Desktop Publisher

Vital Information:


Start-up Investment:

Low - $700.00 (If computer and printer is financed). Home-based operation.

High - $4,000 - $10,000 Buy equipment and set up office.


Break - even time - 90 days to 6 months


Estimate of Annual Revenue and Profit

Revenue $20,000 - $250,000
Profit (Pre-tax) $16,000 - $110,00


An Exploding Market

According to recent estimates by business consulting firms this market has grown from roughly 3 million in annual sales in 1985 to almost 3 billion in 1991, and there is no end in sight. One of the real opportunities and challenges of this business is the fact that there are still millions of clients out there that as yet do not even know that they need the services of a dekstop publishing service.

Desktop publishers use computers, laser printers and sophisticated software program in the preparation of high quality graphic material. The price of the equipment used is continuing to come down dramatically, therefore the start-up estimates may be high. The quality of graphic material which can be produced in this manner is so high that only a professional can detect the difference between material designed by desktop publishing and material which has been typeset. The latter has a somewhat higher resolution which is not noticeable to the naked eye. Much of the material you see in newspapers such as USA Today and magazines was prepared through desktop publishing.

Desktop publishers prepare graphic materials such as: brochures, flyers, full page advertisements, newsletters, books, proposals, forms and much more. Some desktop publishers will also perform word processing services for their clients. While some desktop publishers will prepare almost any kind of graphic material, many will specialize in one or more, such as newsletters.

While prior computer knowledge is a plus anyone who has a desire to learn the operation of a computer can acquire the ability to become a desktop publisher.
Quality laser printers which a few years ago sold for $4,000 to $7,000 can now be bought for under $1,000. The laser printer is the key element in making desktop publishing possible. The laser in the printer is activated to "paint" a picture of the computer file which was created through desktop publishing software. As such it acts as a photocopier, by scanning back and forth at high speeds while the drum containing the toner rotates back and forth. The toner is similar to that used in photocopiers. It is attracted to, or repelled from the imaged or 'un-imaged' areas of the drum. As it passes the rotating drum it is transferred onto a piece of paper. This is called "camera-ready" material. It is taken to a printer to be reproduced.

To truly understand the continuing magnitude of this field, it is important to realize that until the invention of the laser printer, graphic material was either produced by graphic designers or typesetters in printing businesses. Since graphic designers were, and still are quire expensive their services were generally only available to the medium-sized and larger companies. The typesetter, on the other hand, who rarely had artistic ability prepared art-work for those who could afford the graphic designer. This material generally looked second class. Desktop publishing for the first time has made it possible for any size company to present itself with graphic material which looks every bit as good as the material that huge corporation use to sell their products and services.

Who Are The Customers And How To Find Them

Almost any size company and organization is a potential customer. Many of the large companies have down-sized their P.R. and Advertising Departments during this recession. And medium-sized and small companies rarely have the equipment or personnel to perform this very specialized work in-house.

Potential customers are, for example: restaurants which require menu design, a painter who needs flyer to pass out, a legal firm which requires hundreds of different forms, a hotel which needs brochures, a writer who needs a cover design for his book, and we could add hundreds of other situations to this list.

You should join one or more Chambers of Commerce in your community and surrounding communities and other organizations which allow you to meet potential customers. Advertising is both daily newspapers -business section, or in the classified section under "business Services" will be very worthwhile. As soon as feasible an ad in the Yellow Pages will give your business additional visibility. Advertising in other business related publications in your community will also be beneficial. Direct mail directed to businesses and organizations will also be highly beneficial in most businesses, once you have found your first few customers, especially the "first big one" it will be easier to find other clients. Word of mouth of a satisfied client will go a long way and it will be your most effective advertising.

The quality and eye-appeal of your brochure and other sales material will be of vital importance. After all you are a desktop publisher and therefore your brochure should very professional looking. Clients will also want to see some work ("your portfolio") which you have prepared for clients.

One of the best leads for new business will be the never ending flow of junk mail which you will receive from both local and out-of-town companies. Much of this material will not be very professional in appearance. You can gently and diplomatically suggest to a potential client how much more effective their sales campaign will be with professional looking material.. Since many potential graphic material is too expensive for their budget they will be pleasantly surprised when they learn from you that it can be prepared for $15 to $30 per page.

