Why Adding Sublimation to a Decorating Business Can Be Profitable: Part four
Last up in this series, let's talk about costs...
Sublimation is one of the least expensive decorating technologies available. If you already have a heat press, your cost of entry can be as little as $600 for a decorating system and printer, plus paper and substrates. Compare that to the thousands of dollars investment for screen printing, embroidery, engraving, direct-to-garment, or even wide-format vinyl printers, it is only a fraction of the cost to get in to sublimation.
A good business strategy may be to start with a small printer and build demand for your sublimated products. Then, when you are getting a higher volume of orders, add a printer the next size up so that you can print more on a single sheet and offer larger products. You could also add two or three more of the small printers to optimize production capacity. Just make sure you think production speed and efficiency when evaluating your purchase choices.
-Robin Kavanaugh, Sawgrass
