The demand among the population for the service of copying documents continues to be high, since in everyday life copies of documents are required quite often. For this reason, the business idea of starting a copy center seems to be quite suitable, especially for aspiring entrepreneurs.
However, the low cost of copies and high competition often do not allow this line of business to be so profitable that current income covers the cost of renting a room, supplies and operating costs. Therefore, when creating a copy center, it is necessary to take into account the expansion of the list of services in advance, especially since most customers prefer to receive maximum services in one place.
In addition to copying documents, such a center can provide the following services:
- for printing documents;
- lamination;
- binding of various documents, for example, diplomas and term papers;
- circulation of small books and booklets.
Color printing is in high demand among the population, since few people keep color printing equipment at home due to its high cost.
For a more complete workload of the copy center staff, it also makes sense to purchase special equipment and provide photo production services. In addition, visitors to such copy centers are almost always interested in purchasing various stationery, as well as inexpensive flash drives, disks for recording information, albums, various folders and packages.
When creating a copy center, you need to plan in advance the area, both for accommodating customers and for installing various technical and commercial equipment. So the area of such a center should be at least 40-50 square meters, excluding technical premises. When selecting buildings for a copy center, first of all, you need to pay attention to office centers that are located near educational institutions, on the first floors of buildings on the central and adjacent streets.
For the center to be profitable, while maintaining low rates for services, the traffic of customers in the copy center must be sufficiently high, so the importance of choosing a suitable location for the center is of paramount importance.
At the same time, the cost of repairing and equipping a copy center can be quite modest, in the range of 500 or 600 thousand dollars, since the interior is of secondary importance to customers.
The most correct option for decorating the premises is the maximum placement of glass showcases with samples of stationery along the walls of the client hall.
The cost of acquiring copy center equipment depends on the set of services and can range from 40 to 60 thousand dollars. In these costs, the risograph for mass reproduction of documents and means for color printing have the highest price.
By refusing to provide these services, you can roughly halve the amount of initial equipment purchase costs. However, it should be taken into account that in this case, incomes are also likely to be reduced.
The profitability of a copy center, as experience shows, is about 15%.
Depending on the initial costs for the purchase of equipment, the payback of such a project can be achieved within a period of six months to one and a half years. The timing of a business’s profit is highly dependent on the number of customers and the volume of services provided.
To attract customers, especially in the period of formation, it is necessary to additionally spend certain funds on advertising.
All in all, with a good business plan, setting up a copy center can turn into a profitable business. However, only accurate economic calculations can help achieve profitability.
Our specialists are ready to prepare a business plan for opening a copy center if you place an order on our website.