When your company is moving into a new office space, you have lots of opportunities to think through what might make your employees most comfortable. You think through layout: who needs an office versus who’s job is easily done in an open, shared space concept. You ponder the chairs you buy and desks you need, where the electrical outlets should go, and what egress should look like.

For serial entrepreneur Robert Preville, thinking through his company’s new space meant inspiring people. From employees to visitors, Robert wanted to offer a space that reflected the company’s core values.

“We’re a business-to-business equipment marketplace, where you can rent equipment, finance it, or purchase it,” said Preville. “I like to think of us as the Airbnb for equipment rentals, and the Lending Tree for finance. I want to have a workspace that inspires people toward those images.”

According to Preville, Kwipped has a strong ethos surround the concept of “Happy Work.” They promote a fun work/life balance and want to encourage people to ‘live happily.’

“Monday is the new Friday at Kwipped,” he said. “It’s a culture we want to instill as a foundation. Come to work and enjoy it, every day.”

He wanted a mural that would express this Happy Work concept… And then he priced it. $10,000 and up to a month’s time for the artist to produce. That just wasn’t an option.

Then he remembered The Wall Printer. He’d seen it on LinkedIn and wondered – might he be able to tap his creative employee to design a piece, and have it wall printed?

In stepped The Wall Printer and their local distributor, Writings on the Wall.

In just three hours, from arrival to departure, the Kwipped wall was transformed. The team got a kick out of watching it come to life, right before their eyes.

Preville says his team is inspired by it, that it’s one of many inspirational things that take place in the laid-back environment he’s creating. The wall print is part of what they’re building to encourage an intentional water cooler/Kegerator talk that’s fun and team building.

“It is so cool,” said Preville. “You know, you think about a mural one way. But this technology allows us to get, quickly and efficiently, what would have been a high-end artistic illustration. I look at The Wall Printer and think, it’s like Picasso on wheels.”

Watch the video and you, too, may get inspired.

You’ve decided to start something of your own.

You’ve searched, planned, and, voila. You’ve found the very business that you believe you can build the rest of your professional life on.

There’s only one glitch:

how are you going to gather the money to get it started?

There are several different ways to approach funding. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), once you determine how much you’ll really need  you can begin to look into all of the options.

• Self-funding: Otherwise known as bootstrapping, self-funding leverages your current financial resources to support starting your business. The upside is that you have significantly more control; the downside is that you carry all the risk yourself.
  Self-funding can come from investment or loans from friends and family, accessing current savings, or even tapping your retirement accounts. If you decide to tap a 401k, however, do be sure you analyze fees and/or penalties that might negatively impact your ability to retire on time. Check with your advisor or plan administrator.
• Venture capital: Accessing venture capital (VC) is a tricky endeavor. You must align with the VC’s mission, and generally be starting a high-growth company. The great part about it is that you are getting an investment – not a loan – and you’re getting a partner with deep roots. Those roots can help you grow more quickly and access resources that will move your business faster than you can alone. The downside is that other side of the coin: they’ll want a seat on your board and they will want a say in how you run your business.
• Crowdfunding: The option became very popular in the first couple of decades of the 21^st century. Essentially, crowdfunding taps a community of people to invest – actually, give with few strings attached — smaller amounts of money. They are in essence supporting your idea, generally in exchange for some form of gift in return. This is an ideal situation, of course, because people give you money with no strings attached (check the details on the crowdfunding platform you choose). The downside is that it’s not as easy as it sounds. To succeed, you’ll need to invest heavily in marketing your idea, with video, social media and email campaigns to draw attention to your offering over others.
• Get a Small Business Loan: If you want to have control over your business, and have the ability to demonstrate (via a business plan and expense sheet) just how you plan to succeed, then a small business loan may be your best bet. This requires outreach to banks and credit unions, with a keen eye toward overhead and interest rates – and your credit score, of course.
  • The SBA also guarantees loans. Sometimes banks will believe that your business is too high-risk for their investment. At these times, it is worth looking into an SBA-guaranteed loan. In this situation, you would select a bank that agrees to work with the SBA. It is generally worth looking into this as an option.

At The Wall Printer (TWP), we have teamed up with a lending option that helps you secure the funding needed to start your wall printing business. The benefits of working with Partners Capital Group for funding a vertical printing company are numerous:

• They’re already familiar with TWP and understand how well the business model can work.
• Zero down payment is required, and they work with you to allow for low monthly payments.
• Startups are accepted – which can often be a tripping point for other loan makers.
• A three-month deferral allows you time to set up the business and get a customer or two before making your first payment.
• The custom pack financing stands alongside their willingness to work with people who have credit scores ranging from A – D.
• There is a tax deduction available for these kinds of loans.

If you’re considering TWP and a wall printing business, talk to us. We might be able to help you get started more quickly than you could imagine.

When new products come to market, it often takes years for the benefits they offer to ‘sink in’ and make sense to a broad number of people.

