Progression Questions..

[Dentafrice]

Signs101 has been a great resource to my business over the time that I've been here, and has helped me have the knowledge to expand to where I am today.

Although at the moment I'm only producing cut vinyl decals, I'm wanting to expand somewhere this year to printed graphics in my offerings to my clients.

I'm guessing here I have a few options, but being on a limited budget I'm not exactly sure where I should start, so this is where you come in :signs101:

1. I can outsource my decal printing needs to someone else, and contour cut them / package them here... (I'm guessing having me cut them would save some money on the outsource cost?)

2. Edge I/II/FX.. this could be a beneficial piece of equipment for my business.. it has a lower cost than an actual wide format printer..

3. Wide Format Printer.. $$$$$$$$.

The basic usage of this would be around 100-500 decals per order.. on average maybe 150.

At this time I do not think it would be very cost effective to jump into a wide format printer with my little working capital at this moment to invest in one..

What would be a good solution for my business? :U Rock:

 

[bayshorecreations]

If you are on a limited budget I would suggest outsourcing the printing for a while.
Don't jump into printing if you are not sure if it will be a money making option. I was in the same situation as you as I'm sure a lot of us here were at one time.

 

[Gino]

Outsourcing would definitely be your best bet while getting your feet wet designing and applying. Once you build a clientele for this work then go buy some equipment. You need a printer, plotter and laminator to do it right along with ample space to set it up and do it right.

Also, your plotter probalby won't read the crop/registration marks someone else's printer lays down, so that would be a very expensive savings in the long run.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I agree with Bayshore. Keep with the outsourcing until you have the working capital in order to get into the printing and not have to worry about if it takes awhile before it starts to pay off.

It might seem like you have all this interest in it now, but it seems like it's murphy's law that once you do get into it, all those leads just seem to disappear.

 

[Dentafrice]

Thanks for those very good replies! @Gino, I won't be doing barely any application / installing, these are all packaged RTA decals, as 90% of our business is shipped out to customers rather than local retail.

 

[bob]

1. I can outsource my decal printing needs to someone else, and contour cut them / package them here... (I'm guessing having me cut them would save some money on the outsource cost?)

If you're going to outsource then either you'll outsource both the printing and the contour cutting or experience software hell. Contour cutting works because the same software that prints also cuts and thus has control over the physical and logical dimensions of the work on both the printer and the cutter.

2. Edge I/II/FX.. this could be a beneficial piece of equipment for my business.. it has a lower cost than an actual wide format printer..

Not if you consider cost per unit of available area and cost of operation.

3. Wide Format Printer.. $$$$$$$$.

You get what you pay for, there's no such thing as a free lunch. I'm on my second printer and both of them were fully amortized in less than six months. This in a one man shop that, relative to most others, doesn't print all that much.

 

[Dentafrice]

I appreciate your very good response. I understand about the contour cutting now, so that finalizes my plan on outsourcing that. I'm guessing the basic thing would be to outsource the print, lam, and contour cut, and complete the rest of the packaging / trimming at my location?

Is that the normal workflow for something like this?

I appreciate the pro(s) and con(s) of each of my options bob!