There is a global entrepreneurship drive currently being observed. There are many reasons why people are taking entrepreneurship as an option. While some want a side hustle to earn extra income, some are looking for self-employment. Also, there's an increase in this drive because of digitalization, unemployment, and pandemic restrictions.
The virtual world is open to all, and almost anything can be done or traded online. Also, the operational cost of an online business is negligible compared to conventional brick-and-mortar businesses. Because of this, many are looking to start a business from home ideas that can help them to create an independent revenue source and an opportunity to create a brand with minimal cost and effort.
As said earlier, there are endless ways to create an online business. While people get to choose their own path, it also makes it confusing to choose an appropriate business idea. But, if you look at the top home-based business ideas, print-on-demand will be one of the most common businesses that you will find! Not only is this business easy to start, but with proper marketing, planning, and financing, you can also make it a huge success with a stable and sustainable revenue stream. If you look at the print-on-demand industry, it has a vast number of product offerings, and many of them require big preliminary investments.
Scope of Label Printing Business
"The global market for label printing will reach $49.90 billion in 2024."
– Source smithers.com
Start a label printing business online if you genuinely wish to start a business from home with limited finance and resources. Not only is the product high in demand, but it has huge sales potential, and you can also create multiple revenue streams from the same. Right from commercial applications of the label for advertising, marketing, information, and other purposes, it can also have B2C business models which labels are called stickers.
For instance, consumers have a massive demand for labels to interact and communicate with customers. Manufacturing industries use labels for streamlining processes and for product information display. Product labeling is also a huge business where labels are used for branding, information, and legal purposes, and stickers are just fun ways. Customers use labels to showcase their passion, preferences, information, and many other such purposes.
So, it is evident that labels have numerous applications, and it has a high demand both in B2B and B2C business models. Also, labels will not reduce or replace anytime soon so it is also a long-term business with increasing demand. If you are to list ideas to start a business from home, compare the cost and effort of others with label printing. And, if you are willing to start a label printing business, you have to make informed decisions and pave a path.
While there are many different revenue streams, product offerings, and business models for you to choose from, we can help you build a strong foundation. To help you understand how you can start your label printing business at home, below is a detailed guide from the industry experts that has decades of experience in the printing industry:
Steps to Start a Label Printing Business At Home
1. Conduct Detailed Market Research
Before you dive into any business, it is essential to understand the market well. Thus, the first step you must take is to conduct detailed market research about the label printing industry. It is an integral step whether you are new to the business or even have experience in the printing world. It is essential to create a holistic approach and understand the nitty-gritty of the industry before you start to create printing eCommerce sites and investing in it. This step helps you make an informed decision and also aids in creating a detailed and strategically planned business.
Although the benefits are evident, many skip the research step, thinking it is expensive and time-consuming. But understand that in today’s digital era, you can have the world at your fingertips, and you can search about anything online! Conduct initial secondary research by reading authentic reports, blogs, and articles about the label printing industry, its statistics, market trends, customer expectations, and other important aspects. And while you are at it, conduct detailed competitor analysis to understand what others are offering and how they are operating their business.
2. Make a Solid Business Plan
Once you get a fair knowledge of the industry, you must decide the niche and business model you wish to focus on. As discussed earlier, there are many use cases of labels, and all these labels require different design understanding, delivery processes, and resources. Thus, based on your budget, interest, and proficiency, you must select a niche and create your business plan around it. Make sure you think of long-term sustainable business offerings instead of following current trends for a profitable and sustainable business.
3. Decide Business Offerings and Revenue Streams
When we talk about the label printing business, many things can be printed in different formats, materials, and designs. Identify the industries that you wish to target and create a list of different product offerings. Also, define the services and processes for delivery and customer support. Apart from that, there are other ways other than trade to generate revenue in the label printing business. For instance, you can create a multi-vendor platform, collaborate with businesses for a wide spectrum of offerings and earn commission from each sale. You can also render your online label design software as a Service to designers and ask for a software fee, subscription, or a commission from each sale.
4. Create Printing eCommerce Site
Image taken from Strikingly product
Once you have your business model, business offerings and revenue streams decided; whether B2B or B2C or you wish to cater to a niche or multiple domains, you must start a web-to-print store that aligns with your business offerings, your business goals, and customer expectations. Also, when you plan on creating your eCommerce platform, make it flexible and scalable enough to include all the future market trends and expansion plans. Apart from that, also make sure that the user experience of your label printing business online is designed based on your peers and target audience.
5. Integrate a Label Printing Web-to-Print Software
Image taken from Design’N’buy label design studio
One of the best investments you will make is integrating an ideal label printing web-to-print software solution to start your print-on-demand store. The software not only allows you to create virtual label designs that you can cater to your target audience, but you can also empower your customers to design their custom labels. With a label printing software integrated with an online design tool, you can save a lot of money on creating inventory and order with print-on-demand. Also, you can outsource your web-to-print solution to businesses, vendors, and designers and create a revenue stream from it.
6. Make the Preliminary Asset and Resources Investment
Till now, you have the skeleton of your business ready. It is not the time to beef up your business. When you plan to buy your printing solution and your raw materials, consider the quality you wish to deliver, your sales target, product offerings, and customer expectations.
7. Create a Team
Image taken from Strikingly product
No matter how efficient you are in all the departments, one individual can't start a business from home and run it at full potential without a capable team that can ensure seamless operations. To focus on the core of label printing business online activities such as sales, marketing, and product development, you must delegate other tasks for optimum productivity. Also, creating a team, whether of employees or partners, will give you a third-person perspective. So, if you ought to make your business a success, you must have a reliable and capable team to back you up.
8. Promote your Business
Lastly, you have to create a buzz in the virtual world to establish your platform in the target market. Promote your printing business wisely. Create a presence in all essential online platforms where you can find your target audience. Consider digital marketing initially for affordable and tangible outcome targeting. There are many different ways one can reach their target audience. For instance, you can run content marketing campaigns to spread relevant information on platforms as guest posts. You can create social media pages for customer reach and engagement, SEO for search engine dominance, influencer marketing, and many other such activities.
Image taken from Strikingly product
Thus, while formulating a digital marketing strategy, make sure you choose activities that ensure optimum reach and conversion. Also, make sure you create a healthy mix of organic and paid marketing campaigns along with promotions and discounts on your web-to-print store. Remember, in this competitive market, marketing is the backbone of your business, and you must have well-thought planning and budget for the same.
Ending Note
When we talk about creating and running a successful print-on-demand printing business, all it takes is planning, persistence, and patience. With the world of technologies supporting the printing industry, starting a Web-to-Print store for labels from your home has become feasible, sustainable, and affordable. If you are serious about starting a label printing business at home, let’s begin by creating a Strikingly account which is free and easy as no coding is required.
Image taken from Strikingly product
Just choose a template as per your niche and select “create site with this template”. Once you are logged in, add the “Simple Store” section and customize your label printing business. All the best!
