic grows.
• Integrating the process of typesetting with commercial printing. Typesetting is a precision science. PrintingSolutions.com will automatically convert an onscreen design into a resolution-independent electronic file that can be successfully reproduced by a variety of commercial print vendors, each with different printing processes and order management requirements.
• Point-of-order pricing. Since each product created is a custom design consisting of various inks, papers, designs, and quantity attributes, PrintingSolutions.com must be able to provide accurate, real-time pricing information to its customers that can be calculated instantaneously from tens of thousands of price point combinations.
• Re-orders. PrintingSolutions.com will retain each customer’s order specifications, including all designs, negatives, and print plates, for a limited time. This will enable us to charge a lower fee for an exact reprint of a previous order.
• Intelligent order routing. Each of the commercial print vendors the company will work with has different capabilities and a unique set of requirements that are taken into account when determining how to fulfill an order. By considering account product type, pricing, geography, and shipping options, PrintingSolutions.com will strive to route each order individually to the vendor with the best combination of quality, delivery time, and price.

PrintingSolutions.com believes that, with our technology expertise, we will be able to address these challenges while also handling large numbers of customer design sessions and orders. We feel this represents a competitive advantage.

3.3 Future Services

Customized printing will be offered in the future on products including:

• Mass print materials (such as books and magazines)
• Rubber stamps

PrintingSolutions.com will eventually provide franchising opportunities. As the need for doing business in the information age evolves, so will we. The company will provide resources for customers to remain on the cutting edge of technology.

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PrintingSolutions.com will focus on small and start-up business customers in the United States. We plan to aggressively pursue and acquire customers through direct business promotions and convert them into repeat paying customers. We will continually strive to provide consumers with more cost-effective avenues, offering substantial savings rather than just a few cents.

PrintingSolutions.com will also be configured to stay ahead of, and capitalize on, emerging market trends such as integration of information/markets and increasing sophistication of online offerings. This will provide a continuously improving, superior customer experience and grow value.

There is a serious benefit deficiency in existing “brick and mortar” printing establishments that create inefficiencies in the ordering and production process. Utilizing the benefits of Internet selling will eliminate many of these problems and create a lower-cost environment.

At the present, PrintingSolutions.com faces major online competition from iPrint.com, which is an established online printer. However, iPrint.com does not offer the lowest cost products on the market, nor does it provide all of the printing services a business needs. Therefore, there is significant opportunity to gain market share.

4.1 Customers and Markets

The company will be primarily targeting small and start-up businesses in the United States; however the company plans to negotiate deals with big businesses. Vendors will include printers and graphic art designers around the world that will be able to help define these markets using the PrintingSolutions.com B2B portal. While the primary focus will be on business customers, PrintingSolutions.com’s ability to print in small quantities will allow the company to service the printing needs of individuals as well.

To ensure success, the company will continuously attract new customers, many of whom may have personal and long-standing relationships with traditional print and design shops, catalog vendors, office supply chains and stationery stores. Traditional print and design shops have many advantages which PrintingSolutions.com cannot offer its customers, including physical proximity and interpersonal business relationships. In addition, catalog vendors may be better able to combine orders to achieve economies of scale and may be more convenient for customers who also want to purchase non-printed products, such as office furniture.

PrintingSolutions.com plans to aggressively pursue and acquire customers through promotions and convert them into repeat paying customers. Direct business promotions are the most important vehicle that the company will use to acquire customers. These promotions may include providing the customer a product, such as a mailing label at no charge, or charging the customer only for shipping and handling, in order to introduce that customer to our products and services.

PrintingSolutions.com plans to expand its business and customer base by offering business promotions on a continuous basis. PrintingSolutions.com will continually strive to provide consumers with more cost-effective avenues, offering substantial savings rather than just a few cents. Using offshore print companies as partners and having partners bid on jobs will be one avenue used to ensure the best prices for our customers.

The following chart and table express the projected number of potential customers in the United States by market segment. Although it is planned to make PrintingSolutions.com a global company, the initial phase of market penetration will focus on the domestic market.

Note: Although the large business segment consists of the smallest number of businesses, this group generates the largest sales and revenues of all three segments. Additionally, it is believed that the company’s ability to gain market share in the third category, “Individual customers,” will be relatively small in comparison with the other two. This is due to the primary concentration of marketing efforts on the business segments.

4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy

Printing Solutions has chosen to focus on the small business market segment as its primary customer base because these customers usually have the lowest switching costs, do not have long-term relationships with other printing companies, and are the most aggressive in searching for low-cost printing services. Furthermore, Printing Solution’s ability to route jobs of various sizes to printers with temporary excess capacity matches well with these companies, who usually desire smaller print jobs than the larger companies.

