[Padraic]

Hi Guys,

I'm a small printer in ROI doing mainly garment printing and small amounts of posters etc. however I'm trying to expand the business and so I'm looking at printing.com as an add on.

Do any of you have experience with them and if so is it worthwhile paying for the franchise?

Cheers

[MarkS]

Hey Padraic, welcome to the forum.
Where abouts in Ireland are you ? I am originally from Belfast, but moved to Scotland last year.

A few things to consider before thinking if something like an expensive franchise is right for you... where are you based small town or large city? what is the foot-fall past your store... The reason I am thinking this way is because for such a large outlay, you would need to be doing a massive trade to claw back the expense.

[Padraic]

Thanks for the repyl Mark,
I'm based Midleton, just outside Cork City in a shopping centre with a footfall of 50,000/week so obviously as I'm already paying rent and have a shop kitted out the only outlay would be for the franchise itself.

[MarkS]

Padraic, it certainly sounds like you have an excellent spot there, and one that would be ideal for something such as a printing.com franchise.
Providing there's not too much competition in the surrounding areas, then I would say go for it, but perhaps one idea would be to try and contact someone in a similar position who has already took the franchise and speak to them about their experience of working with that company - pick a franchise quite a distance away, then they aren't going to see you as competition, and make contact, and if possible go visit them.
I know when I looked into it last year they wanted me to go speak to a lady who had the franchise in Edinburgh, but it made me wonder - do they get commission on every franchise sold??

This is obviously a major decision for your business, do as much research as you can before making any decisions.

What ever your decision, I wish you luck!

[justanotherdesigner]

Hi there Padraig

If you are thinking of a bolt-on franchise with printing.com be very careful.

Any clients you get via printing.com ultimately are owned by them NOT you.

This is all OK if you stay with printing.com but when you want to exit they will keep your client base NOT you.

Message me if you want more info

cheers

JAD

[Padraic]

Orininally I was looking for printers to offer me wholesale prices which in turn I can add my mark up and sell to the public. Essentially I'm doing this as an add-on as printing t-shirts is my main business but there is definetly a market for the printing.com product and are reasonably priced compared to the local competition.
My cost base is pretty low and I'm lucky enough to be able to sell and up-sell to most of my existing customers but unfortunatly I'm turning away a lot of business because I just can't deliver outside of basic business cards and flyers.