The people thinking of starting a screen-printing business must be aware of the demand for the same-day printing service in London. If you are one of them, a great opportunity is waving at you. We guess you want to make the best use of it, and that’s the reason you are here. We appreciate your dream! Therefore we have designed this article to let you know how to start a screen-printing business thoroughly.

The substantial growth of the global t-shirt printing market can be a sheer inspiration for you. Did you know the value of the global custom t-shirt printing market was $3.64 billion in 2020? The analysts think it will be expanding more and more! The report of Printing Technique additionally shows that only the screen-printing part held the highest revenue share of more than 50% in that year.

Okay, now let’s get into the core discussion of How to Start a Screen Printing Business. It’s time to move on! Are you ready?

How to Start a Screen Printing Business

The screen printing business is highly profitable, as you have seen above. Whether you are in London or another part of Europe, you can change your fate. However, it is essential to follow an apt guideline. So it would help best if you followed our shown direction below!

Come up with a Plan

Every entrepreneur should have a plan to align with their goal. You can’t go ahead aimlessly. Regarding this, you should especially keep in mind that your potential customers are of different choices in terms of design and style. Apart from this, your screen printing business should comprise –

• A beautiful, attractive brand name
• A clear vision and mission
• An outstanding marketing plan
• A legal identity
• A robust financial plan

Choose a Niche

Another important thing is the selection of a niche market. It will be wise to consider the types of customers in a market and the differences in their needs. Select whether your target clientele is toddlers, teens, or adults. Besides, you have to decide whether you will allow them to customize their garments. Better take the actions below concerning this:

• Secure a sound knowledge about the competitors, i.e. their strategies, amount of sales, etc.
• Ensure a superb team in your hub comprises SEO experts, content writers, lead generation specialists, business development officers, etc.
• See why the customers are satisfied with a specific brand and why they are not overall.

Let us share the trendiest niche markets with you. If you want to profit from your screen printing business, particularly to provide the customers with a satisfying same-day printing service in London, you should have a good idea. Anyway, the trendies markets are as follows:

• T-shirt for the pet lovers
• Lifestyle t-shirts and hoodies
• Service wear
• Sportswear
• Eco-friendly tees
• Organic tees

Have a Sound Idea of the Starting Cost

Before all, you have to fix the cost of your screen printing machine and relevant logistics. If you want to get a High Volume Auto Production Screen Printing Machine, it will cost between £20K – £80K, depending on the brand and configuration. On the other hand, a standard auto production machine will cost between £7K – £15K.

Though it will depend on the location, there is an average set cost of a printing shop in the United Kingdom. No doubt, the cost of a London shop will vary from that of a Birmingham. Anyway, the bullet points below illustrate the common scenario.

• Small production capacity £25 – £50K
• Moderate production capacity £60K – £100K
• High volume production Capacity £100K – £500K

Now we will focus on the average running cost of a screen-printing business. Have a look at the points below! Here we have talked about 3 expected costs.

T-Shirts: Let’s say you are going to produce 100% heavyweight white cotton t-shirts. Then the wholesale cost for these shirts would be approximately £17 to £20 per doz.

Silk Screens: You will have to pay around  £18 to  £20 for a pre-stretched mesh screen and £1.09 for making a screen. Else, the good thing is, you can use a screen more than 20 times! Isn’t it fantastic for printing in bulk?!

Screen Printing Ink: We recommend using a top-notch screen printing plastisol ink. And for example, if you want to screenprint an order for shirts, then better count cost £0.036 for each piece of shirt.

Consider These Types Of equipment

Perhaps you can understand that the things mentioned above will not suffice to start a screen-printing business. Primarily, ensure you have the most vital equipment to come up with your own printing shop. Would you please go through them one by one?

Manual Press

You will have a number of screen printing presses of various features. Merely choose a brand that the printing experts recommend. Generally, you will see three kinds of presses in the market:

• Flat-bed
• Cylinder and
• Rotary

As a start-up, you may go for the Riley Hopkins 150 Press. It will help you excel in this business faster. Don’t you expect something like this? Oh yes!

