Trophy Materials start up costs

[Andrew O'Hara]

Hello all,

I am meeting with the bank regarding my business expansion into trophy and plaque making.
I have the cost of the rotary engraving machine I will be purchasing.
However, I also want to have a ball park cost of what my material supplies cost for startup will be.
We will be focussing on our cliental being mostly sports teams and group awards. So it will consist mainly of Trophies, plaques and medals and the personalization plates to apply to the tophy bases and plaques.
Based on that can anyone suggest a decent ballpark figure to have for material startup cost. I'd like to have enough material to practice on as well as enough on hand to produce 3-5 teams items.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Colin Jenkins]

That's a tough question I guess. I knew a lady who bought a sheet of every single color of Rowmark to use as a display for her new engraving business most of which she'll never sell. We started ours with $40 to buy a couple of cases of marble and a handful of trophy parts to make samples to show to our first customer. Once we got that order, we bought what we needed to fill the order. This was in 1992 so prices have gone up. You will need display samples first of all so I would estimate maybe $1000 on the high-side. This should cover the materials you need for practicing on. One word of advice would be to limit customer's choice to maybe 10 fonts and 6-8 engraving material choices. I'm happy to talk to you offline if you have any questions.

[Mike Troncalli]

Are you doing this a a store front or web based business? If web based then you really don't need much of anything until you receive orders. If it is a store front then your looking at some possible serious $$ outlay...

[Gary Hair]

One word of advice would be to limit customer's choice to maybe 10 fonts and 6-8 engraving material choices.

I can't even tell you how important this is. Most people get overwhelmed when you tell them they can choose any font they like and send a link with all the Rowmark colors. Best to follow Colin's advice and limit it. I use Arial, Calibri, Palatino, Edwardian and a few others - that gives them plain, less plain, not so scripty and very scripty - not much need for more than that!

[Ross Moshinsky]

You "need" the following:

1. Engraver
2. Sheer
3. Saw(s)
4. Corner notcher
5. Misc Hand Tools
6. Design Software
7. Sublimation printer
8. Heat press

The rest is up to you. You could buy a store full of inventory or you could keep a light inventory and order as you need. Also it boils down to personal preference on a lot of things. Some people like marble bases, others plastic. Some people won't sell laminate plaques, others sell a lot. Some use aluminum for trophy plates, others use thin plastic. Some people use precut plaque plates, others cut their own. It really depends on what you want to do.

[Mark Sipes]

Ditto on the fonts. I have a selection of 8 fonts I allow my plaque customers to work with Old English, Arial, Slanting Script, Garamond, Optimal, Tango, Park Ave, English Script. Even 8 fonts tend to overwhelm them. Your new machine will come with a set of standard fonts for you to work with. For Trophies I use one font and create a template so I can just import the players names and push engrave. Garamond. Same with medals. Limit your plastics to the basics. Black, White, Red, Blue and Green, Gold and Silver. no more than 2 sheets, same with metals. Then as necessary you can add. Don't get carried away with trying to please everybody in the beginning. Create a line of Sports Awards and a style of medals and stick to it. If you buy awards that use columns you can adjust the length of the column for 1st, 2nd, 3rd. or you can buy Blue, Red and Green columns and still vary the length. Just look on-line for the different set-ups.

I buy Victory plates and plaques for the high end and PDU/JDS for the Low end.. Then as necessary you can add. Ask your distributor for a sample set or pricing on your first order. Most will cut you a break for a series of award/medals for samples. Medals need neck ribbons. Do your homework. School colors, RWB, and solid R, W and B.

Where are you located?? What machine are you going with.. we would all like to help you get established. Back to your question. $400-500

.

[Tim Bateson]

To secure a full inventory of Trophies & Plaques would be a huge undertaking, with a massive inventory. That's just for a minimum supply of all of the options.
When I started the Trophy part of my business I offered a Blue/Gold column or a Red/Gold column with a marble base. As well as a male or female topper. This both limited my costs and inventory. Just as stated above about offering a fixed set of fonts, offering a fixed set of options works great too.

[Chris Corwin]

Check Craig's list for materials. I see from time to time trophy businesses being liquidated for pennies on the dollar. That's how I got my laser engraver super cheap.

