Is printer sharing a profitable business?

With the development of the sharing economy, why are shared power banks and shared bicycles popular, but shared tissues and photos are not? So, what about self-service printers? Can you make money?

Recently, several friends have asked me whether they can make money by running a self-service printer.

This reminds me of the model of sharing tissues and photos in previous years.

Many people will ask why it is possible to make money by sharing power banks, but it is difficult to share paper towels.

The core reasons are twofold:

First, the scale of shared power banks is large enough, and every store can put one, such as convenience stores, small restaurants, small hotels, etc.

Secondly, shared power banks do not conflict with any business formats, merchants, or surrounding stores.

01 Print sharing is a resource-intensive business

If you want to do self-service printer business, you need to figure out who your target group is.

The core counterpart is the printing shop, and there are three core places where printing shops appear.

The first is around residential areas, the second is around office buildings, and the third is around schools.

So if you want to make a shared printer, you have to ask yourself whether you can get your product into office buildings, school dormitories, and residential areas.

Compared with promoting shared power banks, promoting shared printers is more difficult.

02 Shared printers are a business that relies on scale and location

If you spend 3980 or so to buy a shared printer, you may have finally found a place to install it.

But whether you can make money in the end is entirely a probabilistic event.

1. First, make sure there are no print shops nearby
2. Second, make sure there are many people around
3. Third, make sure you have enough points

Why can traditional printing shops make money? You think they make money from students and white-collar workers, but in fact they make money from companies, businesses, schools, clubs, and exhibitions.

The profit from printing for students and white-collar workers is traffic, not to mention that most office workers have very low printing needs.

Therefore, if shared printers want to really make money, they have to make money from scale, because their product services are limited.

Only paper and photos can be printed, and the probability of printing photos is currently very low. The limit for printing paper is three to four hundred sheets a day for a small community.

Especially with the implementation of the double reduction policy, the printing business for primary and secondary school students is even less.

However, when doing printing business in colleges and universities, the cost of scale may not be comparable to that of print shops, not to mention that print shops also provide other services.

03 Shared printers can be standard equipment in small supermarkets

Personally, if you want to share a printer, I advise you to give up this idea.

Because the core customers of shared printers should be owners of convenience stores and printing shops in universities.

Firstly, a convenience store is itself a business model that is convenient for the people, and the simpler and more urgently needed services it provides, the higher the store entry rate will be.

The most important point is that for a small store, the cost of placing a machine is the same, and there is no extra store rent.

When investing 3,000, you don’t have to consider getting your money back in half a month or half a year, a year is fine.

Because of sporadic printing, it has attracted children and parents to come to the store to complete other purchases.

Secondly, for the owners of printing shops in universities, sometimes there is indeed a distance between the printing shops and the student dormitories, so as a merchant, it is still advantageous to go to the school for investment promotion to discuss shared printers in student dormitories.

For printing shop owners, students can complete ordinary standard printing by themselves, but non-standard printing requires going to the store.

In addition, if other individuals want to share a printer, they need to spend a lot of effort to set up the equipment.

Not only the cost of the equipment, but also the site rental, equipment maintenance, etc. Not only is the payback period extremely long, but the key is that it is very easy to lose money.

Because shared printers are different from the shared snack and beverage machines downstairs in the community, the latter have a wider audience and consume more frequently.

04 Most sharing businesses are just about cutting leeks

In fact, it is not just shared printers. We have learned about many sharing projects before, such as shared paper towels, shared milk cabinets, shared KTV, shared strollers, etc.

Have you ever wondered why many sharing businesses seem fresh at first but eventually fail?

There are four core reasons:

1. Narrow crowd

They are only aimed at a specific group of people, unlike shared power banks, bicycles, electric vehicles, taxis, etc., which are almost available to all age groups.

2. Low frequency

For people who travel on a daily basis, if they don’t take the bus, they can only choose shared bicycles or taxis, so there are three or four opportunities to do so a week.

3. High cost

Equipment costs are secondary. The core is business costs, which is a resource-intensive business.

In order to place a karaoke bar, sleeping cabin, massage chair, printer, paper towels, etc. in a residential area, shopping mall, office building, scenic spot, or transportation hub, you need to find a property manager, use connections, treat people to meals, install, clean, and maintain them, etc.

But to share power banks, you just need to find the merchant and introduce yourself to the merchant. If the merchant is willing, then they can put it up. If not, then you can come back next time.

Or if they see others setting up their own machines, they will take the initiative to find you. The key is that the merchants themselves are very clear about the pain points of mobile phone charging.

When customers in a restaurant ask several times if they have power banks, the merchant will know to put them up, not to mention that it can make money.

4. Low gross profit

In fact, the gross profit margin of shared paper towels and shared printers is not high at all. The rental is expensive, the frequency is low, and in the end, the payback period is extremely long.

So here I would like to warn all entrepreneurs or friends who want to join a project that when you want to do a project, analyzing based on these four points can help you avoid many pitfalls.

Author: Shili Village, WeChat public account: The village chief lives in Shili Village