# [Screen Printing] Is a retail or industrial space a better investment for your shop location?



## chrisyjean51 (Jul 16, 2008)

OK so I have a question for all of you screen printers out there. I have been in business for just about 3 years. We started our business in a new office park located in a fairly convenient yet hidden spot. Our lease expires this September and we are looking for a new location. The place we are in is nicer than an industrial park but has about the same visiblity (we are paying too much for no exposure). My question is... Do we go cheaper and move to an industrial park (I believe we will continue to grow at about the same pace as we are currently growing..approx 30% so far this year) or do we suck it up and move into a retail location. (almost twice the rent...but very good signage opportunity on the most traveled road in my town.) I am really torn on how to value that drive by traffic. The only things we have to go on are 1. all of our customers are always saying thigs like I didn't even know you were back here.... 2. By far our most sucessful marketing efforts have to be the little 18x24 corroplast signs (that we print ourselves). We advertise on the radio..the phone books..a website with ad words..and many others.. but the signs are by far the best return on our investment. Does anyone have an opinion about this?


----------



## Donsfast (Dec 24, 2008)

*Re: Retail or Industrial space?*

I think it would depend on the direction you are looking to go with the business in the future, type of clients, etc. but that being said being seen by more potential clients is never a bad thing.


----------



## chrisyjean51 (Jul 16, 2008)

We want the exposure that the retail space would bring but we are not one off printers. We do bulk printing...a little afraid that a retail space would bring a lot of the onies jobs that we don't want


----------



## TshirtGuru (Jul 9, 2008)

We a retail space, you will get a lot of "can you make me one shirt?" Which is great if your business model is for low quantity/one off prints, but since you're doing volume orders, I would not dare take a retail space. Save that money and use it towards other types of advertising.

Industrial parks are probably best for screen printing. Most customers don't drive by a screen print shop and say "heyyyy I need a shirt", usually they will search to find someone.


----------



## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

chrisyjean51 said:


> We want the exposure that the retail space would bring but we are not one off printers. We do bulk printing...a little afraid that a retail space would bring a lot of the onies jobs that we don't want


If you don't plan on selling onesie/twosie orders or preprinted t-shirt designs, then I think the money you'll save on an industrial space would be worth it.

Without the retail/onsie/twosie stuff, there's almost no reason to get a retail type space.

If the signs are the way you're getting business, it seems like they could just as easily send the business to your industrial location (or your phone number or your website )


----------



## n.signia (Nov 21, 2007)

chrisyjean51 said:


> ...a little afraid that a retail space would bring a lot of the onies jobs that we don't want


thats what I think you'll get from a retail space, I would go with the cheaper rent in the industrial park.


----------



## ino (Jan 23, 2007)

Definitely an industrial park. As other posters said retail areas for onesies.


----------



## chrisyjean51 (Jul 16, 2008)

Isn't there something to be said for the name recognition that a retail location will bring? I do know that if we are in more of a retail location it would be in our benefit to do the one off t-shirts.. do you guys think that it would offer an opportunity to expand our product line to not only the volume orders but to the higher dollar one offs? We would then have the best of both worlds... more expense but also more business. I agree that people will seek you out...but isn't it even better if they don't have to seek you out? If they see your business on their way to work everyday..when it is time to seek someone out they don't have to open the phone book or go to the internet. They remember that their is a printer that they see everyday... you know what I mean? Also the space that we are looking at has some benefits to us as well.. 1. There is a sign shop right next door..from our experience the sign shop and t-shirt shop go hand in hand. 2. We would be on a road that see upwards of 70K cars a day 3. The actual location is not in a shopping center. It is more of an office strip... we would be among..the sign shop, a real estate office, a lawyer, a doctors office etc... Where we are located now is not an industrial park but with the amount of visibility we have here it might as well be...and we always get the comment "I didn't even know you were back here" We are growing at a decent pace where we are but I feel like we are missing the big jump in business that we would get in a more trafficked area....


----------



## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

chrisyjean51 said:


> We would then have the best of both worlds... more expense but also more business.


How is more expense the best of both worlds?



chrisyjean51 said:


> I agree that people will seek you out...but isn't it even better if they don't have to seek you out?


Of course, but at what cost?

More overhead, more stress, having to take on retail orders that most printers would rather not touch, etc.



chrisyjean51 said:


> Also the space that we are looking at has some benefits to us as well.. [etc.]


It sounds like you already know what you _want_ to do, you just don't know if you can afford to take on the extra risk. It reads like you're trying to convince us in order to convince yourself.

