Setting up a personalised packaging business

[Mamaree]

I’m a professional but work part-time. I have little job satisfaction nowadays and I’m looking to earn some extra income. I was looking at setting up a business on the side. I have the space and some funds to put in. I have seen a business (not local but does post across UK) whereby they make personalised custom chocolate bar wrappers, goody bags, crisp packets etc. I have so many ideas for different occasions and items I could offer. Now I know I’d need to download some software such as Canva. I’m savvy with software so I could trial and learn how to master this. But I don’t have a clue what else I’d need?? I’ve seen online someone using a small machine that seals the packaging. Then double side thin tape to put together. But I don’t know what I’d need to print on. Chocolate bar wrappers yes straight forward with papers and cardboards etc. I’d also do bottle labels. But where would I source the other material for wrappers/packets and what would this be exactly? It doesn’t seem like a shiny paper, more packet. I have added images below of what I’m referring to. If someone could please point me in the right direction?

Thousands of people do this, you're up against a lot of competition. That aside, one of those images there has trademarked characters on. In your shoes I'd be more concerned about affording to pay for that trademark usage or being able to afford a lawsuit when the owner comes after you for using without permission.

There’s only one that I can see within my area. How do they go about this as they use 40+ trademarks but I can’t imagine it would be cost effective each time a customer makes a personalised request to pay for this. If the images are sourced from Google surely it’s public use?

I suggest you go and learn about trademark law as you are confusing it with copyright, and no, you can't take images from Google and use them, there is a reason they say "image may be subject to copyright" on every single picture.

It isn't about being cost effective, it's about not stealing someone else's property that they have paid to create and protect. It's about not being sued for using that property. Disney in particular do and have many times, gone after small time sellers over unauthorised trademark usage. How deep are your pockets because these companies will take no mercy. You do not have a business if it involves stealing in order to make money.

There is no one locally, but a quick look on Etsy reveals over 8000 listings for a personalised chocolate bar. 4000 on eBay. They will probably do it for a lower price than you as well.

That wasn’t my point. I’m saying surely there must be another way or to trademark can’t be too pricey or time consuming. Surely these small sellers don’t pay a huge amount to do so each time, nor would they go through the process of acquiring the trademark each design. They can get orders in last minute and each order is personalised, more often enough with well known characters and designs. I also don’t feel like they’d risk earning a small fortune for risk of being sued for much more.

I personally would rather use a local company where I could collect avoiding delivery fees, damage in transit and support local. Also whereby I could speak to someone face to face for requests or issues.

I have a cricut machine and follow a few Facebook pages for inspiration and quite a lot of people do make these. I've not looked into it fully myself so won't know the exact materials to advise you of.

You can't sell items with copyright images, so pretty much any character. People do and get away with it but you are also opening yourself up to being sued and it does happen. You can buy images and designs, anything you use that someone else designed is unlikely to be free for you to use.

If you are thinking of selling food based items you will also need to get food hygiene certificates etc to make sure your packaging is safe to use.

They'll be people that know about this stuff in a lot more detail, I just use mine as a hobby and for gifts, I don't sell anything. There is a lot of people doing this sort of thing so you may find it's a struggle.

If you look up companies that sell blanks, eg House of blanks (they have a Facebook page) you can see what people make and what you can buy to create your own items.

Of course they are not obtaining permission to use the images, people are that stupid, you were all for using them without knowing the implications until you posted here. It costs thousands of pounds to licence characters.

So a selling point for you is that people can speak to you face to face if they have any problems. Will they visit you at home? You need to inform your house insurer and mortgage company or landlord if you are running a business from home anyway, but things get complicated when you have customers visiting your home.

I know I'm giving you a hard time, but it is not easy setting up a business. You can fly by the seat of your pants and hope you don't get caught out, or you can do things legitimately. The latter is downright hard work but gives you security for the future.