Central Florida, small business.

[SimpleZach]

Good evening everybody, thank you all for having me. I’m a serial entrepreneur who currently owns an HVAC company, invested in a salvage yard, and now newly into trying to grow my wife’s sign business.

Where I’m at in the graphics business:

I’m great with sales. Last year we sold and primarily outsourced low 6 figures worth of shirts, decals, yard signs, menus and other misc small stuff. We’re on par to do closer to mid six figures this year. Very little equipment is owned. We have a small hobby grade vinyl cutting machine that was used before we began growing (perhaps too quickly)

Where I am looking to get this year:

I’d like to buy a plotter and some other equipment. We have our eyes on a Roland GR-640 plotter, we would like to find a nice DTF printer but we haven’t done much research. It seems that continuing outsourcing these is the best move for us due to labor needs. Additionally we would like to learn more about store front sign installation and service/repairs. We Have lots of opportunity to do storefronts for my HVAC customers and would like to explore that opportunity.

Where I need help:

I need suggestions for brands/models of equipment for a plotter and dtf printer. I need any insight on where to look/learn about storefront signs. We have the electrical portion covered, it is the cosmetic repairs that we are struggling with. We have a company that will make new signs for us (open to this discussion with others as well) but we would like to do restoration/repair in house.

What I can contribute:

I am a marketing guru (self proclaimed) I do exceedingly well selling in person, running facebook ads and google ads. I have vast electrical knowledge. Parallel to this space, I can help you with your bucket trucks. I have bought and sold several and understand them relatively well. Lastly, unrelated, I am great with HVAC. Any questions that you have, I would be happy to give any information in regards to these things, just send me a message.

 

[TopFliteGraphics]

Sounds like your wife's business is doing pretty well. Mid 6 figures with virtually no equipment is pretty darn good - providing she is marking things up enough.

As far as plotters go, I personally have only owned one Roland and that was ages ago - 24 to be exact. When I upgraded to a larger Graphtec I could not have been happier. When I got back into the business in 2011, the first thing I purchased was a 42" Graphtec. I had that machine for close to 10 years before I jumped into in house printing with a HP315 Latex and 54" Graphtec plotter. That was the best thing I ever did. The HP has been virtually bullet proof and I have never had a single issue with the Graphtec. That said, any particular reason you are looking at a 64" plotter? Without the 64" printer to match, it seems like over kill. Most cut vinyls only come in 48" rolls. Also, most print suppliers will contour cut what ever you order from them so unless you also buy a 64" printer to go with the plotter, you will most likely be paying for capacity you will never really use. Even then, 64" printed vinyl is mostly used for wraps.

To your electrical sign questions, in Florida to even touch an electrical sign you need an electrical sign contractors license. Given you HVAC background, that should not be hard for you to do as you said you have the electrical portion covered. And, since you already have a bucket truck, study up and get the license. Most of your repairs will probably end up being converting fluorescent tubes to LED. New sign faces are easy. I personally have never dipped my toes into the electrical sign pond but am really starting to consider it after over 20 years in the sign business.

FWIW, your wife is to be commended for hitting mid 6 figures in sales with just a hobby grade vinyl plotter. I have had my company for 14 years now and I just went over half a million in sales last year, $650K to be exact. This year I hope to beat that by $200K or more, which I am on track for already.

 

[Stacey K]

I'm usually the positive person on here but...something is missing. There's no way she is making that kind of money doing those kinds of small orders. I'm one person and started with a plotter. I subbed all my prints out for a couple years then got a printer. I'm busy and doing very well. I stopped doing the small stuff because it's too consuming and my time is better spent doing larger orders where the money is. There's only so many hours in the week and I can only place so many orders with vendors, do so much artwork, answer so many emails, etc. I am very organized and very efficient.

Does she have multiple websites, TikTok Store, Amazon and those orders are going through something like Printful? I'm very confused.

Back to your question. I have a package from Grimco, HP 315 with the Summa cutter. I have a cheap cold laminator. If you ware going to start installing vinyl it's best to have a printer in-house.

If she's making that kind of money - don't change a thing with the small stuff. Keep subbing it out. Just get a printer/cutter/laminator to get moving on the larger stuff. Just remember, there's a learning curve and labor involved. She's not going to make 500k putting vinyl on windows. There aren't enough hours in the day.

 

[SimpleZach]

Nothing missing. I have several franchised restaurant chains that I service HVAC and kitchen equipment for. Ditto local restaurants, storage facilities, and other miscellaneous businesses. We have gotten into majority of them for promo flyers, menus, uniforms, window clings, etc. If we expanded on the labour portion I feel like the sky is the limit, as are the headaches. The projected ~400k is gross. We have roughly 90k worth of store front signs pending right now, which is what brought me here. These are all from one franchise and I would happily send pictures/details to anybody experienced enough to lead in the right direction.

 

[Stacey K]

Nothing missing. I have several franchised restaurant chains that I service HVAC and kitchen equipment for. Ditto local restaurants, storage facilities, and other miscellaneous businesses. We have gotten into majority of them for promo flyers, menus, uniforms, window clings, etc. If we expanded on the labour portion I feel like the sky is the limit, as are the headaches. The projected ~400k is gross. We have roughly 90k worth of store front signs pending right now, which is what brought me here. These are all from one franchise and I would happily send pictures/details to anybody experienced enough to lead in the right direction.

You need to be specific about what kind of signs you're making. We don't need pictures. If you are looking to buy a printer and you have the electric taken care of then you are or can hire a licensed electrician, which as you know is mandatory for any lighted sign. I assume you are making some kind of backlit sign. You can either buy a printer and print your own graphics or when you order the molded sign have them put the graphics on. You can sub the installs out or do them yourself. I assume with a franchise that each building is required to have the same type of signage. What is all included...window perf? Cut vinyl hours on the door? Backlit signs? It's just as easy to sub a thing like window perf out to Signs365 who blind ships all over. Lots of us do that on here. We need to know specifically what kind of signs you are looking to make.