Printing Business Stationery

[Shane Drew]

Jon, I think you’ll make better money if you approach a local printer for a wholseale rate in return for all you printing business.

I have 2 printers that I work with. One is via internet in Perth, he has a quick turn around if I supply the corel file ready to print. Often I can have cards on my desk in 4 days. He gives me a small discount, but my profit is actually my artwork/design fee that I charge the client as an extra charge.

The other printer is local. His prices are better to me, but his turn around is slower. I use him for all my invoice and letterhead work.

I looked at buying my own gear ages ago, but it was not a viable proposition for me, as I have heaps of printer competition very close to me.

I’d rather save the lease payments and the headaches, and let someone else worry about it.

Cheers, and I hope your 2006 is better than your 2005 😛

[Jon Fields]

Thanks Shane. Your probably right in terms of machinery etc..as opposed to amount of extra work it may generate..I guess i don’t want to lose customer/s to other signmakers who offer this as usually one job leads to
another. I have a customer who wants a quote for new signs and the design of a logo, and also stationery..but like you said..i could supply the files etc ready for print and sub out..

thanks

Jon

😀

[David Rowland]

hi, yes Business Printing is something we do weekly…
after all we do own their logos when we did the vehicles.

[Jon Fields]

Hi Dave..
exactly the case here..customer has 5 new vans to letter etc

Jon

[Dave Bruce]

Jon, I use Caralan Printers very good small printers in Goole. Search the boards as they have been mentioned before, I am at home so don’t have number.

Cheers

Dave

[Jon Fields]

thanks dave I ll do that..

Jon

[Chris Wool]

dave think you might be on a sticky wicket with that one if you charged a design fee or implied it on the bill put me right if i am wrong

quote :

after all we do own their logos when we did the vehicles.

as i see it on the bill .
if i put supply and fitt lettering to van X pounds (the design is mine)

if i put design and letter van X pounds ( the design is now theres )

but on post yes there are opportunities to make extra dosh with low run extras but sub the big runs out.

chris

[David Rowland]

ahh, but do photographers for weddings charge for “Photography” but the photographers keep’s the Photo copyrights. Same applies to all trades.

The design fee is a design fee, doesn’t mean they own the copyright unless the rights are transferrred.

[Shane Drew]

quote Dave Rowland:

ahh, but do photographers for weddings charge for “Photography” but the photographers keep’s the Photo copyrights. Same applies to all trades.

The design fee is a design fee, doesn’t mean they own the copyright unless the rights are transferrred.

Technically dave is right, but unless it is pointed out, most customers will assume they own the logo when they pay your bill. I always price selling the logo into the initial account.

Most customers will get someone else to redigitize it anyway if we don’t hand it over, so I sell them the ownership on the initial design. I’ll still keep it on my harddrive, but if they ask for it I’ll hand it over because I have charged for it anyway.

Plenty of sign shops out there will take another photo and redigitize it no questions asked, so I make my money upfront.

[Stephen Morriss]

As Shane said Dave is technically correct, unless you specifically sell them the rights to the logo you still own it.

Did a copyright course a few years back so it’s still fresh..ish.

Steve

[Jayne Marsh]

I always say yes if Im asked to do business stationery, I design the stuff and sub out the printing to a firm I always use, I can even get stuff back within 24 hours if I bat my eyelashes at them (only joking, I usually use the puppy dog eyes look)
A customer likes to be able to get everything sorted in one go and I just add a bit to the cost of the printing and build in the design fee along with it

[Martin Forsyth]

Hi Jon

I get asked this too. I kept saying to my customers that I didn’t do any paper printing but they still kept asking.

Now in my case, they only want 100 letter heads, or 50 business cards – that sort of quantity.

So I ask what they will be using it for.

For letterheads I found that most of them were very impressed when I used a dry ink printer on 100 gsm paper (as it has a slighly raised waxy feel to their logo). – make sure they dont run this through a laser though.

Otherwise I use a laser printer.

It is not a great moneyspinner as such, but it does keep them with me, as the customer base I have tend to prefer to deal with one person, rather than different companies for different things.

Also, my reputation is still held with my work, rather than someone else’s.

On the other hand, I am trying to find a local printer with a good reputation, that I can ship out the big jobs too, as I would be too expensive for 5000 letterheads for example.

Martin

[Alan Drury]

I do have local printers for alot of my printing work but for cards and some letterheads I use aubergine print – http://www.aubergineprint.co.uk – prices are good, turn round is excellent and I’ve never had a bad job
Alan D

[asifnmalik]

Hi Guys!

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Happy New Year :yeeha:

Asif