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How viable is a home based Desktop Publishing business in 2011?

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  • How viable is a home based Desktop Publishing business in 2011?

    I graduated from college in 2004 as an Administrative Assistant (specializing in Legal and Medical). Though I can't imagine myself doing that for the rest of my life, part of the two year degree was in Desktop Publishing.

    I fell in love with it. I could start and hours would fly by and I wouldn't even notice. Oh, I loved every second of it. I got to be very creative, and I started to figure out how to alter images and things the way I wanted in Paintshop. I haven't learned how to create some of those beautiful graphics you see (like the ones advertising for computer games and the like), but I can take any free image that looks remotely like what I want and alter it to be exactly what I'm seeing in my head.

    I'm very good at this. In college, I got straight A's in any course remotely related to this. Or above 3.8/90% depending on your scoring methods.

    I would LOVE to do this for a living. No, not working at Kinkos or whatever with stock images making $10 an hour. No, I want more than that.

    And I want to be my own boss.

    The thing is, I've mentioned this idea to a few people (admittedly, not people that would be interested in using these services), and they seemed kind of... "well anyone can do that", and blew me off. My husband is scared of how bad any business can fail.

    What do you think of this idea? Or is it that any business/person would just ignore that and go straight to the stock images that would come out of Staples.

    Yes, I know that final approval would need to come from the client so I can't create just whatever comes in my head.

    Do you think this is not a valid idea for the second decade of the century?

    I know Microsoft Office and Corel very well. My printer isn't very good but I'm willing to buy a much better one. I do admit that I need to upgrade my photoshop and paintshop.

  • #2
    Try looking on google for your area, or craigslist, and see how many people are offering the service. Look for how many are requesting it. See if there's any demand for the job first.

    Rapscallion

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    • #3
      Oh, I know that there's at least some demand for it in my area.

      I googled it and only found one company that does desktop publishing in the area that isn't Kinkos and the like, and I did find one that does desktop printing services.

      There are graphics design places but most of them seem to charge a minimum of $100/hour. As well, pretty much all the stuff I've found for graphics design studios isn't along the lines of desktop publishing, its more... creating giant road side signs and web design. I was thinking more along the lines of brochures, invitations, that sort of thing.

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      • #4
        If you have an eye for the pretty things on nice paper, that's a good business. My sister used to work in a paper shop that specialized in wedding invitations, baby announcements, and all that frou frou stuff. She printed invites and thank-you notes when Mr. Grype and I got married. Even if my sister hadn't worked there, I would never have gone to a big box store or a Kinko's for wedding invitations. I would have found a small paper shop anyways.

        It wouldn't be a cheap-as-free startup, of course. You'd have to have the pretty paper and the printer that can do metallic ink and stuff like that. The paper might not be too hard if you could get people to buy your products when your paper was at retail cost. Printer and other equipment might be tougher.

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        • #5
          I have done alot of things like invitations. I did both my weddings, and my sisters and mom's weddings as well. And not just for that. For things like favors too. And the menu's for my family's wedding dinners.

          I also designed the menu used in the first hotel I worked at in the restaurant, the lounge drink menu for the next hotel I worked for, notices that were put in each envelope with the guests key telling information about the hotel (like how to access our internet), and the Housekeeping cards that went into the gift baskets given to special guests.

          And all you need is plain white paper. The ink does the rest. I actually designed three different invitations for my husband and I. We tried three times to get married but things kept happening (like hurricane katrina for example) until we finally had enough of it and just had a small wedding with about 15 people in attendance.

          Plus you can get real creative and even make paper that looks like its ancient parchment using things like tea and coffee. My family loved those ones in particular. I also hand made my sisters complete with blue ribbons attached. The only thing it takes is time. My mom's invitations were about $30 for 60. My sisters were $65 for 40. Mine ran between $25 and $90 depending on the number of people and method of creation. I actually think I could have done the one set for alot cheaper if I had bought the pieces and put it all individually instead of bought the kit.

          Honestly, if people were willing to take the time to do it themselves, its really easy and a heck of alot cheaper than buying from a stationary place, but most people don't want to do that.

