What Printed Labels Should You Use When You Are Starting Out In Business?

_{Ian Renton  | 10/08/2016 | Food Labels,Marketing Your Food Products,Product Labels}

Let's say you have your products ready to sell. It might be honey, jam, cosmetics or some other product.

Before I make a recommendation as to the best way to organise printed labels for your product, I want to relay some of my experiences this year. I have taken some time out on the weekend and sometimes on a week day to visit some of the markets in Sydney to see how food and other producers are labelling their products. There are businesses that are hobby businesses, others that have been selling their products as a hobby for a few months or even years and are ready to do their hobby full-time. Then, there are well established businesses that have strong retail presence and use local markets as an additional revenue stream. Apart from some loose fruit and vegetables, most of these products require packaging and printed labels.

This is what I discovered.

1. Some products had no labels.
2. Other products had a piece of string and this was used to tie a piece of paper or thin cardboard to a bottle or other container.
3. Other products had blank computer labels with handwritten product categories and brief information on them.
4. Some products had laser printed labels with low resolution text from a home computer and printer.
5. Other labels were appropriate and very simple but lacked a skilled graphic designer's touch.
6. Some labels were printed and designed professionally with vibrant colours.
7. The very best product labels were professionally printed and designed and vital information concerning ingredients especially in relation to food products were also included on the container or packaging.

How to Get the Best Product Labels and Food Labels For Your Business

As the owner of a professional label printing company, it is not my position to judge small businesses. I think it is wonderful that residents can attend local markets to buy locally produced food and other products. However, it is still my job to help you get the very best labels for your products.

That does not mean getting the most expensive option and spending so much on labels and packaging that there is no profit left for you. When it comes to printed labels, the most important thing is to label your product so your customers know what they are buying, what they need to know about your product and how they can buy more.

In other words, do you have a website or retail outlet or another way for your customers to buy your products again? You must always have a mindset geared towards repeat sales, especially for food, cosmetics and other products than are bought regularly. This means you should in the early life of your business consult a professional label printing company to advise on the best course of action. Improvement in digital label printing technology means that you have many options for printing high quality affordable product labels.

For example, you could print say, 300 labels and print 10 lots of 30 labels at a price that may be within your expectations. Gone are the days when label printing companies ignored you unless you ordered at least 1,000 labels of any type. Remember that your labels represent the product, your business and you as a person so always aim to get the most professionally printed labels you can find.