How to capitalize on your printing company
You also could apply for some loans. Looking at all your resources pooled together, you have about half a million dollars in cash. If you have this amount, a good business to start would be a commercial printing company. It would be a great time to become a commercial printer at this generation where countless companies through America and even the world are producing so much printed materials every day. So if ever you start a printing company, you wonder, where will the bulk of the capitalization go? That question could be summed up in four categories—the equipment and machines, the office space, the initial cost of operation, and the marketing and advertising expenses. Here are the basic things that you will need. You can add or deduct from this working list written below according to your set up.
1. Equipment and Machines. All of these things combined could eat up about 30% of your budget because of their cost. These are needed for a full service print shop. Things you need are: desktop computers for layout, fax machine, image setter, offset or digital commercial printer, cutter, inkjet printer, laser printer, UPS for computers, standby generator set
2. Office Space Rental. Printing machines and equipment are huge so you will need a lot of production space. Since you will have sales people, they will have to occupy the front office area that will also serve as your reception room. You will entertain clients and close deals here. This will eat up another 30% of your capitalization because of the reservation fee, the deposit, and advance payments for your lease. Things you need are: Space for the front office, space for the layout and design room, printing and production area, finishing room, storage room of printing supplies, advance and deposits for the lease
3. Initial Operational Costs. You will probably have to shell out money until about six months of operations. You should be able to compute your monthly expenditures and multiply it by six months. You should have that much liquidity for the initial operations of your printing company. Things you need are: permits for business, salaries and benefits, office supplies, printing supplies, utilities, office renovations, office furnishings, electrical
4. Marketing and Advertising. Do not neglect this because people have to know about you in order to patronize your new company. Things you need are: Printed collaterals like flyers and brochures, Point of purchase banners, Print ads, Media mileage costs. You will need a website set up
The list above contains some of the elements that you need. This list above is for a full-scale printing operation that can offer either offset or digital printing as well as desktop publishing. It really depends upon you and your capitalization if you can afford the setup above. Alternatively, maybe you can start a smaller operation. You can start with one machine and just a few personnel. Then you can just work your way up to becoming a full-pledged commercial printer offering a lot of products and services.
