Hi Everybody,

I am not sure if this is the right forum so if it needs to be moved do let me know.

I'm planning to start a print shop in Alberta, Canada. I do not have any experience with printing industry nor presses.

I was wondering if you all experienced people could guide me with some info like if i want to start a small print shop where we do business cards, company supplies - invoices etc., flyers and company brochures what minimum equipment would i need.

Do i need to start with 4 colour offset or 2 will do for above type of print jobs? Is there a huge price difference between these 2? Or a digital printer from Xerox will do the same job?

My budget is around C$25,000 to 30,000. All equipment would be leased but i don't want to start up with too many equipment as not sure if my business will take off well or not.

Thanks for your time,
Manny

You won't get a four color offset press for $25,000 to $30,000 - you'd need to triple that. So then the question is: can you be cost competitive in your market running 4-color work on a 2-color press with the additional time required; or will you be doing short runs or variable data where you can be cost-competitive on digital equipment, and can you be competitive with the lesser finish quality (non gloss or somewhat irregular gloss) of digital equpment for the print jobs you're doing?

One thought would be to get your feet wet with things you can run on a 1- or 2-color press or digital printer and outsource things like 4-color brochures to get started.

Thanks Jeff for your input and suggestions.

When you say Digital printer are you referring to low end colour printers from Xerox? and particular model?

It makes sense to start small then grow with business. If i get lease for 4 colour offset then which 1 would you recommend say for 30,000 to 75000 prints per month? Yes as you pointed out, the problem is i will have to get more work from month 1 in order to be competitive. It's like chicken and egg.

Myself, I want a 4-color speedmaster plus coater. But it's kind of hard to justify a 15,000 sph press if you're only running 30,000 to 75,000 per month. Plus you have to add building costs, maintenance costs, replacement part costs which may be thousands of dollars for a single part if something breaks on a used press, plus all the other equipment you need for pre-press and finishing.

Alternately, to compete without such equipment, you need an edge as the product from $30k digital printers isn't as nice in finish quality (unless you also have a $30k coater, etc.) and your cost per print will be more for anything with a run of more than a couple thousand prints.