As stated previously, PrintingSolutions.com will also focus on large businesses. The advantage with this market segment is that each job usually offers a higher margin than compared with the small business segment.

Finally, the company will also address individual needs. This is potentially the largest market; however, there is a relatively high churn rate in this segment that will require more extensive marketing efforts to attract new customers. This, in turn, lowers the margin and makes this segment the least attractive.

4.2.1 Market Trends

The evolution of vertical e-marketplaces

From isolated niche offerings . . . e-marketplaces begin their lives by providing a narrow range of targeted products for a buyer base. FairMarket, for example, was launched as a website where electronics manufacturers and distributors could auction surplus electronic components to resellers and system integrators. This highly-focused effort enables online markets to gain initial traction.

. . . to highly interconnected one-stop shops. Vertical e-marketplaces will grow to provide a single access point for commerce and information within an industry–combining multiple services like logistics, payments, and credit with product offerings in real time. As an example, e-marketplace participants purchasing containers of extruded plastic will be able to access specific cargo insurance quotes in the midst of arranging logistics tailored to that order.

2000 To 2001: Racing To Establish Credibility

Over the next 12 to 18 months, e-marketplaces will continue their attack on narrowly-scoped industry inefficiencies by focusing on simple themes:

• Enhance basic commerce platforms. Firms will solidify their infrastructures to support one or two types of dynamic transaction mechanisms–auction, bid, exchange, or aggregator–targeting specific industry inefficiencies.
• Sprint to critical mass. Since no more than a few significant e-marketplaces will succeed in most industries, e-marketplaces will do whatever it takes to establish themselves as one of the long-term winners. Websites will relentlessly woo key suppliers and sign ad hoc deals with corporate buyers to quickly ramp sales volumes. In addition to the transaction push, market makers will kick off intense marketing campaigns, requiring a large part of their funds, to create images of success in publications like The Wall Street Journal .
• Invent unique offerings. E-marketplaces will actively create Net-based service offerings that participants can’t access offline. An example is being able to design and order your printed stationery 24 hours a day.

2001+: Building Value through Networks.

Beginning in 2001, e-marketplaces will move beyond basic issues of critical mass and begin reaching out, beyond their websites, to integrate more intensely with other product and service providers. Market makers that make it to this more evolved stage will look to provide a broader set of capabilities to participants by:

• Configuring comprehensive product/service bundles. E-marketplaces will fulfill customers’ visions of one-stop shops by connecting the process of product research information all the way through to trade settlement and clearing–as part of one connected transaction process. These websites will integrate services like risk management, financing, and logistics into a single flow.
• Weaving together marketplaces. To deliver sophisticated configuration of products and services, Internet vertical markets will seamlessly interconnect with other marketplaces. In this environment, participants may enter one marketplace to perform one simple transaction process–like putting their brochure needs up for bid–but will be led down an orchestrated path through other interrelated websites.
• Establishing real-time measurements. In a push for new revenue sources, e-marketplaces will cash in on the mass of data streaming through their websites–charging participants for analytic tools to access data and then levying additional fees to massage the data to glean meaningful trends. Look for dynamic pricing engines in commodities, like electronic components, which will help buyers by analyzing current data trends to recommend whether a corporation should put its request for microchips out for bid, buy at an auction, or simply buy stock on a simple volume-discount plan.

4.3 Service Business Analysis

Market Description

Printing can be a major area of expenditure for small businesses. Based on data from CAP Ventures, Inc., an independent print research firm, sales in the United States printing industry totaled $292 billion in 1998, of which $58 billion was derived from commercial printing operations. Short-run, customized items, which include a wide range of business, promotional and general office products, as well as consumer items, comprise a significant portion of these commercial printing operations. This market is highly fragmented, with an estimated 50,000 local and regional commercial printers in the United States.

The traditional process of purchasing short-run print items can be time consuming and error prone. Small businesses and consumers often lack the financial resources to create economies of scale when purchasing printed products. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), the number of small businesses engaged in e-commerce will grow from 400,000 at the end of 1998 to nearly 2.8 million by the end of 2003.

