Mobile Sign Company Anyone?

[VINYLIMAGEZ]

Does anybody here do onsite signs? like a trailer/van/etc. equipped with cutter/printer vinyl, generator etc. etc.

Happy New Years!

 

[Mosh]

There are a couple guys that come to our local fleemarket a couple times a year.
The both have plotters and make 1000's of calvins peeing on anything you want.

 

[OldPaint]

i did for a few years, prior to PRINTERS. was a lot of fun and enjoyable money making work. but then gas was $1-2 a gallon, and having a 13 ft chevy step van V-8 powered and a gas generator was not impossible to feed at maybe 7 -8 MILES PER GALLON!!!! plotter and a good laptop would handle the mobility well. i dont see putting a 60" printer in a truck and sellin your product at $3-4 a sq ft...........a profitable venture.

 

[VINYLIMAGEZ]

There are a couple guys that come to our local fleemarket a couple times a year.
The both have plotters and make 1000's of calvins peeing on anything you want.

I was talking about signs (not small decals), more like targeting trucking companies, crane companies, I live in west texas and there's tons of companies around here, I do a lot stuff for trucking/crane/oilrig's etc around my area.

 

[Gino]

I believe if you're gonna do this, it must generally be the way you are taking your business model, unless you have an employee you're going to outfit this apparatus for and have him go on his merry way. If this was a weekend thing like the others were describing, you could make some easy money at trade shows, races and other functions, but you're talking about being on site for possibly days at a time. If you were 50 miles away from your shop and had two more days of installations going and you suddenly needed to be home to take care of a very important customer..... how can you be both places at once ?? More yet, I think it's very unprofessional to be working somewhere and taking business calls if you have your cell with you. If I was customer 'A' and saw you on the phone every few minutes or pacing around on my parking lot, I'd be ticked if I wasn't seeing you work on my job 100%.

When you're in your shop, it's a different thing, but on what they consider THEIR time.... your theirs completely.

We had a guy in our house a few weeks ago.... doing some repair work, I got there and he was on the cell. I let him finish and then I politely asked him to turn his phone off and concentrate on my job and let the other crap go until he was on his time. Now, you're on my time and I'm not paying you to do anything other than my work. Get done early and have yourself a blast texting and gabbing, but again, not on my time.

I fully understand someone getting a phone call about a problem or some family emergency, but not conducting business.

 

[john1]

Seems like a waste of time and alot of hassle if you ask me. Is the shop in the mall still going well?

 

[TyrantDesigner]

There is a guy who does the mobile thing here in Amarillo ....

If I find him I'm going to put a knife in his tires for every time I have had to remove and replace his crappy foil thin craft chrome (the stuff you apply to books and binders and scrap books) ... Right now he is at 13.

 

[showcase 66]

I have a 12' trailer that I have a 24" cutter in and just have to plug in the laptop and it is ready to go. I used to do a lot out of it originally but got tired of the workers on a job site coming up and want a calvin or favorite sport team decals made. The thing I did the best (money wise) was to set up at a large truck stop. Set up the trailer and charged for DOT #. $30 for a pair white or black or $40 installed. You would not believe how many trucks needed new numbers on them.

 

[VINYLIMAGEZ]

Seems like a waste of time and alot of hassle if you ask me. Is the shop in the mall still going well?

Yes, it's doing very well, last years was a record breaker.

 

[signswi]

A few guys used to do that at the track here but they're all going under lately, not as much bored money around the tracks + more sophisticated graphics being demanded by the market.

 

[TyrantDesigner]

I have a 12' trailer that I have a 24" cutter in and just have to plug in the laptop and it is ready to go. I used to do a lot out of it originally but got tired of the workers on a job site coming up and want a calvin or favorite sport team decals made. The thing I did the best (money wise) was to set up at a large truck stop. Set up the trailer and charged for DOT #. $30 for a pair white or black or $40 installed. You would not believe how many trucks needed new numbers on them.

I would believe it.

 

[VINYLIMAGEZ]

there is this franchise business, its WAY to expensive, a set up like this doing it on your own will be a lot cheaper, http://www.bison.com/onsite_graphics_business_opportunity
sorry if this link breaks any rules, I will remove it if I am breaking rules

 

[TyrantDesigner]

If it's myself ... I would pass. I get the point of doing cut vinyl on demand ... but the cost of gas to go to and from a spot is unrealistic in most cases ... as a backup ... fine ... but you don't need an air conditioning unit on top of your trailer, and you probably need a genny with a battery backup to power your plotter, laptop and lights. yup, pass on that. oh and with the average truck getting about 20 miles to the gallon max with a trailer ... better hope they are close ... or willing to pay for your wear and tear and mileage as well as fuel and time.

 

[westpointsigns]

I do a lot of onsite work on trucks. Most are farmers with 18 wheelers for hauling grain or dump box trucks day cabs and sleepers. However I do all the printing and cutting in the shop.

 

[Locals Find!]

I have a good friend who has been running a mobile shop for a few years. It works great for him doing fleets. He brings the trailer out and sets up for a few days in their yard and applies the graphics he also does a lot of graphics on vehicles that are going to be on large job sites/projects where pulling the vehicles out of service would cost more than the graphics.

He also does shopping centers around here that need graphics put up on the marquees. He tells me its a lot easier to go up measure come down and go back up and apply rather than having to measure go back to the shop make the graphics and come back again to apply.

He usually can pick up a few extra jobs too. I know he prices out higher than many shops in the area but his instant gratification business model seems to be working.

 

[Si Allen]

I ALWAYS charge extra for "on site" work ... plus travel time.

 

[VINYLIMAGEZ]

I bought a 2012 8.5x16 enclosed Trailer last month, but I did not have time to work on it because of the holiday rush in the Mall, here is some work of the process, so far I have done the vinyl tile floor, isolation, and I am working on installing the walls (I went with tileboard for the walls), I received my 6500 watt diesel generator today, its an enclosed silent generator (need to buy a battery for it, SOB didn't came with one :/). I am ordering an RV 15,000bt Air conditioner , got to keep cool in the West Texas Heat.
I will post more pictures of this "Mobile Rig Project" I am Doing, I am not in no hurry to finish, so be patient, LOL!

 

[VINYLIMAGEZ]

Here is what im gonna use for power

 

[OldPaint]

my van was set up like a motor home electric supply. i carried a 100' 12/2 extension cord with me, and a lot of the places i went to i would just plug in, turn on the a/c and cut and apply the vinyl without running the generator.

 

[VINYLIMAGEZ]

my van was set up like a motor home electric supply. i carried a 100' 12/2 extension cord with me, and a lot of the places i went to i would just plug in, turn on the a/c and cut and apply the vinyl without running the generator.

I thought of just carrying a long extension cord like you did, but it will take bout 5 to 15 minutes to mess around finding an outlet, plus the pita to roll it back.
My goal is to have it set up conviniently, call, ride, park, turn the power on and git to work, at least thats the plan (btw, the generator starts wirelessly)