A mat a piece of coarse material placed on a floor for people to wipe their feet on. This business customises mats for branding and decorative purposes. The printing industry is very competitive, if you are going to start a printing business you may want to look for a business with high margins and little competition. While the mat printing business is not as popular (big) as other types of printing you might be able […]
Estate agent boards or real estate signs are signboards used by estate agents to show that a house is for sale. Value Proposition / Market Need A house like anything else for sale has to be marketed, one of the most common, if not the most common tools that agents (and even private sellers use) is the estate agent board. Even if a property is listed on a property portal such as Property24 or Private […]
Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. Various surfaces can be printed onto so long as the ink will adhere and the screen is able to print onto the shape. A textile screen printing business printings onto various garments such as t-shirts, hoodies, sports jerseys, shorts, tracksuit pants etc. This business usually has […]
A vinyl and laser heat transfer business prints onto t-shirts for clients. This dual-strategy (vinyl and laser heat transfer) business caters for people looking for low quantity (even single) prints of images and text onto t-shirts. This is actually a vinyl heat transfer business that has been expanded with a laser printer to print images as well. If you are familiar with vinyl heat transfer printing you will know that the images are cut using a vinyl […]
Cap printing is the process of printing images, logos etc. onto caps (peak/baseball caps, trucker hats and even beanies). Start your own business offering this service. Introduction It is often hard to enter the market as a small business with little capital, but focusing on a smaller subset of the larger market will allow you to start out with less money, smaller space and even position yourself as a specialist. Also, a lot of printers […]
Canvas printing is the digital printing directly onto canvas fabric, this can be as a service but can also be used to start a product business or a hybrid of the two. A canvas printing business prints, stretches and mounts images printed onto canvas. Equipment The equipment needed to run this business is a large format digital printer and a stapler to mount the canvas. Materials The materials needed in this business is the canvas, […]
Personalised coffee and beer mugs make great novelty gifts as well as promotional items. This is not a difficult business to get into if you are familiar with printing. How to get started The easiest way to get started in mug printing is to use the sublimation printing method. Where you will buy specialised mugs and the dye-sublimation image is transferred onto the mug using a transfer paper. Where to market business The best place […]
Labels are everywhere as barcodes, delivery addresses, on sweet packets and on countless other things. Start your own business printing labels for people. Label printing is a great business, modern label printers are able to print large volumes of labels, cheap and fast, and to keep up with this labels are disposable meaning repeat business. Here is how to get started. Getting started You will need at least one high volume label printer to get […]
A screen printing business can be started with little capital as the majority of equipment can be easily made for much cheaper than the commercial equivalent. Start your own screen printing company that you can run from almost anywhere. What is screen-printing Screen-printing or silk-screen printing is a print technique whereby a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A squeegee […]
Custom edible sheets make an otherwise bland cake look attractive without a lot of costs. Start your own business printing and selling edible sheets to people who make cakes. Introduction Edible sheets are added to the top of the cake (and cupcakes) to give the cake a full-colour image and even photo finish. This is a printing business and not a bakery business; your business model will be similar to novelty printing or sublimation business, […]
T-shirt printing is a popular business but what is the best one to start if you are only one person with limited skills? If you are looking to start your own t-shirt printing business here is an idea for you. There are various t-shirt printing techniques out there, screen-printing probably the best and cheapest but it’s not suited to single quantity shirts as it has a time-consuming setup process (positive making and screen exposing), there […]
The litho printing industry is hyper-competitive but there is a way to get in with minimal cost by using a one colour machine and focusing on invoice books. The business Usually, if you have a one colour litho machine you would be forced into producing cheap flyers, but by focusing on the custom invoice book market you can make good margins. What you will be doing is creating invoice, order books, delivery books and various […]
Hydrographic printing (also known as Hydrographics, immersion printing, water transfer printing, water transfer imaging, hydro dipping or cubic printing) is a printing technique that allows you to apply printed designs to three-dimensional surfaces. A video is probably a better illustration as it’s not a widely known technique: The business Hydrographic printing can print or dip various items from car and motorbike engine parts, interiors and exteriors, to knives, guns bows and other outdoor gear. It […]
Ball printing is a novelty printing business that allows you to print full-colour images onto balls using the heat transfer method. It is more lucrative than other novelty printing businesses such as mug printing and has far less competition, but this comes at a price as you might have to import some of the stuff if you can’t find it locally. What is ball printing Ball printing is the process of printing an image onto […]
With so many people starting their own business there is a big market for business cards in South Africa. What you will be doing is supplying them with business cards. Process You will be selling business cards in batches of 100, each business card is 90x50mm in size (9x5cm), this is a standard size. This means that you will be able to fit 10 business cards on a sheet of A4 size paper or board. […]
A magnetic business card is a business card with a piece of magnet on the back, it also doubles up as a fridge magnet and memo holder. Make and sell magnetic business cards for clients and ensure their brand is looked at multiples times a day. Magnetic business cards will also allow you to charge a premium with little extra work and you will benefit from being able to source self-adhesive magnetic sheet. Process You […]
Laser heat transfer printing is a heat transfer method using a laser printer to output the artwork onto the transfer paper. Like other forms of transfer printing, a special paper is used to print the artwork onto. However, it is also possible to laser print onto standard bond paper and transfer that image onto a surface such as wood using a heat source such as a iron. To start and run this business you will […]
Heat transfer printing is the process of printing images (in reverse) onto a sheet of transfer paper and then using heat (via a heat press) applied to the printed paper to transfer the images to the desired item. There are a few different types of technologies used with heat transfer printing but the equipment will mostly be identical. In general, the most important advantage of the heat transfer business is that you can print small […]
A custom phone case business designs, makes and sells custom branded cell phone cases. This is a business that can be run as a sideline – accepting orders via a website, designing and branding the cases after hours and then shipping it off. Opportunity The cellphone case industry is massive as it protects a delicate and very expensive item, it is not unheard of for people to spend R200 to R300 on a cell phone […]
The Risograph printing business is offering a printing service using a Riso machine. Traditionally this business was more suited to printing single colour pages but with full-colour Risographs now available a more diverse printing range can be offered. Research Before starting this business you need to look at your Supply, Value & Logistics chain. Supply: Once you have acquired the machine(s), do you have access to ink, masters and paper at a good price? Value: […]
