How to Start a Mug Printing Business

There is hardly anyone who doesn’t prefer drinking a beverage at least once a day. And what if you get to see a beautiful quote, an image, or your old photo on your mug every morning you pick it up? That would make your day and refresh you for the entire day ahead. If you are also looking to open an online business to unleash your creativity, the mug printing business can be the best idea for you.

Now the question is – How to start a mug printing business?

Well, you can start your own mug printing business easily by following a series of steps that we are going to discuss ahead.

But before you understand a step-by-step guide on starting a mug printing business; you should know how a mug printing business can be beneficial for you.

• Opportunities in Mug Printing Business
• Mug Printing Business Operations
• Market Your Business
• Ready to Print and Sell Custom Print Mugs?

Opportunities in Mug Printing Business

The personalized gift industry is evolving every day owing to the ever-advancing digital technology.

Selling custom printed mugs can be a great idea as custom printed mugs can be used as:

• Corporate gifts for employees and vendors
• Birthday gifts for friends and family members
• Wedding gifts; etc.

Further, these mugs can also be used for branding and promotion.

For instance, a company can promote its brand by gifting custom mugs with their logos and taglines to their permanent customers. This won’t only keep your customers engaged but also contribute to increasing your brand awareness.

This implies that the mug printing can open up a lot of business opportunities for you.

So, let’s start how you can launch your mug printing business successfully.

1. Business Plan

No matter what business you start, proper planning is the first and foremost requirement. You must understand and define your goals clearly and also consider your spending limits. Properly defined goals and a clear budget estimate are the two cornerstones of a well-thought plan.

2. Choose the Right Type of Mug

There are a number of varieties available in the market you can choose from.

• Coffee Mug – In the entire mug printing industry, a coffee mug is the most prominent and demanded one. You can always sell custom printed coffee mugs without a second thought.
• Ceramic Mug – A ceramic mug is resistant to high temperatures and easy-to-clean. As it retains heat better, it is very suitable for hot beverages like coffee, tea, or even hot chocolate, etc.
• Transparent Mug – Generally made of glass, a transparent mug is highly innovative and very suitable for cold beverages like juice, soft drinks, cold coffee, etc. and people love putting designs on the transparent surfaces.
• Pottery Mug – People who love handmade items often prefer pottery or earthen mugs. They not only look beautiful but also environment-friendly due to being easily decomposable.
• Sport Mug – A sport-themed mug is a great choice for people who love sports.
• Travel Mug – A travel mug is suitable for long-distance travelers like bikers who prefer carrying hot or cold beverages along.
• Stainless Steel Mug – A stainless steel mug, as the name suggests, is resistant to corrosion and rusting and ideal for carrying beverages in humid climates.

You can pick one, two, more variants as per your target customers and budget estimation.

Our team can provide you detailed information about the type of products, and how you can set you store apart from your competitors.

3. Choose the Right Printing Method

There are a number of printing methods you can choose from.

Direct Screen Coffee Mug Printing

In this method, the ink passes through a screen or a mesh. The printer applies a stencil to the stretched mesh. The little holes present in the stencil shape the final image on the mug.

If you are thinking of creating simple designs on earthenware or bone china mugs, direct screen printing can be a suitable option. It is also suitable for smaller designs and those who don’t want too many overlapping colors or an extensive image.

With simplistic designs it helps create, it can be a great option for a low-budget business.

Transfer or Litho Printing Custom Mug Printing

Transfer printing, also referred to as litho printing, is an age-old printing method. It is mainly useful for putting a print on ceramic or bone china mugs. Basically, a printer paints an image or design on a special paper and cover-coats it on the mug. Post coating, the print is transferred into a water slide transfer. The printer applies it manually on the drinkware. Though slower and more labor-intensive than direct screen printing, it supports a wide range of colors. It is suitable for promotional mugs with average to large surface areas to print on.

Digital Photo Mug Printing

Digital printing is a process where a printer prints an image or design directly on a specially coated paper. It also uses a waterslide transfer to apply the image to the substrate. It helps create the full-colour and permanent look and it is this feature that makes it an excellent method for high-quality texts or images.

This technique is generally ideal for printing a photo or cartoon image on earthenware, pottery, or bone china mugs.

Dye Sublimation Printing

Dye Sublimation Printing is one of the best methods that offers crystal-clear images with vibrant colors. The reason behind it is that it uses organic color dyes and uses heat transfer to ink the desired artwork on the mug. This makes the design look brand new for prolonged periods.

More suitable for promotional mugs that need accurate color photographic reproduction, it also results in shiny output and is environment-friendly as it doesn’t require harmful substances like Cadmium or Lead.

4. Registration and Licenses

Whatever your business be – big or small; getting your business registered is legally mandatory. Furthermore, as per the type of your business, you must also get all licenses and permits required for the same to ensure that you don’t face any legal problems in the future.

