Engraving Business startup

[Ariel Echevarria]

Agreed! I do not plan on even looking at any kind of Tshirt making machine at this point. right now I am concentrating on other avenues.

[Ariel Echevarria]

Starting from home....heck no. Maybe as the business grows yes. I understand that you are giving me examples, but what you stated about figuring out monthly costs etc is pretty much basic business. Of course, some people do not have any business background so they would not understand that 5k in sales is not 5k in profit. I do not think I will have 3k a month in fixed costs, especially from home. I could see that if I leased a shop, leased 4 or 5 pieces of large equipment,etc but Im not at this point. Right now this is small fries, small steps to work my way up so I can take what ever profit I do make and reinvest into the business. I have a good paying fulltime job right now so I don't have to worry about making a living at this business right off the bat. I have some cushion to be able to build a strong foundation and build up. This is a marathon for me and my wife not a sprint to the finish line. So yes, in time, I do believe that I can pull in 144k a year eventually.

[Ross Moshinsky]

Starting from home....heck no. Maybe as the business grows yes. I understand that you are giving me examples, but what you stated about figuring out monthly costs etc is pretty much basic business. Of course, some people do not have any business background so they would not understand that 5k in sales is not 5k in profit. I do not think I will have 3k a month in fixed costs, especially from home. I could see that if I leased a shop, leased 4 or 5 pieces of large equipment,etc but Im not at this point. Right now this is small fries, small steps to work my way up so I can take what ever profit I do make and reinvest into the business. I have a good paying fulltime job right now so I don't have to worry about making a living at this business right off the bat. I have some cushion to be able to build a strong foundation and build up. This is a marathon for me and my wife not a sprint to the finish line. So yes, in time, I do believe that I can pull in 144k a year eventually.

My biggest suggestion would be not to base your business based on running it out of your home unless your long term goal is to work out of your home. The biggest mistake new business owners make is basing their business plan on their current expenses despite having a real goal/need of expanding in the new future. If the rate of growth doesn't match your rate of expansion, you'll be out of business in that magical 18 month period. That's why you have to pretend like you have real fixed costs and think longer term. If you don't, it's problematic in the future.

[Ariel Echevarria]

I see what you are saying. I think I may have worded what I was saying wrong. I'm always thinking long term. I know that I will eventually need a store front and with that comes a lease $800-1600 a month, water, electricity, insurance, etc etc. So yes I could easily reach 5k a month in fixed expenses in a short period of time. I'm just not there yet. I'm just starting out right now, no equipment, nothing. So I'm focusing on the present while keeping an eye on the future. Everyone keeps saying...well in such and such time you need to be at this level or you WILL FAIL!!!! Truth is its not like that with every one. Some chug along for a few years before hitting that big job that sets them over the top, some get that job in the first 6 months. The bottomline I am trying to say is that I will be working in the present and planning for the future.

[AL Ursich]

Military Market... I am a +1 on getting a Sublimation setup too.... and a +1 on getting a web name that fits.... You will want to be found long after the sale and having a site is the very best way... I have 3 with the 2nd one bringing in 95% of my Business as I show up in a Search on page 1 with the Big Boys just due to the name and lots of pictures of end product... The 3rd site I searched on a whim and found it had expired the previous year and will be "Golden" when I develop that line of Products... And a word of Wisdom on searching for a new name... Be ready to buy it at that time.... I did a search for my first choice in 2007 and wanted to think about it... Next day someone had seen my search and had a "$5K, YOU CAN HAVE THIS NAME..." page... I picked something different...

Sublimation can do a really GREAT Ceramic Tile... Many shapes are avaliable... A Round, Square, or Rectangle would be GREAT inlayed into a PLAQUE with a Full Color Unit Logo... AND Laser Engraved Text..... OR CLTT Text... The CarveWright Forum has some posts with Cribbage Boards that can be designed for a Inlay of a Ceramic Tile. Something I think the Military Market would like.

Stainless Water Bottles can be done in a Oven with a Wrap that holds the Transfer tight to the Bottle... I would believe a big Military Seller... Especially over in the Sand Box... You can do Coffee Cups too with a Wrap... I have a Mug Press but a Wrap is more Flexable... Longer or taller transfers.

