Topic awaiting preservation: Need research help. (Page 1 of 1)

All my internet searches have turned out to be false for exactly what I want. I need to research what it would take to start a company in my area dealing with print graphics. Things that the company would print would be anything from posters, stationary, church bulletins, letterheads, business cards, logos, stickers and the like. Basically anything dealing with some form of paper or vinyl I guess for stickers.

I need to know what types of software I can use to accomplish this. I'm sure it would be PS, Illustrator, Page-maker. Also what hardware. Types of printers that will let me do these things. Will I be able to use the same type of printer with all materials. Cutters...

I can vision the business, and I think it would be a great way to make money while doing something I enjoy. Please post some links where I can find out what exactly I will need to start up. I'll need a business plan to show banks or whoever I borrow the start up money from. I hope I'm going about that the right way. I figure that I need some categories:

Housing - A shop to work out of. Will provide several locations and the projected cost of each for Month and Year.

Equipment - Printers, Cutters, Software, Computers, Registers, Shelving. This would be a start up cost. Shouldn't have to upgrade this stuff all the time, but it will get old some day.

Stock - Papers and the like, ink, any thing that I will be using up. Will provide the types and cost of all materials and a projected cost of each for Month and Year.

Utilities - Got to pay the light bill. Will provide an estimate of how much I would be spending monthly and yearly.

Setup - I could probably save money here by setting up the system myself. Running cat5 cables, setting up servers ect...

Website - I hope to be doing business over the internet also. If there are 500 people in your area, then you have 500 potential customers. But with the internet you have a lot of potential customers. I will provide the cost of maintaining the website, hosting costs, and costs if I were to host the site at my establishment. (Probably not a good idea to start off with. Could always move it.)

Thanks for reading all this. Please post some links that will help me research my project.

God bless,
Atomic

Heidleberg ( http://imagingexcellence.com/heidelbergquickmasterDI.htm ) makes great digital printing presses. Besides creation software (adobe, quark) you'll also need imposing software (imposition) and ripping software. (postershop for posters, heidleberg di come with it's own rip) Ink and paper will depend alot on the type of press you choose, we expermented with a couple of inks on our press with mixed resultes, off the top of my head, I don't recall what we settled for.

One bit of advice that I cannot over stress, STAY AWAY FROM XEROX! THEY SUCK, THEY'LL CHEW YOU UP AND SPIT YOU OUT. THE DON'T DEVELOP THEIR MACHINES, THEY STEAL THEM AND HAVEN'T A CLUE HOW TO MAKE THEM WORK. If a XEROX salesman darkened my door, I would kindly ask him to return my shoe after he digs it back out of his ass.

Just my 2 cents.

Me Again?