Operating Your Business

Most anyone without prior computer background, unless they are young enough to have had computer instructions in high school, will be initiated by computers. Yet slowly but surely computers are becoming as much a part of our lives as automobiles. And if you consider how little most people know about the operation of the automobile engine, but how well they can drive you will realize how easy it is to learn the operation of a computer. While books, operating manuals and even classroom instructions will be most helpful, the most effective way to learn is through practice. Basic knowledge of most software programs, including desktop publishing software can be acquired in about 20 hours. To become truly proficient will take about 2-3 months.

This business lends itself well to be operated from your home. Since you will be receiving clients it is important that your home-office be presentable and well kept. As you business grows you can move to larger quarters in an office.

Your initial expenses in addition to the equipment itself will pertain to basic office supplies, the preparation and reproduction of your sales material, advertising, postage and miscellaneous expenses. If at all possible get a second telephone line just for your office so you can insure it will always be answered professionally. An answering machine or telephone answering service will communicate with your clients in your absence.

Owners of new businesses will spend the majority of their time, during the start-up phase on finding new business. Your new clients will be looking for quality graphic material which is prepared in a relatively short time span (generally from 2 to several days depending on the project - larger projects may take substantially more time), at a reasonable price. The cost of your services are determined by what your competition charges which is pretty well determined by general cost of living expenses in your community.

It will be a good idea if you do some snooping around and visit some of your competitors as a "potential client". You will find their advertisements in local business publications and the Yellow Pages.

Since you are selling a service most of your revenue will go to the bottom - line and will become profit to you. Operating expenses will be relatively small for general office supplies, paper, laser printer toner, etc. Of course, you may have to finance the purchase of your equipment over a period of time. If your credit is good, financing will be relatively easy to obtain through most computer stores. Since new computer equipment is becoming outdated at an ever 
increasing speed it is best to buy equipment on the lower end of the price range even if your budget can stand the higher outlay of capital.

Small businesses and organizations will be requesting credit extension. Your care in granting this privilege is important. Nothing is more aggregating then selling a service "your time" and not get paid. It is not at all unreasonable to request payment up front with new and small business clients. Once you have granted credit to a business or organizations set down strict rules and stick to them. In general there rarely is justification to carry any client beyond 60 days.

As you expand and require assistance to carry the work-load consider hiring "outside contractors" instead of employees. There are many individuals who have the knowledge and equipment to free-lance with desktop publishing. You will be saving the various benefits which are required to pay to employees and which average about 20 - 30% of salary.

Resources

Publications: Publish, P.C. World, Mac World are the best known publication. New ones are coming on the market on an on going basis.

Organizations:

Most of the major desktop publishing software programs sponsor user clubs/organizations throughout the country, such as Ventura Publishing.

Education:

Almost all colleges and university have an extensive curriculm in various computer instructions including desktop publishing. There are also various private instructions available thorough seminars, etc.,however, these tend to be quite expensive.
HOW TO SET UP AND ORGANIZE YOUR CUSTOMER MAILING LIST FOR OPTIMUM
RESULTS. 

Your list of customers who have previously bought from you is
your most important asset. These are the customers who will
provide you with return business, which is more profitable than
the first sale. But, are you getting the most from your customer
list? There are some secrets you should know, so you can squeeze
the most benefits out of your mailing list.

Most business' customer lists consist of this information: Name,
Address, City, State, Zip. That's it. Unfortunately, this
mailing list is almost worthless. You need to have more
information in your files than just that. I have 32 information
fields in my customer database! You should be able to set these
up in your computer's database, or, if you don't use a computer
(you REALLY should), all this information should fit on a large
size index card in a card file. Here are the fields I have in my
customer database:

LastName; FirstName; Title; Position; 
CompanyName; Address1; Address2; City; 
State; Zip; PerPhone; BusPhone; FaxPhone; 
InqDate; ReferSource; FollowUp1; FollowUp2; 
SubDate; SubAmount; RenewDate;
Purch1; Purch1Date; Purch1Amount; Purch2; 
Purch2Date; Purch2Amount; Purch3; Purch3Date; 
Purch3Amount; TotAmount; Comments; Cust#

The first 10 fields (reading across) should be self-explanatory. 
Almost any address possible can be put into my database without
having to leave out information or abbreviate. The next three
are for phone numbers. You MUST have your customer's phone
numbers, when possible, to be able to follow up quickly and
efficiently. Making one phone call can be the difference between
a big sale or NO sale.

