Looking for some advice.

[zymerguyer]

Hey Guys, I'm new to the forum, but have been reading quite a bit and loving the education I've been receiving. I own a screen printing company and have been in business for 6 years. I've got a pretty good customer base in a small town and am starting to expand to neighboring cities (50,000+ population). Along with my screen printing I also have a vinyl plotter and have been offering that for 6 years as well. It's a one-man shop (me) and last year I did $84,000 in total sales with about $7,500 in cut vinyl sales. I never really pushed the vinyl portion of the business until lately and have been receiving a really good reaction from my customers.

In the past if people asked for vinyl I was able to offer it and I'd have to contract out the printed vinyl to another guy. I'd like to think that if I really tried to sell printed vinyl (car wraps, full color banners, large photographs) that I could make it work and justify a printer, but I'm just not sure.

I've gotten approved for a lease on a Roland VP540i with a 60" Seal Laminator. My quote is for a 5 year lease for $26,000. That includes the printer, laminator, take up real, service to install and setup the printer & laminator, a materials start up kit, and taxes. Payments would be roughly $450 per month, with an optional $2000 buyout at the end of 5 years. I've also been looking at used printers, but I'm not liking the prospect of learning the printer and the laminator, while having to possibly work on one or both if they have problems or fail.

Do you guys think this is too much risk to take on for something that would be fairly new and would require a learning curve, or is getting something new not that crucial and should I keep on searching for a used printer and laminator with half the cost? Maybe you could share what you did with your first printer?
Thanks again!
Travis

 

[rjssigns]

Hindsight is always 20/20. If I were thinking about wide format I would sub out all work and log sales for 6mos. or more. That way you will know if you can "crack the nut" every month.
If that looks good get into some used equipment and learn. There is all kinds of used equipment out there. Some for literally pennies on the dollar. There was an SP540V in Texas for 2 grand out the door. My tech said with travel, 2 new heads, cap tops, dampers etc... I'd have less than 5K in the whole shebang, and it would rock.

As it stands now we are subbing out more and more of our work. It seems the only reason we have equipment is for the last minute jobs.

Check the merchant members like Merritt and Insignia they sub out to guys like you. And from what I have seen on this forum they rock.

 

[Gino]

Welcome from PA....................

 

[Fatboy]

Welcome from South Africa. I will go for it and do the deal.But only you can make that decision.

 

[zymerguyer]

Hindsight is always 20/20. If I were thinking about wide format I would sub out all work and log sales for 6mos. or more. That way you will know if you can "crack the nut" every month.
If that looks good get into some used equipment and learn. There is all kinds of used equipment out there. Some for literally pennies on the dollar. There was an SP540V in Texas for 2 grand out the door. My tech said with travel, 2 new heads, cap tops, dampers etc... I'd have less than 5K in the whole shebang, and it would rock.

As it stands now we are subbing out more and more of our work. It seems the only reason we have equipment is for the last minute jobs.

Check the merchant members like Merritt and Insignia they sub out to guys like you. And from what I have seen on this forum they rock.

That's a great point. I have the mind set of why contract it out when I can do it myself, but you're right, this is a huge investment and huge risk.

 

[zymerguyer]

Anyone else have an opinion?

 

[Malkin]

I'm not as familiar with print shops, but your yearly gross sales sounds a little low (roughly $325/day) as compared with the typical 1 man full time sign shop.

Do you have time to sell more signs and run the equipment or would you have to hire help?

That equipment is very capable in the right hands. I worry that it might take a while before you're regularly producing enough to make it worth it, but certainly possible. Don't forget to factor in the time spent on the learning curve.

 

[Kottwitz-Graphics]

Welcome from the Eastern Shore of Maryland...

I have said it time and time again...

I worked at a large sign company that decided they needed to buy a printer (years ago, so it was an Encad NovaJet, water based). We did the research, got the printer, rip, materials, even sent me to Ohio for 3 days to learn the rip program... Way too much for me now. I wouldn't do it now, considering that there are too many people out there that got printers, need to make the lease payment, and the price has dropped out of the market. I don't want to compete against the $1 per sq foot banner printers just to make a profit.

Color management for some jobs were a pure pita...

I'd rather just sub it out, and let someone else worry about the payments, keeping materials on hand, laminating the prints, color matching, etc...

But thats just my 2 pennies in the bucket.

 

[zymerguyer]

Thanks for the thoughts, guys. I can see what you're saying about subbing it out and relieving yourself of headaches. I do like that pressure (and maybe even stress) to try and get jobs done in house and making them look really great, even if it means pulling an all nighter.