The explosive growth of the Internet as a tool for global communications has enabled millions of people to interact electronically. The IDC estimates that there were 142 million Web users worldwide at the end of 1998, and expect this number will grow to approximately 502 million by the end of 2003. Rapid acceptance of the Internet as a communications platform, by both businesses and consumers, has created the foundation for significant growth in business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce. IDC estimates that worldwide commerce over the Internet will increase from approximately $50 billion in 1998 to $1.3 trillion in 2003.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) estimates that more than 98% of all businesses in the United States have fewer than 100 employees. These businesses often lack the size and financial resources to create economies of scale. In particular, these organizations typically do not maintain dedicated procurement departments and often do not achieve significant purchasing leverage. That is why the Internet is so important for these businesses; it can provide small businesses and consumers with a number of advantages when making purchases, including:

• Convenience.
• Wider selection of products and services.
• Competitive pricing.

Small businesses are taking advantage of the opportunities the Internet affords. The IDC estimates that the number of small businesses engaged in e-commerce will increase 47.1% annually, from 400,000 at the end of 1998 to almost 2.8 million at the end of 2003, signaling the broad adoption of the Internet by these small enterprises.

The widespread adoption of the Internet as a purchasing vehicle has created a wealth of opportunities for businesses that offer products and services to small businesses and consumers. Simultaneously, it has given both small businesses and consumers a wider variety of products from which to choose at competitive prices.

4.3.1 Market Highlights

Highlights of Market

• Identifiable market sectors. Forrester Research estimates that there are approximately 70 identifiable vertical market sectors (i.e., manufacturing, insurance, stock brokerage, engineering, etc.) in the commercial business world today.
• High growth in e-commerce. Forrester Research also reports that B2B e-commerce will be a $1.3 trillion market by 2003 (Red Herring, December 1999). This will surpass the business-to-consumer market by five to seven times.
• E-commerce market value. IDC, another market intelligence firm, predicts the market to be $633 billion by 2001. IDC also believes that the largest portion of new technology investments for businesses will be devoted to the study and implementation of e-commerce B2B initiatives. Compounded growth between 2001 and 2003 is expected to be 35%. IDC claims that those entrepreneurs that set their banner into e-commerce sectors will be the ones that reap the greatest profits and growth from 2001 and beyond.
• Internet services market. Gartner, an independent research firm, calls B2B e-commerce “the new millennium’s killer application.” The Internet services’ market will grow at a cumulative annual growth rate of 60% through 2003. IDC also claims that revenue in the worldwide Internet services market grew 71% in 1998 and is expected to grow at a cumulative annual growth rate of 60% through 2003, with revenues for Internet services approaching $80 billion.

4.3.2 E-marketplaces

E-marketplace Reports

The research shows that e-marketplaces will be responsible for 53% of all online business trade. Research also indicates that more companies are moving to make purchases and sales on the Internet and are looking to build deeper relationships with business partners. This research has also shown:

The B2B arena reshaping e-marketplaces. The initial wave of B2B e-commerce has been dominated by extranets that automate off-line processes between partners. However, the Net is now moving to a new business venue, e-marketplaces, where the dynamic many-to-many interactions will supplant stagnant one-to-one relationships. These new trading arenas will flourish because:

• Industry inefficiencies run rampant. In today’s business environment, comparing offerings across suppliers requires multiple phone calls to various suppliers or enlisting the costly support of a broker. Time-consuming practices like these are easy targets for the Net, where purchasing agents can gain instant access to comparisons of many different products.
• E-marketplace vendors will lower technology barriers. Today, B2B entrepreneurs can acquire sophisticated marketplace software from firms like Tradex, Ariba, and Commerce One, or entirely offload the building of their websites to a lengthening list of experienced e-commerce integrators like Vision Systems or Software Solutions Pakistan.
• Venture funding is shifting to business trade. High-profile B2B players like VerticalNet–whose market cap currently exceeds $4 billion–have caught the investor community’s attention. The result? Many venture capitalists are placing bigger bets on their business trade portfolio. 

E-marketplaces will face a changing business environment. As more and more companies compete in the B2B market, there are going to be companies that will either have to sell or go out of business due to:

• Virgin markets disappearing. While most existing e-marketplaces are launched in a world devoid of serious competition, such as the printing business, these uncharted opportunities will quickly fade away; name recognition must be established.
• Feature-function races escalate. Functionality is currently not a big issue. But these websites will soon face stiff competition, and basic service offerings won’t be good enough.

