Are you assuming that smaller is less costly? Do you understand the different processes and the associated costs? A Gerber Edge costs more than a lot of 48" plus inkjets yet some owners. like me, manage to do very well marketing their output. A 24" Roland P-60 sounded great except the supplies for it ended up making most output overpriced and non-competitive. Thousands have jumped into various wide-format inkjets only to find prices for output being lowballed mercilessly.
It sounds like you are oversimplifying your desire to get into printing without stating what your goals and target market will be. If you jump in before you understand what is involved, then you will likely make costly mistakes. Might be better to first outsource and see what kinds of outputs suits your needs.