Does anybody run their sign shop without a printer?

[bigben]

I've been looking for quite some time now to sub out all my printing. My printer will need to be replaced soon, so I'm balancing between buying a new printer or sub everything. I did not found any business in my province (quebec, canada) that will give me a good enough ratio of price, quality and production time. Most shop here will only give like a 20% off retail price or something close to that. With my suppliers for ''small printing'' (business card, flyers, etc.), I can double the amount I pay and even more on everything.

 

[Gino]

We used to be a Merchant Member here and also supply local sign shops with all kindsa stuff. Still do the latter. One of the things we did/do was to have people buy the substrates at their cost, have it delivered to our place and then we'd run their job on their materials, be it flatbed or roll printers.... or just plain die cut. If they used our distributors, there were no delivery charges and just one crating and shipping outta our place, unless they were local and then they'd just stop by and pick it up. We even keep the left-overs here, with the tag on it, for future jobs.

 

[FireSprint.com]

Many of our best customers (All our customers are resellers) run some of their own equipment in house. You'll sell more when you can show a customer that you run some equipment. It also let's you play with that small custom job from time to time. We do the work our resellers can't do or get bored doing. This way, everyone does what they are best at.

 

[Bobby H]

Doing business without a printer? Our company is going in the opposite direction. We retired our old Roland VersaCAMM. We bought one large HP Latex 360 printer and soon acquired a second one. Our guys nicknamed the two HP printers "Cheech" and "Chong." We also added another Graphtec plotter (a bigger one) to handle die-cut print/cut work from Cheech & Chong. Now we're looking at adding a flatbed printer.

We do job-out a good amount of print work. Some of it is for back-lit flex face signs (those need to be double-side printed or double-layer printed). The sub-out work is grand format billboard face printing. Billboard printers are huge and really expensive.

 

[appropriate1]

40 years in business. Just me for 20 years hand painting and evolved into me and one full time helper doing vinyl. I do not own a printer and don't want one. I buy wholesale online and from two, higher priced, local sources. I am not a one day shop. I get local prints in one day and internet orders in two days for cheap shipping. I double the price of everything I buy wholesale and am making money without complaints about any prices. I don't have the time to learn to run and maintain a printer. I design and cut some and my helper cuts more than I do, We have two plotters...one 24 and one 48. I also job out bucket truck work and my payroll services, so I can just work on signs … on the ground. If I bought anything, it would be a CNC router to supplement sandblasting, which I do for other shops that are printing my vinyl. I know guys with designers and salespeople and several printers and they have sales double mine in dollars, but make less money at the end of the year for themselves. It's not what you make, it's what you keep.

 

[bmt Promotions]

You'll really have to sit down and figure out what it would cost for you to run a printer VS outsourcing.

 

[visual800]

Aint got one dont want one. Dont do Quicky Signs whoever it is will wait or go somewhere else. I honestly cant justify owning a printer at the prices I can pay wholesale. i got a plotter and design programs thats all i need

 

[jman]

Friend does installs but strictly uses 365 for vinyl and sign panels. Makes over $100k a year being a broker. Oh and this is only part time lol Lucky

 

[kcollinsdesign]

Shop "A" has a digital printer, vinyl cutter, and laminator. He has a 3000 sq. ft. shop and several production employees. The owner must keep the machines and production workers busy in order to pay the bills. The designer is overhead, so the owner must limit the amount of time the designer spends with each project in order to move production along.

Shop "B" has no printing equipment, and runs out of a small office or home. Everything is out-sourced, and there is little overhead. The only expense is design, and the shop owner can leverage those design skills to attract clients while still offering products at competitive prices (in most cases lower than his competition).

So you must ask yourself, are you selling plastic, metal and ink, or are you selling marketing solutions? Either way is fine. Is your goal to operate a production facility or a design service? In this modern economy with out-sourcing and drop-shipping opportunities everywhere, it is increasingly difficult to do both and remain competitive.

 

[decalman]

I don't print, and I don't want to.
I don't have the space, and I'm nearing retirement. I don't even make signs much anymore .
I eek out a living doing vehicle graphics.
I live in RV country, so I do the dreadful removal replacement on RVs.
All I use is a 30 in. Summa d75 and a back-up Roland 24 ....Corel x5 & , I buy 24 inch 97% of the time.

Looking forward to a meager ss check, and then I hope to hold the fort till the rapture.