PrintingSolutions.com will ensure our success by combining the most functionally-rich e-marketplace with the best prices for our customers. PrintingSolutions.com will aggressively pursue partnerships and develop a large customer base to get a strong foothold in the markets it ventures into. New vertical e-marketplace rules will emerge. As the competition increases in these vertical e-marketplaces, the operators will have to update their strategies and change their business paradigm to:

• Diversify beyond transaction fees. As vertical marketplace venues grow, websites will be pushed into competitive market share battles. To keep customers online, e-marketplaces will be forced to take a smaller percentage of the deal and expand their businesses by searching for new revenue streams.
• Expand through interconnections. Customers will begin to look for marketplaces to play dual roles: acting as both a one-stop shop for a variety of products as well as offering highly specialized industry-specific services. To accomplish this, alliances will need to be formed with other marketplaces who specialize in other vertical segments.
• Configure for specific buyer segments. Marketplaces serving industries like print or office supplies will no longer be able to treat all buyers alike. Marketplaces will need to begin offering service bundles to unique buyers–differentiating between decentralized, multinational corporations shipping overseas and local “Mom-and-Pop” shops.

4.3.3 Competition and Buying Patterns

The traditional process of purchasing printing can be time consuming and error prone. Businesses, particularly self-employed individuals and small businesses, often lack the financial resources to create economies of scale when purchasing printed products.

PrintingSolutions.com believes that consumers will choose products and services based on the following criteria:

• Significant cost savings. The print shop will operate online and will be highly automated, enabling PrintingSolutions.com to eliminate the costs of both building/managing a physical print shop and printing/distributing catalogs. We will be able to pass these savings on to our customers, offering printed goods for up to 50% less than traditional print and design shops. Furthermore, it is believed that our prices will be competitive and could possibly undercut mail-order catalog prices, but have a superior offering of customized printed products.

Traditionally, the primary cost of printing customized products has been working with customers to decide what needs to be printed. This required a design phase that normally employed the services of a graphics team. By providing predefined templates that enable our customers to customize a product online, the company will eliminate the need for a graphics team for the most significant portion of the work. For products such as brochures and logo designs, PrintingSolutions.com will utilize its offshore resources to complete the job. By enabling customers to do the majority of their own design work, and utilizing the offshore resources, we will significantly reduce our overhead and pass substantial savings on to our customers.

• Convenience. PrintingSolutions.com will develop its online print shop and specialized print services to be user friendly, using a self-service approach to designing and ordering products. Products will be shipped to the location the customer selects, enabling the entire process to be managed from the comfort of the customer’s office or home.
• Simplified Design and Ordering Process. For products created on the PrintingSolutions.com website, the technology will empower the customer to design and view printed items prior to purchasing these products. Also, exact re-prints of a previous order may be purchased at reduced rates. At PrintingSolutions.com, we believe that our “what-you-see-is-what-you-get approach” will be superior to the non-visual, forms-based process traditionally used by print shops and office supply catalogs. It will increase reliability and customer satisfaction and reduce the time it takes to complete an order. The company’s interactive design tools will alert the customer of common mistakes and missing information, further reducing the possibility of an incomplete or inaccurate order. Regardless of where a product is created, we will route orders to the optimal printing plant, given the quantity, equipment, raw material, and geographic considerations.
• Streamlined fulfillment process. After an order is placed, PrintingSolutions.com will electronically send a ready-to-print graphic file. Where appropriate, a job ticket file, which is a data file containing all of the attributes of an order, will be sent to one of the company’s certified commercial print vendors located throughout the United States and Pakistan. Our specialized print services, including the online self-service print shop, will virtually eliminate the pre-press process for commercial print vendors. We believe this will significantly improve the accuracy of the order and substantially reduce the amount of time and effort required for the commercial printer to complete it.
• Broad range of services and professionally printed products. PrintingSolutions.com will provide a one-stop shop for a wide range of printed products and services, with a print product selection that the company believes is superior to most traditional print shops and office supply catalogs. In the self-service print shop, PrintingSolutions.com will offer print items in several product categories, including brochures, business cards, stationery, business forms, folders, labels, and invitations. Customers will be able to design, view, and modify a product and either immediately place their order or save their work-in-progress to order at a later date. Customers will also be able to send free custom electronic greeting cards and electronic stationery directly from the PrintingSolutions.com website. For print items or quantities not offered in the self-service website, the company will respond to customer requests for specialized projects with individualized price quotes.
• Comprehensive customer service. PrintingSolutions.com will offer a broad range of customer services during all phases of the ordering and fulfillment process. After each order is placed, an email message will be automatically generated to the customer that itemizes the order, the total cost, and reiterates the estimated delivery time. The company will electronically receive order confirmation, printing, and delivery information from its commercial print vendors and make this information accessible to customers through a password-protected mechanism, enabling the customer to easily check an order’s status online or even cancel the order if it has not yet been printed. An additional email will also be sent once the customer’s order is shipped.

