Printing Profits On-Demand with Victor Pena

All you need to do is create some messaging that connects and you can turn that into a merch line that actually people pay premium to wear. But they're out there wearing your message because they believe in it and they will market for you and pay.

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Hey, everybody, this is Roland Frazier. I want to welcome you to another episode of Business Lunch, and I am excited today to share some time with Victor Pena from Omniprint International. Victor, welcome to the show.

Hey, Roland, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.

We got a chance to hang out in our epic board talking about deals and stuff not long ago. You've got so many cool things going on. It was so fun listening to you kind of tell everybody what you're into. Would you share with our audience kind of what you do and all the cool things that you're into right now?

Yeah, definitely. So my, my main business right now is Omniprint International. And what we do here is we empower business owners globally to thrive with print on demand. Everything with you know, printing T shirts. So most of our customers are, you know, have Etsy or Shopify stores and they print their own merch at home or they'll, they have bigger shops. So they have actual storefronts or warehouse shops where they print their, their apparel there. And some other big brands like Victoria's Secret and some others that are going into print on demand, we'll have our machines and that's what's used in the industry right now. So. So been doing that for about 17 years. And, you know, aside from that, like working with you to learn the acquisition game. And that's been a passion since I learned about it. And lastly, I'm a big real estate guy, so pretty much I save every penny and I turn it into apartment buildings and that's what I do.

I love it.

And you're very resourceful because you make these print on demand machines.

But then you were like, you know.

What, we need to make our own ink too, right?

Yeah, exactly. So we formulate here in Irvine and we manufacture in Irvine. All of our inks, everything that runs through the printer, we make here.

So let's talk about kind of the three things that you're doing and dive into that.

So tell me about this world of.

People because you were talking about that there are influencers that you work with that basically are making 20, 30, $40,000 a month printing and selling merch to their fans, I think, basically.

Is that correct? Yeah. So it's definitely turned. For influencers or companies, the idea is sell first all your products are virtual and then you print and ship. Versus back in the day you had to do like old school methods like screen printing and you have to print thousands of pieces at a time to make it worthwhile, to make it cost effective. And to do one is just impossible in the old methods. Right. So now with digital, you pull up your image and you print right on the T shirt or hoodie or whatever you're putting peril is. And you know, you could do one, ten, fifty, a thousand. Machine doesn't care. So that's kind of the main claim to fame for the on demand experience. And a lot of people are just, you know, they're super creative. They have Etsy stores or designs and they'll put them up. And the cool thing is some stuff you don't know that will sell. All you got to do is put it up on your store and see if somebody will buy it.

So for somebody that's listening or watching, that's thinking about, you know, I wonder if this is something that would work for me because I know we talked about, we have a company called Digital Marketer and Digital Marketer has a lot of fans and we've done shirts and stuff before to give away. But the concept that you've got is basically that this is a whole profit center that a lot of companies might be missing out on because the people that are their customers, that love them actually would pay money to be able to wear the brand and kind of associate with it. If it's a, a quality thing and if there's some kind of interesting messages. Would you, like, who. Who would this be right for? And like, is it something that somebody that's just got a small business and a few hundred customers would be good for? Do you have to have millions of people? How does that work?

Yeah, that's a great question, Roland. So, you know, I've been at this, you know, 16, 17 years and I've seen this transform. Right. So in events, it's. It's common to, to like shoot shirts out of a cannon and the quality is kind of nasty and you're just doing it to kind of have something. Right. But what I've seen is that if you really want to connect with your audience and it doesn't really matter the audience size, right. All you need to do is create some messaging that connects and you can turn that into a merch line that actually people pay premium to wear, but they're out there wearing your message because they believe in it and they will market for you and pay. The only difference though is the stuff's gotta be nice. You know, something that people want to wear and they'll wear, they'll wear your logo and they'll, they'll wear your message and they'll pay premium for it.

And there's. Is there basically no cost to do it because it's print on demand.