As for CLTT, I did some Ceramic Tiles but even with a post bake you could scratch off the print.... Sublimation is dishwasher safe... It gets locked into the Poly pores. I gave up on CLTT.. Many do CLTT on Brass Tags with just a black toner Laser Jet Printer... For Plaques they love them..... That might be a QUICK Moneymaker for you.

Good Luck,

AL

I am retired Navy. Thank YOU for your service.

[Ariel Echevarria]

I see you are from PA. My Wife is from Birdsboro,PA. Anyway, back to the discussion. There are numerous Guard bases in Oregon. I know that my town has one of them. So, I agree that I need to market to the military as well. I've seen ALOT of awards and plaques from trophy shops in town that are hanging up on our wall...some were very poor quality and at times it would be a good 4-7 days of waiting until the plaque was ready for pick up. To me that's unacceptable. I can see 2 days and at the most 3 if you are backed up but these plaques are literally 3 lines of text and most of the time a cheap photo is place in a plastic photo holder and placed on the plaque. VERY cheap looking and I'm sure they were charged a good hefty price for such crud. Right now, I am looking at heat presses and will probably get a few Dye sub sheets printed at mytransfer to try out some ideas. I saw those Mug wraps on the internet. I've seen people not reccomend CactusWraps. Does any one have a good recommendation on these wraps? Also, when you say "Oven" does it have to be a convection oven or can you use a conventional over i.e like the ones in the kitchen.

[Mike Null]

It does not have to be a convection oven. You can buy good wraps from Johnson Plastics and JDS and also Conde among others.

[Ariel Echevarria]

So, since it doesn't have to be a convection oven, I've seen where using an oven that you cook in is not reccommended. Why is that? Either way if I can find a decent convection oven for under a hundred bucks I'll just do that to avoid any issues that could arise.

[AL Ursich]

If you decide to go the Wrap Method then you can use either type of oven for post bake for CLTT to harden the transfered image.

Johnson Plastics is the company that set me up with almost all my equipment and has been outstanding... They have a Forum that is worth a read... Conde has one too I believe.... and another I visit daily is Engraving Etc. a place that taught me Epoxy Doming of Tags, something that has been a good seller.

With Sublimation you can do Photo Dog Tags a big seller in the Sand Box Support Market.... Add a Epoxy Dome and you have a pretty slick product.

Good Luck.

[Rudy Ress]

Al,
Could you post a picture of one of your epoxy domed photo dog tags please. I assume the whole one side with the photo is domed - correct?
Regards Rudy

[Ariel Echevarria]

Yeah I would like to see an example of the domed dog tags as well. I think that would do really well here. Not to profit on the war but I know that families would love a "Dog Tag" with a picture of their deployed loved ones around their necks. I've been able to find decent Convection ovens on Craigslist around my town for 14 bucks. They are not huge but would be big enough to fit about 6 mugs at a time. I'm still trying to get experience with making Dye sub stuff so I think I am going to make some cool coffee mugs for my co-workers with special designs for each person for christmas.

[AL Ursich]

Sorry, I did not take a picture of them but due to the Doming I use some Eyelets and made the hole bigger. The Eyelet prevented the Epoxy from Cracking at the hole with the chain. Like my Fire Tags, I use a Grommet. You can see the Epoxy best on the upper right, I usually only dome the front. With the ID Clip Version the plastic clip doesn't damage the epoxy. My first dog tags chipped from the chain before the eyelet.

AL

[Ariel Echevarria]

Hey everyone! So, I'm playing around with CorelDrawx6. I made an image for a car flag that I think would go well with the students and faculty of OIT (Oregon Institute of Technology). It's my first time trying this. I found a picture of the mascot but when I imported it and tried to make the colors for the flag background i noticed that the mascot picture had a white box. I searched and searched to try and find a way to make the background of that image transparent but couldn't find it. So I took the image into CorelPhoto and used the cut tool to cut the image out and import back into CorelDraw. I notice some of the lines are a little off but I am sure that someone out here can give me some pointers. Here is the image hopefully it comes out ok on here. OIT.jpg

[Jim Good]

Ariel,

Give this link a try: White Box

Jim

[Ariel Echevarria]

Awesome website Jim! I'm gonna redo the previous design to try this out and do some other stuff for the other schools/Organizations in town.