One type of business that is always growing in the midst of this digitalization era is the printing business. Although many people have turned to digital platforms to access information, in fact, the printing business is still being looked at to produce various customer needs, such as pamphlets, banners, invitations, business cards, and others. The use of increasingly sophisticated equipment in producing prints is what makes the printing business competitive today. Printing business players now no longer need to worry about producing customer requests in large quantities and in a short time. If you are one of them who wants to become an entrepreneur in the printing sector, the article below is certainly not to be missed. This time, the BFI Finance team presented a guide on how to start a printing business, starting with understanding the types, business ideas, and tips for starting a printing business. Check out the full review below.
Type of Printing Business
Before deciding to start a printing business, first find out the types of printing techniques that are often encountered.
1. Digital Printing
The first type of printing business is digital printing. As the name implies, digital printing is a type of printing business that requires technological intervention in the manufacturing process. In the process of making the final result using digital printing, it is faster when compared to conventional printing. Some of the products that can be made using digital printing are:
- Custom Products (Case, Mug, Tumblr)
- Name card
- Banner
- Flyers
- Pamphlets
- Wedding invitation
- And others.
2. Offset Printing
Before digital printing began to get a lot of attention, offset printing first became the prima donna in the printing world. Offset printing is known for its large printing machines and the ability to produce in large quantities up to thousands of copies. However, offset printing is only able to produce using paper-based materials. So, this type of printing is suitable for those of you who want to print invitation cards, magazines, books, and other paper-based productions. Another advantage of offset printing is that it is more affordable than digital printing. In addition, the disadvantage of offset printing is that it requires a long production process because it has to transfer the printed material to the printing plate first.
3. Screen Printing
The third type of printing business is screen printing. Perhaps many of us are familiar with the term screen printing. Because usually screen printing is used to make screen printing clothes that we often encounter. The technique used to print screen printing results is also very distinctive, namely by sweeping the printed material with ink using a palette or rack. This technique still uses human power. The screen printing technique uses machine assistance, but it can only be done if the printed object has more than 4 colors.
4. Flexographic Printing
The type of flexographic printing business is a printing technique that uses roll-shaped equipment. Usually, the flexographic printing technique is used to print newspapers, stickers, and cardboard. The advantage of this printing technique is that it requires less ink. The manufacturing process also does not require many other raw materials.
5. Rotogravure Precast
The last type of printing business is rotogravure. The rotogravure technique is widely used for printing plastic packaging products such as food and soft drinks. Just like the flexography technique, rotogravure uses roll-shaped equipment. The difference is, rotogravure is mostly used for printing plastic and cardboard-based materials.
Printing Business Ideas
After you know the types and printing techniques often used, here are business ideas that can be run in this printing business.
1. Cutting Sticker Printing and Sticker Printing
A cutting sticker is a sticker that is formed through cutting techniques using a sticker cutting machine and in designing it using software tools. Cutting sticker is different from regular sticker printing in terms of price, quality, and color selection. Cutting stickers usually have a more durable quality than sticker printing. In terms of price, sticker cutting is also more expensive than sticker printing.
The need for cutting stickers comes from companies that need stickers to introduce their brand in their selling products. In addition, the finished product of the cutting stickers is also widely used as the identity of a community or as decoration. On the basis of this condition, you can take advantage of the opportunity to open a cutting sticker or sticker printing business.
2. Invitation Printing
The next printing business idea, you can make an invitation printing business for various events such as weddings, circumcisions, and other events. To print invitation cards, you can use offset printing or digital printing techniques. If you want to reduce costs, you can use simple equipment such as printers, color inks, computers, and paper that are tailored to the client's needs. Make sure the equipment can meet the needs on a large scale.
3. Promotional Media Printing
Offline promotion media such as brochures, pamphlets, and posters are currently still in great demand. Seeing these conditions, running a printing business can be a business opportunity that you can choose. The printing technique chosen usually uses digital printing because before going through the printing process it usually requires a design that is prepared with the help of editing software.
Digital printing equipment and supplies are indeed quite expensive, especially the printing machine. However, this can be covered because the printing business opportunity in the next few years is still promising and has many enthusiasts.
4. T-shirt Printing
Running a t-shirt screen printing business is also still a business opportunity that many glances at. Screen printing t-shirts can be made for large or small production. Usually, the community or party makes uniform t-shirts in large quantities for their members and administrators. You can also receive unit screen printing t-shirts with designs that can be made by the customer or from a service provider. You can choose to use digital or manual screen printing techniques.
5. Custom Printed-Accessories
In addition to offering promotional media creation services, invitations, and screen printing t-shirts, you can also consider selling various printed accessories that can be customized by customers. You can accept orders for printed accessories such as mugs, cellphone cases, pins, tumblers, and others. Usually, these accessories are sought after as wedding souvenirs, gathering events, and other interesting gifts.
