There are shops earning over a million dollars a year in both urban and rural areas. Your income potential is primarily dependent on the services sold, the strategy in place and the pricing tactics used. New owners often take no pay out of the business for the first several years. And a large number of shops don't provide medical or health benefits. Most business leads still come from word of mouth referrals, with personal networking growing in popularity.
Door hangers are again the least successful method of business prospecting.
We are finding most desktop service providers opening Web sites to promote and sell their services. We noted a slight shrinking of the price range for desktop publishing services as this industry segment matures, while wide gaps were found between the low and high prices for Web services. Overall, prices for graphic design and desktop publishing are up since our last survey. California rates are lower than those in other areas. Low-end shops focus on attracting new business.