Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
A friend lost a bunch of stuff in an accident a while back, and the nice insurance company bought New Stuff.
I personally would skip sublimation. I'd go with a 16x20 instead of the 15x15. And probably with a "small" large format printer, like a 4800, instead of the pair of 1280s I got (and the dye sub one is almost clean!). I'd have vinyl cutter stuff to start with, instead of adding it on later.
I'm also thinking of doing more "stock" transfers from outfits like Pro-World...
J/K Hubby! I would use all the money we spent on the wedding for lottery tickets!!! If we didn't hit, I'd go to graphics design school before buying a press.
hmmm...
the first thought that came into mind: I would take the money I spent on my first cutter and put it toward a larger format one with optical registration.
I would purchase two "small" wider format printers (13 X 19 at least) to begin with. I am only working with max of 8 1/2 X 14 now and really wish I had went bigger to begin with, so i can completely cover the shirt.
I started with vinyl, my intention was vinyl signage, graphic shop type deal, then I discovered sublimation and got into shirts and other things, glad I did and wouldn't change that at all!(except for wider format of course)
__________________
Carl T. - www.ekkographics.com "An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one." - Charles Horton Cooley
...what would you do? What would you not do? (to start over)....
That’s an interesting question. I might be tempted to do a total business assessment, rather than just an equipment list. You may not be looking for this type of feedback but anyway…
The first thing I would do is a SWOT assessment. The list is just a partial of what I would ask myself.
What are my-
Strengths – What are my most profitable areas? Should I really beef up equipment in that area or would the same or slightly better be sufficient and then spend money on extra marketing to that area? Is my most profitable area because of my equipment, knowledge or something else?
Weaknesses – Where are my weaknesses? Are they related to my capabilities or my abilities? Are they significant (for example, do they seriously affect profit and/or opportunity)? Do I shore up my weaknesses or reinforce my strengths?
Opportunities – What opportunities could I take advantage of, because of my new situation? Do these opportunities require different equipment, strategies, skills or something else? Is my assessment based on what I have done or what I could do?
Threats – What is the biggest obstacle to making this new situation work to my advantage? Everything that I do has an upside potential; do I fully understand the downside to any of my actions? What happens if I move quickly or if I take more time to fully develop my plans?
I don’t want this to be a treatise, so I’ll stop here. Perhaps some of these thoughts will be worthy.
__________________
Jack - staff@alphasupply.com - Alpha Supply Company - Dye Sub Tips
Heat Press Equipment and Supplies - 1-800-908-9916
I think if I started over, I would have bought a heat press sooner and would have only bought the Hix brand and never would have bought Hotronix. I would have not tried sublimation and would have never purchased anything from signwarehouse. I have learned fro my mistakes, but it cost me a few dollars to do so. .... JB
Id buy a bigger heat press, and it would be auto open.
Install a/c where the heat press is located!! (the a/c is in the back of the shop....a whole room away from the press!)
I would start going to networking events and groups right away and not wait 3 yrs before discovering they were a great source of potential clients.
Other than that....I dont think Id change anything else. Everything happened when it was suppose to and fell into place when we needed it to.
If I had it to do over, he only thing I would do differently is with regard to the embroidery side of my biz: I'd consider a used machine, and I would buy inexpensive digitizing software to learn on (read: figure out what's crap and what's not).
I would've not taken any advice from friends but rather spent more time on this site asking questions. Rather than using Craigslist as a source to find a Graphic Designer, I would've gone straight to Elance and posted my projects. I would've also used Elance to setup my ecommerce website rather than taking advice from my brothers IT friend that wanted to charge me $150 a month to host my website...I could've had the same service from GoDaddy for $10. Instead of dealing with an attorney who ripped me off...again advice from my brothers friend, I would've just gone to Legal Zoom and filed for and S-Corp.
I would've not taken any advice from friends but rather spent more time on this site asking questions. Rather than using Craigslist as a source to find a Graphic Designer, I would've gone straight to Elance and posted my projects. I would've also used Elance to setup my ecommerce website rather than taking advice from my brothers IT friend that wanted to charge me $150 a month to host my website...I could've had the same service from GoDaddy for $10. Instead of dealing with an attorney who ripped me off...again advice from my brothers friend, I would've just gone to Legal Zoom and filed for and S-Corp.
I had to get this out!!!!!!!
Ain't that the way...when you have an idea, suddenly everybody around you is an expert! If I had a buck for every time someone told me "you should do...", I could retire. Funny thing is, most of the people who offer unsolicited advice have never been in my shop, and really have no idea what I do or how I do it.
If you were starting over... 
J/K Hubby! 
I would use all the money we spent on the wedding for lottery tickets!!! If we didn't hit, I'd go to graphics design school before buying a press.
