# Profits???



## BMF5656 (Oct 26, 2012)

Hello, I am a college student looking to do this in my sparetime. I plan on starting a website to get my original ideas out there and then using word of mouth, etc. to get my screen printing skills known locally. does anyone else do screenprinting in there spare time or as a second job? is it profitable? if you dont mind sharing, what do you typically make vs. the amount of time you put in?


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## Inkognito (May 5, 2012)

there are lots of people who do screen printing in addition to holding down a full time job. and there are probably other college students who do or have done screen printing on the side. you can make a profit if you do things right. unfortunately lots of people, if they're being totally honest, end up making less than minimum wage after all is said and done. making a profit depends on a lot of factors, like setting intelligent prices, having efficient processes, keeping expenses under control and your overhead low, doing quality work and getting a steady flow of jobs. like any other business, you'll have to work hard and work smart to make a profit. and after you get things rolling, you'll have to deal with other new screen printers who pop up on a regular basis and undercut the prices you worked so hard to establish. can you make a profit? sure, but it isn't guaranteed, you'll have to work hard to make it happen. there are plenty of success stories out there, so keep asking questions, learn as much as you can, put your vision in writing, develop a solid plan, and then go make it happen.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

Join the crowd. We can throw a rock in any direction and hit 5 guys doing screen printing. You are entering a very crowded field. 

Good Luck.


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## BMF5656 (Oct 26, 2012)

if you dont mind me askin what do you guys make? how many hours do you put in?


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## Inkognito (May 5, 2012)

again, it depends on a lot of different factors. jobs come in all different sizes, shapes, and degrees of complexity. the questions you are asking "how much can you make" and "how many hours are you putting in", don't have specific, concrete or straightforward answers. what you should be asking yourself is "how much is my time worth?". some people will do screen printing for little or nothing. some probably make less than minimum wage. others do screen printing as a full-time gig and need to generate more profit in order to make a living. so ask yourself, are you ok with making minimum wage or less? or would you rather make $15-20 per hour? or better yet, how about $50-$60 per hour? you're young, you have time on your side, you could start out slow, charge less for your service, and then as you build your business, you can increase your prices. the danger is, there is always someone willing to do the same print job for less, which results in a race to the bottom. there are, and will continue to be, thousands of screen printers who go out of business due to poor planning, poor execution, and a poor pricing structure. you'll discover that the list of out-of-business screen printers includes, young people, older people, lazy people and ambitious people. it includes talented graphic designers who have little or no business skills. it includes smart business people who have little or no art skills. and it includes people who have a little of both but who have no idea how to establish a good pricing structure. stay in school, get a good deduction, start your venture on the side, learn as much as you can about screen printing (go work in someone else's shop for a while), keep your costs low, price your products and services so that you see a decent return on your investment (your time and energy). the goal is to build your business slowly, steadily, and skillfully, and --- make a profit! good luck.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

We have a storefront so we get a lot of walk in biz. If you don't have that outlet then you need to do your sales outside. We basically start around 5am and finish around 11pm almost every day and we work weekends too. Current backlog of work is about 5 weeks. 

Now it wasn't that way when we started. It takes time to build up a customer base.


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## Printavo (Oct 7, 2007)

Hey man. I was in the EXACT same spot as you....in college and wanted to do something. I started a shop and we were definitely profitable. I ended up selling it at the end of college to work building Printavo but college towns are the best for it, especially Big 10 schools. I actually wrote a post about this that could help you: How to start a screen-printing business « Printavo - Manage your screen-printing shop easily.


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## 20vK (Jul 9, 2011)

BMF5656 said:


> if you dont mind me askin what do you guys make? how many hours do you put in?


I did 136 hours last week, 63 of those back to back - just covering my mortgage.

Every shop is different to costs and efficiency and every area has different prices.

A word of advice - if you are not printing, then you are not making money. Let me explain: On top of printing, I have to do sales & marketing, ordering supplies and blanks, collection of blanks from port, artwork & delivery - All of which are necessary but suck up time away from the press. The press is where I make the money, so try to create your business model by taking these things into consideration and structure things so you get to spend as much time as possible in the "money creation" part.

Look at prices in your area and calculate if you can make money on it. I've a manual press and my competitors have autos - world of a difference in productivity. What takes me a week to print, they can knock out in 1 shift. Very hard to compete on price, so I try to print very high quality and offer a better service

A huge part of making money is to keep costs as low as possible and operate as efficiently as possible. I currently have a "wish list" of items I want to buy in order for me to become more efficient. Unfortunately, a lot of this involves capital expenditure (powerful exposure units, buying ink and emulsion by the 5 gallon / gallon), but a lot can also be down to good practice. Sometimes it's as simple as looking for a different supplier, or using a "like for like" product. Going to a print shop is a great way to see how other people are making their shop work and operate efficiently

Richie


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