Printing As Revenue Earner In An I-Café

Computer rental at its current rates of PhP10.00 to PhP15.00 per hour is not enough for an i-café to survive as a business. An i-café owner has to find other sources of revenue and printing service is one of first that should come to his mind. Printing as service in an i-café is logical and feasible because the cost of investment for a good digital printer is not that much and demand for such service come in naturally from his existing customers doing research, encoding and other related activities. Some i-cafés have enough volume of printing jobs such that the revenues from the service account to as much as 20 to 30% of their gross revenues.

The printing service that we are talking here is basically the production of hardcopies of the encoded data and images that i-café customers worked on either in i-cafés or in their homes and offices. This is the black and white printing of documents using inkjet or laser printers on a bond paper which was averaging PhP5.00 per page in the past but is now reported to be costing as low as PhP1.00 per page. Printing color images in ordinary bond paper or some cases using special paper is also common nowadays in some i-cafés. While some i-cafe owners are happy with their added income from their printing services, others are just not so lucky because competition has really pulled down their profit margins in the venture.

The above situation necessitates that an i-café owner who had already invested on a good digital printing equipment find some other services that he can offer and do for his customers. While many of the additional printing jobs require knowledge and skills that may not be readily available in the current manpower of an i-café, there are many applications and templates available on the net to make the job easier for anyone who want to engage in them. And as an advice, be sure to discount the printing charges when the volume of the job warrants so that your customers will keep coming back for more printing jobs.