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was all worth it. The future looked even scarier. Another full-time employee means higher taxes, health care, and payroll.
INVENTORY
Well, to you fellow printers out there: Three rolls of poly-carb laminate and application adhesive will cost you $1,500-2,000. As you can imagine, my checkbook was starting to make me grouchy.
Don´t forget you´ll need 1/8'' and 1/4'' PVC, 3/16'' Fome-Cor®, and Gatorfoam®. Oh, and you´ll need each of these in white and black, and a place to put 4' x 8' sheets.
A wall cutter is another luxury you´ll soon need. You also have to keep track of inventory and order it ahead of time, which translates to me: "Keep two rolls of everything."
WASTE
Waste wasn´t my concern when I was outsourcing. Poly-carb is a lot more expensive than print media, and a 12'' x 108'' header means a lot of waste. A busy lamination
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business can gang up jobs to control waste, but we don´t enjoy such a luxury yet. We do save extra scrap pieces which litter our shop, and I fear most will never find a mate.
HAPPY LITTLE ENDING
We didn´t recover from our reduced cash flow for about four months, but we did recover, and things are running nicely. I feel a lot more control over our business, more flexibility in pricing and lead times, and I finally feel that we´re making a profit on the lamination side.
I am, however, still sick and twisted enough to expand our business once again. We recently purchased a vinyl plotter, about which I know nothing.
Not yet, anyway.
 Stephen Augustine
owns and operates
Eye Candy Graphics,
a graphic design and digital printing shop
in Denver.
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