A sticker business plan is a plan for designs and print runs. A die-cut vinyl sticker costs about 35 cents printed by a sticker printer in a run of a hundred and sells for $4, so the margin is wide; what's hard is that every design is printed before it sells, some designs sell a hundred a month and some sell three, and the design work is unpaid until they do. In the example below, a sticker shop in Iowa sells die-cut stickers, sheets printed in its studio, sticker packs and stickers to shops, online and at markets, and ends its first year about $28,400 ahead on $45,600 of sales, before paying the owner for the designing. Below is a description example, each part of the plan, print runs, the first year month by month, the startup budget, and a free template.
The short version
- Describe the shop in a paragraph: the art, the stickers, where you sell, the goals.
- Cost a sticker from the print run: printing, the backing card or sleeve, the fees.
- Order die-cut stickers in runs from a printer; print sheets in the studio.
- Packs sell five designs at once and leave the most a sale.
- Shops buy ten of a design at about half the retail price.
- TaroStack keeps every design counted, reprints on a reorder list, and shop orders on one list. More below.
Part 1: the business description
Old Capitol Sticker Co., a made-up sticker shop in Iowa City, Iowa, I use in these examples, writes:
Old Capitol Sticker Co. draws illustrated stickers of Midwest towns, food and wildlife, sold as die-cut vinyl stickers, sheets and packs online and at markets, and to bookstores, gift shops and cafés.
Part 2: what each sale costs
| Per unit | Die-cut sticker | Sticker sheet | Pack of five | Sticker to shops |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Printing: a run of 100 from a printer, or paper and laminate in the studio | $0.35 | $0.80 | $1.75 | $0.35 |
| Backing card, sleeve or pack envelope | $0.10 | $0.40 | $0.10 | |
| Printing and cutting in the studio, or packing, at $20 an hour | $1.00 (3 min) | $0.67 (2 min) | ||
| Shipping to the shop, its share | $0.05 | |||
| Selling fees: 6% online and at markets, 3% to shops | $0.24 | $0.36 | $0.90 | $0.06 |
| Variable cost | $0.69 | $2.16 | $3.72 | $0.56 |
The design isn't in the cost; it's the owner's work, drawn once and sold as long as it sells. Sheets are printed and cut in the studio on a desktop printer and a cutting machine, a few minutes each. How each was priced is in how to price handmade items.
Part 3: customers and prices
| Product | Price | Variable cost | Contribution | Margin | A month at full speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Die-cut vinyl sticker, 3 in | $4.00 | $0.69 | $3.31 | 82.8% | 600 |
| Sticker sheet, printed and cut in the studio | $6.00 | $2.16 | $3.84 | 64.0% | 200 |
| Sticker pack of five | $15.00 | $3.72 | $11.28 | 75.2% | 100 |
| Stickers to shops, 10 of a design minimum | $2.00 | $0.56 | $1.44 | 72.0% | 800 |
At full speed the single stickers bring about $1,990 of the month's $5,030 of contribution, the shops about $1,150 from 800 stickers, the packs about $1,130 and the sheets about $770. A shop pays half the retail price, ten of a design at a time, and a sticker on a café counter sells for months without anyone standing beside it. How minimums work is in minimum order quantity, and pricing for shops is in how to price handmade items for wholesale.
Part 4: print runs
Die-cut stickers come from a printer in runs, a hundred of a design here, because the price a sticker falls with the run. Thirty designs at launch is 3,000 stickers and about $1,200 before the first sale, which is in the startup budget. At full speed the shop sells about 1,900 stickers a month across its designs, singles, packs and shop orders, so an average run lasts a couple of months, but the averages hide the truth: the best designs need reprinting every few weeks and some never do. Reprint by what sells; when to reorder is the question in reorder point example.
Part 5: the first year, month by month
Fixed costs are $490 a month: the online shop ($40), ads ($200), market fees ($100), insurance ($25), mailers and shipping supplies ($60), design software ($30), and software and card fees ($35). Sales start at 15% of full speed and reach it in month 11:
| Month | Die-cut stickers | Sheets | Packs | To shops | Sales | Profit | Cash, year to date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 90 | 30 | 15 | 120 | $1,005 | $265 | $265 |
| 2 | 120 | 40 | 20 | 160 | $1,340 | $517 | $782 |
| 3 | 150 | 50 | 25 | 200 | $1,675 | $768 | $1,550 |
| 4 | 180 | 60 | 30 | 240 | $2,010 | $1,020 | $2,571 |
| 5 | 240 | 80 | 40 | 320 | $2,680 | $1,524 | $4,094 |
| 6 | 300 | 100 | 50 | 400 | $3,350 | $2,027 | $6,121 |
| 7 | 360 | 120 | 60 | 480 | $4,020 | $2,530 | $8,652 |
| 8 | 420 | 140 | 70 | 560 | $4,690 | $3,034 | $11,685 |
| 9 | 480 | 160 | 80 | 640 | $5,360 | $3,537 | $15,223 |
| 10 | 540 | 180 | 90 | 720 | $6,030 | $4,041 | $19,263 |
| 11 | 600 | 200 | 100 | 800 | $6,700 | $4,544 | $23,807 |
| 12 | 600 | 200 | 100 | 800 | $6,700 | $4,544 | $28,351 |
The year's sales are $45,560 and the profit $28,351, before paying the owner for the designing. The projection counts each sticker's printing when it sells, while the first runs are paid for up front in the startup budget, so the first year's cash is a little better than the table shows.
Part 6: the startup budget
| Item | Example |
|---|---|
| First print runs, 30 designs of 100 | $1,200 |
| Printer and cutting machine for sheets | $700 |
| Sticker paper and laminate | $150 |
| Display racks for markets and shops | $300 |
| Market tent and table | $300 |
| Website and photos | $300 |
| Working cash | $800 |
| Total to start | $3,750 |
At $28,400 a year, the $2,950 spent before working cash is earned back by month 5. A spinner rack on a shop's counter is worth giving to a shop that orders a few dozen designs; it sells the stickers for you.
Get the template
Download the sticker business plan workbook. Four sheets: your stickers, sheets, packs and shop orders with price, variable cost and a month's volume at full speed; the first year, month by month, with sales, profit and cash; your fixed costs; and your startup budget with working cash. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Sixty designs, each with its own count, reprints of the twenty that sell, packs made from five of them, a dozen shops each ordering ten of a dozen designs, and online orders every day. A notebook can't say which designs are down to their last fifteen, whether a pack run will leave enough of the bison sticker for the shops, or which shop is due a reorder.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps every design counted, reprints on a reorder list, and shop orders on one list.
Every design counted. Each design is an item with its own SKU, counted on a phone or with a scanner, and reprints come up on a reorder list in days of cover, from how fast each design really sells.
Packs as a recipe. A pack is a recipe of five stickers and an envelope, so a run of packs takes the stickers off stock, and the bison stickers left for the shops stay a number you can see.
Shop orders. Each shop's order is a sales order, ten of each design, showing whether there are enough while you're typing it, with one picking list for the day's orders.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Designs down to their last fifteen | Flip through the boxes | Stock by design |
| Which to reprint | Gut feel | Reorder list in days of cover |
| Stickers used by packs | Not written down | Taken off stock by the run |
| A shop's order of 12 designs | Pull by hand | Sales order and picking list |
Counting, recipes, sales orders and reorder lists are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.