If I have 1 piece of advice to supply you after fifteen years in the industry, it is this – if you have a printing business, set up shop near a university campus.
That’s it, that is my “golden rule” for the printing industry. There is the 1 big, obvious reason, of course, with all the students, researchers, and faculty who all prefer paper products to digital 1s. There is another reason, however, and that is the amount of money these people are willing to spend on printing, because they aren’t paying for it! Faculty members get an open account set up at a printing shop and they can use it at will. These faculty members don’t pay for anything, the university does, so they will spend all kinds of money! The drawback of being close to university is that you won’t get a lot of call for signs and graphics, or label production, it will be a lot of generic printing and photocopying, and professors and students don’t need a lot of signs and graphics, which are the most profitable for a printing business. Most of the printing done by university professors could definitely be done on a condo printer, but these academics do not like doing their own secretarial work. They would much rather have a custom printer do it, and the university pay for it, then printing anything out themselves! Once again, that is my 1 golden rule for the printing business, is to keep close to a university campus, and you will never go without a steady amount of work.