Still Going Strong: Lucrative Printing Business Ideas for 2023

The digital age has undoubtedly disrupted many traditional industries. Yet despite ebooks and paperless workflows challenging print media, numerous applications still provide strong business potential in 2023.

In fact, the global printing industry was valued at over $815 billion in 2021. One report by Smithers projects the market rising to $982 billion by 2026, a CAGR of 3.8%. So for aspiring entrepreneurs or existing printers, plenty of opportunities remain.

This guide covers today‘s most promising printing business areas, latest technologies, and critical operational tips for success. Read on for what‘s driving print‘s sustained versatile demand and how modern print-preneurs can capitalize.

Quantifying Print‘s Sustained Market Value

Across consumer preferences, demographics, and global regions, positive indicators demonstrate print’s ongoing lucrative role:

Global Printing Industry Market Size

Data Source: Smithers, The Future of Print Markets to 2026

Printing Applications Breakout

Data Source: Smithers, The Future of the Printing Industry 2016

Geographic Demand Split

Data Source: Statista, Printing Industry Distribution Worldwide 2021

These data snapshots quantify substantial ongoing business through myriad printing applications globally.

And diving deeper dispels notions of print as fading or niche. Packaging constitutes over a third of printing revenues with commercial printing at a similar share. Printed books and publications also retain solid positions despite digital migration in these categories.

So rather than write off print wholesale, a more nuanced perspective shows enduring versatility.

Key Advantages Sustaining Print Appeal

Print retains unique sensory, customization, and messaging strengths digital formats still struggle to match:

Tangibility – Humans are tactile creatures who still appreciate a product’s look, feel, and permanence. This sustains print demand for artistic works, collectibles, legal documents, archival materials and more.

Customization – Print enables personalization not cost-effectively achievable digitally. This drives ongoing need for tailored marketing materials, product packaging, soft signage, decor items, fashion apparel, and more.

Standout – Printed materials better grab attention amidst digital noise. This sustains business spend on brochures, dimensional direct mail, events signage, promotional goods for marketing impact.

Of course, digital displaces print for some everyday applications like internal office memos or temporary signage. But for numerous commercial and personal uses, print provides unique practicality and marketing value.

This sustains substantial industry revenues across diverse printing services, goods, and technologies.

Promising Modern Printing Business Ideas

Sustained print demand crosses many environments. Creative entrepreneurs have tailored printing businesses to align with the most lucrative segments:

Industry Verticals

Markets

Packaging

Food & Beverage
Health & Beauty
Consumer Products
Pharma & Nutraceuticals

Events & Venues

Trade Shows
Conferences
Sporting Events
Concerts & Festivals

Commercial

Office Printing
Regional Printers
Franchise Printers
Inplant Printers

Advertising

Agencies
Out-of-home Media
Point-of-sale Displays
Commercial Services

Architectural Perspectives
Technical Documents
Litigation Support Services
Educational Publishing

Business Models

Commercial Printers
Trade Printers
Specialty Printers
Hybrid Digital Printers
Print Brokers
Marketing Service Providers
Industrial Printers
3D Printers
Print-on-demand Publishers

Production Processes

Offset Printing
Digital Printing
Wide-Format Printing
Industrial Printing
3D Printing
Hybrid Printing

Product Applications

Books, Manuals & Publications
Catalogs & Magazines
Packaging Printing
Textile & Apparel Printing
Dimensional Printing
Outdoor Displays & Signage
Promotional Printing

This frame outlines only a subset of today‘s printing niches. It demonstrates the diversity of potential specialty applications. Rather than taking a vague generalist approach, identifying specific underserved markets and tailoring accordingly drives success.

Specialized applications like food or pharmaceutical packaging, custom fabrics, special venue displays, industrial components, and more all need tailored printing technology, materials, workflows and consultative services.

Critical Operational Benchmarks

While identifying the "right" idea gets a venture started, proper execution sustains it. From speaking with today’s most successful print entrepreneurs and industry analysts, several operational benchmarks separate market leaders:

• On-time order completion – Industry leaders maintain 95%+ on-time delivery to prevent lost sales. This requires production planning/management automation and quality assurance processes.

• Premium customer ratings – Top printers achieve high customer satisfaction scores (95%+) through quality, service and relationship building

• Employee turnover – Keeping turnover under 10% via skills development, culture and incentives retains operational experience.

• Gross margin ROI – With printing equipment representing major investments, leaders maximize return averaging 35-55% gross margins depending on services mix.

• Capacity utilization – Track sales as percentage of total capacity to right-size growth balancing new capital costs. Industry leaders operate at 60-75% capacity.

• Days sales outstanding – Managing accounts receivable is vital for cash flow, with top performers averaging days sales outstanding below 30 days via disciplined processes.

Tracking metrics like these indicates how efficiently and profitably printers run daily production, order fulfillment and account management. Rather than vague notions of success, numbers reflect operational execution.

