Watched my Main Street shop go from $0 to $3,000 a month in 6 months

I opened a small print shop on Gratiot near Eastern Market in January. Barely broke $400 that first month. By June I was pulling $3,000 after a local real estate agent started sending me all his open house flyer jobs. Word of mouth from that one guy changed everything. Has anyone else had one client crank up their whole revenue like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

hannah4005d ago

Push back a little here. That $3k is still real money coming in after costs for a small shop just starting out. You're assuming he didn't factor in materials but most print owners know their margins cold. If that agent is paying $500 per job for flyers on heavy stock with quick turnaround, that's solid profit even after ink and paper. Not every big client is a nightmare either. Some of them just need reliable work and will pay decent for it. Getting from zero to a steady three grand in half a year with one anchor account is exactly how a lot of shops build momentum.

uma_williams6d agoMost Upvoted

Wait, did you actually factor in the cost of materials and your own time when you say $3k? That's what I'm wondering because a lot of small business owners just look at raw revenue and think they're killing it when they're really just trading dollars for hours. Like those $400 months probably had way less overhead than the $3k ones if you were buying ink, paper, and dealing with that real estate agent's constant revisions. That agent could be costing you more than you think if he's demanding quick turnaround and making you drop other work to prioritize his jobs. I'd run the numbers on profit margin per client before you get too excited about that one big fish.