Should I keep printing and fulfilling my own orders to maintain better profit margins?

While you might make a few extra dollars per print by doing it yourself—especially if it’s already a skill set you have—you’re not going all in on your superpower. The time spent ordering paper and ink, maintaining printers, doing prints, driving to pick up orders, arranging shipping, and handling damage issues is time you could spend creating more art and marketing your business. You’re sacrificing short-term revenue for much greater long-term revenue potential. If you had that time back to focus on creating and marketing, you would likely make significantly more money overall. The key is whether you’re generating the kind of leverage that outsourcing could provide.

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Asked by an artist who prints and ships their own work · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2023-09-29