Hello everyone, and thanks for the acceptance to the community. I'm a new business owner and brand new to the sign making industry, and hoping to be able to learn what I need to be able to produce commercial signage as a service through my business, despite not having much direct experience (though a fair bit of relevant experience).
I hope I'm not the hated sort around here based on that, so I'll provide a quick rundown of my background to hopefully validate my existence here:
I'm 43 years old. Lived in Toronto, ON Canada for the entirety of my life until July 2023, which was when I had relocated to a rural area in west Cape Breton Island, NS, Canada. I had several varying careers in Toronto working as an IT technician, a field technician for a major telecom (ie, a "cable guy"), and as a unionized construction laborer. I learned a lot of different skills from working in such contrasting industries, but also learned that the reward for proficiency and hard work was often further expectation and exploitation with very little real progression. I moved out to Cape Breton the intention of breaking away from the grind that was killing me in the big city and to start up my own business with my savings, though I was not quite certain what that business would be.
The choice was originally between doing IT consulting/computer repair services or starting up a 3D print farm (that being a major interest of mine at the time), neither of which seemed all that likely to be successful in a rural area. I had learned that shortly prior to my arrival a local print shop had closed down, leaving not much by the way of local printing services for a huge region, and thought that would be a great opportunity to incorporate digital media printing services along with the 3D printing service, and also add laser engraving, vinyl cutting, and even sublimation to cover a wide range of different print mediums. I am currently operating out of my home until I find the success to justify expanding into a dedicated facility. I am the only resident in a 6-bedroom home, and therefore was able to repurpose almost the entire upstairs of the house into various work areas. With that said, though, I'm obviously not able to operate as a full fledged print shop due to size limitations alone, but I'm going to try to cover as much as I possibly can for small run orders and hopefully find a trade printer to outsource larger jobs to.
I've invested in the following equipment:
-Printers: Canon ImagePROGRAF TC-20 (entry level wide format inkjet), Canon PIXMA G620 for photo prints, Epson SC-F170 for sublimation prints. Do not have any full-sized presses yet.
-3D printers: BambuLab X1C and P1S
-Laser cutters: OMTech Polar 350 CO2 laser cutter, OMGLaser 60W MOPA fiber laser
-Vinyl cutter: Vevor 53" cutter/plotter with optical eye
-Various offline finishing equipment: heavy duty 24" guillotine paper cutter, corner punch, 30" cold press laminator, heat press, creaser/perforator machine, etc
I registered my business in March, 2024, however I've been taking things slowly with marketing as I've been setting things up and making my own website. I just announced my business was opened about a month ago. I've already had a couple of inquiries come in regarding signage, so I've been working on making some estimates, but have still yet to work on an actual order. I've got lots of questions, so I'll be heading over to the Newbie Forum to ask there, but wanted to make my introduction here first.
Cheers!
I hope I'm not the hated sort around here based on that, so I'll provide a quick rundown of my background to hopefully validate my existence here:
I'm 43 years old. Lived in Toronto, ON Canada for the entirety of my life until July 2023, which was when I had relocated to a rural area in west Cape Breton Island, NS, Canada. I had several varying careers in Toronto working as an IT technician, a field technician for a major telecom (ie, a "cable guy"), and as a unionized construction laborer. I learned a lot of different skills from working in such contrasting industries, but also learned that the reward for proficiency and hard work was often further expectation and exploitation with very little real progression. I moved out to Cape Breton the intention of breaking away from the grind that was killing me in the big city and to start up my own business with my savings, though I was not quite certain what that business would be.
The choice was originally between doing IT consulting/computer repair services or starting up a 3D print farm (that being a major interest of mine at the time), neither of which seemed all that likely to be successful in a rural area. I had learned that shortly prior to my arrival a local print shop had closed down, leaving not much by the way of local printing services for a huge region, and thought that would be a great opportunity to incorporate digital media printing services along with the 3D printing service, and also add laser engraving, vinyl cutting, and even sublimation to cover a wide range of different print mediums. I am currently operating out of my home until I find the success to justify expanding into a dedicated facility. I am the only resident in a 6-bedroom home, and therefore was able to repurpose almost the entire upstairs of the house into various work areas. With that said, though, I'm obviously not able to operate as a full fledged print shop due to size limitations alone, but I'm going to try to cover as much as I possibly can for small run orders and hopefully find a trade printer to outsource larger jobs to.
I've invested in the following equipment:
-Printers: Canon ImagePROGRAF TC-20 (entry level wide format inkjet), Canon PIXMA G620 for photo prints, Epson SC-F170 for sublimation prints. Do not have any full-sized presses yet.
-3D printers: BambuLab X1C and P1S
-Laser cutters: OMTech Polar 350 CO2 laser cutter, OMGLaser 60W MOPA fiber laser
-Vinyl cutter: Vevor 53" cutter/plotter with optical eye
-Various offline finishing equipment: heavy duty 24" guillotine paper cutter, corner punch, 30" cold press laminator, heat press, creaser/perforator machine, etc
I registered my business in March, 2024, however I've been taking things slowly with marketing as I've been setting things up and making my own website. I just announced my business was opened about a month ago. I've already had a couple of inquiries come in regarding signage, so I've been working on making some estimates, but have still yet to work on an actual order. I've got lots of questions, so I'll be heading over to the Newbie Forum to ask there, but wanted to make my introduction here first.
Cheers!
