My husband is an auto body painter, he is trying to start his own business, mainly doing custom paint and graphics on motorcycles, guitars and building a business slowly to where he can get a small shop and start doing cars as well. He is looking to purchase a plotter, he has limited experience with plotters, and is not the most computer efficient person. I will be doing most of his computer work and setting up until he starts to get the hang of it, I am also new to plotters, but not computers and software programs. I know Adobe pretty well, but not Corel all that well, although I'm sure I can teach myself that, since that seems to be the software of choice in the plotter arena.
Anyway, we were looking at printer/plotters to start off with, but we don't have a whole lot of money to put into one, we were looking at the Roland ColorCAM-1 and thinking of purchasing that one, so that we can print off some stickers, and also cut out some stencils for my husband to paint from, as well as vinyl graphics and letters to apply to cars and motorcycles.
Can anyone tell me if the roland colorcams are worth the money for what we want to do, or if there is another plotter that will do what we want it to do that is still reasonable priced. Or if we should just forget the color printing and get just a cutter?
Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you, Debra Miller
-------------------- Henry Miller Liquid-FX Fredericksburg, VA liquid-fx@adelphia.net Posts: 10 | From: Virginia | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
Hello Debra / Henry...and welcome to Letterville.
You won't find a better, more knowledgeable group of people to help you anywhere. And yes, we're slightly disfunctional...but what family isn't?
Check out the Future Live Meets Page and go to one. I've only ever attended a mini-meet, but intend to start attending some meets next year. Maybe we'll meet at one.
If you use the Search Page you will find that Roland's ColorCamm has been discussed at length here in the past. In my opinion, you would be much better off with a Gerber EDGE (also search worthy) for a number of reasons...that all kinda boil down to WAY better return on investment.
Don't let the higher price scare you away from making a better decision for your new business...even if it means delaying your purchase until you are in a better position to afford it. You can find used/refurbished equipment and affordable financing if you look for it.
For plotters, my money is on Summa . If you do plan to go the EDGE route, however, you might want to start with a Gerber plotter that is compatible with the EDGE. Check out Gerber's website and contact a nearby dealer.
Whatever you do, start with a well-developed plan. Given what I do for a living, that will sound like a commercial. It isn't meant to. There is plenty of good advice on Business Planning and Strategic Planning on the web. One good place to start: Small Business Administration. Don't make the mistake of thinking that you only need a business plan if you need to find financing.
Good luck!
-------------------- Jon Aston MARKETING PARTNERS "Strategy, Marketing and Business Development" Tel 705-719-9209 Posts: 1724 | From: Barrie, ON, CANADA | Registered: Sep 2000
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