Ever wondered how you can get on the bandwagon and start your
own inkjet refilling business? Many people have but when it comes
right down to it they don't know where to start. I have been asked this
question so many times that my response is memorized. But I'm not
going to give you my typical response here, I'll go one step better.
I'm going to explain how to do it in a nutshell and send you in the
right direction to get you started.
You can start doing this part time and if you want you can expand it into
a full time business. My main remanufactured vendor started about
3 years ago refilling inkjet cartridges on their kitchen table. Today
they are one of the largest remanufactured inkjet cartridge vendors
in the US. Now that's growth! The popularity of remanufactured
inkjets is increasing due to the stubborn cartridge manufacturers
who refuse to drop their prices. It's expected to grow by exponential
rates in the years to follow.
I can go on and on about the potential of this business but there are some great books and courses available that I will tell you about later. I'll
let them explain the details. You'll have to invest in at least one or
more of them if you want to be successful. Don't worry, they are
not expensive and I have bought every one of them.
You wont need any special equipment at first beyond what you may
already have. You will need some packaging material such as
small boxes and print head sealing tape.
The first thing you will need is the empty cartridges. There are a number
of ways to get them. If you have a web site you can advertise
there that you purchase empty inkjet cartridges. Offer a buck or
two for each and pay for the shipping. Before long you will have
more cartridges than you know what to do with. Believe me, I know
because I did just that and I had to stop because they were coming
in too fast. I couldn't get anything else done. Heck, you can easily
become a cartridge broker. Some refillers are paying up to $6.00
each for certain empties.
You can also start a cartridge drive at your local school. They are
always looking for some way to make money for their clubs, sports,
and organizations.
Another good place on the net to find empties is empties.com.
http://www.empties.comThis is an empty cartridge auction site and anyone can bid.
Use your imagination. Large corporations are always recycling
and they love to help out with environmental concerns. Locate
one in your area and you could probably get tons of them for free.
Once you have a good supply of cartridges start refilling some
different types to get up to speed. You can test them in your
friends printers; you probably know many people with different
printers. If you're serious you can buy test printers very cheaply
on eBay or other online auctions. Know anybody that works at
Staples, Office Max, Best Buy? They have all the new printers
on display.
You shouldn't need to test every one you refill. But you will need
to test your refilling procedures to make sure you are doing it right.
When you are convinced they are refilled properly then you don't
have to test every one of them. Now if you want the best refilled
cartridges you will want to eventually get a test printer for each
type of cartridge that you refill.
Here is a tip. If you refill the cartridges that are in the most demand
you will be so busy you won't have time to sleep. Most of those will
be Lexmark cartridges. Why? Because Lexmark is buying back
their cartridges and there aren't many floating around for the refillers
to refill. Cartridges like 12A1970, 10N0016, 10N0026, 15G0055,
15G0065, 17G0050, 17G0060, 18L0032 and 18L0042. HPC6578,
C6656, C6657, C6658, C8727 and C8728. You'll want to concentrate
on cartridges that have built in print heads because the other "tank"
types are sold so inexpensively that you wont make a profit by
selling them.
Make sure you code your cartridges some how. You are probably
going to get some duds back and you'll want to be able to identify
them as yours. People will sometimes send us back cartridges that
we didn't sell them. We know because they are coded. Don't let
this happen to you.
This article is getting longer than I wanted so if you have read this far you
are probably itching to get started. You'll need some education first.
The BEST source is Matt Eve's guide "Inkjet Cartridge Refilling". I
have a link to his site from my web site at
http://atlascopy.com .
Look in the left column under Inkjet Refill Business.
There are two other guides that I can recommend, distributed by
Asay Publishing. "Inkjet Guide for Entrepreneurs" and "Inkjet
Cartridge Book". You can find them here:
http://www.asaypub.com/bookstore/author.cfm?authorid=7