          And from college, I did alot of fliers, brochures, and even things like business cards, certificates, newsletters, etc. Its too bad my business cards were munched in the move or I'd still have them. I should remake them.

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          • #6
            https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&p...1NmIz&hl=en_US

            You should be able to see this. This is an example of my work from my second hotel. I had to use a doc demo converter. The original is in MS Word.

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            • #7
              Quoth Moirae View Post
              You should be able to see this.
              Nope, sadly...getting a Do not have permission error.

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              • #8
                Ok, will try to figure out how to convert it tomorrow morning.

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                • #9
                  One of the biggest things I've learned about running a specialized business: open up to all available areas and figure out how you can maximize work.

                  I own a recording studio that I originally built specifically for working on my music album. I don't nor have any interest in recording other bands, but I noticed that while I am working on the actual production for my album, the equipment wasn't making me any money. So I started to think of how I could expand upon this so that this stuff which cost me tens of thousands of dollars could generate some income while I work on my music projects.

                  Thus, I started looking at all areas which would require a recording studio. I'm now involved with voice acting for both commercial/radio and video games as well as having a few audio book projects lined up with some local people. Eventually, I may even get into foley work (the people who create the sounds used in movies) to generate income on the side.

                  If you are going to go into a business, don't look at a single street to go down. Really expand into areas you wouldn't have thought of because there may be a gold mine hidden there which will allow you to not only do what you love, but will also give you a much larger resume and experience that will help you in the long run for your main goal.
                  Getting offended is a great way to avoid answering questions that make you sound dumb. - exmocaptainmoroni

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                  • #10
                    Ooo, doing voice work for video games and cartoons. That would be so much fun. I've been told I have a very nice voice on the phone more times than I can count. No idea how I'd ever get into that though.

                    I live in NOLA and there are lots of places here that could use this kind of thing. Everything from hotels, to bars, to wedding groups, parties, etc. From brochures, fliers, invitations, all the way to logo's, headers, envelopes, and more. The only thing these take is time, and it can be done from anywhere. You don't need an actual building devoted to it, at least in the beginning.

                    Most places here charge an astronomical amount of money for this from what I've been seeing. Seriously, $100 an hour is alot of money unless you're figuring supplies into it, and even then... If I could charge half or even three quarters the price, but still give quality, I'd get business.

                    I'm just not sure how to start this up. Though my coworker made a great suggestion last week. Her dad owns a laundry business, and I guess he went to every hotel in the city giving them a much cheaper price than the original people, and in the last ten years he's expanded to five different stores. He has some major hotels in the area that use him for their cleaning.
                    Last edited by Moirae; 10-17-2011, 02:34 PM.

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                    • #11
                      Ok, I attached the file of the Lounge Menu I talked about to this post. Because the last post I made didn't work. This one should be fine. Oh, I should mention, the lines around the edges are the cut lines. This is meant to be flush with the holders that were used on the tables and double sided.
                      Attached Files
                      Last edited by Moirae; 10-17-2011, 02:59 PM.

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                      • #12
                        Quoth Moirae View Post
                        Ooo, doing voice work for video games and cartoons. That would be so much fun. I've been told I have a very nice voice on the phone more times than I can count. No idea how I'd ever get into that though.
                        It costs quite a bit of money to be independent. You need the proper gear and sound treated areas to make a professional product. Most people who do it work in radio where they have the gear and pump out a lot of commercials for their stations. You also have to have good knowledge of audio engineering because everything needs to be cleaned up and properly edited for whatever venue you use: radio, television, etc.

                        Most places here charge an astronomical amount of money for this from what I've been seeing. Seriously, $100 an hour is alot of money unless you're figuring supplies into it, and even then... If I could charge half or even three quarters the price, but still give quality, I'd get business.
                        Remember that people who charge that much do it for a living. When you do that, you need to charge enough that you can actually live off of it. Plus, you'll find that most of the time they charge that much because they are very good and give attention to the smallest details which can be time consuming. One thing you certainly don't want to do is undercut. Competition is fine, but undercutting will make you enemies very quickly which is not the way you want to go into business because the people who have been in it for a long time will squash you and your reputation with people before you even have time to rebuttal.