The InqDate field is where I record the date the customer first
inquired about my products and services, and the date I sent the
information, since it's always the same day (there's no excuse
not to follow up your inquiries on the same day you receive
them). This information, coupled with the ReferSource field,
tells me when my ads are hitting, and how quickly people are
responding to them. If I see that inquiries are coming in
slowly, or long after the ad is out, I know that I need more
action incentives in my next ad. The ReferSource field is where
I enter the "key" from my ad. I use a letter code after my
street address to indicate which publication and issue the
inquiry comes from. I also code my mailings, for the same
reason.

I enter a date into the two FollowUp fields to indicate when I
want to send follow up literature to customers who don't order on
the first try. I usually put a date two weeks from the InqDate
in FollowUp1, and one two weeks later than that in FollowUp2. 
Then, every day, I run a search on these two fields to pull up
any records that have today's date as a follow up date. I can
then print labels and put them on the envelopes and literature I
have ready for follow ups.

I use the next three fields (SubDate, SubAmount, RenewDate) for
the newsletter I publish. These would have the date I receive
their subscription, the amount they paid (I sometimes run special
prices), and the date I want to send subscription renewal
information (usually 10 1/2 months from the SubDate). I can then
print labels in the same manner as I do for the FollowUp fields.

Next come the Purchase fields. I have three sets of purchase
fields, one for each purchase the customer makes. In the Purch1
field, I enter a code for the product they have purchased. The
other two fields get the date and amount of the purchase. The
second and third sets of fields get the same information for the
customer's second and third purchases. The best customers to
mail offers to are the ones that have purchased within the last
90 days, so I don't have to worry about many customers making
more than three purchases during that time period (though I hope
they will!). If someone does make a fourth purchase, I move the
second and third sets of data up to the first and second lines,
and enter the new purchase information in the third data set.

These fields are extremely important. I can instantly pull up a
list of customers that have purchased within the past 90 days, or
60 days, or 30 days, or even 15 days. When you rent out your
house mailing list, like I do, this information is vital. The
rental amount you can charge increases as the amount of time
since the customer's purchase decreases.

The next field in my database is TotAmount, which contains a
formula to calculate the total dollar amount that the customer
has purchased from me to date.

The Comments field is used to store any miscellaneous information
about the customer that I think is important to know.

I use the final field, Cust#, for a specially coded customer
number that I assign each customer. I use this code to identify
the recipient of any commissions I may pay to customers who have
brought business my way.

That's a lot of information, and you may be wondering why I would
need all of that. Well, I've already told you how I use the
purchase data fields for identifying the "age" of the customers. 
I can also use the TotAmount field to compile a list of customers
who have bought more than a certain amount from me. Together,
these field searches can be used to produce a customized mailing
list of, for example, customers who have bought more than $50 in
the past 30 days. These would be the most responsive people to
mail to, and would render the highest rental rate of my customer
list.

I can also use certain mailing list fields to identify people who
should be dropped from my list. For example, I can search for
customers with FollowUp2 dates that are four weeks past today's
date, and TotAmounts of zero. These customers could be erased
from my list. Or, I could leave them on file, and put a word or
two in the Comments field reminding me not to mail anything else
to them, in case they inquire again. This saves me the cost of
mailing something to someone who probably won't respond. They
might, but chances are they won't.

Finally, if I get a customer who has returned too many orders, or
has defrauded me in some way, I can put that information in the
Comments field. Then, if they order again, when their file comes
up, I will see their history, and can use extra caution with
them.

As you can see, if you use foresight when initially setting up
your customer list, you will have a valuable tool that you can
use to increase your order potential, increase your income
through specialized list rental, and decrease your mailing costs
by eliminating "deadwood" from your list. This is one of the
most important methods you can use to increase your chances of
success.

Note: If you aren't currently using a computer, or you are, but
you're not sure of the best ways to use it in your business, send
for the "Mail Order Computer" report. It's not just for Mail
Order businesses; the information can be used by any business
owner interested in expanding his or her business by using a
computer. You'll also learn which computer setup is the best and
most economical for your business, if you don't have one yet. 
Send $8 to Infopreneur, 306 W. Jefferson Street, 
Purdy, 65734-0096. Also, an excellent database program to use for
maintaining your mailing list is "File Express," which is 
available for $8 from Infopreneur, 306 W. Jefferson Street, 
Purdy, 65734-0096.