I'll be honest, If you can stock every color in the world then awesome. Not everyone has every type of vinyl and color in stock. Gold reflective may be a standard color but i know i have only done 1 vehicle that's needed reflective in the past few years. Nobody buys colors just to have in case someone might want it. Red, Black, Blue, White, Silver to name a few are standard colors for a sign shop IMO but not anything specialty.
No one is putting you down, so get off the pity poor me routine again.
He merely made a good point about full service shops vs. wanna-be sign people. I'm in business over 40 years, so I have just about every color of 1Shot in quarts and gallons in stock, we have a huge array of screen inks in stock of various types, we have a huge assortment of cast, calendared, translucent, reflective and digital media in stock. We have several printers, cutting stations, three plotter cutters, 5 bay vehicle area, electrical components and much more.... so we consider ourselves a full service sign company.... not a shop.
There are people here who still specialize in hand painting, so that's gonna be their direction, not rolls of vinyl. Embroidery shops, screen shops, wrap shops and then people like you, just starting out and have no direction, other than by your own words, takes on anything and everything that comes down the pike regardless of their expertise on the project. Y'all gotta start somewhere and that's understandable, but it's better to start at the beginning and work your way up, rather just burst in the door announcing you are a sign person, but really have no experience at doing much of anything.
So, you're correct, you don't have to stock every color or every type of digital media. We don't. I have people here at s101 and other sign shops who want me to print on particular media, that I don't stock. I simply tell them what I do have or give them an option of providing me with the stock themselves. Generally, they go with what I have in stock.
john, please don't take this as a tongue lashing at you...... this is directed towards anyone who fits the bill. Young and old alike. You wouldn't take your daughter to a dentist that opened an office in his garage or bedroom and said he has no formal training, but bought some of the tools needed to fill a cavity and clean your teeth and until I get more familiar with things, I will eventually be able to extract a tooth. Novocaine.... ?? What's that ?? I won't feel a thing. I don't need that.
