Advice: Looking to Grow Outside of Home Business

1753 Views 11 Replies 7 Participants Last post by Ascet, Feb 4, 2022

OCDesign

Discussion Starter · Mar 10, 2018

Hello all! I’m new to this forum. I have been running a vinyl business (apparel and sign) for roughly 3-4 years as a side job and recently went full-time about 4 months ago.

My business is growing at a steady pace and I’m very much outgrowing my limitations. I currently design with Adobe Illustrator, cut my vinyl on a Graphtec ce6000-60 with Cutting Master 3, and an 11”x15” Hotronix heat press. I get my vinyl from Stahls and prefer to use their Premium Plus because of the soft-hand feel. I really like the quality over typical plastisol screen printing because it’s light, stretches, and doesn’t crack.

I also do some storefront sign and lettering work as well as boat names and graphics.

My biggest issue is that I am limited to my equipment’s capabilities, or lack there of at times. I have a hard time keeping up with quantity as doing apparel by hand gets to be a bit much after 30-40 pieces. I have a decent amount of resources for ordering wholesale apparel blanks and other items.

I have outgrown my home business, I believe, and am looking to grow but have no idea which piece of equipment would be the best solution in the immediate future. Most printers around my area are primarily doing plastisol screen printing, which I assume is because of lower cost and ease of application, but I don’t want to do the same ol’ thing. If I did do screen prints, I was toying around with the idea of using water-based inks or going with DTG printing.

I have to turn work down because I cannot do full-color and photorealistic design on apparel and signs. And I know that, in most cases, if you’re printing on outdoor sign vinyl that the best practice is to laminate it as well—another cost for a machine.

I was originally thinking an embroidery machine but once I thought about it, I don’t have a huge demand for embroidery currently.

I apologize for the length of this. I am in the process of looking into a business plan to get a business loan and need to get my costs/finances together properly. Any and all help is definitely appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Matt
Oddly Creative Design
oddlycreativedesign.com

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Biverson

· #2 · Mar 10, 2018

Stay in your home for as long as you can.

I'd suggest finding a good contract printer to take on those larger orders. That will get you some income without diving into the equipment purchases. If you've got a building you're looking at rent or a mortgage, taxes, moving, getting manual or automatic press, conveyor dryer, flash dryer, inks, screens, emulsion, inkjet printer for films, washout booth, pressure washer, cleaning chemicals, dark room, exposure unit, and I'm sure I'm missing some. Then learning how to put all of it into a system that works well together and produce quality apparel, all the while still doing customer service, designing, cleaning, marketing,and pretty much everything else. Would you then get embroidery too? If you want to go waterbase versus plastisol there's a huge learning curve there and it's slower production, so other areas of service could suffer. Or you'd have to price jobs higher to cover your overhead and would your market be willing to pay more for waterbase, or go down to Joe'smoes shop and get them for a buck or two cheaper with plastisol? Could you then afford to hire someone on top of all that?

I'm in NO WAY saying you can't do it, but trying to give you good questions to ask and think about as I went through and am going through all of this, and am still home based.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Amw

· #3 · Mar 10, 2018

Biverson said:
Stay in your home for as long as you can.

That is the best advice you will get!

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OCDesign

Discussion Starter · #4 · Mar 10, 2018 (Edited)

Biverson said:
Stay in your home for as long as you can.

I'd suggest finding a good contract printer to take on those larger orders. That will get you some income without diving into the equipment purchases. If you've got a building you're looking at rent or a mortgage, taxes, moving, getting manual or automatic press, conveyor dryer, flash dryer, inks, screens, emulsion, inkjet printer for films, washout booth, pressure washer, cleaning chemicals, dark room, exposure unit, and I'm sure I'm missing some. Then learning how to put all of it into a system that works well together and produce quality apparel, all the while still doing customer service, designing, cleaning, marketing,and pretty much everything else. Would you then get embroidery too? If you want to go waterbase versus plastisol there's a huge learning curve there and it's slower production, so other areas of service could suffer. Or you'd have to price jobs higher to cover your overhead and would your market be willing to pay more for waterbase, or go down to Joe'smoes shop and get them for a buck or two cheaper with plastisol? Could you then afford to hire someone on top of all that?

I'm in NO WAY saying you can't do it, but trying to give you good questions to ask and think about as I went through and am going through all of this, and am still home based.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I do have a local company I work with for my embroidery. I get what you are saying in regards to the plastisol v water-based scenario and it makes sense.

I also get the fact that all of the equipment will have its own price tag associated but at what point do you make the transition? Do I keep plugging away, as is, and hope that I can make a big enough name for myself? [read with no sarcasm]

If I keep it home-based, is there another piece of equipment that is small enough that would make sense to get that would either help decrease production time or increase sales opportunities?

I’m also open to suggestions on other vinyl suppliers but I have been happy with Stahls and they are located in-state so shipping is almost overnight. And anything that helps reduce scorching on apparel? I am using one of their lowest temp materials and shortest application times but because I end up doing multiple color imprints, I end up have to basically press the entire shirt to help blend the marks from the press.

Or is a better idea to be able to go mobile? I know that there are a lot of companies that can almost make their month by showing up to an event where they can custom print on -site. It would still require some up-front cost but much more minimal and could lead to more of quicker profit.

Thank you for your original reply!

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danversatrans

· #5 · Mar 12, 2018

Welcome to the forum

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OCDesign

Discussion Starter · #6 · Mar 13, 2018

danversatrans said:
Welcome to the forum

Thank you! Nice to be here!

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proworlded

· #7 · Mar 14, 2018

Welcome to the forum. Nice to have you with us.

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danversatrans

· #8 · Mar 14, 2018

OCDesign said:
Thank you! Nice to be here!

Also contact transfer companies to get samples. As well as vinyl samples and do your homework and go from there

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Cbosx

· #9 · Mar 15, 2018

Yes to contract printing!

Our shop prints for several other businesses, like that. We have different wholesale pricing tiers. They'll start out higher, and after we've done a few orders/established a good relationship, we'll give better pricing.

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OCDesign

Discussion Starter · #10 · Mar 22, 2018

Cbosx said:
Yes to contract printing!

Our shop prints for several other businesses, like that. We have different wholesale pricing tiers. They'll start out higher, and after we've done a few orders/established a good relationship, we'll give better pricing.

Thanks! Yes, I’ve sought printers that have given me contract pricing for larger quantity orders and embroidery.

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OCDesign

Discussion Starter · #11 · Mar 22, 2018

At what point (and maybe it’s different for everybody) do you, or should you, think about expanding to a commercial property and more equipment?

The fear I always have is that I could be doing more and I’m missing out on potential orders.

Thanks for all the replies! If I’ve learned nothing else in the last for years, I’ve leatned to be patient (thanks to Gary Vee)!!! So what I’m finding is that my niche is with small businesses that want to market themselves and their employees but don’t want to pay for the larger orders that the bigger companies require for a minimum order. So that’s the lane I’ll stay in for now.

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Ascet

· #12 · Feb 4, 2022 (Edited)

Honestly, I think the businesses you can keep at home are the best kind. That is because you don't lose time moving from one place to the other as I do. I started my business four years ago. I started outgrowing myself just like you and needed more machines. But I didn't have money for them at the time. So I took a mortgage from Mortgage Broker Cambridge and bought them. Everything started to be simpler after that. So you should definitely buy more equipment. I suggest an excellent contract printer, especially for the big orders.

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