Thinking about purchasing my own colour printer

[angone]

Hi all, Im opening a salon shortly and have had a few quotes from printing companies for printing leaflets etc

Im seriously thinking of purchasing my own multifunction colour printer. I've designed all my own flyers and menus etc and like the idea of being able to print when i want and how many i want.

The initial cost would be about £4000 plus a quarterly fee of around £250. The only thing i would have to buy is paper. The machine is serviced if anything goes wrong and all consumables (except paper) are included in the price. It also folds, staples, hole punches.... ive also thought about printing for others at a small cost to help towards the price, although this would be a little bit down the line once i get the salon up and running (smoothly i hope).

Just wanted a few opinions on this, thanks!

 

[loubylou]

Sounds like a good plan if you can afford the initial set up and then make it pay for its self.

 

[Ruth Mills]

£4,000 sounds pretty excessive for a colour printer for a small business, especially with the quarterly maintenance fee, which works out at £1,000 per year on top of the initial cost of buying the printer!

We have an HP colour laser printer which cost us all of £200 from Staples; we've found that perfectly adequate for things like printing flyers and leaflets (the print quality is excellent); it's reasonably economical on toner too. So you'd easily get 500 leaflets from a single toner cartridge for example.

So unless you're printing absolutely zillions of leaflets, or wanting to start your own printing business (as opposed to running a salon), I'd recommend spending your money on a decent colour laser printer for a couple of hundred quid, thus saving you £3,800 which could probably be put to much better use, especially given the current economic climate!

 

[angone]

Well i do have a laser printer at the minute but i just dont find it that great to be honest. Maybe i should look into this a bit more! Just the thought of the folding and stapling attracts me! Im in partnership with another person and he likes the idea too. He also has another business (property) and would have a lot of print requirements too. Can anyone give me a rough idea of the number of leaflets they would get printer per month or quarter?

 

[Ruth Mills]

Well i do have a laser printer at the minute but i just dont find it that great to be honest. Maybe i should look into this a bit more! Just the thought of the folding and stapling attracts me! Im in partnership with another person and he likes the idea too. He also has another business (property) and would have a lot of print requirements too. Can anyone give me a rough idea of the number of leaflets they would get printer per month or quarter?

Well as long as you do the maths and are certain that it would be viable. Sure, the folding and stapling would be useful, but you'd need to balance getting that functionality with the extra expense of buying the machine.

So it could be something along the lines of working out how many leaflets you'd require, and how long it would take to fold them manually, and how much you would need to pay someone to do that. Then, if it works out cheaper to buy the expensive printer that will do it automatically then so be it.

Incidentally, I've found a link to a site that is selling an ex-demo HP multi function printer that does the stapling and folding and whatnot for £1950 + VAT, HP Laserjet 9500 Multifunction Printer (ex demo) Printers - C8549AX - £1,950.00 : - so if you wanted a super duper duper printer then you could possibly buy that one and save yourself a couple of grand straight off...

 

[xAnnaBannAx]

wow I cant imagine paying that much out on a printer! are you sure its a printer and not a robot! lol x

 

[Curly Bamboo]

Not worth it. If you factor in quality paper and cartridges. If you don't understand how printers and colour schemes work, best send your artwork to a printing company.

I create my own print ready files for monthly promotions and use marketing material from my suppliers to send to 1ClickPrint - Fast and Realiable Flyer, Poster, T-Shirt and digital printing for less

A2 and A1 posters can be purchased individually for £10/£25. For promotions you can get 100 leaflets printed. All P&P is free (well factored into the price

 

[Curly Bamboo]

For a new business startup, paying outright for equipment (asset) - depending on cost - is not always an effective method tax wise.

If you really need this printer, have you thought of leasing? you should speak to your accountant who can advise you on this as it will depend on your setup.

 

[jonailtech]

omg i that sounds soo expensive i have an epson colour printer and i do all my own business, leaflets on it and they turn out lovely and it only cost us about 80euro, i would buy a stapler and get folding if i was you lol..

 

[fozzyo]

Sounds quite expensive, i'd make sure you've checked all the options for printers. For example Quattro Print UK - full colour brochures / flyers / leaflets / posters / envelopes printing are very good value.

Mat

 

[champagne]

I print all of my own material with a normal printer & paper.

I also fold & staple lol

You can have me for a few hundred quid a year lol

Personally i would consider what else i need for the money for before i splashed out...Would you really get the maximum use out of it???

 

[xAnnaBannAx]

Not worth it. If you factor in quality paper and cartridges. If you don't understand how printers and colour schemes work, best send your artwork to a printing company.

I create my own print ready files for monthly promotions and use marketing material from my suppliers to send to 1ClickPrint - Fast and Realiable Flyer, Poster, T-Shirt and digital printing for less

A2 and A1 posters can be purchased individually for £10/£25. For promotions you can get 100 leaflets printed. All P&P is free (well factored into the price

Ive just been looking at this site and the prices look really reasonable....what is the quality like?

 

[Curly Bamboo]

Print quality is good for the price. The guys who run this are nice and friendly over the phone.

If you intend to do your own artwork, try to use a desktop publishing software. I use Adobe Indesign.

 

[RedAdmiral]

I think you are mad unless you have a graphic design background. TBH printing is only half the battle! My partner is so good at these things due to his job and its all DPI, cmyk, blah, blah, blah! Honestly i cant see how you are going to save paying out 1000 per year after 4000 - M8 thats more than my yearly promotional budget - then add ink, paper - WOW you are promoting on a big scale!
I use printing.com who are expensive but DELIVER on time everytime and I still dont spend as much as you! I also use my local printers to do a1 posters which work out at €30 each and I get about 8 per year
Also your printer can give you idea's and help tweak your work - you wouldnt want to print 5000 leaflets to find you mis-spelled something which happns more times than you think!

 

[Curly Bamboo]

RedAdmiral - you are spot on, I have an IT background myself and the whole printing/colour concept is not an easy one to grasp.

I believe if you spend a little more and get someone to do the artwork properly then your advertising material will look so much more professional.

 

[angone]

wow thanks everyone, i think im gonna have a rethink about this whole thing and look into a couple of the above sites. Thanks again!