Your first shop when you started.

[fine point]

I was wondering how you all set up your shop when you started your business. Mine was very humble and I was curious to see how everyone's situation was like..

I started with a 30" Chinese cutter and 2'x5' work table in my spare bedroom. 3 years later, I have 2 graphtec cutters 54" and 30" 3 work tables at small shop in an industrial building.

Next step will be a printer.... Looking to get a Dye sub.

Cheers.

FP

 

[OldPaint]

trunk of a 75 volvo))))))paint cans and brushes))))) 1986!

 

[fine point]

Man, that's some history in a nutshell. I feel like I just watched a good documentary film! It's so good to see there are people who has been doing this for decades. Newbies like me gets eager to grow business but it takes time and effort...

Thanks guys. You guys reminded me of the documentary film, The Sign Painters.

Best

FP

 

[Jillbeans]

The basement of a small house in the suburbs, two rickety saw horses, craft store brushes, and a can of black Rustoleum. And an 18 month old.
Within 3 months I had progressed to two cans of 1 Shot.
That was 1985.
Love....Jill

 

[James Burke]

I started in the basement of a ranch home in town, using borrowed equipment. Since then, I've moved up to a two car garage. Next step will be our own building.

Avoid debt, slow and steady wins the race, cash is king, (insert your own catchy maxim here).

Take a look at the likes of Michael Dell, Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and others...they all had very humble beginnings.


JB

 

[CanuckSigns]

We started out in my parents basement in 1994, with a small pantograph engraver, my dad would engrave things like pet tags and other small items after he finished his "real" job. I remember them getting all excited about a big order for 20 electrical tags!

they stayed in the basement for about 6 years, but after a while the phone calls and visits from customers at 10pm started to get old, so they moved into their first shop, a whopping 300 sq/ft, at that pont they had a computer engraver and a laser engraver. They ended up landing 2 very large jobs for engraved signs at a few nursing homes. I remember helping my dad build the wooden backboards on the picnic table in our backyard cause there wasn't enough room in the shop to fit a sheet of plywood!

after that job they moved to a larger shop of about 900 sq/ft and we outgrew that in 2 years. This was the time I started working there, having gained experience working for a much larger sign company for 5 years, I started introducing more signage items into their engraving & awards business.

moved again into a larger shop of 2200 sq/ft, stayed there untill it burned down 2 years ago, luckily we had very good insurance and were able to get back up and running again pretty quickly in a different building, which is where we are now.

out of the 4 sign shops in our town, we are the only ones who have moved in the last 20 years, originally we were worried that customers wouldn't stay with us, but so far it has always been positive. It's a nice feeling to have to move because you've outgrown a space that at one point seemed huge.

 

[fine point]

All of the stories are very inspiring. I often feel bit embarrassed with our small operation but it's good to learn that so many of biz owners here started very small.

I used to think everyone had 60" cutters and multiple printers / flat beds from getgo.

Thanks guys!

FP

 

[reQ]

Well, i started the business 4 years ago, which is still pretty new, but i have changed location already. Started out with 10k cash on hand, bought GX24 vinyl cutter, few rolls of vinyl, and other stock materials. Rented out 1150 sq\ft bay with overhead door, which was kinda nice to have. But there were no walls or anything like that, it was just 22ftx58 ft bay. Built a 8x16 ft work tables out of 2x4 and 4 sheets of melamine, painted walls\floot etc, so it was not much of a sign shop. One competitor shop was actually laughing and was telling to other people that "This guy with his little cutter is not going to last" but i kept doing my thing and after 2 years, i got brand new sp540i, 60" cutter, brand new laser engraver & screen printing set up. So having all these new toys, had to look for new shop.... There was a building 30 meters down the road from old shop which was for lease, moved there, over 4000 sqft of space + working car wash bay in the back (love to have one!). Now having room dedicated for all new toys, working areas & reception area with the show room.

Happy where i am right now, and planning to buy the building, cuz i hate lease & giving money away for nothing lol.

 

[SameDay Signs]

Started in a small 350 sq ft building with a copam 24" cutter, bunch of materal & $300. First customer we ever had spent $450 and I made $250 profit off a few banners. Thought I would be rich. Yup I learned I wasn't going to become rich pretty quickly lol. But I've stuck with it for a little over 7 years and now have a decent size shop that was just remodeled which we signed a lease on 2 weeks ago and have 54" printer/cutter a bunch of other equipment and have grown into a decent size business.

 

[James Burke]

Since going to business for myself, I've made myself a keen observer of ther business owners.

One particular business owner I know still uses machines (Swiss Lathes) that were war surplus from WW2. Believe it or not, he can still go toe to toe with some of the modern CNC shops around here. He pays cash for everything and carries no debt. He could afford to knock out walls and build in every possible direction, yet he chooses to keep things simple and humming along.

There's something to be said about staying small (yet agile).


JB

 

[jasonx]

Started with a $500 chinese plotter in my mums lounge room

8 years on got a 7000 square foot place
SwissQPrint Flatbed
FB700 Flatbed
Zund G3
3 Hp Latex Printers
Memjet Label Printer
Primera FX1200.
2 Graphtecs
2 Fotobas
Miller Weldmaster
Eyelet Press
Forklift etc etc
All the other bits and bobs.

