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Starting business as a sign maker, advice appreciated?
Good morning,
hi my name is zahid, but you can call me zed. I have been interested in signs for some time now, and i believe that it is the right time for me now to start a business.
Last week i have completed my short course in business enterprise at the princes trust, which i fit the age group between 18 – 30, i am actually 28. I have been test trading for a while by making number plates, which i have already registered with the DVLA.
I am doing a business plan at the moment, so it is not easy writing what you are intended to do.
I have got a fair amount of education in design and graphic design skills. Last year, i entered at Sign UK 2010, and i competed with most of sign writing companies, but because my sign was simple but effected, i did not win. I will be entering this year though with a new design.
I have been helping my dad in family business for past 10 years (curry house), so i have business knowledge and good people skills.
I am planning to get a loan through prince’s trust only at £4k at an interest rate of 3% to pay up to 5 years repayment.
I have already purchased a GCC Sign Pal Ultra vinyl cutter (just over 1 meter cutting lenght), 2 oki industrial digital printers, laptop, PC, CCTV equipment (no cameras yet!), twin lcd tft 18inch monitors, dopag polyurethane resin system to make 3d domed badges, stickers (already serviced, ready to be used), bambi tripple air compressor, toughened glass sheets, resin, some vinyl and number plate equipment. Remember these equipment, i have been buying since last year.
I already own these equipment, and the loan i need is to help me set up the business.
There is a local sign writer who is retiring soon as he is 70 years old, and i had interest in his business for a while, his rent is very cheap @ £40 per week (a single shop room (small) with outdoor drive), just electric and phone (bills separate), no water or gas.
On the other hand, i have seen a large storage unit at the same price, but it does have a space for small van to park inside the unit for indoor vehicle livery, but there are no internal walls, just open space but a large amount of hardcore used to fill up a gap to make a ramp. there is only tube lighting and electric, no water or gas.
I would like to purchase a wide format printer to do banners, stickers, labels, but looking on ebay, iv seen printers go around £2-3k.
could you help me on what i need or what shall i do? what is a wise option during these difficult times, remember i work part-time at iceland.
please help,
regards
zed.
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15 Replies
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quick post…
personally, i would not go for the signwriters spot. Nor the second if i am honest. but it is a roof over your head for vehcile livery. the absense of water and electricty is a concern, but there are ways around that. just as long as the lease is very short term?
one of your best earners will be vehicle livery and you already have the equipment for that. now you need the space to fit the vehicles…
dont conrcen yourself with rushing out and buying a printer just yet. sort yourself out first. subbing prints to businesses in the next town or via an online source like http://www.gigaprint.co.uk/ will keep you going until you are ready to invest in a machine. i.e. when you have a small customer base to keep the machine paying for itself each week.
if you havent already, download and install the UKSB toolbar currently going thru allot of updates but still fully operational at the moment. very hand to have, and somthing i find myself using every day. if not for sourcing products, then general click thrus to the boards.
anyway… off to my bed, early night for me… even if it is 2.12am 😕
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Welcome to the rat race zed 😀
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Will all this equipment fit into this "single shop room" ?
Good luck with your new business Zed
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Zed if you need tech support with the Ultra then our tech dept will be the one to contact and we are only in Tamworth so not from from yourself.
Nigel
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Good Luck Zed – as Rob said vehicles first an easier learning curve with your cutter than print perhaps and perhaps consider a unit of some kind away from the high street
John
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Good luck Zed, you are coming at this from the right angle. Some people seem to start up as a bit on the side of another business, think they can do signs.
You seem to have some design skills, a business plan approach and enthusiastic.
As others have said, leave the printing alone yet. You can do some nice stuff in cut vinyl. Get some steady bread and butter work out of the door.
I would befriend the 70 year old retired sign writer. Take him out for lunch. He would be a great help to you. Pass on some knowledge, and maybe only semi-retired so could help you out.
Cheers
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quote David-Foster-:Good luck Zed, you are coming at this from the right angle. Some people seem to start up as a bit on the side of another business, think they can do signs.You seem to have some design skills, a business plan approach and enthusiastic.
As others have said, leave the printing alone yet. You can do some nice stuff in cut vinyl. Get some steady bread and butter work out of the door.
I would befriend the 70 year old retired sign writer. Take him out for lunch. He would be a great help to you. Pass on some knowledge, and maybe only semi-retired so could help you out.
Cheers
I’d agree with the above. Good luck with your plans.
Hugh
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quote Andy_M:Will all this equipment fit into this “single shop room” ?Good luck with your new business Zed
i am sure it will, the place does need a clear out, but i can always try next door to him, the shop is slighlty bigger, similar rent.
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quote Nigel Pugh – Grafityp:Zed if you need tech support with the Ultra then our tech dept will be the one to contact and we are only in Tamworth so not from from yourself.
