buyers remorse kicking in...

[soulclaimed]

Hi guys and gals

I have been deliberating buying a Ricoh A4 SG3110DN for about a week now since my epson s22 was nothing but problems and wasted blanks(money). I havent printed anything in over 3 months since it died, not even done any tshirts with my vinyl cutter due to space and noise. However apologies for rambling.

I finally decided to purchase it and have placed my order tonight via bms I am very poor man before and after the purchase and am feeling the old buyers remorse...

Are there any other very poor people on here who experience the same and how do you get over it? I dont have any established customers at present so i dont see myself being paid back the cost any time soon so i might have just put myself out of pocket in foolishness...

kind regards

Tony

[NikGrey]

I received yet another Ricoh 3110DN from BMS today - Absolutely No Remorse from me.

They sent the first one (Sublimation version) in record time and did the same again with the second one - you have the best printer for your budget in my humble opinion - do not fret young man, your in good hands.

P.S. I have no customers either - "Build it and they will come" has always been my phrase - never had a problem.

[soulclaimed]

i like your thinking Nik i just always worry that if i spend money when i have it i will need it when i dont lol I guess thats the way of the world. Hope you do well mate, thanks for the quick reply actually helped.

[NikGrey]

Hey, if you buy equipment which CAN make you money when you have the Money to buy it you cant lose - I see my mates who are on the Dole buying Motorcycles they can't afford.. If only they thought like us and invested in their future.

When you have the gear you can print money (Figuratively) by making products to sell - my mates will have a couple of summers fun on the bikes and then realise they have lost money due to depreciation - we can print Mugs for years to come before needing to upgrade anything.

Merry Christmas.

[Jason]

Sometimes being skint and needing money is exactly the motivation you need, why feel remorse? Just get to grips with your printer and make it start earning you money, it's a relatively small investment to recoup and the run up to Christmas is the ideal time to do it.

[Renniwano]

The bonus with buying a Ricoh is that you can leave it without running for days/weeks at a time and it should run perfectly when you start it again..

I very often look at my business and think I am spending out more than I am getting in.. and then have a really good month with repeat custom.. it's all swings and roundabouts and I am a firm believer you get out of it what you put in

[pisquee]

With the right designs, on the right products, at the right price, in the right market, you can make a killing.
You have the kit sorted, just work out the rest!

[guarddog14]

i think things like this are normall ( i hope ) i got really busy with mugs and phone cases so i had to quit my job as i had to many orders , whilst the profit margin is not amazing im hoping its not just a xmas fad , i've never run a business before and im not the brightess and fairly young (24) so who knows if it the right decision, i have my ricoh and i love it never had a single problem with it yet , just ordered lots of phone cases from china so , lets hope sales keep coming

[soulclaimed]

your younger than me lol im 27

[rossdv8]

I've felt like that
Eventually I looked at why I bought the stuff in the first place and I sat down and thought about what product would be easiest to sell person to person to get some of my money back. I already had a couple of cartons of mugs and plenty of ink and paper.

It turns out ink is dead cheap. Paper is fairly cheap. Mugs (for me) are the easiest thing to sell, once people have seen them and know you are doing them. I looked at what some friends had bought from a couple of big producers that advertise a lot, compared the quality of the images and decided my photos are at least as nice as theirs.

Offered the same outragously expensive price per mug as the big firm, but no freight cost and the first order was for one family for 6 mugs. Next order was for 4 mugs. Those all had my own scenic photographs of local touristy places on half the mug and the name of the place on the other side. Then I was asked to do a set of 5 with a picture of a family's boat and each family member's name plus the boat name and home port on them.

A trip to a local pub and you might get a request for personalised mugs for a darts team. I'm working on 40/60 cost to profit. so $3 mug costs about $1 in consumables to print making the cost $4. I can wholesale for $10 if I'm desperate but only in quantities of a dozen (there are either 36 or 48 mugs in most cartons), which gives me about $6 per mug. Or I can sell direct at $15 each, which gives me about $11. Allowing that the printer and press need to be paid eventually, I allow $2 per mug towards that. I buy my mugs in cartons of 48, so I allow about $100 towards replacing the printer and press from each carton sold. At wholesale I still get close to $200 per carton beer money after allowing for the equipment cost.

Not very professional math - but it makes me get out there and sell something. Surprising how quickly people show off their 50th Birthday mug to others. Do you know anyone that is a marriage celebrant? Is there a pet club close? A couple of mugs with someone's pet Saluki or Chihuahua can go a long way to generating sales. I used to show jump and ride dressage. I would kill to have some pics of my favourite horses on a mug - in fact, I'm going to dig out a pic of one of my favourite horses and do just that.

A while ago I was asked to do some plates with someone's German Shepherd printed, but they settled for mugs.

Hope thinking about some of these opportunities puts a smile in your heart and helps you remember the fun of what we do