Turning sheet labels into roll labels

[victor bogdanov]

I run a small print shop. I do my work in house. Customers paying me more for my higher quality output are helping my business thrive.

Good work ain't cheap and cheap work ain't good.

What do you do print wise that makes your output higher quality compared to others?

 

[WizardWorks]

You must not be very busy, today. Maybe you won the race to the bottom playing price-wars with the megacorps?

Cheers.

 

[victor bogdanov]

You must not be very busy, today. Maybe you won the race to the bottom playing price-wars with the megacorps?

Cheers.

The low price stickers are done by smaller companies. All the low price stickers sellers are running Canon Colorados these days on 6 year vinyl. I'm just curious what you do differently that makes your stickers higher quality?

One way you could stand out is running 9/10 color inksets, makes a noticeable difference in small stickers on some colors/designs, less grain

 

[kcollinsdesign]

I just wouldn't be able to sleep at night selling something to my customer for $300 knowing they can go on Etsy or Amazon or Sticker Mule in your case and get it for for $100 on Amazon/Etsy or for $200 on Sticker Mule

I tell my customers they can buy stickers cheaper on the internet. If they still want me to order them I tell them I will mark them up 40% (less for bigger orders). It doesn't surprise me that many clients prefer I order them despite the markup (I am completely transparent). Clients come to us because of our proven design capability and reliability.

My business model is based on design, project management, and installation, service, and maintenance. I have outsourced almost all printing and fabrication for the last twenty years. Before that I ran a full-service electrical and commercial sign shop and did most everything in-house. Sales and profits went up and labor and overhead went way down when we started out-sourcing production.

 

[guillermo]

That's not true, sticker mule is very expensive.

I haven't yet seen a digital sticker wholesaler that is cheaper than doing it yourself if you have a halfway decent printer and cutter.

The wide format "wholesalers" are selling stickers for double the cost of what you can find retail on Etsy or Amazon.

We do stickers, but if there are more than 100 stickers, we send the job out, it will be way cheaper......

 

[victor bogdanov]

We do stickers, but if there are more than 100 stickers, we send the job out, it will be way cheaper......

500 3" x 3" stickers is 30 sq ft. I guess you must be pretty inefficient if you can't print 30sq ft competitively.

With my set up im knocking out a 1000 for $100 with shipping included, decent profit margins

 

[Boudica]

As I type this I'm in the middle of a job for 5,000 2.5" round stickers. They will be delivered in strips.

 

[netsol]

500 3" x 3" stickers is 30 sq ft. I guess you must be pretty inefficient if you can't print 30sq ft competitively.

With my set up im knocking out a 1000 for $100 with shipping included, decent profit margins

it's a shame i can only hit "agree" once.

 

[Boudica]

it's a shame i can only hit "agree" once.

You did. And my reply makes it a third "agree" via the echo of repost

 

[guillermo]

500 3" x 3" stickers is 30 sq ft. I guess you must be pretty inefficient if you can't print 30sq ft competitively.

With my set up im knocking out a 1000 for $100 with shipping included, decent profit margins

Inefficient?
100 stickers we do, but for more, we send out, we will make money doing nothing, that is EFFICIENCY. for example, $80 that we charge for stickers, outside vendor is about $50, and customer comes to pick them up, we make $30 easily.
I will use the material and time for some other jobs, while making money on stickers....

 

[victor bogdanov]

Inefficient?
100 stickers we do, but for more, we send out, we will make money doing nothing, that is EFFICIENCY. for example, $80 that we charge for stickers, outside vendor is about $50, and customer comes to pick them up, we make $30 easily.
I will use the material and time for some other jobs, while making money on stickers....

if your printer is printing and cutters are cutting daily why not fit another 30 sq ft into there and make $60 on that order instead of $30 ? . it would take practically 0 extra labor to fit in 30 sq ft into whatever you are already printing.

It takes the same amount of set up and labor to do 500 stickers as it does to do 100 stickers. only difference is it will take you 5 minutes extra time to collect the 500 stickers vs 100 stickers. The hard part (set up) is exactly the same for 100 and 500 stickers

 

[guillermo]

if your printer is printing and cutters are cutting daily why not fit another 30 sq ft into there and make $60 on that order instead of $30 ? . it would take practically 0 extra labor to fit in 30 sq ft into whatever you are already printing.

It takes the same amount of set up and labor to do 500 stickers as it does to do 100 stickers. only difference is it will take you 5 minutes extra time to collect the 500 stickers vs 100 stickers. The hard part (set up) is exactly the same for 100 and 500 stickers

we do cut the stickers in the plotter, then we cut them individually, that is out time, we prefer send those out and make money. We do concentrate in other jobs, wall murals, engraving and laser cutting, stickers, yes, we do when they are a few... not you will see the difference between shops,

if you do a lot of stickers, or course, but we do stickers 1 to 3 times per month.....

 

[CanuckSigns]

I love printing stickers, most of our clients are industrial companies who order 300-500 printed arc flash decals, 3"x5" we charge $3.95 each, ill take that all day long

 

[Boudica]

I love printing stickers, most of our clients are industrial companies who order 300-500 printed arc flash decals, 3"x5" we charge $3.95 each, ill take that all day long

Stickers are bread & butter between the big jobs if you have a printer plotter and a laminator.
I feel like peeps here are debating something that's like apples to oranges.

If making stickers is your main thing... That's one take. If you offer it because it's in your wheelhouse, but not your main thing, you choose your pricing based on what it's worth to your business. Making regular customers happy - or - the one-off "Walk-in" mall location.
If you're business is primarily online, I guess it's more like the mall-walk-in category.
Or you provide a lot of signage from fleet wraps to window graphics, building signs... ... Etc etc etc... and you can do stickers too.

 

[christopher68hg]

Sticker Mule may be double the cost of other wholesalers. I never bothered to find out.

I can buy 1000 2" stickers from Sticker Mule for $200.00 and have them drop shipped at no additional cost. If I had somebody on the shop set the file up, print them, slit them, roll them, package them, and ship them I would have at least two hours at $85/hr in the project (not including material costs and overhead).

If, as you suggest, I shopped around and I could get them for $100, well, you can see what I am getting at.

A well equipped shop with the right equipment and a solid stream of orders for stickers could probably beat that price. Most small shops get occasional sticker orders and have to do everything glt.nz by hand.

How to do solid stream of orders for stickers?

 

[Ron at Forest Litho]

I use Label Specialties in Kentucky for roll labels. Good prices.