For specialized printing services, PrintingSolutions.com will provide customer service through a combination of electronic and personal assistance. In addition to the above mentioned benefits, we will provide our customers with significant advantages over commercial print vendors. Based on knowledge within the commercial printing industry, we believe that, by integrating our technologies into those of our commercial print vendors and utilizing the “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” approach, we will significantly reduce reprint-due-to-error rates and print wastage.

4.3.4 Main Competitors

The prime competitive threat comes from iPrint.com, a company that currently dominates the market. Its weakness, however, is charging too much. iPrint.com, is an Internet print shop that allows customers to create custom printed products. iPrint.com has developed cutting-edge technology and harnessed the power of the Internet to bring dramatic change to the centuries old printing industry. iPrint.com allows customers to design and order customized printed products such as business cards, office stationery, business checks and forms, personalized company post-it notes, logo coffee cups, promotional t-shirts and photo mouse pads. The company focuses on the business market.

Competitive threats also come from any company that is able to provide the services offered by PrintingSolutions.com at lower prices. The only way to accomplish that is for other companies to have what PrintingSolutions.com will have in terms of knowledge and overseas resources, both in the Internet technology field and printing resources.

The focus of competitors is on printing services, which are grossly overpriced. PrintingSolutions.com will focus on providing more than just printing: the company plans to provide an environment where companies can get their business running as quickly as possible for the best price. Additionally, once the B2B portion of the website is established, the company will be able to further promote competition and gain a larger customer base while limiting operational costs.

PrintingSolutions.com will differentiate itself from competitors by obtaining a global demand for its services. The company will constantly re-evaluate its rates and services to achieve a leading position in the industry, thus allowing customers to attain the services that PrintingSolutions.com provides with substantial savings over competitors’ prices.

The advantage of PrintingSolutions.com will be its team of highly-qualified professionals that have been working in the technology industry for years. Additionally, the company will benefit from having resources outside the United States, and will leverage them extremely well, while keeping the cost of operation down.

Strategy and Implementation Summary

The objective of PrintingSolutions.com is to become the leading online provider of printing and private-brand print services. As part of the ongoing strategy, the company plans to:

• Create New Services. Capitalize on being one of the first online print shops to target the business market by aggressively introducing new printing services and promotions.
• Build brand recognition. Build brand recognition by promoting the PrintingSolutions.com brand through diverse marketing channels, such as online advertising, public relations, and trade-show participation.
• Expand relationships. Expand the company’s marketing relationships by aggressively developing new relationships with leading destination websites and media companies. This will accelerate customer acquisition and increase usage of our online print shop.
• Build customer base. Build a customer base and stimulate repeat usage by exposing customers to products and services that most closely meet their needs.
• Expand services. Expand Printing Solution’s specialized print services by creating a range of new online printing services and aggressively marketing these services to current and future customer bases.
• Expand private-brand initiatives. Expand Printing Solution’s private-brand initiatives by entering into new relationships with a variety of companies to increase distribution and sales channels, and increase the usage of print services.
• Leverage and extend technology. Leverage and extend the company’s technology platform by enhancing the functionality of the PrintingSolutions.com and PrintingSolutionsB2B.com websites and the technology that supports them. This will be done to improve order flow and reporting, expand service offerings, facilitate more complete integration with print vendors, expedite payment processing, and improve the efficiency of the system.

5.1 Competitive Edge

Through the online print shop, PrintingSolutions.com will offer consumers a single location to satisfy the majority of their printing needs. The company will develop a user-friendly website for obtaining professional quality, mass-market printed products. This will provide customers a compelling alternative to traditional print channels. PrintingSolutions.com will also offer specialized websites and printing services for print items or quantities that are not generally offered in the self-service print shop. By automating the print order process and connecting online print services to carefully selected commercial print vendors, it is believed that the costs of printing will be significantly reduced.

5.2 Marketing Strategy

PrintingSolutions.com will strive to develop the most recognized and trusted brand for printing services on the Internet. To expand our customer base and to extend the image of the company, we plan to aggressively promote the PrintingSolutions.com brand through a combination of online and traditional media advertising, public relations and participation in trade shows. The company also plans to expand our affiliate and co-branded online website strategies through agreements with a range of destination websites.

The company will be promoting PrintingSolutions.com and PrintingSolutionsB2B.com over the Internet through:

• Banner adds
• Providing a small percentage of the sales made through websites that list PrintingSolutions.com from which a customer makes a purchase.

