# Ever thought about selling printed ID cards to help promote your printing services?



## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

I was just thinking about ways to boost buisness and thought about id cards. Have any of you ever thought about adding these to your services? You can get your foot in the door at a school or buisness by saying we do screen printing and embroidery and we also print id cards with children's info on them? 
There are already franchises that do only the id cards so why not just by a printer and add it to everything else you already do. What do you guys and gals think?


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## howszful (Jul 1, 2007)

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At my children's school, the ID card comes with the picture package from Lifetouch. One year I couldn't afford to buy the pictures (they take the kids pictures anyway) and Lifetouch still sent the ID cards.

I don't know if I can compete with Lifetouch. It seems like they have a bit of a monopoly, if you ask me.


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## trishtaz (Oct 16, 2006)

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howszful said:


> At my children's school, the ID card comes with the picture package from Lifetouch. One year I couldn't afford to buy the pictures (they take the kids pictures anyway) and Lifetouch still sent the ID cards.
> 
> I don't know if I can compete with Lifetouch. It seems like they have a bit of a monopoly, if you ask me.


Lifetouch has an obscene monopoly, don't get me started on them. In our local school district, which is one of the 50 largest in the US, they have the exclusive contract for all school pictures. They get this by giving each school a 40% kickback on sales, which is why their spring packages are so expensive. It really wouldn't be so bad if they produced a halfway decent product, but they usually don't.

At the district's vendor fair, there was a small business selling these ID cards. The next year Lifetouch gave theirs away as a "public service."

Tim, I think it's a great idea, but Lifetouch notwithstanding, you have two problems: (1) getting hold of the photos, to which Lifetouch or the local photographer owns the copyright, and (2) getting hold of the kids' personal information. Most of the information that you need is protected by FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. I am not sure how the franchises that you mention get around these obstacles, but the upshot is that I don't think it's as easy as buying a printer and adding that service to your business. I think you're on the right track of trying to find something that makes your business stand out in the customer's mind, though.


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

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trishtaz said:


> At the district's vendor fair, there was a small business selling these ID cards. The next year Lifetouch gave theirs away as a "public service."


Wow, I had no idea they would be that competitive. I have connections to the local walmart and was thinking that I'd buy a printer setup and have a table in the front of the store during the school supply rush to offer child id cards for $10 first card $5 ea additional. The basic printer is only $750. So in turn if I did 100 cards that day, I'd have a profit. I'll have to check to see if the Lifetouch does this in my area. Before I found the franchise idea, I hadn't heard of it before.
As for getting the child's info at the schools, I would plan a day with the school and send out flyers to parents ahead of time and that day the ones that wanted the service would give me their info to put on the card.


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## vctradingcubao (Nov 15, 2006)

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I have a Zebra card printer. There are also other uses for these PVC Id cards, such as bagtags, membership cards, discount cards, even as pins and business cards.


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

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vctradingcubao said:


> I have a Zebra card printer. There are also other uses for these PVC Id cards, such as bagtags, membership cards, discount cards, even as pins and business cards.


What kind of pins? What do the cards cost? What is the cost per print?


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## trishtaz (Oct 16, 2006)

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Tim, that's a good idea to sell out in front of a store. I thought you meant you would distribute through the school in direct competition with Lifetouch. Do check whether Lifetouch gives away these cards to your school because it's hard to beat "free". 

Our school also has a "Meet the Teacher" day before school starts where supplies and spirit items are sold. Maybe you could get in on this, too, and it would be a good way to meet the people responsible for ordering spirit shirts. My original impression when reading your post was that you would use this as a promotional gimmick for your t-shirt business, not as a profitmaker. Sometimes people are a little queasy about someone making a profit off of a parent's fear of losing their child. If you offered them for free or nominal cost in return for doing their spirit shirts, it would be a good attention-getter in the very competitive school market. Better yet, offering at the school district level to provide them at cost would get you the contracts for more than one school.

Just some thoughts; you sound like a go-getter so I'm sure you'll make it work somehow.


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## vctradingcubao (Nov 15, 2006)

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You can print on special PVC ID card material that can be "snapped-divided-into-3 parts". You can then use glue to attach a sort of "safety pin" at the back. These are good to use as nametags. You can also punch holes in these "small" cards and they are good to use as keychains. When printing PVC business cards, you can use the thinnest type PVC card. Not sure if it's any help, but our cost per print here is about 0.60 to 1 USD.


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