What's your day job?

[Traynor26]

Hi all,

still serving in the military at the moment, have about 9 years left to serve so thought i had better start dipping my toe into different things to see what is out there, last year i bought a number plate business and had a really good year.

Still going to do the number plates, but have just bought all the kit to do mugs, simple design for my soldier friends, Cap badge on one side, rank and name on the other with how they take thier tea and coffee..........so far going really well.

looking at a flat press in the summer to do coasters and mouse matts as i also have coasts of arms software,

Cheers

Lee

[Andrew]

I work full-time in Sublimation amongst a few other processes but mainly subli. Actually employ 4 others so subli pays quite a few bills. The last year has got harder but printed for many big brands like Rolls-Royce, BMW, BAE and so on. I also supply another niche industry with our products which was where we started but I'll keep that one close to my chest for now

We do a lot of trade work these days to try and cut down the number of customers we deal with as customers are annoying.

[AJLA]

Ha Ha !!!Tell me about it I have a constant stream of annoying ones in the shop (shouldn't really moan as they have kept me in business for 18 years)

[purpledragon]

Was working for our local authority as Supervisor for the refuse/recycling,
A neck and shoulder injury has put me out of work for the past 18 months and then at the end of that i had a bloody heart attack (it never rains but it pours) ive since found out that im not getting my job back so it looks like what was pocket money is now going to be my main income and to be honest im bloody worried so any tips you guys got much appreciate it
Brett

[Justin]

Sorry to hear about your run of bad luck Brett.

If we can help with any ideas and suggestions I'm sure we will.

Justin

[AJLA]

Oh my god!
That is awful, something you don't expect at that age, how frightening.
I hope you're feeling fit and well now.

[Andrew]

Brett - you should be able to find quite a bit of work down where you are. Especially with the Spring/Summer on the way. So many caravan parks and tourist areas about. Get a camera out and take some sample shots of local beaches and attractions relative to the area and print them up. Take the samples out and about to all the small shops and see what interest you can get. Just make it personal to the area you are selling to. You could take several shots around a caravan park of the pool/ clubhouse/ playground etc and stick them on a mug and mousemat with a slogan and easily sell a first order of 24 into the site shop then top-up through the season.

[purpledragon]

I'll be trying that this year also we have a lot of equestrian products so ill be hitting the riding stables too. I'll be honest i dont hold out a lot of hope on the gist shop side of things, the shop owners area tight bunch round here i used to sell framed photos but the shops wanted 40% of the sold price plus a charge for putting them in the shop .

Yes mandy very frightening not something you expect at the grand old age of 43 i suppose years of smoking didnt help but hey what dont kill ya makes ya strnger or so they say
Brett

[Bob700]

I'm an insurance underwriter, so I sit at a desk all day long dreaming of escape, by night I play guitar and blurt out tunes in social clubs in Glsgow, I would love to leave my job and get into the printing business full time but a mortgage forbids this at the moment. A few years ago I lived in Tenerife, I had a vinyl cutter and was printing T shirts, I also supplied curry and pakora to local bars and friends and by night I was playing guitar in bars, talk about living the dream. My wife and son could not take to the life there so I came back to the tax ridden UK kicking and screaming

[flatcap]

started off as a bricklayer until i done my back while waiting to get better, started doodling again and sent of a few cartoons to newspapers and sold them. The drawing started from there and just grew, got asked to do some caricatures from photos which grew in to a stand alone business. And i never went back to a grown ups job
in 2002 sold my house down south and moved to mablethorpe to become a live caricature artist mainly drawing tourists and i now do weddings parties etc as well.
Then i had an idea to print my cartoon designs and found the other forum and the world of subli so now i am trying to build a print business along side the caricature doing mainly photo mugs and t shirts in my shop
just brought a craft robo but struggling with it at the moment.
sorry to hear about your bad luck brett