                        I'm just not sure how to start this up. Though my coworker made a great suggestion last week. Her dad owns a laundry business, and I guess he went to every hotel in the city giving them a much cheaper price than the original people, and in the last ten years he's expanded to five different stores. He has some major hotels in the area that use him for their cleaning.
                        One thing I found that helped me was doing some mock projects for businesses for free to put a portfolio of work together. They don't even need to use them if they don't want, but simply getting permission to create the designs to show possible paying prospects is a very good thing, and businesses really like free stuff done for them. In your case, simply tell them what business you're in and you'd be willing to do a free design for them and they would be able to use it if they wanted to, all they have to do is find someone to do the printing themselves, but the design would be free to use.
                        Getting offended is a great way to avoid answering questions that make you sound dumb. - exmocaptainmoroni

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                        • #13
                          I'm not entirely sure of the sort of jobs you are interested in doing, but I would suggest you do a lot of work for people for free to get in the practice.

                          I do a lot of free work right now for people for no other reason than I am genuinely passionate about graphic design and because I'm not working a regular job right now, I want to keep my chops up. Before I got laid off, I was a graphic designer for a company, making mail outs, posters, billboards, t shirts, and pretty much everything. I even designed the paint job for a couple of trucks and a water tower. Doing various free jobs will challenge you to learn more, and to give you experience in creating various types of design.

                          I would strongly suggest that you get some good design books and study them. If you can get anything in the Before and After series, I highly recommend them. They used to be just magazines, but now they have a website.

                          I think the inherent problem with doing typesetting for a living is that nowadays, most people can type because everyone's online using their keyboard to communicate. And there are templates out there to help people lay their stuff out. So typists and typesetters are not so needed anymore.

                          I'm not sure how much Kinko's does anymore. They used to have Desk Top Publishing departments (which is where the husband started out), but I don't know what all they do about that sort of work anymore. But don't be so fast to dismiss it. I got my start there, too. A million years ago, that's where I learned Word, Photoshop, Quark, Freehand, and (what was that God awful layout program cavemen used....oh, yeah Pagemaker.

                          The nice thing about working for an outfit like Kinko's is that you have access to learning about software and also about the various media that you'll need to be familiar with.

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                          • #14
                            Oh, I know about the portfolio. I have one. Both in pdf and in hard copy.

                            I've already thought about doing free work. Its why I did all that stuff for my last two hotels. And I went to the COO of my company to offer to do it for him for free if the company needs it. Well, at least for as long as I'm working here but I didn't actually say that.

                            Remember, I took this in college as part of my Admin Assistant Associates. I know what it takes to do this, including the programs. The only thing I actually need to start right now is a MUCH MUCH better printer, to create a web page (my coworker suggested Facebook and an actual web page) that includes my portfolio and what I'd be offering, to call around to get prices so I can compare, etc. It actually would be very easy for me to start. Oh and I need photoshop.

                            I have MS Word, and Excel (love those programs), though they are 2003 versions. And I have paintshop. It would be nice to get MS Publisher, but I actually tend to prefer to use Word because I find Publisher to be rather limiting. Then again, I haven't used Publisher in a long time.

                            I even know how to use MS Access, basic HTML, Dreamweaver, FrontPage, etc. Though I'm not very good at 3D stuff, I doubt I'd need that.

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                            • #15
                              Quoth Moirae View Post
                              Ok, I attached the file of the Lounge Menu I talked about to this post. Because the last post I made didn't work. This one should be fine. Oh, I should mention, the lines around the edges are the cut lines. This is meant to be flush with the holders that were used on the tables and double sided.
                              Is the last name of the owner "Magraths" or "Magrath"? If it's the latter, you forgot the apostrophe.

                              Sure, as the person said, "Anyone can do it", but not everybody can do it well. If you've got an edge or can get your ideas down better, then more power to ya!

                              You may also want to look into "business bootstrapping".

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