Internet ads are an obvious choice because that is the nature of our business. Marketing will also be done through printed media such as national newspapers and magazines. Newspaper and magazine ads will be used since our customers include business people who read various publications. Television ads will be used in certain markets, as PrintingSolutions.com will be targeting large cities with a great number of businesses.

5.2.1 Positioning Statement

PrintingSolutions.com’ products and services will address the need for assisting customers in obtaining their business stationery, graphic art designs and websites at more affordable prices than are currently being offered.

5.2.2 Pricing Strategy

The company sets its pricing based on what competitors are offering, and cuts that number in half. Website development will be provided at a flat rate, with additional changes being billed at an hourly rate. PrintingSolutions.com will provide technical support as needed to ensure that a customer’s website gets up and running. We will provide free technical support for websites for their first six months. Beyond that, an hourly rate will be applied. Logo designs will also be charged at a flat rate and, as with the development of the websites, with additional changes being charged by the hour.

5.3 Sales Strategy

The company’s sales strategy will be relatively minimal since PrintingSolutions.com is offering distant, self-customizing services. It is expected that the company’s marketing efforts will bring customers to the website, and the benefits of convenience, customization and low price as advertised on the website will be the incentives to close a sale. Promotions and add-on products coupled with continuing low prices will create repeat business.

Most importantly, PrintingSolutions.com will provide our customers exactly what they want or there will be no charge.

5.3.1 Sales Forecast

The following table and charts show our projected sales and direct costs for the next three years.

5.4 Strategic Alliances

The company has strategic alliances with Network Systems, Software Developers, and Custom Designs and Printers. These alliances are valuable to us because they will allow the company to utilize the knowledge and resources of these firms with no additional cost to the business. PrintingSolutions.com plans to also form strategic alliances with search engines such as Yahoo! and Lycos to promote the website, as well as exploring the possibility of forming strategic partnerships with content providers such as America Online.

The e-marketplaces will become an enduring reality in the business landscape. While the growth of these venues will spur continuous change, the company will be participating in these e-marketplaces as buyers. PrintingSolutions.com will begin to experiment with these online marketplaces with a minimum of 1% of its procurement dollars. This level of effort will enable the company to optimize purchasing in a dynamic pricing world. There will be the added bonus of also understanding the different vertical markets so that, when the time comes, we will know where to look to form strategic alliances

The company also plans to pursue strategic relationships with leading destination websites and media companies in order to increase traffic to its website. By aggressively pursuing new relationships, we believe we can accelerate the acquisition of new customers and increase usage of our online print store.

5.5 Milestones

Sample Milestones topic text.

The milestones table and chart show the specific detail about actual program activities that should be taking place during the year. Each one has its manager, starting date, ending date, and budget. During the year we will be keeping track of implementation against plan, with reports on the timely completion of these activities as planned.

Web Plan Summary

PrintingSolutions.com will offer printing, website and graphic art design at affordable prices. The company’s proprietary product will be a website that will provide customers an avenue to create business stationery. PrintingSolutions.com will allow customers to track their purchases from start to finish. They will be able to view their selections online and make modifications at any time; customers will have access to service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

6.1 Development Requirements

The software that supports the online print shop is a collection of integrated software modules that will enable PrintingSolutions.com to quickly create, maintain, modify, or replace individual components. PrintingSolutions.com will create its proprietary software modules using development and technical standards and practices, and without significant dependencies on specific operating systems, databases, or Web server technologies. As a result, the company will be able to move portions of its software between different databases, operating systems, and Web server products to upgrade capacity or take advantage of price or performance improvements, as they become available.

The following is a description of the key software modules that will be found on the PrintingSolutions.com website:

• Design Workshop. This will incorporate features found in desktop publishing software that enables customers to easily create a wide variety of custom-printed products. The workshop will be designed such that what customers build on the screen is what they will receive in their hands. This is achieved by considering all aspects needed to produce on-screen images and transferring them directly to the final printed product. Since customers will be able to view and proof their orders before they are printed, we believe the percentage of orders that shall require reprinting due to design error will be significantly reduced.
• Product and Pricing Engines. Our various engines will contain a wide range of product designs, features, and pricing information. To support the broad array of product variations and customization options offered, we will design these databases to be highly flexible. This will allow us to modify our records as the market dictates.
• Secure Shopping Cart. We will provide a customized order basket designed to store and securely process orders. The Secure Shopping Cart will be integrated with the systems of members, thus reducing the need for human intervention in order to produce and complete an order. The company believes that by designing the system in this manner, the order and completion process will be vastly more efficient and are less error prone than current processes.
• System Reporting and Diagnostics. This program is designed to track customer action on participating websites. PrintingSolutions.com will utilize this program in order to remain aware of industry and retail trends.
• Custom Website Resources. By allowing participants in the private-brand program to customize and control their own print shops, we will eliminate the need for costly, time-consuming programming efforts. We will allow these participants to directly manage product prices, configurations, and sales tax assignments, which decreases customization and maintenance expenses for PrintingSolutions.com.

