Some advice for people looking to get into Sublimation:)

[technick]

Hello everyone,

I have now been trading just shy of two weeks. I'd like to share my own personal thoughts and experiences with others who are new to the sublimation game, or might even be in the game for a while but are struggling to get their feet off the ground (don't take my advice for gospel, everyone has their own opinion and all that jazz)

I'm brand new to it all myself but i've been following this forum for around 6 months now and have learned a lot. Without the help of the members on here i probably wouldn't have made it this far! FYI; am only working with mugs at the moment but have plans to start coasters, magnets etc soon.

I have two online stores (my own linked to social media) and Etsy. Lots of people are talking, however few are buying. It's all happening on the retail side for me right now.

1) Buy a box of the cheapest mugs around (Signzworld) and test test test your print margins and colour quality. It will also help you get you into the routine. I have wasted a box of BMS Europeans on duds!

2) If you are using Sublijet R ink and Ricoh, i have found that the best settings are: SRGB / POWERDRIVER / SATURATED PRINTER SETTINGS AND ABSOLUTE COLOMETRIC - everyone has different designs and colours, i find these to be the most like for like against a typical monitor screen. DO NOT USE THE USA POWERDRIVER. Mags and Paul have been a great help over the last few months, for some reason throughout i knew something wasn't right and was being told that i was out of gamut and settings were wrong. I don't work with colours out of gamut, so if you experience this issue then go back to the very start and load your settings again from scratch into Illustrator. If you are using a WINDOWS 10 laptop with an Intel chip then expect it to be a heap of sh*te when it comes to screen calibration! You'll need to turn down your Gamma in your settings. Compare your laptop screen to your mobile screenshot or a tv monitor if you are way off. For me, getting the Illustrator / Printer settings right has been the most timely and costly process of the whole experience so far.

3) Use pre-cut paper to save time. I am having issues with BMS paper quality at the moment (i really hope this gets fixed) but there are others out there.

4) Medium pressure in a mug press means just enough pressure to securely hold the mug (you shouldn't be able to move the mug by holding the handle) - i have managed to break one of my machines due to too much pressure - this proves how strong the BMS European mugs actually are! (Scotty BMS has sorted me out with a replacement part free of charge, cheers mate!)

5) Do not spend your days and nights online networking with other people who are selling online. Thes people are great for advice and help, but it's not productive - they are never going to get you sales. You need to be out and about knocking on doors and targeting customers.

6) If you start off with a facebook page / Shopify store / Etsy page from fresh, you are NOT going to get 10 sales a day (i first thought this was going to happen) . Same applies to Ebay and Amazon (although if you have a good product you are more than likely to sell more through these two platforms to start, however you may need to lower your prices to compete)

7) Contacting local businesses, wedding suppliers, attend craft fairs (my first is this weekend) offering your services. Business cards!

8) Put a flyer in every single box you post saying thanks you, offering a discount, asking to leave a review on FB etc.

9) Run a weekly competition if you use social media and share the life out of it into groups.

10) Facebook ads currently are a waste of time, unless you are planning in in spending a considerable amount per day i would say it is not worth it. (There may be others who disagree, it works for some better than others). If you have a facebook page with over 2500 likes and make a post, you'll be lucky if 100 people see the post without an ad. For everyone to see the post from your page expect to pay around £40-50 to boost your post. The most effective way to boost your posts on Facebook by paying is to promote "Call to Action" which in my case is "Shop Now". You'll need to manually select your target audience. Females 25-34 are a good target market for me.

11) Personalized is the way to go if you are not selling specialized upmarket mugs (ie fine bone china with patterns etc). Get into your local gift shops, let them have the facility to have their customers make custom orders. Post the mugs directly to the store, customer picks up the cost (£2.60 RM OBA) or drop them off.

12) Do not undersell yourself to retail shops. If you have a good quality product and service, then the retailer will need to pay enough for you to make a profit. If you are going to drop your rates for a larger shop, make them buy in bulk at a time (36 mugs minimum is a good number i think)

13) Retail shops pick up delivery costs, not you (unless its a big order where you can afford to take the hit) Myhermes over 2KG seem to be the cheapest out there.

14) https://invoicehome.com/invoices for quick, free invoices. works great for me.

15) Get a Royal Mail OBA account - launch the mugs in sack in once a day, no queuing. Send Recorded Delivery off the account apparently is cheaper as you avoid paying VAT (need to check this)

16) Throw all your mud at the wall - some ideas will stick, others will slip. Review what's working and what's not after the first 4 weeks. Get rid of the bad apples quickly.

17) Believe in yourself that you can do it - every single client you approach, every customer you talk to - take a deep breath with the belief that you are going to win business from them.

[MrMuggins]

When you say "dont use the US version" which one did you use?
The "Winprofile (only outside the Americas)?

[technick]

That's a good question - I will try and find it now. You could probably get away with the US version but i find the colours work better with the non US powerdriver. The win profile is not the powerdriver, that's a custom ICC when printing direct (useless to me)

[MrMuggins]

I only have those 2 option and when installed it showed up as the US powerdriver

[technick]

Me too at the moment, i will try and get hold of it for you now

[technick]

http://www.techsupport.sawgrasseurope.c ... c-profiles

Select your Ink / Printer then WinProfile outside Americas (not powerdriver), from here click Powerdriver then it should be the top (V4)