Nigel
it is a big machine, very well built and really heavy. a big lad like me can man lift this, i did it before 🙂
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quote David-Foster-:Good luck Zed, you are coming at this from the right angle. Some people seem to start up as a bit on the side of another business, think they can do signs.
You seem to have some design skills, a business plan approach and enthusiastic.
As others have said, leave the printing alone yet. You can do some nice stuff in cut vinyl. Get some steady bread and butter work out of the door.
I would befriend the 70 year old retired sign writer. Take him out for lunch. He would be a great help to you. Pass on some knowledge, and maybe only semi-retired so could help you out.
Cheers
i am very enthusiastic, and optimistic that i can do design and offer a good service. i have offered graphic design service to some printing companies, and they have given me the thumbs up.
my plate business is ok, i do get people asking other things besides plates like stickers and vinyl lettering. that’s why i seen the demand in my trade to expand. i do work from home, but due to having a family of 2 children, i dont want their hands in certain places.
I can stick with livery first, atleast it make sense. I believe i am doing the set-up properly by seeking advice from the prince’s trust. I have a degree in animation, so atleast that will come in good use.
outsourcing printed stickers is an option though, but i would like to have one as i saw one today on gumtree ‘Roland Versacamm Sp300V Vinyl Plotter Cutter for only £1500, seems a bargin’.
I might go for a small unit, but the large garage with small van access might be the best plan. it does need a clean up though, dust is my worry.
i have been looking at using green house tube heaters around 100 watts each, which they can heat up good small rooms upto 30 degrees Celsius and keep them very warm and only cost the same amount of a normal light bulb.
Shall i still keep my volvo estate v40 tdi or shall i sell it off to buy a zafira to accommodate my family and business.
i know insurance is a killer, but i am not sure what to do in the car or van range.
can anyone shine some light, also would premises insurance cost alot too.
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Hi Zed,
there are people on here who know far more about printers than I but, I don’t think a £1500 versacamm would be a bargain, far more likely to be a money pit at that price.
if you’re dead set on getting a printer then go the ex demo or look for printers on here, GET THE HISTORY, when was it last serviced (ask for proof), heads? see it print, alot. ask how old, how much use, just because a machine hasn’t been used much, doesn’t mean it has been looked after! find out what inks have been used and tried in it, etc.
i’m doing a fair bit of print work these days,not much by some standards but a fair bit for me. however, I still wouldn’t see it as justifying a printer when i look at the sq mtr price i can buy it at, there’s no headaches when a printer goes wrong then!
unless you’re expecting to be spending £3.5k upwards on a good, used and well serviced machine, I’d seriously go down the road of subbing it. I make anything up to 200% profit on printed vinyl and banner, draw, send, receive, finish, sell…. no headaches.
Hugh
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quote :Nigel Pugh – Grafityp wrote:
Zed if you need tech support with the Ultra then our tech dept will be the one to contact and we are only in Tamworth so not from from yourself.Nigel
it is a big machine, very well built and really heavy. a big lad like me can man lift this, i did it before
Tech support is technical not physical Zed 😀 😀 😀
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Best of luck with your venture, some good advice offered on here and I would also think about a membership to the forum so you can access things like the tutorials, well worth the money.
As others have said be very careful if buying a second hand printer, if they are going cheap then there is normally a reason why and as has been said what seems like a bargain can end up costing a fortune to put right.
I wouldn’t be in to much of a rush to change your car, see how things go to start with but a good option for you if you also need it for the family might be a people carrier. I have a fiat Ulysses which spends most of it’s time with all the seats out so I defectively have a small van. If I need to take people anywhere it’s a 2 min job to clip the seats back in.
If you go down that road though look at the slightly bigger vehicles rather than the more compact vehicles. -
thanx for your feedback guys, atleast i can save some cash, so when im ready to buy a printer, i will.
regards,
zahid
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Good luck with your business. We are the same age.
When we first bought our printer we took about 6-9 months to go through a set of cartridges. This was a four colour machine with 220ml cartridges. So don’t rush off into buying a printer until its going to add additional profit to your bottom line. At the time it probably wasn’t the smartest business decision but it didn’t bite us on the bum as we were working from home.
The main piece of advice I can give you from a business point of view is in your business plan work out where you want your business to be in 3 years time. What type of work do you want to be doing and which work is profitable.
I remember our first year of business I thought we were doing great, working our bums off and working 60+ hours a week. Come to the end of the year visiting our accountant I was surprised at what the real figures were. Its very easy to under quote or do work your not efficient or setup to do.
Once we worked out what jobs would make us profit (not just revenue) and what was in the best interests long term we stopped doing all the other work. We concentrated on the types of jobs we wanted even if it meant being quite due to lack of work. We used this time to do marketing for the jobs we wanted. The following year we worked less and our profit shot right up.
So don’t be all things to all people, be profitable to yourself.
The sign industry is rapidly evolving and different segments within the Marketing/Advertising Industries are starting to overlap. Identify where you can use your strengths to your advantage and run with it.
Good luck.
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