Is a sign & print business viable these days?

[His Lordship]

An opportunity has come up to rent a nice little unit locally and I've been looking at setting up a business (again) for a while.

I have a history in graphic design and print as well as vinyl signage/decals, currently stuck in IT jobs that I despise but cant escape.

SO I was considering setting up doing vinyl signage (shops, vans, cars etc but not wraps) and specialist process printing such as screen print, e.g t-shirts, hoodies, tote bags, 'merch' etc...

But looking at the prices some of these custom things are going for on ebay etc, struggling to figure out if I can make a reliable income - I have no interest in working very hard for little-to-no profit.

There are other possibilities too but very niche and potentially hard to get reliable repeat business such as fine art reproduction (for the artist, limited edition print runs etc)

I have no interest in general print/copy work though as there is already a local printer doing this. nor out-sourcing.

Anyone with experience of this type of business?

[BGARK]

His Lordship said:

An opportunity has come up to rent a nice little unit locally and I've been looking at setting up a business (again) for a while.

I have a history in graphic design and print as well as vinyl signage/decals, currently stuck in IT jobs that I despise but cant escape.

SO I was considering setting up doing vinyl signage (shops, vans, cars etc but not wraps) and specialist process printing such as screen print, e.g t-shirts, hoodies, tote bags, 'merch' etc...

But looking at the prices some of these custom things are going for on ebay etc, struggling to figure out if I can make a reliable income - I have no interest in working very hard for little-to-no profit.

There are other possibilities too but very niche and potentially hard to get reliable repeat business such as fine art reproduction (for the artist, limited edition print runs etc)

I have no interest in general print/copy work though as there is already a local printer doing this. nor out-sourcing.

Anyone with experience of this type of business?

What about running an existing business that's similar or already somewhat established?

[Mark V GTD]

Nothing wrong with that. I’m a regular customer of a local similar sign and banner business in a small Lincs town, father and son operation and seem to do very well. Proprietor has a similar background to yourself but has a few decades in the sign business.

Clients generally seem to be haulage firms wanting livery applied and local small businesses wanting safety related signage. I’m sure they do a lot of other stuff too. I normally use them for masks for my aviation painting business.