Im New?

[edwardsmedia]

Hello, Im fairly new to the printing business.

I have just purchased the Xpres Package, Garments & Promotional Products
With the Heat Press, Mug Press, Vinyl Cutter (Roland) Ricoh Printer, Epson B1100 Etc

I had this 3 days ago. Its a really good package. And im glad i have it.
Keith from Xpres set it all up for me and went though it (Brilliant Guy, can't fault him and the company)

But i have some questions to ask you all.

1. How do we price our items that we sell? If we sell a one off mug for about £5.95 is that good?
2. the Inks for the Ricoh are £240 for 4. How many prints can we get out of these. And how do we know how much its costing us to print something?
3. In the xpres book it says If we sell a mug for £5.95 - it costs us £1.01 to print. Not including a box? Is this including the ink? im not sure it is. so how much does the ink cost around abouts to print one mug?
4. As we know business picks up after sometime. How can we make it pick up and work? Ebay Shop? Website? Flyers? Do you have a shop in town, has that worked? (I currently work from home doing this until i see some big pick ups in my profits and sales then im thinking to get a small shop)

Sorry about the weird questions but im hoping someone can help answer these for me. (If you don't ask you don't know!)

[purpledragon]

1. how do we price our items .... thats a biggie almost how long is a piece of string you need to look at it like this
a. what price per hour do you want ie your own design on a mug may have taken you 6 hours to develop so ask yourself do you want to sell your masterpiece for 6 quid but then putting a photo on a mug is reasonably quick so think about what places like tesco charge .
2. dunno what ricoh works out at but im sure a search in google will tell you how much per print will cost but be careful its tepting to cut costs with cheap papers inks etc but quite often a false economy eg i load my printer with trupix paper and it churns out prints one after the other no problem whatsoever, i did a favour recently for someone and did some prints this should have taken no longer than a days work (a lot of printing) but the paper was cheap chinease paper after a few prints my printer started protesting , subsiquently it took 2 days instead of 1
3. similar answer to point 1 really try this formula as a start (based on mugs)
mug cost £1.10 + Paper and ink £0.50 + plus utilities (electric etc) £0.20 + packaging (poly box) £0.40 + rent (weather you work from home or in a shop this stuff takes up room and theres a cost to that) £0.10 (wild guess) + your time £???? how much do you value your time + admin £0.10 (assuming you do keep records and print job sheets off) im sure theres plenty more i should add to the list but this lot gets you thinking in the right way all in all to print a mug its probably between £2.50 and £3.00
4. how do you make it pick up ...... when you find out let me know will ya ! seriously though its not an easy one to answer you def need a web presance ebay is the obvious one though a lot inc me think ebay is quite expensive and it is really but remember ebay do all your marketing etc for you so take that into account it will probably take 10 -15% of your profit esp if you factor in paypal fees, a web site costs money obviously if you're really clever and build it your self you will still have to pay for things like hosting domain name and also marketing seo etc it isnt cheap
work from home over a shop hmmm if i had a choice and loadsa room id work from home unfortunatly i dont have the room i need the cost of a physical shop to me with taking into account utilities etc is about £1500 pm

You have entered a very difficult buisness and theres a lot of people doing exactly the same as you its cheap to start up and had the oooo factor for your customers but i seriously doubt you will become a millionaire through this unless you find some sort of niché area to get into and dont forget after all this you have to factor in tax national ins and health and safety as well as buisness rates (even if you work from home) also be warned the tax man is seriously looking at ebay sellers at the moment so keeping books and declaring earnings is a must also dont be tempted to get the recent pics of justin bebor (or what ever his name is) and use them on mugs etc without copyright permissions . Lawyers trawl the net esp ebay looking for copyright infringements its big buisness think of them as cyber ambulance chasers.

Good luck typing that has made me wonder is it all worth it !!!!!

[John G]

it costs us £1.01 to print. Not including a box?

Don't think it would include the mug either at that price.

You have to work out all your own outgoings - your overheads might be half as much as the next guy so your rates could be cheaper. Don't sell too cheap though, you'll be a busy fool and if selling on auction sites don't forget to include all the listing, final value, paypal charges etc. You see these guys on ebay selling cheap and if they're lucky they'll be making 50p a mug but think they are making a few quid as they haven't worked out their costs properly.

[logobear]

Don't be cheap, be GREAT !
1 off muchs made to order should be £10, thou it is ok to sell readymades for half that (just)
The best way to make your business take off is to find a niche. Look at your hobbies, or location, or church, school, social groups and specifically target an area you personally know well.
IMHO

[edwardsmedia]

True, Im sticking to all the Xpres brands. Inks/Paper/Mugs/Presses. to hopefully become GREAT!

Thanks everyone, I emailed Xpres. And they said " One A4 Paper will cost around £0.60p to print onto.

£0.50 for whole page printed. A4
£0.10 for piece of paper.

Total £0.60 - So if there were 3 mugs onto that piece of paper the total would be £0.20p a print for a mug.

If you were to buy a mug from xpres. With VAT and Delivery you are talking the following amounts.

£1.26 for the mug (that is the dearest. can get abit cheaper if you buy more mugs)
£0.20 for a print (Depending if you use the paper for 3 mugs)
£0.18 for a Box. Just a guess.

Total - £1.64
Without Running costs (Rent, Electric, Water rates, Wages ect)
The above is what i have worked out myself, going from what a member of staff at xpres told me in an email today the cost of ink.

[John G]

How are you going to sell these. don't forget additional costs such as all the fees involved with either advertising the mugs or taking a payment. If using ebay your fees will probably be around between £1 and £1.50 per mug, then to post one mug its around £2.48.

Your paper doesn't quite work out - if bought by itself it would be around 22p per A4 sheet due to delivery and vat. Bought with an order of other stuff and you'd still have to add the vat so 12p per A4 sheet. Your Ricoh printer will need a second set of carts pretty quick, as the 1st ones go to fill the long tubes up, so factor in an amount for this. Then you have depreciation and repairs of your equipment - that's before you take into account you need to cover your time, electric and then try to make a profit.

Cheers John

Forgot the heat tape and there's bound to be other expenses I haven't thought of.

[edwardsmedia]

More than likely on my website, word of mouth, market stall/shop... all depends.
If business is slow i may choose to try ebay in the future.

ok so maybe i should add an extra £0.10p for paper, and £0.06 for the heat tape.

£1.64
+ 10p + 6p = £1.80

All them are very true John. Some people sell them at penny's! - i don't plan to. But i would like to see how much its going to cost me to make a mug. and know how much profit im making from that mug