Chapter 6: Software Options

As a new business, choosing the right management software for your print shop can help in more ways than one. You can always start simple and skip this step for now, and choose to revisit when business is doing numbers.

Or - you could put the right frameworks in before you scale.

Initially, you donʼt really need a shop management software, but having one will save you a lot of time and help you accelerate the growth of your print shop.

Inexpensive software options like YoPrint, can offer the right value for your print shopʼs needs.

Managing Your Print Shop with YoPrint

As your shop gets busy, orders will start falling through the cracks if you are not on top of it. We built YoPrint as an all-in-one shop management software for the decorated apparel industry so fledgeling businesses can thrive without breaking bank. While we may be a little biased, many of our customers reported success including increase in sales and growth, improvement in customer satisfaction and overall operational excellence. You can read more about their success stories here.

At $69 a month, YoPrint comes with all the Basics you need to grow your new venture.

Getting Quotes Out Fast

YoPrint integrates with leading vendors including SanMar, Alphabroder, and S&S Activewear, allowing you to access their entire catalog including pricing, all within YoPrint. Instead of spending upwards of an hour putting together a Quote, you can send one out in minutes with YoPrint. Remember, the more responsive you are getting back to prospects, the more likely you can secure their business!

Personalised Customer Portal

Once the Quote is prepared, you can email it to your customer from YoPrint. The prospects will be taken to their very own customer portal, with your branding of course, where they can view all of their orders in one place. They can find out the status of each order, approve artworks, make secure payments online and even view live package tracking information, all from the comfort of their home and without needing to call you. From our experience, a professional looking customer portal instantly elevates your business and builds credibility.

Taking Payment Online

Talking about taking payments online, YoPrint integrates with Stripe, Square, PayPal and Authorize.net

All you need to do is pick which suits your business needs the best, go to their website, sign up for an account with zero cost to you, and you are good to go. Taking payments online is made easy and secure. You only pay the credit card processing fee per transaction and there is no monthly commitments.

PRO TIP: Feeling unsure? Weʼd recommend you to go with Square as both online and offline payment processing are available and would be more convenient to a start up venture.

Production Management

As a new business, building reputation and trust in the earlier days of your print shop is really important. The best way to do it is to always deliver on your promises without delay and early if possible. YoPrint has a production calendar for all your jobs which allows you to track tasks by status and mark them completed as you go.

This way, you will never miss a job, or overstep a deadline and your customers will know that your print shop is reliable. Itʼs just like a to-do list, but better.

Integrated Shipping

When using YoPrint, you get to ship with Shippo at an incredible discount of 85% with USPS and 65% with UPS. Best part is that itʼs totally free to sign up and there are no monthly fees. You will only pay for what you ship. Print the label directly from our YoPrint app, stick it on the box and schedule a pick up or just drop it off at your nearest location.

NOTE: Shippo supports various carriers, and are also available for Canadian postal providers. Check here for more information.

Other Vital Tools for Your Print Shop

Any print shop will need design softwares to create artwork for customers or even modify their provided artwork for printing. Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are the most popular design suites that offer many powerful tools for creating and editing artwork. It would cost you approximately $60 per month to use Adobe apps.

Competitive free alternatives also exist in the form of GIMP and Inkscape, both of which are open source.

AI tools are also widely available for you to use to your advantage. An outstanding print shop will adhere to technological advancements and adapt to consumersʼ demands.

There are many other AI tools with many other different features on the internet that could be used for you to take full advantage on to your print shopʼs specific needs. Read and learn more about this here.

So there you go, youʼre one step closer to starting up your print business. We hope weʼve provided the fundamental necessities to turn on the lights in your print shop, all the best!