Latest Market-Transforming Printing Technologies

Modern printing entrepreneurs also integrate innovations expanding capabilities beyond traditional perceptions:

Digital Printing enables short-run color work with quick changeovers ideal for customized orders. Toner and inkjet technologies now match offset printing quality at lower volumes while adding variability. This drives applications like versioned catalogs, personalized direct mail, custom apparel, and more.

Wide-format Printing, through latex and UV-curable inks, empowers super-sized banners with enhanced weather/temperature durability. This unlocks exterior signage, retail displays, vehicle wraps and events graphics as emerging high visual-impact applications.

Direct-to-shape Printing leverages robotic arms to apply images directly onto curved objects like bottles, cans and containers. This expands printable products from flat sheets to three-dimensional packaging.

3D Printing takes digital files to construct physical objects from plastics, resins and metal alloys. While initially used for rapid prototyping, it now enables short-run manufacturing of specialized components or creative goods.

These exemplify how printing technology itself continues advancing – not just sustaining but actively transforming previous conventions of output size, substrates, and production scale.

This expands the realm of printable goods while allowing digital integration for data-driven personalization. Print creation and order management workflows now flexibly marry both analog and digital capabilities.

Characteristics of Successful Modern Printers

Integrating technology for changing needs is one hallmark of profitable operations. But discussions with today‘s most successful print entrepreneurs reveal additional shared traits:

Specialization expertise – Rather than general commercial printing, profitable printers master specific applications like packaging, textiles, industrial graphics, etc. This focuses investment and builds niche authority.

Consultative services – With software enabling mainstream design access, printers evolve advisory roles guiding product engineering, branding, materials, finishes and quality assurance.

Multi-process orchestration – Job workflow automation combines virtual and physical techniques including pre-press data processing, various print modalities, post-print finishing and fulfillment. This smooths end-to-end production.

Customer partnership – Forward-thinking printers collaborate early in product creation before designs finalize. This melds technical consultancy with customer goals amid shifting expectations.

Sustainability commitment – Consumers and companies increasingly demand ethical, eco-conscious practices. Printers pursuing certifications, renewable materials and output reduction reap goodwill.

Mere order takingdistances modern printers from digital newcomers. These traits demonstrate higher-value production and advisory acumen that foster stickier customer relationships beyond commodity print procedures.

Additional Promising Printing Niches

Previously we overviewed major printing categories still seeing growth. Additionally, niche sub-segments also hold strong potential worth highlighting:

Premium Packaging – Personal care, gourmet foods, electronics and luxury items invest heavily in appearance, tactility and shelf appeal. This specialty packaging printing will grow around 7% annually through 2027 per InfoTrends.

Dimensional Printing – Objects incorporating height, textures and moving parts grab attention while supporting user interfaces. Dimensional print applications will rise over 6% yearly through 2027 projects Smithers.

Textile Printing – Direct-to-garment, dye-sublimation and digital textile workflows enable custom apparel, soft signage, decor items and more. Fashion personalization powers over 8% annual textile printing growth says InfoTrends.

Industrial Printing – From electronics to automotive to aerospace, product manufacturers adopt durable, high-precision 3D printing for short-run fabrication where mold tooling doesn‘t justify scalable production. MarketsandMarkets puts industrial printing‘s growth at over 15% annually through 2026.

These sub-segments exemplify tangibility, personalization and communication specialties print retains despite digital permeation elsewhere. Specializing accordingly sustains substantial markets.

Digital Printing vs. Offset Printing

Digital printing garners lots of attention recently for its growth and flexibility. But conventional offset printing retains strengths in higher volume jobs. Comparing use cases helps position business capabilities for each:

For major print campaigns like packaging revisions or bestselling catalogs, offset printing leverages economies of scale and remains unmatched on per unit costs.

But digital printing’s flexibility now rivals offset quality for moderate runs while enabling mass customization. Advances in toner and inkjet technologies continue to expand digital capabilities and use cases.

This overview informs equipment investment and business positioning for changing market expectations across run lengths.

Wrapping Up – The Outlook Remains Promising

Despite digital’s ubiquity, various indicators show lucrative print activity retention and niches:

• Global print revenues still measured in the hundreds of billions annually and slowly rising through 2026

• Packaging, commercial and publishing segments each still drive billions yearly

• Developing markets throughout Asia Pacific and Latin America represent additional growth frontiers

• Recent rebound from 2020 declines across signage, marketing collateral, direct mail and promotional products hints at print’s sustained unique communicative abilities

• Niche sub-verticals around premium packaging, industrial additive manufacturing, dimensional prints and custom textiles/apparel each see strong growth in the high single to low double digit range yearly.

Print may never fully replicate ubiquity reached during its peak in the 1990s. However, the right business positioning aligned with lasting market demand still provides seven and eight figure opportunities.

Rather than relegating print businesses as fading commodity vendors, integrating the consultative competencies and technology adoption practices outlined here allows modern printers to drive value and differentiation amid ongoing lucrative print demand.