Yeah. So essentially you're going to spend some time making some designs and putting them up on the, on a platform. But other than that, there's no real, like, hey, you have to do minimum of this and minimum of that. You know, as long as you can create a message that connects and have the right colorways that look nice, people.

Will buy it and do your. Does your team help people with that or is that something you would hire a designer for?

You could do both. We've done some stuff for some, like, key clients. You know, I shared with you, we're working with FUBU and Damon and they want to do some stuff now that the supply chain is. Is nuts. They want to do more sayings and bring the FUBU brand, you know, kind of towards the future. Right. You know, you've seen Grant Cardone stuff. Cash flow is king. You've seen, you know, billionaire in the. Yeah, yep. Billionaire in the making. That kind of stuff. This is, this is connecting people to that message. That is that. And it's through merch. People are buying and it is a profit center instead of a cost center, which I know you love to come up with these kind of strategies.

Okay, so now I think it's pretty clear that Anybody that's got a company that's got, say, 5,000 or 10,000 potential customers or people on their list or whatever, this could be something worth doing. If you've got, whether it's a trucking company or a restaurant or a digital marketing agency or any of those kinds of things, if you've got a good number of clients or people that you interact with, this could be good. What about some of these people that you were telling me about that are kind of at home and they're doing this and it's a 10, 20, $30,000 a month thing. What are they doing and how does that work exactly?

Yeah. So during COVID you know, I did the first online bootcamp and I did a poll, and over 50% of our audience didn't have a digital presence and they were going to get closed down. Our machines are not that big, and we saw a huge part of our customers that were told not to go to their shops. They brought it home. So we already had a, like a strong customer base of people printing from home. But what they're doing is they're, you know, putting up a store. They'll either be on Etsy or their own shopify, depending on, you know, which platform they like.

Okay.

And, you know, you have, you have the equipment in your garage or another bedroom, and they're literally just printing away and, you know, making 25. You know the one I'm talking about? Exactly. In San Diego, printing off of etsy, making over 40 grand a month.

Okay. And now so is just. So we get kind of drilled down to the right level for everybody here. So I'm interested in doing this. I decide I'm going to invest in one of these machines and which you guys make, and then I've got to sell them. Is it I just open a store on Etsy and I instantly make 40 grand a month?

No, you know, you gotta have a keen eye. There are some cool courses. We actually had somebody on our, on our Creators Live that does courses for Etsy.

Okay.

But you know, Etsy is. There's a lot of eyeballs on there, right? So you have to, you have to create. You have to create a design that people want to buy. With Etsy, you follow the trends, right? You know, people are out there training how. How do you identify a design that's trending and then you'll make a similar version so that your store can start trending. Right. Obviously you don't want to copy stuff because you get, you get in trouble for copying other people's designs. As you know. But yeah, that's how they do it.

Okay. And so it's not like they're not building marketing funnels and websites and then buying traffic on Facebook and Google and things like that. They're just basically putting something up and catching the eye of people on a platform like an Etsy. Is that correct?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So that, that's one line of customers. Other customers actually are designers, and they have like a line that they've created, and a lot of the marketing's done on Instagram, on social. So a lot of our customers that do well with their own clothing lines, they have a lot of verticals that they, that they have, and they are successful doing that.

And they've already got followings, right?

Yeah.

And is there a number of people. Like, that's kind of ideal if you're a social person and you're trying to do something like this.

So if somebody calls us, the number one thing is I want you to have either a path to orders or already some orders. Right. So what that is is like five orders a day through, you know, your platforms, Instagram, website, however. Right. Otherwise, if you don't have orders yet and you get the equipment, it's just that much more stress.

Okay. Have you found that, that, like, to get five orders a day, is there a correlation to kind of like how many people you need to be engaging on one of those platforms, those social platforms?

No, I, I haven't seen that. Just because when it comes to merch, like, especially if you have a, you know, a good amount of designs, you know, people order multiple quantities, and you have a mix of like, sweatshirts, T shirts, that kind of stuff. So it ends up being like, I want you to make at least a thousand bucks a month, which is super easy to do.

Okay.

So that your machine payments, which are normally 4 to 500amonth, are covered. You have space to grow. That's on the low side. Right.

