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This is a long post so if you read the whole thing, thanks. I've been a one man show and an ASI distributor for 16 years. Have outsourced everything and worked out of my house the whole time and have a great book of business. Two things are occurring which are forcing change: my volume is exceeding what I can currently handle and my loyal printer is calling it quits. So I'm crunching numbers and looking to have my own shop with employees and the whole thing. So, I need advice and help on everything. I have a lot of experience in the industry and am very good at selling, but know nothing about the specifics of printing. Even if I did, there's not enough time in the day for me to handle all the sales and do the printing too. My volume is 150,000 impressions per year and consists of traditional plastisol printing and water based/discharge printing. Embroidery, promo products, and a small smattering of DTG make up the rest of my sales. My plan is to get an auto and full shop capable of doing everything on the screen printing side, and continue to outsource the DTG and embroidery until the volume warrants a purchase in those areas. So I'm looking for help on the auto press and dryer combo, where to find the quality employees, shop software, etc. I can tell you I'm leaning towards the diamondback 8 color and a matching electric dryer, and shopworx. I currently use quickbooks for everything; purchase orders, invoicing, quoting, etc. One avenue that I've been exploring is purchasing an existing company that has all of the above elements already in place. Problem is that there doesn't appear to be any companies for sale within two hours drive. Anyway, that's it. Please feel free to comment with any info and opinions you may have that would be helpful. Thanks.