[Bill Stearns]

ANDREW -
Up and above figuring out the amount of inventory needed to venture into the categories you mention (i.e. trophies, plaques, medals ‘n such) - don’t overlook doing ‘little marketing research ‘fore investing too much. Myself, I’ve found that many sports teams ‘n associations already have well-established sources for trophies, plaques, medals, etc. Given the time-sensitive pressures of organizing tournaments ‘n events, it’s often easier for those in charge to stick with businesses they’ve used in the past. Just suggesting: be sure that you have the contacts, and in-roads, to acquire the amount of (sports related) business you’ll need to off-set whatever investment you make. (‘cause you’ll, no doubt, be robbing business from somebody else, right?) Point in case: I know several engraving business ‘round my area who have stored ‘way, in their stockrooms, cases of columns, bases, outdated finials and awards they were never able to sell. (‘cause they didn’t take the time to understand potential customers needs; their current sources, competitive pressures, etc.) My other thought: I wouldn’t try to bedazzle your banker with too many specifics ‘bout the individual products you plan to expand into - typically, he, or she will care only ‘bout your ability to repay whatever type of loan. And, chances are that decision will be based on how you "are doing" - as much as how well you feel you "might do". With this said: expanding in to new 'n exciting categories, well ... it's key that we do, from time to time. Just thoughts! Wish you all the luck 'n the world!

Bill

[Jay Selway]

You can get tons of free fonts from google. https://www.google.com/fonts

Also, if you purchase an adobe creative cloud license (assuming you go with illustrator rather than corel draw), you get access to typekit.

Plus, places like dafont.com have literally thousands of great free fonts.

[Mark Sipes]

Rotary machines do not handle TTF type fonts in the same manner as Lasers / Corel. Yes they can be engraved but as outlines, unless they the Rotary Software accepts PLT/DXF type graphics. OR you have a package like Engravelab running the machine. But since we don't know the make, model, etc. I'm just throwing ideas against the wall to see if they stick..

[Andrew O'Hara]

It will be store front, but it is run from my home based shop, not on a busy street. Many of the orders will be done over the phone and email.

[Andrew O'Hara]

very helpful, thank you!

[Andrew O'Hara]

I'm in New Brunswick, Canada. I'll be purchasing the Roland EGX-350 mainly because I have dealt with the same roland dealer for my printer for 11 years and their customer service has been top knotch.
Thank you so much for all the info, very helpful!

[Andrew O'Hara]

Thank you, this certainly helps. Much appreciated!

[Rodne Gold]

I would rather buy a laser engraver then the EGX 350 rotary engraver (which is a toy IMO and cannot really handle production..mickey mouse spindle power and so forth)
A laser will give you much more flexibility and the ability to produce your own stuff , it's also a ton quicker to do stuff the Rotary will take some time on , apart from better resolution and so on.
I have a really big trophy place and our rotaries do maybe 10% of the work.

[Bill Reibelt]

When I started with trophies I found that the customers/sport groups in your location will govern what you purchase when you start. Also check out the small towns around you. (Say within 50 miles). When ordering check the prices for box/packet lots. Example if you need 75 batter figures in Australia the box is 100 pieces at a set price. If you order the 75 pieces that you require then the cost will be more (add cost for some one to open a box and count out 25 and place them somewhere and seal your box of 75. Same with extension rods. My first real order I got because the lady who went to get the sport trophies for her club drove 400 Klm (About 300 miles) and was told that the club did not order the trophies with a 2 month time to complete and she saw my new sign and came in I got the order App $5000.00 worth and had the parts delivered next day and completed the order in 4 days. From this person I was doing App $ 25000 worth of trophies per year for 5 years. (I sold the business). I had a system of 10% off the price if paid with order. Great for stock & cash flow control. All clubs that I did the trophies for were very grateful for this. The price was built in and if the club did not pay upfront then the 10% extra cost to them assisted in the cash flow as well. In Australia there was only three trophy parts suppliers that were used by all shops, Very important if you use suppliers books BUY only the latest NEWEST items as the persons buying the trophies have seen the old catalogs and will only want the newest colours or themes. Very important if you say you will have their order ready on a date ensure that you have it completed. Sorry for the ramble hope some helps.