Hello everyone.
I'm a young businessman from Dublin, Ireland. I have various businesses ranging from Consumer Electronics High Street Shops & E Commerce Platforms to owning and operating one of Ireland's premier Digital Marketing Agencies.
Just prior to Christmas my wife started showing an interest in closing her creche and working from home this year, and printing is something she's extremely interested in doing.
So we started doing some research and identified the hardware required in the sense of printer, heat press, consumables and ink and accessories.
We've both watched an absolute ton of videos the last few weeks and have a good handle on what's required. Our consumer electronics business has a significantly high volume ebay account that can be used for selling products such as Tshirts, Mousemats Mugs, Water Bottles, Chopping Boards etc etc - I'd also be very confident in being able to have a standalone website highly optimised via SEO when it's time to launch and hold a prominent place in the Irish marketplace.
This forum has been an incredible source of knowledge for us to date, we've just joined last night and donated straight away due to the wealth of data that's available. I;d urge everyone to do the same.
Now to get started on the hardware research phase! I've recently picked up a Ricoh Aficio™ SG 3110DN for €50, know it's not the greatest but I know where it came from and know for a fact it was only used once around 2 years ago for a market research project then put in storage so I think I'm just gonna need cheap ink to clean out the pipes then decent ink to get it going.
For 50 quid, I had to grab it, but I am looking at larger printers for longer term usage also so if anyone has any major suggestions on that front with subsequent recommended ink, that would be greatly appreciated.
Looking at different types of press, although I do want to invest in a very good swing flat press - so suggestions welcome, the SubMeta St-3042 seems a decent enough kit to start off with, and subsequently use for smaller items longer term - I've got multiple contacts in the far east manufacturing community and am confident I've found the source factory to avoid clones.
Also secured blank sourcing from the far east but it's always good to have a European based backup so looking into that now.
It's very much in pre-launch phase at present and we're educating ourselves massively at present, looking forward to being able to help others in the future!