How To Open A Photocopy Business Or Xerox Shop?

Table of Contents:

1. How To Start A Photocopy Shop?

2. Business Opportunity In Xerox Shop

3. How To Chose Location For Photocopy Business?

4. Xerox Shop Items List Investment

5. How to Market Your Photocopy Shop?

6. How To Scale Your Photocopy Business?

1. How To Start A Photocopy Shop?

Have you ever gone to a school or college zone in your city? You are more likely to come across two kinds of shops- eateries and photocopy or a xerox shop, isn’t it? Setting up a photocopy business is quite unconventional, and some might even call it outdated. But, trust us when we say this is one of the most profitable businesses, and no matter how digital education and other sectors go, one is always going to need a xerox or print. If you are looking to open your own photocopy/xerox shop, here’s all you need to know!

2. Business Opportunity In Xerox Shop

Setting up a business is a risky proposition, especially if the sector you choose does not have a potential for growth. With a xerox shop, you can breathe a sigh of relief as there is immense potential for success and growth. There are innumerable cases where a humble and small xerox shop expanded and became a brand in itself. Despite the advancement in technology and the world in general, there has been a significant advancement in xerox technology as well. So if you are wondering if it is the right place to focus your time, effort and money, the answer is ‘Yes’!

3. How To Chose Location For Photocopy Business?

Believe it or not, one of the first things you must do when you decide to set up a photocopy shop is to scout for the best location. As we saw earlier, most xerox shops are found around educational institutions. Other common areas where you’ll find plenty of these setups are:

• Residential areas
• Around government offices
• Near courts of law
• Around tuition classes and tutorials
• Near offices and in business districts

Location is a deciding factor in the success of your business. While looking for locations to set up your xerox shop, consider these factors:

• Ensure high visibility of your shop
• In areas of high-traffic
• In areas where the demand is high
• Choose a location that is close to two or more in-demand areas

Getting the location right is half the battle done.

4. Xerox Shop Items List Investment

1- Equipment Required

Apart from investing in a great location and shop, the next most obvious thing you’ll need for your business is equipment. While you can do pretty well with the most basic xerox and printing machine, having advanced machines helps to ensure you are keeping up with the demands of the time. For example, choose photocopy machines that can give you 40-50 copies per minute. If you do not wish to buy these modern machines outright, you can always rent or lease them for a cheaper rate. However, renting/leasing may reduce your profit margins. It may be a good idea to buy second-hand machines if you are low on budget.

In today’s times, a xerox shop items list investment also offers printing services, and it is recommended that you have these services at your shop too. In order to do this, you will need a desktop with basic tools like Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Corel Draw, Photoshop, and a high-speed internet connection with access to email.  Other minor equipment that you will need include lamination machines, printing papers of different sizes like A2, A3, A4, A5, photo paper, staplers, and spiral binding machines. Apart from these pieces of equipment and tools, you should also be technologically savvy and have sound knowledge of the alignment of pages, and the printing matter as each customer will have different requirements, some of which can be very specific.

2- Other Investments

Apart from the equipment that you will need to invest in, there are other places you’ll need to put some money into to kickstart your xerox shop. These include:

• Rent of your shop: Based on whether you have rented your shop or bought it, you will need to have money to pay the rent or the EMI.
• Employee salaries: This is another recurring cost, but you must have some money initially kept aside for paying employee salaries. When you are starting off, having 1-2 people are good enough to keep your shop running. As you expand, you will need to invest more in paying employee salaries, but a large part of it will come from your profits.
• Electricity Bills: To run all your machines and equipment, you will have to keep some money from your monthly budget to pay the electricity bill. The bill might be varying in amount but will be substantially high since your entire shop and business are dependent on it.
• Wifi: Most photocopy and xerox shops have Wi-Fi to give you email access for printing documents shared by customers. Wi-Fi is a monthly recurring cost, and in the initial days, it is a worthwhile investment.

Compared to many other businesses, the investment required for a xerox shop is much lesser, but it gives high revenues quickly. For this reason, it is a very attractive business to enter. The material costs for papers and other stationery required can also be optimised by finding the right distributors.

5. How to Market Your Photocopy Shop?

While your location will get you a large part of your customer base, you will still need to get your word out and market your shop. With plenty of xerox and photocopy shops mushrooming in the areas of demand, as a new business, you will need to stand out if you wish to attract customers and enjoy profits. To do this, you will need to put out attractive prices and offers. The best marketing strategy to create a name for your business early on is by providing an excellent quality of services at lower rates. This will attract both students as well as adults as they are all looking for cheaper and quality services respectively. Once the word-of-mouth marketing begins for you, it sets-off a virtuous cycle that brings you a bulk of customers.

Another useful method of marketing your business is distributing attractive pamphlets, posters and flyers that have your best offers and USPs printed on them. You can also use digital marketing to increase the reach of your shop. If you offer services available only in a few places in the city, digital marketing will help you get your word far and wide. You can also tie-up with business, schools, and colleges and offer attractive prices to their students. This ensures that a bulk of all students come to you every single day for all their xeroxing and printing needs.

6. How To Scale Your Photocopy Business?

Once you have set up your xerox shop business, the next obvious step is to scale it up. There are many ways to do so:

• Expand your services
• Include sale of stationery items as most customers who will visit you inadvertently require some stationery item or the other
• Grow your shop
• Open a branch
• Consider franchising of your xerox shop
• Include lamination services
• Include notary services if the customers in your location demand them often
• Tie-up with courier service business to include courier services

Conclusion

Setting up a photocopy/xerox shop is a great business idea, even though there are innumerable shops everywhere. The key to achieving success in this sector is quality services, attractive prices and offering value for money for products and services purchased by your customers.

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