Website for a print shop: publish what you need from the client to get started

Every day, people write to Ramiro with the same thing: “How much for some banners?”

And that’s where it starts. What size? How many? Do you already have the design, or do we make it? What format is it in? Does it need grommets? When do you need it by? That’s six questions spread across two days of messages, and by the time he can finally give a price, the client has already had the banners made somewhere else.

Ramiro runs a small print shop in Tijuana, and he figures he loses half a morning answering things he already knows by heart. A print shop website is the place where you publish, before the client even writes to you, those same six questions you ask them today over WhatsApp.

Here’s what makes this trade different, and it’s why a print shop website doesn’t look like one for a nail salon or a restaurant: almost every business has a page that answers questions. Yours, on top of that, has to ask them. You can’t start working until the client hands you something.

What should a print shop’s website ask?

It should ask upfront for the same information you now pull out drop by drop over WhatsApp: size, quantity, file, and date. If that information is already published, the client shows up with everything before you even have to chase it.

Think of it this way. When someone looks up a restaurant, everything they need to know is on the restaurant’s side: the menu, the hours, the address. The client contributes nothing but their appetite.

At a print shop, half the information sits on the client’s side, and it’s the half you need. A page that only shows photos of nice-looking work leaves that half exactly where it was: in WhatsApp, drop by drop.

If you publish what you’re going to ask for, two things happen. The client who already has everything ready writes to you with complete details from the very first message. And the one who doesn’t have them finds out on their own, without you having to explain it for the tenth time this week.

What information does a print shop need to quote a job?

It needs four, no exceptions: what it is and what size, how many pieces, what format the file comes in, and when it’s needed by. Put them in a visible section, with this name or something like it: “What we need to quote your job.”

What it is and what size. A 2×1 m banner is not a 3×2 m banner. Ask for the size in meters or centimeters, not “big.”
How many pieces. And right there, your minimum order, if you have one.
The file. What format you accept it in — PDF, with text converted to outlines, with bleed — and at what resolution. Here’s the everyday misunderstanding: someone sends you a screenshot of their logo, grabbed off Facebook, and wants a two-meter banner. You already know how that’s going to look printed. They don’t, and they’re going to be upset with you when they see it. Writing it on the page — “a banner doesn’t come out of a screenshot” — saves you that phone call.
When they need it by. A date, not “soon.”

With those four, you can answer right away. Without them you can’t answer anything, and that’s not you being stubborn: the price of a banner depends on three of the four.

If you want, add a fifth line for finishes: laminating, grommets, die-cutting, folding. On many jobs that line is half the cost, and it’s the one nobody mentions until the end.

Is design included in the printing price?

No, and publishing that clearly avoids the awkward moment of telling a client who’s already gotten their hopes up. A lot of people assume design is included, because “well, you’re the ones printing it” — it’s the most expensive misunderstanding in this trade.

It’s fixed with two published lines:

You bring your file ready to go: we print it.
You don’t have one: we design it, starting at $X, with two rounds of revisions.

Publishing “two rounds of revisions” spares you the client who asks for a ninth version. It’s not rude, it’s clarity: anyone who’s ever commissioned something understands that endless revisions cost money.

Should a print shop publish a minimum order?

Yes, and publishing it saves time instead of scaring clients off. Some shops avoid it for fear of losing small jobs, but in practice the opposite happens: the person who wanted 5 t-shirts was going to steal twenty minutes of your time and leave anyway, and the one bringing 200 isn’t scared off by a minimum of 50.

Write it simply: “T-shirts: minimum 20 pieces. Cards: starting at 250.” And if you make exceptions, say so too — “fewer than 20 is possible, with a setup surcharge” — because that turns a “no” into an option.

How long does a print order take?

It depends on when the clock starts, and that’s the most common timing mistake in this trade: it’s not that you’re slow, it’s that you’re counting from the wrong moment. You can’t start when the client writes to you. You start when they approve the proof.

Publish it exactly like that: “3 business days from when you approve the proof.” That way, when someone takes two days to reply to the email with the proof, the delay lands where it actually happened, not in your shop.

And if you have jobs that really do go out the same day — copies, binding, short-run cards — put them in their own list. That’s what people in a hurry are looking for.

How do you build a website for a print shop?

You don’t need to hire anyone or learn to code: you describe your business in words like these, and the site comes out, published, with its own link.

“I want a website for Impresos Ramiro, in Tijuana, Colonia Libertad, Calle Segunda 118. We make banners, t-shirts, business cards, binding, and vinyl lettering. Prices starting at: printed banner $180 per m², screen-printed t-shirt from $95, a thousand cards $650. Minimums: 20 t-shirts, 250 cards. We accept files in PDF with text converted to outlines and a 3 mm bleed; if they don’t bring a file, design starts at $450 with two rounds of revisions. Turnaround: 3 business days after approving the proof; copies and binding go out the same day. Hours Monday to Friday 9 to 7, Saturday 9 to 2. I want a section that says what information I need to quote a job — size, quantity, file, and date — and a WhatsApp button that opens a message with those four questions already written in.”

That last detail is worth more than the rest of the page: having the WhatsApp button open not an empty chat, but a message with the four questions already written. The client just fills in the blanks.

What’s not worth publishing

A catalog of everything. A print shop can print almost anything, and the temptation is to list all hundred of them. Nobody reads a hundred. List the six or eight jobs that actually pay your bills, and close with “anything else? just ask.”

Timelines that don’t depend on you. “Same-day delivery” sounds great until the client sends the file at 6 p.m. in the wrong format. Promise what you control.

Prices for jobs that need a quote. Publishing “banner starting at $180 per m²” is useful information. Publishing a fixed price for a truck lettering job you haven’t seen is how you end up charging less than it cost.

Start with your last ten jobs

Don’t build the page by imagining the whole business at once. Open your WhatsApp, look at your last ten real orders, and jot down three things about each one: what it was, what you charged, and what you had to ask the client before you could quote it.

That third column is literally the content of your page. You’ve already written it — it’s just scattered across conversations.

Once you have it, describe it to Proyecta and publish it. If something’s off, just say so in your own words and it gets fixed — you don’t have to redo anything yourself.