If so, you're unlikely to convince us; this isn't the first time the topic has come up, and people aren't just missing the obvious benefits of a retail space over an industrial park. Everyone weighs it up, most people decide it's not worth it. Hence there not being (m)any screenprinters in major shopping strips.



chrisyjean51 said:


> Where we are located now is not an industrial park but with the amount of visibility we have here it might as well be...and we always get the comment "I didn't even know you were back here" We are growing at a decent pace where we are


If you're in a position to keep hearing that (and grow), you must be doing something right.

I'm not sure that I'd take it to heart that much. People *love* saying "We didn't know you were here!" like it's some kind of wondrous revelation. It's like "Did you hear about that local sports team?" or "How 'bout this weather, eh?" or the closely related "I didn't realise you were so close to such & such".

Just think about the services you might need in your life (plumber, electrician, etc.) and how many of them you could probably say the same thing to if you found out where they were. If you drive past them on the way to work, it's more likely to be because they're in the same industrial park.

If you're out of business and hearing "Oh, we didn't know you *were* there..." that's one thing. When you're doing well enough to expand premises, that's another.


----------



## BillyV (May 8, 2009)

I would put the money into direct target marketing and continue to grow as you have been.
An industial space is far more adaptable for a screen priner than a retail space.

With a retail space you also have to adjust your workload to make up for the lookers that want to "ask a couple qiuck questions" that turn into 20 minutes of wasted time as they never intended to purchase anything to start with but they are courious about the process. 
Unless you have front counter staff a retail location can be a double edge sword, you get the exposure and you also get the foot traffic, and once in a while a sell from someone that was hosting a event and just happened to walk by, but most of the time just get a large overhead and a lot of time dealing with "lookly loos". 

At the end of the day you want what is going to be the best for growing your business the way you want!


----------



## innothread (Jul 19, 2008)

chrisyjean51 said:


> 1. There is a sign shop right next door..from our experience the sign shop and t-shirt shop go hand in hand.


In my opinion, if you moved into a retail location you should expand into doing signs (not having him next door), dtg and embroidery.


----------



## wormil (Jan 7, 2008)

chrisyjean51 said:


> We do bulk printing...


I have run printing shops in retail locations and you'll need to pay someone just to deal with the people who walk in and ask questions. So you'll have the retail expense plus additional labor.

Lease the industrial space and use the money you save to hire a salesman. Trust me, the voice of experience. The only exception is if you want to open a boutique and run your screenprinting shop in the back but the problem is storing inventory and getting ink where it shouldn't be. Plus you'll need to be in high traffic retail area not a business park.


----------



## LushLoveTshirts (May 28, 2009)

Industrial space, makes it easier to grow id say and rents cheaper


----------



## txjake (Dec 2, 2008)

We recently moved from a hidden location to a very visible retail-type building. Yes, our business increased noticeably once we made the move, but everybody is right - with the added exposure, you get a ton of folks walking in asking for stuff that's just not worth your time. If you plan to have some retail stuff in the shop, you can increase revenue somewhat with that... but be prepared for all the grandmas who want a t-shirt with their grandbaby's picture on it.

Rental space is limited in our town, but if I had a choice I would go with the warehouse/industrial type space over the retail space. We're all about generating artwork and dragging squeegees... dealing with onsie customers takes up a lot of time... even when you're just sending them elsewhere.


----------



## chrisyjean51 (Jul 16, 2008)

Thanks for everyone's opinions. I think there is a part of me (especially being a female) that does want to be in a "nicer" retail like location..and maybe I am trying to "convince" myself and all of you that the benefits are worth the cost. I just needed a reality check and I think you all gave it to me. In my town there are a combination of printers...some straight industrial park some retail location. The retail locations do basically have stores though (selling trophies, sports apparel etc). Most of those stores don't do screen printing onsite or themselves at all. I know that where we are now we discourage the one offs and always hate it when we get the talker/looky loo customers (which are infrequent but still pretty annoying) I just couldn't help thinking that we may be missing the big increase in business we would get if we jumped into the highly visible spot. I think the best choice for us is to find a decently nice or newer spot in an industrial area. Typically when I think of industrial areas I think of run down garages. We don't want to present our business that way.


----------



## chrisyjean51 (Jul 16, 2008)

How is more expense the best of both worlds?

What I meant by this was that we would have the best of both worlds meaning we would keep our bulk orders that we do at a lower cost and then also be able to justify the higher dollar digital prints for the onsies (we already have the equipment however now we try to limit those orders to higher volume orders only..because I don't want to hire someone just to do the infrequent requests we get for one offs)


----------