Okay.

So that's, that's the main story behind it. Just because when we started we would sell machines, and after some years we realized the more experience you have selling something, the better customer you are, the happier you are. So, you know, you want to optimize who, who your customers are.

Okay. And then with respect to. So let's, let's look at a company like ours, the digital marketer, or scalable, or Epic. Epic. Or one of those. This means that we're going to buy a machine and put it in our place. When is it better to do that and have to have somebody that's going to run it and service it and all that, as opposed to going to a printer and having them run off.

Yeah, exactly. So what I would recommend at the beginning, you want to stay to your core competencies because you will. It's a lower cost per print when you run it, but it only makes sense if you're going to have a, like a dedicated person, a shop you're going to run, maybe all other types of prints. You're thinking of scaling it out. Otherwise it's easier to outsource it to somebody that does print on demand. Right.

Okay. And what's the cost? Like if I was outsourcing versus making it myself, it obviously I'm losing their profit margin. What is that?

Yeah, exactly. So I'll give you an example. We have a good size fulfillment center here and it's designed to help our customers when they have big orders and maybe they don't have enough machines to do it. We charge six bucks a print, including the shirt cost. No. Plus, plus a shortcut cost. Right now they're 250 to five bucks depending on the quality of blank that, that you're sourcing.

So call it 8 to 11 bucks, depending on quality.

Yep.

Okay.

And user price that's out there right now. 34 MSRP for a T shirt, maybe 29, 99 is the sale prices, especially for people that have, you know, more of a tribe that's connecting. Price is not that big of a, of a thing.

Okay, okay. What volume would you say it makes sense to be doing it yourself?

Yeah. So number one, if, if you're committed to doing it. Right?

Yeah.

And number two, if you're doing like 500 prints a month, it's good to do it yourself because you can pay staff, you can scale it, your cost goes down to about three bucks per print. Okay, so. So you do save on your margin.

Including having your staff and everything.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yep.

Okay. Okay, great.

Ryan here. And look, if you're an entrepreneur, you're busy, right? Whether it's replying to emails or scheduling meetings, whatever, there is a lot of work and a lot of hats that we need to wear as entrepreneurs. And that's why as entrepreneurs, especially if you're a visionary founder, you need help, Right. And I don't know about you, but at one point for me, I was getting so overwhelmed with all the little day to day tasks that, let's face it, they got to get done, but they don't necessarily need to get done by you. And so when I came to this realization, I said I got to get help. I need to get a virtual assistant. I got to get a social media manager. And that's when I called my friends at Belay Solutions. Belay Solutions are an incredible, incredible organization. Now, look, I don't know about you, but I tried to work with VAs in the past. It was always a disaster. And so I was really, really suspicious of being able to make it work. But their process was fantastic. They found out the type of work that I need done, the type of people I like to work with, and they really did match me with a perfect virtual executive assistant. And this person's been with me now for three years and counting. So obviously it worked for me, and I think it's going to work for you. So here's what you need to do. All right? The good folks at Belay, they're actually giving listeners to this podcast $300 off the startup cost for their virtual assistants. You'll pay less than I did. Here's what you need to do. Text lunch. All right? Text lunch. L U n c h to 55123. Again, that's text LUNCH to 55123 to talk to Belay about getting a virtual assistant of your own.

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You know you do, and they can make it happen.

So now I'm going to switch gears. So you said there were three things. The first was the business that you've got with Omniprint. The second is the one with real estate. Is that real estate? You said multifamily, so you're buying multifamily units. Is that any particular kind of strategy that you want to share with people that you're doing there?

Oh, yeah, definitely. So I've been buying apartments since 2015. All my apartments are in Vegas. I'm pretty much open to, like, landlord friendly. California is difficult. In California, I do have commercial and some single family residents, but all my multifamily is in Vegas.

Okay.

So what I do is, you know, it's. It's an investment that stands the test of time. So, number one, if you could get into it, it's the best thing that you could do. It's super reliable. You have your cash flow and how you run appreciates. And then better yet, every single year, you have, let's say, depreciation from the buildings that offset any income that you're making from your primary business. So, okay, and what, what are you.