 

[Pat Whatley]

Yes.

 

[Tattoosleeve]

I live in RV country, so I do the dreadful removal replacement on RVs.

I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

 

[Lizzie Newton]

We have a great installer and designer on our team but I've struggled to find a good person to run production.

I'm considering allocating the money we spend on our production salary to instead using outsourced printers instead.


The biggest risk I see is it means we won't be able to do jobs on a short turnound and for vehicle wraps, if we mess up a piece it could cause an issue with the install.


Has anybody home this route and been successful with it?

I pretty much agree with some comments that have already appeared on here. It depends on how much of your business involves print work. These days, EVERYONE loves so print work on whatever they are sign writing. We try to make something a little different to the ordinary, so we never produce without a print of some sort to give it a certain "pop". Outsourcing can be good if you have other work that you could be doing in that time, and if it makes the money then it makes sense to have your production running full on without the interruption of getting a printer involved in your day to day practice, especially if you think you have not got enough staff to cover it. We are a team of multi-taskers, where we can cover everyone's job as needed, except for our main man and chief designer. He is truly one on his own
Sit down and think things through. Do a pro and con list. Take into account everything you can think of. One thing that we have learnt is that it is nice to be in control of the quality control aspect, which you have to really think long and hard about, because not everyone has the same standards of work as you do.

Good luck

 

[decalman]

I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

It ain't that bad man. Lighten up. ⬆

 

[Tattoosleeve]

It was tongue in cheek on my end too. You called it "dreaded" yourself.

 

[nbk]

Shop "A" has a digital printer, vinyl cutter, and laminator. He has a 3000 sq. ft. shop and several production employees. The owner must keep the machines and production workers busy in order to pay the bills. The designer is overhead, so the owner must limit the amount of time the designer spends with each project in order to move production along.

Shop "B" has no printing equipment, and runs out of a small office or home. Everything is out-sourced, and there is little overhead. The only expense is design, and the shop owner can leverage those design skills to attract clients while still offering products at competitive prices (in most cases lower than his competition).

So you must ask yourself, are you selling plastic, metal and ink, or are you selling marketing solutions? Either way is fine. Is your goal to operate a production facility or a design service? In this modern economy with out-sourcing and drop-shipping opportunities everywhere, it is increasingly difficult to do both and remain competitive.

I used to be Shop "A", in fact I'm a second generation sign shop owner. Now, I have set up to be Shop "B" (I'm getting too old for "A").

My question is, how to get customer's without having a storefront or showroom. I've tried postcard mailing and knocking on doors. They seem too slow to build up a good business. Internet marketing puts me in competition with the lowest cost producers (one color screen printing) and very high adwords spenders like Vista Print, FastSigns, etc.

I'm thinking of target marketing, in other words, finding a few sign products where I can identify the usual buyers and target them.

Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Neil

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I used to be Shop "A", in fact I'm a second generation sign shop owner. Now, I have set up to be Shop "B" (I'm getting too old for "A").

My question is, how to get customer's without having a storefront or showroom. I've tried postcard mailing and knocking on doors. They seem too slow to build up a good business. Internet marketing puts me in competition with the lowest cost producers (one color screen printing) and very high adwords spenders like Vista Print, FastSigns, etc.

I'm thinking of target marketing, in other words, finding a few sign products where I can identify the usual buyers and target them.

Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Neil

Google

 

[rjssigns]

Looking at a new printer right now. I like having production in house. If I make a mess of something I can usually fix it same day.
New printer will have a TUR for long jobs that I typically outsource.

 

[kcollinsdesign]

I have found the best way to get business is to call past clients and ask them if they need anything. It also is practically essential to have a web page that has pictures of past work and information about your company (it does not have to be complicated or expensive). Some SEO is a good idea, but if you are a local or regional service most people will find you through reputation and word-of-mouth and will look you up by name. Social media works, but is tedious and time consuming.

If you are new, I would recommend community involvement and door-knocking. You could go down the whole website/SEO optimization route, but nothing beats personal contact for a local service business. Coming up on the top of Google's search listings may be important for selling shippable products and advertising intangibles, but don't fall into the trap of spending $10k + on a web site, extensive SEO, and a social media program before you have explored local marketing opportunities.

 

[Johnny Best]

I'm old, collect SS, Medicare, have a printer, plotter and do a lot of outsourcing. Works for me, I love my printer.