The Journal of International Business published a study that analyzed data from the US and Korea. The findings were interesting, and the paper spent significant time discussing perceived brand globalness (PBG). The bottom line is that PBG significantly influences the likelihood of brand purchase,

“If a brand is perceived to be global, that creates value in the mind of consumers,” said co-author Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp, PhD. “Most of the value creation is through the fact that consumers ascribe products that are global to be of good quality.” The report also stated that the second impact of a global brand is prestige.

When the new concept of vertical printing started, it was in Asia and in Europe. In fact, the very first US-based company to enter the wall printing market was, and remains, The Wall Printer. Each of the companies that has started and grown from that 2020 launch considered the impact that the proven global marketplace would have on their ability to sell wall prints and murals domestically.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the feedback we’ve had about how global use impacted customer decisions:

1. Proof of concept and market: because vertical printing is such a new idea, knowing that it has taken hold overseas made a big difference. The fact that people not only used vertical printing but also embraced it for its efficiency and effectiveness made it easier to get on board.
2. Proof of market: Businesses across the world have spent the last couple of years learning what works and what doesn’t work in terms of positioning and market penetration. They’ve given us insights into how to sell effectively, and data to prove how well the products work and last.
3. Perceived stability: understanding that companies have started and prospered in Malaysia and Indonesia, from Iraq to Italy, and beyond, demonstrates that there is a market, that people from all walks of life can use it, and there’s a business case to be made.
4. Growth Opportunity: as the delivery of services has increased, so has the demand and growth of those “early adopters” providing those services. Increased revenue and the need to add more vertical printing machines and operators have served as proof that the opportunity can provide a great income to vertical printing businesses, while creating and satisfying the increased consumer demand for these services.

Whatever reasons you have for appreciating our global footprint and wall art services and solutions, we’re thrilled to be able to represent business owners from Ireland to Puerto Rico, from Texas to Massachusetts, from Canada to Colombia, and from the Carolinas to Montana. Let your success be part of our vision: making the world more beautiful, one wall at a time.

When people start thinking about starting their own business, they usually start with a web search to see the available opportunities or what might align with personal interests or experiences. Inevitably they run across the opportunity to buy into an established franchise. Many name-brand companies in the US are indeed franchises, so it becomes easy to see yourself running a business whose name, services, or products you already know.

Franchises can be attractive as a business for those wanting to be in business “for yourself, but not by yourself,” the franchise mantra.  This offers an easier, proven path to start up, manage, and run the business. The rules with which they come – like where you can locate your physical space, or how you can use their branding, or how may locations you need to build, along with how much to spend on marketing – can provide a framework for establishing your business and its growth path. You benefit from national advertising, a known brand, and the camaraderie that comes from others who have purchased those franchises in other locations.  For all this, franchisees make use of the name, receive direct franchisor support, and pay more initially to enter the business than non-franchised business operators typically will, mostly for the “goodwill” that is the value of an established brand.

The financial investment and ongoing payments can be daunting, however. First there is an up-front payment, generally referred to as the initial Franchise Fee. You can find franchises that are in the $20,000 – 30,000 range for the initial franchise fee; most whose names with which you’re familiar, on the other hand, can run closer to $100,000 or more.

And again, that’s just the entry fee… your ‘right’, if you will, to sell and service under their brand name. But with each sale, you also pay royalty fees. Normally paid monthly or quarterly, the royalty fees are a percentage of revenue. It can really add up. Additionally, there are marketing and equipment usage fees that can also be mandatory.

Business Opportunities

But what other option is there, if you want to start a business but don’t have a vision for a new market-bending startup?

Non-franchise business opportunities are generally the way people go if they don’t want to buy someone’s privately owned business. These business opportunities have similar characteristics to franchise opportunities, but legally and operationally are significantly different.

For one thing, non-franchised business opportunities usually have fewer barriers to entry. The entry fee is generally lower, for example, as you may simply have equipment or processes to acquire. The added bonus is that you don’t have to share royalties with the company that sold you the opportunity.

Sometimes a business opportunity comes with less support than you may initially need or want. Be sure to check this out at the beginning, because companies that want to grow by selling more equipment or help you sell the services offered by the business’s equipment, may offer significant startup and ongoing support.

People who purchase a non-franchise business opportunity are more free to “follow their own star,” executing on a vision of their own instead of someone else’s.  Where franchise operators much follow their own star, non-franchise business opportunities don’t come with strict operational rules system guidelines. At the same time, some business opportunities will offer exclusive, protected territories to promote your business growth and success without fear of nearby competition.

At The Wall Printer, we work to provide an experience that makes it fast and easy to get started in a business. We provide marketing support, sales support, and product support. We help you with the marketing and business advisory services to help you build your own brand or optionally, use The Wall Printer’s registered trademark in your local market. The Wall Printer is building an innovative, unique  brand and service offering throughout the western hemisphere designed to usher business your way. But we never, ever, ask you to pay us some of the money you make as a fee. Ever.

So sharpen your pencil, and think through what the most important thing is to getting your new business off the ground and making money. If a non-franchise approach looks like it could be more profitable, then give us a call.  If you relish the opportunity to benefit from the rewards of being the ONLY provider of a new highly profitable service, widely in demand by businesses, homeowners, and others, we’d love to help you analyze The Wall Printer opportunity.