So for a little while now I’ve been unhappy with my job, jacked it in to take another role with less hours & less money.

Really enjoying it thus far, but struggling with the less money side of things, but with the free time it’s given me I’m now getting a lot of thinking time.

I think I know what I want to do, but not sure how to go about it. I know far more than anyone should about print, from litho to large format, I know an awful lot of suppliers, but I don’t know anyone who needs print.

To those who’ve gone self employed did you know your customers before making that leap? Or did you just have a database of suppliers & then match them to customer? How did you find customers?!

Any advice gratefully received!

I thought I knew my customers and pinged off some emails and got very little back. I got most of my first jobs from my website. Actually now things have settled it’s a mix of old contacts, web hits and returning customers.

You really have to ask yourself whether you can do the new business process if you don’t already have a network that can connect you to customers.

I became set up my own business after several years in retail display (and a bit of print management). A friend joined a few years after, we’re sorted on the design, technical and supplier side but really struggle with new business. It’s something you have to commit to which is hard when you’ve got to run a business and especially if it doesn’t come naturally. Most people I know who’ve successfully started a B2B company have come from a sales background.

PM me if you have any questions

Cheers – it’s very early thought stages at the moment, I wouldn’t have to do a great deal of jobs to make ends meet. But… the big question at the moment is where would I find the customers…

I’m an accountant so work with a lot of small businesses. Not a lot of help but it seems to be the norm for most owners to be very good at whatever it is they do but clueless about running a business, that takes a lot of time to get the hang of. Trick seems to be to survive long enough for repeat custom/word of mouth to spread. As someone said.above you almost need to be a better salesman than printer to make a printing business work. Don’t let me put you off though, everyone starts somewhere.

I’ve been in large format my whole working life. There’s a huge number of different markets, if you can find the right niche and do it well you’ll be laughing.

Are you talking about doing the work yourself (it’s ideal for a one man band IMO) or finding clients & buying print in?

If it’s the latter I can see why you might struggle to find work. I know a chap who tried it after many successful years of repping in the print industry. Think he lasted about 3 months and was driving for a supermarket last I heard! However if you’re prepared to get your hands dirty there is tons of work about.

More talking about buying print in, I’ve done every single job & I have no interest in sticking vinyl to things or going out installing…
If I was setting up an actual print shop as such I would just hunt down the loans & get stuck in.

Fair enough! Are you going to be designing/doing artwork etc? I guess if you’re just going to be project managing, you need to think what value you can add as obviously you’ll not be the cheapest, or the quickest.

I’ve really not thought that far ahead yet! But a friend of mine has set up on his own & is having to work Saturdays/evenings etc, going out & doing the installs as well as doing all the weeding, artworking, printing etc.. That side of it really stresses me out, as I’m not the best at it.

That side of things is what’s put me off. If I could control it so I only do the printing, some artworking & print management then I’d be a very happy man.

Large format doesn’t have to mean going out installing signage (I don’t and have no intention of doing so), there’s a good mark-up on bog-standard banners, posters, pop-ups etc.

IME the lead-time will be the killer, a lot of this sort of stuff is last minute. And if you are subbing out artwork too then you have the laid-back designers to deal with too! 🙂

the big question at the moment is where would I find the customers…

That really is the big question! Print trade seems very depressed at the minute – everyone I talk to from trade printers to the paper delivery drivers say it’s been quiet since the start of the year. And the summer holidays are just around the corner – so yeh!

But a friend of mine has set up on his own & is having to work Saturdays/evenings etc, going out & doing the installs as well as doing all the weeding, artworking, printing etc.. That side of it really stresses me out, as I’m not the best at it.

I’m exactly the same! Used to do it years ago, now I am busy enough I turn down most work involving site visits or vehicle installs. Fortunately there is a very good & reliable local guy I can use to do my installs if I really need.

As above, there’s loads you can do without having to go out on site. A lot of my work is trade printing for local litho-style printers or sign writers who want to get into large format without investing in the equipment or expertise. So they do the legwork with respect to finding clients/jobs and most of the time will do 99% of the artwork too. Plus it means I very rarely have to deal with the dreaded general public.

I also do a lot of signage fabrication but almost all of it is done in-house now. I used to sub out bits & bobs but over the years have bought various bits of equipment which means I do almost everything myself now. This saves a lot of time & (more importantly) a huge amount of stress.

There is plenty of work out there (virtually every business/organisation needs print or signage of some kind!) but IMO you need to either identify a niche or remain very flexible to cope with changing trends/climate.