6.2 System Standards and Integration

Design Standards

PrintingSolutions.com will offer the following design standards:

• High-speed operation.
• Optimized screens incorporating data from several modules on a single display.
• Great depth to handle the most sophisticated requirements.
• Tightly integrated standards to minimize errors, data entry, and time, and maximize the speed and information content on displays and printouts.
• Consistent look and feel, uniform prompts and similar data flow for every module.
• User-friendly. Rich in useful features such as help displays, pick boxes, numerous user-changeable flags and user-modified options.

Depth and Integration

PrintingSolutions.com will have depth, which means that the software will allow the customer to go beyond the basics. Depth will apply to each module individually: estimating, cost collection, and accounting. Software without depth is limited and can be frustrating to a consumer.

The company will have the ability to confirm customer information when processing an estimate. We will also be able to convert an estimate to a job and automatically allocate inventory, verify credit limits, allow for coverage, and put all outside buys on a ‘must buy’ list for purchasing and updating work-in-process. When a job is billed, all information will be fully automatic. Then, after billing, the work-in-process, job history, job archives, accounts receivable, sales tax, sales commission liability, sales revenue, production scheduling, active job file, and inventory files will all be automatically updated.

We will have depth in accounting. This implies the following:

• A job scan will be pre-billed or partially billed.
• The sales tax will be computed for all states taxes, including any county or local tax.
• More than one accounting period can be open at the same time.
• Allowing several bank accounts and classes of Accounts Receivable to automatically compute and track sales commissions and multiple plants with individual and consolidated financial statements.

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Management will initially consist of Mr. Dalton Grant, president and CEO. Additionally, the company’s webmaster will act as assistant manager and oversee many of the day-to-day functions of the company.

Additional management personnel, such as a marketing manager and product managers, will be hired as growth dictates.

7.1 Organizational Structure

The company’s management philosophy will be based on responsibility and mutual respect. PrintingSolutions.com will maintain an environment and structure that will encourage productivity and respect for customers and fellow employees. Additionally, the environment will encourage employees to have fun by allowing creative independence and providing challenges that are realistic and rewarding. Printing Solution’s organizational structure is illustrated in the Personnel table below.

7.2 Management Team

Mr. Dalton Grant, President and CEO. Mr. Grant will be responsible for the direction and overall performance of PrintingSolutions.com. Mr. Grant was the CEO of Delta Printing Services. His previous positions included, Director of Network Systems Development in Nortel, in which he lead a team of over 350 people. His responsibilities at Nortel directly affected revenue of over $10 million.

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Funding Requirements and Uses

The company will be raising $2 million for the purposes of:

• Establishing an organization and office presence within the USA and overseas.
• Completing the development of the Internet print shop.
• Marketing the website and its services.
• Providing a world-class customer service website.

8.1 Financial Risks and Contingencies

PrintingSolutions.com currently has no operating history, which makes it difficult to forecast future operating results. The company will encounter risks and difficulties that start-ups frequently encounter in rapidly evolving and competitive markets. These risks include expanding the number of certified commercial print vendors and improving technological and logistical connections to these vendors. If these risks are not addressed successfully, the business will be seriously harmed.

Due to the nature of Internet business, the performance and fluctuations in quarterly sales and operating expenses will depend on the current marketplace and competition. The performance of PrintingSolutions.com will depend on market and industry risk factors that the company recognizes it will be subject to. The company’s view of its risks is as follows:

• Employee turnover. One of the biggest risks that all dot-com companies face today is the loss of key personnel. PrintingSolutions.com will minimize this risk by ensuring that our employees have a world-class working environment, which includes being paid competitive wages, excellent benefits, and stock options.
• Competitors. To mitigate this risk, we will closely monitor our competitors’ pricing structures, business strategies, and overall customer satisfaction to make sure we are one step ahead at all times.
• Economic Factors. To minimize this risk, we will diversify our position in the products and services that we offer, as well as planning to ensure there is always available cash flow and resources if the economy begins to show negative trends.
• Customer retention. The company will aggressively advertise its products and services and establish strategic alliances with industry leaders in order to generate a solid customer base and retain customers.
• Volume of transactions. The volume of transactions generated through the website and products for which we receive transaction fees.
• Downtime. Technical difficulties, system failures, or Internet downtime.
• Timing. The timing of large customer orders, or the failure to enter into strategic alliances.
• Costs. The amount and timing of operating costs and capital expenditures relating to expansion of the business, operations, and infrastructure.
• Pricing. Changes in our pricing policies or competitors’ pricing policies.

