If you could start over what would you buy and why

[EddieHollywood]

I like the plan of selling and designing and sending out the work.

Would this be a good start

buy a 24 inch printer like this one that will us the SEPIAX ink so i have no smell to deal with.
http://www.graphicsone.com/products/printers/go-printers/go-dmax-pro-1.html

This way i could print all my smaller jobs and any small rush jobs.
They send out all other larger print jobs

Would a 24 inch printer be big enoff for a lot of banners ir is that going to be to small of a size for most banners and signs??

I could add on the cutter for making stickers to. for not much more.
This would save a lot of start up cost and time dealing with the equipment..

Or want about this 44 inch printer with SEPIAX ink.
I have been told this is not a real sign printer but a changed over paper printer but it can do signs and banners set up like this.
I e-mailed in about this printer and they never replyed back.
http://www.graphicsone.com/products/printers/go-printers/go-rj900-io.html


We will still keep doing photography so this dose not have to be a 100% income right away.

With our photography business we are only busy for around 6 months the other part of the year we could be selling signs pushing it more that time of the year.

 

[BROWNDOG]

i would think signs would be a good fit with a good photo shop, but why arent you looking to fill a void all those lowballers have, we often print jobs or do installs for the less experienced shops around here, who do they get their equip, classes, materials from now?
if the area your in is anything like the rest of the country i'm sure there is a sign shop close selling out of business or looking to get into photography for extra cash

 

[MachServTech]

You might want to reconsider the SEPIAX ink.

http://signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67616&highlight=SEPIAX

The tech in this thread emailed me with his install experiences. Clogged printheads and temp issues all around. Maybe the GraphicsOne machine is better, but go in with all of your facts.

 

[EddieHollywood]

Been doing photography a long time but we have a second house now and want to move to this new area full time but this area we can not make as much $$ doing photography very little its not the same kind of marker here in the new location .
So we are going back to our other place to work all summer to make a living.
And thinking of doing the signs here in the new location all the rest of the year and get it going here so at spome point we can sell the older place and be moved here for good.

By the beach our older location we get $3500 for a 4 to 5 hour wedding but here ne3w location others are charging $500 for a full day of coverage.

I will not work for that price so it is going to be very hard to get the photography business going here at the new location.
We will be working more on our portrait business hereto get that going i think weddings is not going to work for us here.

But we have had a lot of people asking about making them signs and we havre done some with out Canon 44 printer i just have to sell them for indoor use as its not rated long for out door use.

But photography is starting to dye a slow death with everyone now having a digital camera and everyone and their brother thinks they are a wedding photographer now days and is undercutting real photographers making us all make less money now days.
Every year is getting worse.

i think you hit in on the head, with everyone now having a digital printer and everyone and their nephew thinks they are a designer now days and is undercutting real sign shops making us all make less money now days.

find something your good at, like it, and stick to it. as long as you do it well, you'll soon not even notice all the lowballers. and the money will come with time, (and sweat)

I have to go to our store right now i will log in from the store.
I was on TV today doing a interview about our photography business. It will air in two weeks they say for a local tv show.

 

[TyrantDesigner]

Well I've always held onto the belief that sign shops should do more than just pump out graphics. Like everything else, they should be a little more diverse in the products they can supply, in the attempt to specialize to specific markets. The things I made the most money in was not normal graphics and sign work ... but from illustration work, custom displays and artwork. In that, it was mostly man hours. One of my most profitable jobs was one where I created posters that were like 40's and 50's B-movie posters except they were ads for products that the shop sold ... involved photo shoots, hours of design and art production time, and plenty of customer-designer back and forth. Only a small series of work was made for that shore, but darned if it wasn't fun.

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Another thought, with all your photo know how, could you possibly become a manufacturer/supplier of photo products to these lowballing photographers in the area. I know the thought of dealing with lowballers makes anyone shudder, but if you are firm from the beginning with them, it could go well.

canvas prints, etched memorials of photos, sublimation, mouse mats, decals/stickers, the list goes on.

I think there is a lot you can do to make that figure you are after. Needs thought, planning, and perseverance like everything else though - personally, I think I would have a lot of fun if I had pro photo knowledge on top of what I do. (I'm only amateur with a d90 - but i never stop pushing myself on photoshop and going out to take photos and learning all the time - can't help myself it's too fun!).

 

[Custom_Grafx]

and even here in Sydney, the photographers are facing similar problems - I have a friend who said it's been one of the quietest years so far... same reasons as you've stated.

 

[Edserv]

I've only been in the sign/banner/graphics industry for 3 years (but was in the printing industry for 17 years). I have to say, I wouldn't do anything differently. Here's our set-up:
1) Mutoh vj1204
2) GBC 38 inch cold/hot lam
3) Q Series 24 inch plotter/cutter with optical sensor
4) Xerox Workcentre 7655
5) Several table-top plastic-card printers
6) GBC CombBind C110e
7) 7 Rocking PC Work Stations (Vista and 7)
8) 2 copies of Flexi Pro
9) CS-3 (need to upgrade to 5)
10) All the other software: Quickbooks, etc
We utilize a windows NT Server to hook everything up, and a custom Access database to utilize our intra-network. We programmed our own database years ago and it's still working. If anyone knows a geek who can help us migrate our Access DB online, I'd appreciate the help.

thanks,
Chris
Lets Go Banners

 

[EddieHollywood]

Thanks everyone so far.

Yes photography can be fun but when shooting for a living all the time you end up not doing what would be fun but doing what pays the most. I have shot many hundreds of weddings it will be 21 years in June and after the first 50 or so it becomes a job and work and you edit for the customer not yourself --You just edit all the time day in and day out.

In summer i wake up and edit till it is time to go shoot a family session or go to a wedding then i come home and up load images and back up images and then do more editing till 3 or 4 AM then do it all over the next day 7 days a week for 4 to 5 months of summer.
Not much fun left except out on the job some are still fun but now days you have 30 people with cameras shooting over your sholder telling you do this and do that and asking ?s about why their photos do not come out good.

I do think we will start with sending out the work and designing things and selling the jobs to see how well we can do before investing a lot.
We are going back to the beach around the 19th to start shooting for the summer in Destin Fl, Pensacola FL, Gulf Shores and Orange beach Al area.

 

[Mosh]

If I could go back I would have been studying harder and....oh hell there is NOTHING I would change. The experience is 3/4 of life. If you could change it then there would be no thrill in that!!! I thank God every day for how things have turned out, good or bad they are all worth living!