To check all the licenses and permits you need, you can visit the clerk’s office of your county and get the knowledge of the procedure to acquire licenses and permits.

Note: In general, if you are looking to open an online store, the number of licenses and permits you need can be fewer as compared to those required for an offline business.

Though both offline and online businesses have their own advantages, an online business today is more relevant and recommendable as it gives remote access to your products and facilitates shopping without paying any physical visit. Moreover, in the prevailing times of Corona, people often prefer ordering products online than going physically to a store and buying something.

5. Mug Printing Equipment

Though the equipment you need to print on mugs depends on the printing method you pick, a few common equipment that you will need in almost all types of mug printing business are given below.

• A computer (PC or Mac)
• Design Program
• Heat Press
• Readymade/Handmade Mugs
• Heat transfer paper

Mug Printing Business Operations

Business operations can depend on whether your business is offline or online. Setting up the business model is essential.

Though you can open a brick-and-mortar store for selling custom printed mugs, it can be costly and require more manpower to handle operations. However, if you have a tight budget and want to start your mug printing business with minimum investment in a shorter time; an online print store would be a more suitable option.

If you have a huge capital reserve, you can carry out all your operations – right from procuring raw materials, manufacturing, packaging, and dispatching products. However, if you don’t have a huge capital reserve, you can arrange for alternative cost-effective methods.

For instance; if you start an online print shop and don’t have a large budget, you can tie-up with a dropshipping solution. This will help you save expenses in deliveries and handle all order return or replacement requests. There is an additional advantage you can get while selling custom mugs online. That advantage is – offering customers the freedom to create designs of their own choice through an online product design software solution that you can integrate into your store.

Out of a number of online product design software tools available in the market, our Brush Your Ideas Product Design Software can be an ideal option for you as it has:

• Text features including Custom Font Manager, Quotes, Customizable Text, and Messages, etc.
• Image features including Image Edit Effects, Personal Image Upload, Image Resolution Warnings, etc.
• Clipart Manager including Free Clipart Library, Smart Search, SVG Support, etc.
• Object Handling including Object Handlers, Object Grouping, and Positioning, etc.

and more cutting-edge features like these that make it a highly valuable online design tool.

Market Your Business

Whether it is an online or offline business; promoting it is a must.

If you have an offline store, you can use a combination of online and offline marketing strategies to broaden your outreach. For instance, you can get promotion pamphlets or newspaper ads published.

While an offline store can also be a business option, the ever-growing digital technology and preference for online shopping, an online site for your business can always be a better option. To reach out to more customers from far-away locations, your site can act as the first interface between you and customers. You can also promote your discounts and offers on your site and showcase your products through a beautiful gallery. Also, you can include a map to your offline store to engage the audience better and help them visit their store in case they are interested in your products and offerings.

If you have an online mug printing business, you can use digital marketing strategies like:

Social Media Marketing – Promoting your business on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. through your official pages.

Pro Tip – If you are not sure which social media platform(s) to start with, you can always research more about your business type and which social media platform(s) would suit it.

For example, your mug printing business is a business that can attract individual customers looking for artistic mugs or companies looking for corporate custom mugs for gifts to their clients or employees. This makes this business suitable for platforms that have both types of audience – formal and casual.

In case of your mug printing business, Instagram and Facebook can work as they have more both – formal and informal audience unlike LinkedIn that is more suitable for only formal audiences.

Search Engine Optimization

Your website is like your ‘customer representative’. Without ensuring that your business shows up in search results, you can’t think of gaining much from your website/store. To show your online presence to a wider range of audience, you must focus on SEO techniques to rank your site high.

You can try out a combination of SEO techniques and find out which ones work best for you.

A few general SEO strategies include –

• Optimizing your site content with proper keywords,
• Ensuring your website loading speed is optimum,
• Ensuring your website is fully responsive across all devices and screen sizes, etc.

Paid Marketing

Search engine marketing is always a go-to option for better results in longer durations. If you think you can afford to invest in paid ads, you can go for it and increase awareness about your brand faster and more easily.

Email Marketing

Though conventional, email marketing is always a great option to connect with individual customers on a personal level and customize your products as per their preferences and needs.

Surveys like a post-purchase survey, satisfaction survey, or post-complaint resolution survey in emails don’t only help engage your customers but also know what they think. Accordingly, you can re-strategize your business plans or products or strengthen your revenue generation strategies.

Ready to Print and Sell Custom Print Mugs?

If you have that flair for creativity and want to strike gold with a business, a mug printing business can be a good idea. With a few well-thought steps, you can easily launch your mug printing business and start making profits speedily.

Looking for an online web-to-print storefront solution with an online product designer software product for your online mug printing business? Get in touch and our team will be in touch with you.

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