The success of PrintingSolutions.com will depend on a significant number of print-buying customers knowing about, and regularly using, our services. The market for Internet-enabled printing services is at an early stage of development. Many customers will be addressing issues such as quality, reliability, billing, delivery, and customer service for the first time in a self-service, Internet-based, print creation and ordering environment. Educating potential customers is a complex, time consuming and expensive process. In many cases, organizations must change established business practices and conduct business in new ways to use the services.

8.2 Important Assumptions

Nature and Limitation of Projections . This financial projection is based on sales volume at the levels described in the revenue section and presents, to the best of management’s knowledge and belief, the company’s expected assets, liabilities, capital, revenues, and expenses. The projections reflect management’s judgement of the expected conditions and its expected course of action given the hypothetical assumptions.

Nature of Operations. The company operates as an Oregon C-corporation.

Revenues. PrintingSolutions.com will generate revenues from the sale of a variety of printed products to end user customers. The company’s products and services will be available to customers through the PrintingSolutions.com and PrintingSolutionsB2B.com websites, managed PrintingSolutionsB2B.com affiliates and co-branded websites, and privately-branded websites.

The company will not recognize revenues until the product is shipped, collection of the receivable will be probable, and commercial print vendors have fulfilled all contractual obligations to the customer. PrintingSolutions.com will take title to all products that the company instructs its commercial print vendors to produce. PrintingSolutions.com believes that purchases by businesses will account for a majority of its revenues and will record sales net of discounts. The company will record the cost of promotional products that it will give away at no charge as a sales and marketing expense.

A significant portion of revenue will be generated through barter transactions with participants in the co-branded program in which PrintingSolutions.com will sell printed products in exchange for online advertising. Barter transaction revenues and related advertising costs will be recorded at the fair value of the goods or services provided or received, whichever will be more easily determined in the circumstances. The majority of revenues will be generated from sources within the United States; therefore, all sales will be in the United States dollar currency.

Expenses. The company’s expenses will be primarily those of salaries, sales commissions, and administrative costs. The company will categorize its operating expenses into research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative.

Research and development expenses will primarily consist of personnel costs, including costs related to consultants and outside contractors.

Sales and marketing expenses will consist of the cost of free promotional products, the cost of marketing programs including advertisements, costs to acquire email lists, personnel and related costs for our marketing staff and customer support groups, and participation in trade shows.

General and administrative expenses will primarily consist of personnel and related costs for corporate functions, including finance, accounting, legal, human resources, facilities, and management of commercial print vendor relationships.

Cost of sales. Cost of sales will primarily consist of direct expenses relating to printing products, rework and reprinting charges, shipping and handling fees, royalties on software licenses, and credit card processing fees.

8.3 Break-even Analysis

The following chart and table outline the break-even analysis for PrintingSolutions.com.

8.4 Projected Profit and Loss

PrintingSolutions.com is in the early stage of development; thus, initial projections have only been made on accounts that are believed to most drive the income statement. The following table provides Printing Solution’s projected income statements for 2000-2002. PrintingSolutions.com operates on a fiscal year ending in December. In order to reflect fiscal year projections of revenue and profit, only the last six months of year 2000 shows income. This reflects the projected launch date of the company.

8.5 Projected Cash Flow

The following table has calculated that the company will have a negative cash outflow during the first year based on the start-up costs outlined in topic 2.0. However, the company will not begin financing or operations until July, 2000. In order to offset this supposed outflow, increases in the initial cash requirements in the Start-up table have been provided. The differences between calculated cash and actual needs will be used for other start-up costs. It is assumed that there will be no dividend payments for the first three years of business.

8.6 Balance Sheet

The following table outlines some key financial information for PrintingSolutions.com.

8.7 Business Ratios

The table below provides key ratios in the Industry Profile column for the commercial printing industry, as found in the Standard Industry Classifications (SIC) index, code 2759. We have projected healthy ratios for the first three years of operation, and foresee a continuing upwards trend throughout the company’s life.

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