Identify your market and have a clear business plan.

Look up to people better then you like the guys at AZPro.

 

[visual800]

26 years ago, in the trunk of a VW FOX. all I had was a jigsaw and usually took down real estate signs so I could have some "new" mdo. I had an overhead projector and lots of one shot and brushes and an airbrush. Designs were hand drawn and projected. there was not too many sign hacks around cause you at least had to draw or design to get in this biz.

 

[Billct2]

My parents garage, a box of brushes and a '63 Chevy Pickup.

 

[FireSprint.com]

I started in my parent's basement 8 years ago with a cheap eBay plotter, a friend's old computer and a pirated copy of Illustrator. We have had 4 shop spaces to this point, not including the basement. 100sqft shared office space, 1500sqft retail/industrial flex, 3,000sqft industrial and now a 9,000sqft industrial space between two buildings.

We'll need to move again in the next year or two. Never enough space. We'll be ready to buy a building soon.

Take care of the people around you. Rise to meet challenges as if they were designed to help you succeed, and most importantly, show up.

 

[Gino]

I started out by working for another shop.... actually two or three at the same time. So, when it got to be time for me to go out on my own, I had a '63 snubnose Chevy van, a box with brushes, some 1Shot and some people calling me to come to their place to letter trucks. As I took in money, I worked out of my basement and my Dad's garage. When we could afford it, the first shop we rented was about 800 sq ft. Had a 30' easel on one wall, some tables in the middle and within 1 year had 7 people working for us. At our highest, we were at 11 people. All full-time but one. All hand painters, one electrician, one screen printer and me...... as there were no computers in the near future at that time. They just weren't thought of, yet. From there, we just kept growing until the computers came around. That alone forced people off the payroll as we quickly automated most things. Our first computer took the place of 5 people, right off the bat, plus it didn't take vacations, sick leave or complain. We got more equipment and started supplying many of the surrounding so-called shops with this new tool's ability and continued growing. Our biggest shop was almost 14,000 sq ft. We finally bought [2001] a building of 10,000 sq ft and have been happy ever since.

We're still growing and embracing new technology along with cultivating new customers. Ya never stop or you become stale and people/customers will move on.

Never-ever lose that hungry appeal in the pit of your stomach which you had when starting..... or you'll stop smelling the roses.

Remember, Rocky lost the Eye of the Tiger, and once he got it back, he went on to bigger and better things.​

 

[SignManiac]

Starting painting signs in 1974 out of my 900 sf basement and stayed there for 18 years. Commercial space in the Hamptons was not a possibility at the current real estate prices back then or even today. Moved to Florida in 1992 and bought a 3k sf industrial building where I stayed for 15 years. I outgrew that space and bought a 6k sf building and lasted 6 years there. Two years ago we bought a 27k sf building that we use 20k sf of. The other 7k sf is leased out and covers most of the mortgage so our 20k s.f. cost us about $400 per month. This progression has occurred over the past 40 years.

I was never interested in the fast track to grow a company. I just wanted to make enough to live on, and play as hard as possible the rest of the time. I'm glad I did because I know that I could not do the things I've done in the past today. It's always been about quality of life for me over quantity.

I have no plans of moving a shop ever again. Should I decide to grow or expand we have enough property to add another 40K s.f. building if we need it. Haven't decided how long I want to spend in the sign business. Life is always changing and so do dreams and plans. Just enjoy the ride!

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

My unknowing quest started with neighborhood kids destroying my classic MGA, then setting fire to the next door bible store, in process water destroyed my leather shop which I then started selling everything I could on a card table outside in the winter for a couple months till state came by & closed up building, from there my 1st thought of sign painting came with staring my new retail business in a friends retail store, I painted the sign, also that friend stole my inventory, neighbor wanted his sign done the & others also & I was on the road to becoming a sign painter but did not know it till a year later.

I went to St Paul Voc Tech Mike Lehan teacher even Bill Hue was in class learning sign painting & to see if I really wanted this of course I was hooked by then & my roller coaster life & times is awesome.

 

[Pete Moss]

Ah, it's fun to reminisce about this. My best friend from '79 and I started out of a probably 600 sq. ft. barn in northern MN. We produced mostly hand painted signs and some routed and jig saw cut signs. There were some days in February that it was fifty below and probably 45 in the barn. It has a concrete floor and we heated with a propance heater. We'd buy more equiptment as more money came in, slowly. He is still working out of there, has a small plotter and is happily at it.

 

[Pete Moss]

I forgot to mention, this was 1992.

 

[Desert_Signs]

Look up to people better then you like the guys at AZPro.

The day I quit my job and decided to start my own shop, I called up Chris at AZPro and said "I need to buy you lunch." He was nice enough to sit down with me for an hour or 2 and just let me bounce thoughts and plans off of him. Super guy and has been instrumental in helping my wife and I get our business off the ground. We've only been at it 9 months (as of YESTERDAY!) but are already outgrowing our 1500ft shop. Hired an in house graphic designer, a production guy, and an additional outside sales person last month. Things are on the up and up!