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I'm still new to the vinyl cutting world.  I have my SC2 up and running and it's working great, but I'm not sure the best way to make money with it.  What kind of products sell the best for you all?

~6" decals for car windows, laptops, Hydroflasks or smaller items

Larger car decals

Home Interior wall decals

Custom orders of business window fronts (hours or names on doors)

Large windowfront signage for businesses

Making Vinyl Stencils and painting on wooden things

HTV and making t-shirts, caps etc...

Vinyl on drinking glasses, or stencils for sandbalsting on glasses?

A combination of some of these maybe?  Are there other things I'm missing that are good moneymakers?

 

 

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good luck man, i'm in the same boat i guess been cutting since Valentines day and so far ive done a few in memory stickers for cars, some bigger graphics for a truck, about 20 shirts total and few other odd and ends but all where for friends, I still not sure how to get my name out there. that is what i'm finding the hardest thing

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First off, what was your plan when you got a vinyl cutter?  You should have had goals already set up...What works for someone else may not work for you.  You can hand a person a fully paid off business, and they can fail. if they don't have enough ambition and know how to make it work.  It's all up to YOU to create your own niche' , not what everyone else is doing.  That is your problem, your trying to do what everyone else is doing. I do not sell anything local, I sell to the USA.  And it has supported me for 11 years.  My quality, prices, and great detailed work, and unique designs bring me customers and repeat buyers.  I have never changed what I started doing,  I just added to it. If your only going to sell local, you are pretty limited, you will have to create something for only your area, and price it for your area. 

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8 minutes ago, MZ SKEETER said:

First off, what was your plan when you got a vinyl cutter?  You should have had goals already set up...What works for someone else may not work for you.  You can hand a person a fully paid off business, and they can fail. if they don't have enough ambition and know how to make it work.  It's all up to YOU to create your own niche' , not what everyone else is doing.  That is your problem, your trying to do what everyone else is doing. I do not sell anything local, I sell to the USA.  And it has supported me for 11 years.  My quality, prices, and great detailed work, and unique designs bring me customers and repeat buyers. 

Honestly... I didn't really have much of a plan.  I have a CNC plasma cutting table and over the past 10 years or so, I've made a lot of metal art and signs, but I can't get super detailed like some of my customers wanted me to with lettering and stuff like that.  So I thought I should get a vinyl cutter someday to add fine details like that to my metal work, but never pulled the trigger.  Plus I have a bunch of off road trails and a gun range on my property and want to make a bunch of signs for them, so I had a personal interest as well.

Recently I had a friend that wanted to buy a firearm from me.  He didn't have the cash but told me he'd put whatever I wanted to buy on his credit card in trade, so I said let's do it!

I really wanted it more of a toy than anything, but was hoping I could also make some money off it as well.  If I can't... no big deal.  I can use it for friends and my trail signs and add to my metal work, but if I can make some good money with it, even better!   I was hoping to hear something like "Small, back window car stickers have very low margins" or "I only make T-shirts now since they are my most profitable item" or something like that.

 

 

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Yes, tons of people make small decals,  there is no money in it. Unless your selling 100 plus every day.  Your killing yourself doing that. If you look on Ebay,  People are selling dirt cheap,, 99 cents and free shipping,  can you compete with that?     My most popular decals run from $50-  $125.. a set.  I only have to sell a few a week.  not 100's a day.  What  most people are selling as far as  $5.00 decals,  That is my scrap.  So those would be free to me, but I let the cheap Ebay sellers mess with that stuff,  waste of my time. 

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You need to find a niche of your own to sell in. Its all about what gets you the best money for your time. Sure, you can sell 100+ decals a day and spend all day making those decals because of the weeding and prep work and time involved in packaging and shipping. Or, you can find a niche (possibly bigger items) that you can sell 3 a day, it takes you 2-3 hours to make and get packaged. I teach at the college level and if Im not making more money in my side business (vinyl) then I'll just work extra hours in my day job. The niche Im in I make 100$/hr easy but I only put in about 10 hours a week total. Make these cutters work for you...they are money making machines but you have to go about it the right way. Make small decals for friends....you wont make any good money trying to do it for a living. Find a niche (top dollar with little effort).

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I do mostly signs 4ftx8ft or larger, banners, Coro signs and lighted signs I never got into cutting small decals. The signage is only like part time addition to my handyman business also I install for other sign companies so I try not to compete against them.

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Trucks.

Get involved with local truck dealers, they always have jobs for the doors on new trucks they sell (company names and DOT#s)

 

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Stickers are a good idea to start a business in a not-so-popular city. If you are located in a huge metropolis, then such a business will bring very little money due to competition and more profitable and large-scale offers.
I started my business this fall after reading an article about
best business ideas and I liked one of them.
I chose banner printing. This is a bit like your business, because I understand how you can start all this now!
I had some problems starting this business, I couldn't find a good supplier of materials. As a result, my colleague from a previous job helped me with a good supplier in my city.
You need to find good printers to get high-quality stickers, otherwise no one will buy them. This is verified since I bought the very first printer that was cheap. My advertising banners were of really poor quality. After that, I took better printers.

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