Flash Dryer

In order to print multicolor designs, a piece of equipment to gel or flash the ink is a must. You will have to gel ink precisely. Moreover, keeping the consistency of heat is highly significant at the time of printing. A printing expert always expects an even heat. So it would help best if you prefer a flash dryer for all these.

Curing Equipment

Do you want your print washing out soon? Hope not! Then be careful of this. A heat press is good at curing, no doubt. However, it would be best to have a conveyor dryer. It can cover multiple shirts at a time. You won’t have to worry about your same-day delivery at all!

Exposure Unit

This is a crucial piece of the darkroom. It burns the images onto screens. The quality of screen printing depends much on it. We suggest LED exposure units for the best production. However, it is urgent to be careful enough while operating them.

Space

No, we are not talking about that space! This is a piece of printing equipment that cleans freshly burned screens. And you had better set up a tub or laundry room sink for this act of rinsing.

Printing Positives

It would be best if you had a film printer to create stencils. You can rely on the inkjet printer. It will assist you in keeping up the density and shape of a chosen image.

Screens

Screens are the vital element for screen printing, any doubt? The screen holes quality depends on the number of mesh counts. You can use different types of mesh counts for different types of usage. So better ensure the screens of higher numbers.

Ink

Depending on our experience in Print Britannia, we recommend plastisol inks for a start-up like you. You will find screen printing comfortable with the plastisol inks. And the water-based inks will give your garment a soft feeling.

Emulsion

You will see its two variants — diazo and pre-sensitized. The pre-sensitized emulsion will help grasp the fine details of a design. And diazo helps create a stencil.

Propagate Your Screen Printing Business

Unless you ensure robust marketing, you can’t raise your sales. You have to rely on some means to propagate your business. Moreover, it won’t be enough to use those methods only for the sake of using them. Instead, you must be strategic to stand out from the crowd. The key advertising tools or methods are as follows:

• Social Media Page
• Website
• Worth of Mouth (WOM)
• Ad Campaigns
• Newspaper Articles
• Leaflets
• Flyers
• Brochures
• Partnerships
• Influencer Marketing
• Promotional Events

Ensure the Necessary Documents

A business needs to have a legal entity. Do you agree? One must have the following common papers or documents to start a screen-printing business generally.

Doing Business As (DBA): This is the foremost thing you should have to start a screen-printing business. Don’t you want your garment supplies tax-free? Please note that this paper may take different names in other regions.

Bank Account: No matter whether you use paper currency or cryptocurrency, you must have a bank account. It serves as a significant record of your deeds.

Resale Certificate: It helps you deal in wholesale and make agreements with the suppliers. It is a testimony that the products are in good faith.

Invoice: This is a must for transactions. It contains the necessary contact information.

Certificate of Occupancy: You will need this for your printing shop. It shows legal ownership.

Get the E-commerce Solution

In this fourth industrial revolution, we especially suggest having an e-commerce platform for your screen printing business. No worries, you can run your business both online and offline. Let us introduce you to the most reliable e-commerce platforms for 2023. These are-

• Shopify
• BigCommerce
• Magento
• Woocommerce
• Wix
• GoDaddy

Build up Relationships with Community Groups

It will be an excellent plus for establishing a place in the local market. As a start-up, you should emphasize building strong bondage with the community groups. Let’s say there is a high-school or concert organizer in your locality and they need a same-day printing service. In such a situation, you will benefit tremendously from this relationship.

To Wrap up

Now you know how to start a screen-printing business in detail. Now you know the possibilities of this business! Feeling confident? Then it is high time you joined the battlefield. No doubt, there would be some unpredictable challenges. However, the more you face challenges, the more you grow. Have a good day!

FAQ

Question: Do I need to pay the total price to reprint a shirt?

Answer: No. For example, you merely need to pay £15 instead of £25  in that case as we maintain transparency for making your screens on hand!

Question: What is your minimum order?

Answer: You can even print only one shirt! However, we recommend printing a minimum of 24 for general screen print orders.

Question: Can you do full-colour shirts?

Answer: Why not! We can print full-color designs on light-colored apparel and screen printing 4-color process designs in large quantities.