Hello all,
For the past 2 days, I have been lurking on the site, viewing everything that I can in an effort to get some more insight into what i may not know. I apologize now for what will be a very long post.
:Oops:
First a bit of a background on me:
I am 21 years old and have been in printing and signs since I was 17. I started out in commercial printing as an assistant and worked up into the pre-press department while I attended an art college.
After my stint there, I went to work for a sign company that did nothing but produce real estate signs in very large quantities. Had the chance to work in every aspect of the company from customer service to production.
Then went back to the print field working for the largest printing franchise in the US as a regional franchise representative. Pretty big words for someone that went to all the stores in my area and helped them be profitable. I actually had to do a lot of work teaching some stores how to make signs, since they were starting to get into that as well.
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So as you can see I have been around the game for a bit now and would like to open up my own sign shop for my own reasons.
With all of that said, I am looking to buy a 24" Graphtec [FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1]CE5000-60, and work from that for the time being until I can afford to start doing digital prints as well. Total cost for everything that I can think of up till this point has been around $4500. I am getting a package that includes LXI, and Estimate with the plotter.
My area is a pretty rural one sandwiched between 2 larger towns with sign shops, but none within about 15 miles of my shop. There are a lot of car dealerships in the area along with a lot of builders and contractors. I plan on sharing a space with my father's business until money allows for my own spot. It has a nice garage bay that I can use to keep out of the weather on any vehicle lettering job.
I figure that most of my business will start out as coro yard signs and vehicle lettering/graphics until the word of mouth starts up and I can start fully selling (and out sourcing) digital work, and POS signs.
Now with all of that being said (a mouthful too) what am I missing or delusional about before I put myself out on the chopping block?
PS: I am also thinking about getting a heat press and doing shirts as well to help compliment the business, but know nothing about how to do it or what I need.
[/SIZE][/FONT]
For the past 2 days, I have been lurking on the site, viewing everything that I can in an effort to get some more insight into what i may not know. I apologize now for what will be a very long post.
:Oops:
First a bit of a background on me:
I am 21 years old and have been in printing and signs since I was 17. I started out in commercial printing as an assistant and worked up into the pre-press department while I attended an art college.
After my stint there, I went to work for a sign company that did nothing but produce real estate signs in very large quantities. Had the chance to work in every aspect of the company from customer service to production.
Then went back to the print field working for the largest printing franchise in the US as a regional franchise representative. Pretty big words for someone that went to all the stores in my area and helped them be profitable. I actually had to do a lot of work teaching some stores how to make signs, since they were starting to get into that as well.
---------------------
So as you can see I have been around the game for a bit now and would like to open up my own sign shop for my own reasons.
With all of that said, I am looking to buy a 24" Graphtec [FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1]CE5000-60, and work from that for the time being until I can afford to start doing digital prints as well. Total cost for everything that I can think of up till this point has been around $4500. I am getting a package that includes LXI, and Estimate with the plotter.
My area is a pretty rural one sandwiched between 2 larger towns with sign shops, but none within about 15 miles of my shop. There are a lot of car dealerships in the area along with a lot of builders and contractors. I plan on sharing a space with my father's business until money allows for my own spot. It has a nice garage bay that I can use to keep out of the weather on any vehicle lettering job.
I figure that most of my business will start out as coro yard signs and vehicle lettering/graphics until the word of mouth starts up and I can start fully selling (and out sourcing) digital work, and POS signs.
Now with all of that being said (a mouthful too) what am I missing or delusional about before I put myself out on the chopping block?
PS: I am also thinking about getting a heat press and doing shirts as well to help compliment the business, but know nothing about how to do it or what I need.
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