6. Variety of Office Needs
Companies usually need an office kit as a promotional tool that is distributed to external parties and internal employees such as calendars, company profiles (hardcopy), stop maps, lanyards, and others. This opportunity can be used as a printing business opportunity to produce on a large scale. Because usually, large companies will need promotional office kits in the hundreds to thousands according to their needs. Printing techniques that can be used starting from digital printing, offset, and screen printing.
Tips for Starting a Printing Business
If you already know the types, techniques, and business ideas that can be run, here are tips to guide you in starting a printing business.
1. Determine the Type of Services Offered
The first step to starting a printing business is to determine what type of service you offer. As explained above, there are at least five types of printing businesses that you can use as a reference. The choice of the type of printing business depends on the business plan you have, such as your budget, target customer, and business location. Each type of printing business certainly requires a different business model.
If you decide to run a simple printing business, you can start a home printing and photocopying business. In addition to requiring an equipment budget that is not too large, you can also run your business from home. Thus, the costs incurred can be further reduced.
It's different if you decide to open a digital printing business, of course, the capital required is much larger. Because the digital printing business requires a printing machine that can produce large quantities of products. In addition, a larger budget will also affect the quality of better printing results.
2. Choose the Equipment and Supporting Equipment Needed
After determining the type of service provided, then you can make a list of what equipment and supplies are needed to support the printing business. If you run a home printing and photocopying business, here are the main tools and equipment needed:
- Printers 2 pieces
- 2 computers
- 1 copier
- Printer ink
- HVS Kertas paper
- Binding/laminating machine
- Paper cutter
- Stop maps, envelopes, and writing tools
If you run a digital or offset printing business, some of the equipment that can be used are:
- Hot Print Machine
- Spiral binding machine
- Booklet maker machine
- Hardcover maker machine
- And others
The owner of the printing business must know the type and quality of the printing machine to be used. Regarding quality, of course, a machine with good quality will produce good printed products as well. This will affect the number of customers who come to your printing business.
3. Determine the Target Market
The printing business has a fairly broad target market. You can choose to offer products and services to students, brides-to-be, communities, parties, offices, and others. Decide who your product is for. Because the target market determines the type of printing business you will run.
4. Determine the Location
The fourth step is to determine the location of the business. Determining the location of your business will determine the sustainability of your business. Choose a strategic location according to your target market. If you target students as your target market, you can choose a location close to the campus or school. If you are targeting office workers, you can choose a location in an office area. Interestingly, some printing businesses can be run on their own land. If your house is in a strategic location, it never hurts to run a home printing business on the vacant land of your home. Of course, this will reduce the operating costs incurred.
5. Prepare Printing Business Capital
The next step that is no less important is to prepare a printing business capital. Business capital can be used to purchase initial equipment and supplies and pay for business operating costs. The costs required to run this business are:
- Cost of equipment and supplies
- The cost of renting a shop/land
- Operational Costs (employees, electricity)
- Printing machine maintenance costs
Calculate in detail the required capital and costs and the estimated monthly income you will get. Try the costs incurred per month do not exceed the business income you receive per month.
6. Determine Service Prices
Do competitor research to determine the selling price of your printing products and services. Try not to be too high or low to determine your selling price from competitors. The selling price size is also determined by the capital and cash outflow of your printing business. If you place a selling price too high, then customers are reluctant to choose your products and services. On the other hand, if you place your selling price too low with your comparable competitors, customers will question the quality and results of your printing products and services.
7. Promote Vigorously
So that your brand is increasingly recognized by the public, promotional activities must be carried out. You can choose to do promotions offline or online. If you use offline promotion tools, you can use brochures, banners, or billboards. If you use online promotion tools, you can create social media accounts such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as create a website. Both types of promotions have advantages and disadvantages, all of which are tailored to the needs of your printing business.
8. Maintain Service Quality
After your printing brand is increasingly recognized, it's time for you to maintain your brand reputation by consistently maintaining the quality of your services. Even better, if you continue to innovate. Continue to do competitor research so that your printing business takes the lead in the competition. Maintaining the quality of service, in the future, will certainly create high customer loyalty.
Those are the eight tips for starting a printing business along with an understanding of the types and business ideas. Hopefully, the explanation above will help you in realizing your printing business, BFI friends! If you need capital to run a printing business, you can apply for a loan through BFI Finance. The method is very easy, namely by pledging your Vehicle BPKB such as Car BPKB and Motorcycle BPKB, as well as House Certificates, we will process your loan application quickly. Enjoy low loan interest rates, various tenor options, and various attractive promos for each of your loan applications through BFI Finance. BFI Finance has been registered and supervised by OJK and has met the financial needs of thousands of customers throughout Indonesia. So, always trust your loan application with BFI Finance.
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