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Better late than never !!
Hi all…..should have done this first , but you know what its like , get right to the section that will sort your troubles…..things are settling now , so not too many problems to overcome….
Bit about me :
I work in the UK for a US computer company (not sure i can say this here , but i’ll try anyway , i work for EMC)
I’m an engineer for these guys , was recently out on the road , but my urge for self employment gave me the drive to try and curve my job to fit my future , therefore no have managed to work from home as a North of England call center (me on my own) , my job is to try and filter all the calls before i have to pass them to the engineers (what i used to be) very tough job sometimes , but i can now fill the gaps with my own stuff…
So my plan :
Desktop PC support for the home user (mobile , home visits etc)
I have adds ready for the UK yellow pages etc at the end of the year , but have a small add in the local rag that has brought me a few calls….
I have always been quite technically minded , so most thing i normally suss out…..
I live in Wales , very nice here , and we also live on a main country through road that leads holiday/bikers down into the rest of wales , so lots of potential customers driving by…..
So why vinyl cutting :
I needed a sign for my computer stuff , got the lettering of a guy on the net sent through the post , made up my sign , its now up on a wall next door (an auto garage) , we are friends , and it was a good spot for a sign without attracting people directly to the house…
The guy that owns the garage asked if i did the sign myself , as he thought i’d be able to do number plates for him as well….this got me thinking of a sideline to go with my computers in case i dont do that well…
So it all started with me looking for how to produce number plates , as of today i now have the official registration from the DVLA , so i’m legal…I thought if i bought a vinyl cutter ,i could start doing plates , but also through the garage next door i could get business on a small scale for livery……
So the next step was to set it all up :
Got a pcut plotter/cutter , and a bunch of vinyl from Flynn
Dont like the artcut software much , as i am a corel man , best corel plugin i think i have found so far is signcut , but there are some problems at the moment with this , the guy that wrote the program is working on it though (very nice chap) , so i’m waiting on this…
For now though i can export manually from corel , then import to artcut , seems to work ok.I dont think i’m going to actual do number plates on the cutter now after all that , it seems that laser printing maybe my best option , so just waiting for some prices etc , and going to give this a test….
Enough about my plan , back to me :
I’m 41 , have a wife of 32 , and a son of 15mths
Wife works from home running an ebay shop (works quite well , just a bit short of a living wage though)I’ll go now before i run out of letters (if there is a limit that is)
But glad to meet you all , and hope at some point i will be able to help you lot myself….
Tips so far..
1. Signtool3 doesnt work with 4.1 firmware on a pcut
2. Signcut is also trying to solve the similar problem , but there working with me as a test at the momentcheers all , catch ya round !!!
Steve D
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8 Replies
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hi steve
what an intro mate.. great stuff and thank you for taking the time.
run out of words.. no chance, no limits ever… 😀regarding cutting the plates… or printing, unless you have a large enough market for doing the plates, ide stick with cut vinyl just now. ide think a cheap but good make of vinyl will do these no sweat. down side would be the ability to print the small country labels to the side? saying that you can buy those in bulk. cheap as chips…
not trying to sway you from going this route at all, just trying to say use your money on other things to give yourself more products to offer your customers. if the plates are just a sideline, leave it at that until its booming, and your making real money from it before investing in it more.
lets take it from a different angle, why not buy a proper shop display stand that will hold products. bit like you get in halfords but just a single stand couple of feet wide. you can pick them up online pretty easy.
make yourself a whole bunch of stickers, boy racer stuff like bluaplunk, clarion, son, turbo.. you know the usual stuff?
get say 25 graphics, 10 of each and stick them on the display.
make a header board on the stand saying all graphics £20 then ask the guy in the garage to put this in his reception, tell him you will pop in and do a count on the graphics each week, whats missing he squares you up minus a comission on each sold. the ones sold you just top them back up till its ten of each again, over time you will see what is or isnt selling, kids will also tell the guy what they would rather see.
doing it this way keeps them at the garage rather than your house.
it also gives the guy in garage an incentive to sell without him having an outlay. (make sure you get something in writting though, just in case)
tell him you will give him £20 every van that he gets in the garage worth over £100, £40 if its over £200 and so on… this way you now have premises to fit vans & a front foir selling this. make the guy a sign up for this too… infact you could add order signs here etc and again give the guy a small cut…
once this has all built up and people know you, you can look at getting your own shop or unit to work from.
anyway, im rabbiting on.. welcome abaord 😉 -
I like your thinking Robert , food for thought that one……although the garage is huge as is also caters for artics etc , has no reception , but we are only next door…(stuff may go missing there in other words)
My plan was very similar to be honest , just wanted to get a good way to do plates , then was going to spend some time on a big sign to catch everybodies eye (plates, text & logo’s etc) , then he’ll send them round here (we have lots of space for working anyway)….
Not found badges yet on the net , been looking , so any help on this would be cool….but i’m thinking these can definitely be done on my laser anyway !!
Steve D
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Hi Steve
Great intro ….. always nice when peeps introduce themselves. Lets all us nosey lot know a bit about you and gives everyone a chance to say hi 😉
Look forward to seeing more posts and knowing how your new venture progresses.
:welcome:
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Hi Steve,
Welcome aboard. I’ll never run out of words, I only type about 10 a post.
-Marek -
welcome aboard Steve, as Rob has said about the garage next to you, this is what I have done, he looks out for any work for me to do when people come to his garage for a re-spray. You keep him sweet, and hopefully he will do the same.
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Hey Steve…
Welcome to the boards. You were requesting badge info… not sure this is the type or style you were after but try http://www.badgemaster.co.uk. I have their stuff through and it looks good to me.
Welcome again…
K
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hi steve 😛
welcome aboard…and good luck with your new venture!! 😀
nik
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Good luck with it all mate.
You’ll get good advice, tips and tricks on the boards here.
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