Desktop
Publishing as a Viable Home Business
Desktop
publishing is a business that is offers real opportunities - and can
easily be set-up in a home office. Learn the rudiments of starting this
home business - it just might be your ticket to success.
According to recent estimates by business consulting
firms this market has grown, and there is no end in sight. One of the
real opportunities and challenges of this business is the fact that
there are still millions of clients out there that as yet do not even
know that they need the services of a desktop publishing service.
Desktop publishing is a term used to connote a new way of publishing
documents, using desktop computers as against the traditional method of
mechanical, real metal type, and scissors and glue. The personal
computer has revolutionized the entire publishing industry, creating a
tremendous opportunity for profit.
Virtually any business use desktop publishing for some purpose. Desktop
publishers prepare graphic materials such as: brochures, flyers,
full-page advertisements, business forms, Web pages, logos, CDs and
cassette covers, catalogs, newsletters, books, proposals, and much more.
Some desktop publishers also perform word processing services for their
clients. While some desktop publishers prepare almost any kind of
graphic material, many specializing in one or more, such as newsletters.
While prior computer knowledge is a plus, anyone who has a desire to
learn the operation of a computer can acquire the ability to become a
desktop publisher.
Identifying Your Market Niche
The key to a starting a successful small-scale and home-based operation
is to find a niche where you can excel. Your niche can be a specific
service offered (e.g. web design) or a business quality (e.g. fast
service). Your choice will depend on the existing desktop publishing
marketplace including kinds of services and prices offered and prices in
your locality and by your competition.
Floyd Fontz in his best selling book outlined some possible niches for a
desktop publishing business:
* Graphic design. If you have design skills and are
knowledgeable in using desktop publishing software, you can focus on the
profitable and successful market niche of graphic design. Your task will
be to communicate effectively your client's message in the design of
logos, graphics, brochures, newsletters, posters, signs, and any other
type of visual communication.
* Typography and layout. One good area to
focus is the more specialized field of typography, which is the design
and use of typefaces from calligraphy to the ever-developing use of
digital type. You may create letterforms or select typefaces and arrange
them on a page layout. This is a niche for those with a great eye for
overall page layout as well as skills in proofreading and editing. You
can work based on this specialization, and you can also secure
subcontract work from other desktop publishers needing this kind of
expertise.
* Fast service. Another strategy for breaking into the
crowded desktop publishing market is to focus on providing speedy
turnaround time. Many clients need to have their materials (brochures,
newsletters, etc.) as quickly as possible. You can market your business
as the service that delivers high quality work in the shortest possible
time.
* Low rates. You can enter the market by offering a lower
rate (e.g.. "Introductory pricing") relative to your competitors. In a
tight market with many competitors, you may be able to attract attention
by offering lower prices.
* Large project specialist. Big corporate accounts provide
large and complex projects that can provide you with significant work
for a lengthy period of time.
* Small business specialist. There are opportunities in
specializing in "Main Street" retailers or the small businesses in your
area. While they may have relatively smaller budgets, you have a large
number of potential clients. Some of the smaller-scale projects that you
will be focusing for this market will be business forms and invoices,
stationery and business cards, brochures and sales flyers.
* Internet-related business. The Web has grown tremendously in the last
few years, opening vast opportunities and creating new markets for
desktop publishers. You can design web sites, create graphics for the
Web, and prepare Web-ready multimedia presentations.
This business lends itself well to be operated from your
home. Since you will be receiving clients it is important that your
home-office be presentable and well kept. As you business grows you can
move to larger quarters in an office.
Your initial expenses in addition to the equipment
itself will pertain to basic office supplies, the preparation and
reproduction of your sales material, advertising, postage and
miscellaneous expenses. If at all possible get a second telephone line
just for your office so you can insure it will always be answered
professionally. An answering machine or telephone answering service will
communicate with your clients in your absence.
While some sources might have you believe that all it
takes to start a desktop publishing business is to have some software, a
color printer, and some fancy paper, the truth is that a desktop
publishing or graphic design business requires the same attention to
detail of any small business venture. You can start small and build up
but the basics are the same.
Since you are selling a service most of your revenue
will go to the bottom-line and will become profit to you. Operating
expenses will be relatively small for general office supplies, paper,
laser printer toner, etc. Of course, you may have to finance the
purchase of your equipment over a period of time.
If your credit is good, financing will be relatively
easy to obtain through most computer stores. Since new computer
equipment is becoming outdated at an ever-increasing speed it is best to
buy equipment on the lower end of the price range even if your budget
can stand the higher outlay of capital.
This new "desktop publishing," or DTP, phenomena meant a
lot of time, money and productivity saved. It allowed people to do at
their desktop computer the same thing it had taken several businesses
and employees to accomplish. It also allowed home users to create
professional-looking documents in their home.
Remember, your future is up to
you, 
