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HOW AM I GOING TO PAY TO CONVERT MY PRINTER? HOW MUCH MORE MONEY WILL I BE MAKING? WHAT DO I NEED TO CONVERT MY PRINTER? |
HOW CONVERTING YOUR PRINTER CAN MORE THAN PAY FOR ITSELF IN 3 MONTHS OR LESS... |
Prologue Herein lies the epic tale of Frank, a sign shop owner somewhere on the easterly shores of the United States. Frank has been in the sign business for 15 years, since the days of yore. Around the turn of the century, Frank decided to spend a large bag of coin on a Roland CJ-500 aqueous printer from the local market. This would suppliment his existing painting and cut vinyl with a new digital print process. Frank was now a print smith. Forthwith he began printing beautiful photographs and graphic designs for clients that now paid HIM a large bag of coin for his new services. Then something happened. Other print smiths were popping up in the territory, only they were printing with something called solvent inks. He could not compete with their prices, and they takethed away his customers by offering the ability to put their products outside in the vile weather! CURSE THEM! Then one chance day a wizard came, Wizard Dave. Wizard Dave gave Frank a mysterious magical artifact: The Hot Box. With The Hot Box, some sage advice from the mage, and a small wage extracted (mage-sage-wage), Frank was able to cast a Spell of Conversion (lvl 5) on his CJ-500. He was now ready to battle! The following, in detail, is how exactly Frank was able to fill his coffers again. Lower Cost of Media Frank was using a pigment aqueous ink and needed specially coated media for the inks to adhere properly. Unfortunately this lead to higher media costs as the coating process cost the media manufacturers and they passed the cost on to Frank. Once he switched to run mild solvent ink he was able to switch to a much less expensive "uncoated" media that saved him a bundle. Before he was using an IntelliCoat 13oz scrim for his banners that was around $1.88 per sq. ft. He now uses an Ultraflex Jetflex FL 13oz scrim which is only $0.22 per sq. ft. Actually, ALL of his media costs dropped. Frank's savings: Approximately $400 - $500 a month. Lower Cost of Ink Roland Pigment ink cartridges seem to run about $50 - $60 per 220mL cartridge. Considering Frank could never quite seem to squeeze that last bit of ink out of those cartridges and some was left over, figure that he was looking at an ink cost of about $250 - $300 per liter for ink that was best used on coated indoor media. With his converted solvent printer, he was now able to use Triangle MLD ink that cost around $115 per liter. Buying it by the liter reduced waste ink and cut his ink costs in half or almost to a third of the old pigment ink. Frank's savings: Approximately $250 - $500 a month. Less Outsourcing = More Profit Customers were already coming to Frank with jobs that needed to be printed with a mild solvent or eco solvent print process. He was sending these jobs out to another printer, sometimes every week. This was biting into his bottom line. He was paying somewhere between $2 - $4 per sq. ft. as a reseller for it when he knew the raw material cost was closer to $0.50 per sq. ft. Once he started doing those jobs in-house, HE was the one making the profit. Frank's savings: Approximately $1000 a month. Print on More Types of Media = Diversify & Increase Clientele With solvent ink, Frank was able to print on many new media types that just aren't available to aqueous printers. The fast growing world of vehicle wrapping (or in Frank's case, chariot wrapping) is a prime example. There are literally hundreds of different media types for vehicle wrapping alone that just can't be printed on with aqueous printers. The outdoor durability of solvent ink lends itself to a much wider variety of media. His customers were able to choose to display their prints either indoors OR outdoors. His product line expanded to offer his customers new products that he hadn't even tried to sell in the past. This new customer base gave him some much needed income. Frank's new profit: Approximately $500 - $2000 a month. Higher Equipment Resale Value Solvent based printers are generally worth thousands of dollars more than their aqueous counterparts. Frank watched hundreds of printers sell on medieval E-Bay and could easily say that there was generally a $2000 - $5000 difference between an aqueous model and a solvent equivalent. This ended up paying for his conversion in the back end! Frank used his converted printer to grow his business so much, that a few years later he ended up buying a few more faster printers and sold his original converted one. It was worth more when he sold it because of the conversion. Frank's new profit: Approximately $4000. Epilogue So is Frank's story true? No, we made it all up... in part. This story of edutainment was created based off the stories of all the Frank's we've heard from. Frank represents the common sign shop owner or printer that could do so much more. There are also many others out there that have NOT been a part of the industry and need a cost effective way to enter it. This same method of converting an aqueous printer is the perfect solution to both situations. You will find that the money you need to convert a printer already exists in the higher costs you are paying for ink, media, outsourcing, and unused market potential; or, in the case of those who have not broken into the industry yet, the expense of buying a new solvent printer. Do the math; figure it out with your own numbers. Most of our customers can pay the cost of conversion back in 3 months or less. Compare this to the payback time for that new eco-sol printer that the dealer would love to sell you and you will see the benefits of this approach. If you want to have an epic tale of your own, scroll down and see what you need to start it off. |
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