Is a laminator machine a good investment for a new small business?

Answer 1

Whether or not a laminator machine is worth looking into for a small business depends on what kind of business you have. For example, if you are a small business that specializes in making bookmarks or cards, then a laminator machine may be a good investment.

Answer:

When you're thinking about buying any piece of business equipment, the answer is always the same: what is the return on investment (RoI)?

First you need to determine if the machine going to be a profit center (you are selling laminated products or providing lamination as a service), or a cost center (laminating things for your own consumption)?

Either way, you need to figure out if the cost of buying it, maintaining it, and getting supplies is greater or less than the cost of paying a print shop to do the lamination for you. Unless you do A LOT of lamination, it's probably going to be cheaper to outsource it.

Say your local print shop charges $2 to laminate an item. Now say a commercial quality lamination machine costs $1500 plus $1 an item in supplies to do it yourself. You'd need to laminate 1500 items just to break even. Not to mention that the print shop probably has a better machine than you can afford and gets a better deal on supplies.

Even if it's more expensive in the short term to pay someone else to do it, that may still be a good idea because you don't want to have too much of your starting capital tied up in equipment. By outsourcing, you are also letting the print shop assume the risk of the machine breaking down, maintenance costs, etc.