Looking for in terms of investing in that? Does it take a whole bunch of money to do?

It does. Typically it's 30% down on any deal.

Okay. And are you doing that for money that you save from your other businesses?

Yeah, pretty much. I, I save my money, and I. I'm just saving the next down payment all the time. That's how I'm doing. And then. So I don't spend anything. I only spend rents that come in from the apartments.

Okay, okay. And then is there any. What. What are you typically expecting as a return on that? Taking out the tax benefit?

Yeah. So I'll give you some examples. Right. I have a 24 unit building. I bought it for 1.6 million. It's worth about 3.7 right now. So it's been making about 400 grand per year in cash flow, and I'm about to refinance it and get 1.5 back. So it becomes a more of like an infinite return because my original money's out of there. It was 470 as a down payment, and I got 700 grand of depreciation on that one the first year.

And how are you finding the properties?

So I have a team in Vegas that helps, you know, reputation, and real estate is number one because everybody does free work until you close something. Right. So they want to make sure that they're awarding deals to that you're going to close. So, you know, my management companies there, and then we have some people on staff that run. Run the properties.

Great. That's really cool. Okay, now, number three, acquisitions. Tell me about what's going on with that.

Well, so acquisitions is. It was a. Is a newer thing for me, so I've been learning that through Epic, your stuff. And, you know, what I'm doing is the strategy is, what can I find a company? Because honestly, it's way easier to purchase a company that has customers instead of building it from scratch. I built this one from scratch. Is brutal. And so. So that's the reality. But what I'm looking for is what are my customers buying before they buy my machine, after they buy my machine, maybe instead of alongside. So those are the kind of companies that I'm looking at and I'm working on, you know, that kind of stuff. Or even like a. A clothing brand, which I, I just acquired Green Goat Golf, which I got, you know, 33% equity of. And it's along the lines of what we're doing here. Right. So right now I have an embroidery manufacturer that we're looking at. They do the knitting, you know, when you have the hats and you embroider versus print.

Yeah.

So we're looking into that because a lot of Our customers, as soon as they. They're successful with our equipment, they buy embroidery.

That makes sense.

So.

So tell me about the. You said you got, I think, 30 or 33% in the company?

33.

Okay. How did. How did that happen? Did you invest a whole bunch of money to do that?

So I did a equity in exchange for consulting.

Nice. And mentors, we call that.

Right.

Consulting for equity. Okay.

Yep, yep. So. And my main target is, you know, helping them grow and scale and then position it properly for a good exit.

Right. Awesome.

I love it.

So now you have a YouTube channel, I think, right?

Yes, yes, I do.

Can you share that with us for anybody that might want to kind of check that out?

Yeah. So it's OMNIPrint International on YouTube, and we do a lot of content on print on demand. There's a lot of mindset stuff, too. A lot of marketing, selling. Because one thing's buying equipment. Right. But the other thing is being able to sell and scale.

I love it. Any other resources that you think would be helpful to anybody that was interested in any of the stuff we talked about today?

Yeah, so there is. If you go to the Omniprint Online.com, there is some free guides there that could help you get started. So that'll be a great resource. Also, my Instagram, it's Victor Underscore H. Pena. And I'm always posting on these pillars of these things that I'm doing. And I'm never posting stuff about what I haven't done or no theories are there. Just pretty much what I've learned through my experience and then what I can share and also many print international and Instagram.

Awesome. Well, thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time to be here today and sharing. I love the three pillars. I think that's super, super cool. And I'm excited to see what you're able to do as we move forward in the acquisition space, too.

Awesome. I love it, too. Thank you so much for all your help on that, Roland. I think it's super underrated what you're doing, so I'm really grateful to be part of it.

Awesome. I appreciate that. Thank you.

You've been listening to Business Lunch with Roland Frazier. If you're enjoying the show, let us know by subscribing and leaving a review. And for more information, go to businesslunchpodcast.com thank you for listening.

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