Photo credit: Bobo Zhao Photography
https://www.bccpa.ca/news-events/latest-news/2022/september/cpa-rising-jonathan-wong/
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Following the success of the 280Z came the 280ZX. While this car kept many key design elements of its predecessor, the 280ZX fell short in many ways. It was wider, longer, heavier and more of a grand tourer than a true sports car. The styling of the car lost some of its elegance and in some ways looks like a 280Z gone wrong. Performance was also down to just 135 horsepower from the 2.8-liter engine. Thankfully in 1981 the 280ZX Turbo variant arrived to restore lost power to an impressive 180 hp. It is also worth noting that this was the last of the Z cars to be released under the Datsun badge.
The Z31 300ZX arrived in 1984 with a switch of the long standing straight-six to a V-6 engine configuration for improved weight distribution and efficiency. The naturally aspirated version produced 165 hp, while the turbocharged engine made 200 horsepower. The new 300ZX shed the curvaceous body style of former Zs and was styled similarly to contemporary sports cars of the late 80s with pop-up headlights, squared-off lines, and angles. Overall, time hasn't been too kind to the Z31 which is generally considered the black sheep of the Z family.
The Z32 300ZX was the most remarkable styling transformation the Z car had yet seen. It was lower, wider, and had a longer wheelbase. With its the wedge shape design, the car had almost exotic lambo-esque appearance. The new bodywork was a vast improvement over the Z31 with its faired-in fixed headlights and the 300ZX saw similar performance improvements to match. The twin-turbo V-6 produced a whopping 300 horsepower and the twin turbo models came equipped with Super HICAS four-wheel steering.
The 350Z burst onto scene in 2003. It sported the VQ-series V6 engine producing 287hp. Both six-speed manual and five-speed automatic transmission were available. The styling of the 350Z was well received as a modern take on the original 240Z styling. It had rounder and more modern lines than its predecessor, but still had a muscular and sporty feel. The 350Z was strongly embraced by car enthusiasts and the aftermarket making it an instant classic.
The 370Z promised significant improvements over the 350Z but only modestly delivered. The VQ-series engine displacement was increased to 3.7 liters and was good for 332 hp. The 370 was wider and lower and faster than the outgoing 350 and more muscular styling and sharper lines. It introduced the boomerang shaped HID headlights and front fangs, though the fangs would disappear in a future version of the model.
The New Nissan Z is the latest chapter in the Z-car evolution. The Z draws its styling from the original 240Z as well as the 300ZX models. The new Z retains the classic sports car proportions of a long hood and a short rear deck. It creates a design that is completely modern, yet immediately identifiable as a Nissan Z. Under the hood, the twin-turbos make a triumphant return with over 400hp. While it is refreshing to finally see a new Z car, the new styling has left the car community divided, especially with the large rectangular grille.
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Get him a customized poster of his exact car in the right color. Or get him a poster showing the history and evolution of his favorite car.
Get a laser cut stainless steel keychain of his favorite car with a personalized license plate.
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/749610441
Dad will never be too old for a cool diecast model to put on display, or even a hot wheels of one of his favorite cars.
A car book provides a great opportunity for Dad to share his passion for cars with his children.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GTY47XH
If Dad works on cars, he is absolutely going to need a battery powered 1/2" impact driver. It'll save tons of time loosening up those tight bolts.
https://www.homedepot.com/.../Tools-Power.../N-5yc1vZc29x
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Everything had been going according to plan so far, but I was not at all prepared for what happened next. Michelle was the first to break the silence with an offer of $250,000 for 25% of the business. “I did it” I thought to myself, “I got an offer on Dragons’ Den!”. Before I could even process the offer, Vincenzo upped the ante by offering 2 Dragons (Vincenzo and Wes) at $250,000 for 30% of the business. Game on, the Dragons were now in a bidding war for Custom Car Posters! Arlene jumped in next with an offer of $250,000 for a 10% royalty until she received 3x her money back. Finally, Manjit came in with $250,000 for 10% royalty and 5% equity. I could barely believe it; I had swept the Den receiving offers from every single Dragon.
In this last article of my 4-part series on Dragons’ Den, I will discuss the 4 most important things you must do to get a deal on the Den. By watching numerous hours of Dragons’ Den, taking detailed notes, and doing in depth research, I figured out the rules of the game and played to win. Here is what it takes to be successful on Dragons’ Den:
The very first thing in your pitch is the valuation. In other words, you tell the Dragons’ how much money you want in exchange for what percentage of your business. Using these two numbers, one can determine the value of your business. After watching numerous episodes of Dragons’ Den, I determined this is the first place where entrepreneurs go wrong. Many entrepreneurs value their business way too high and the Dragons love to jump on that because it is extremely entertaining. Once this happens, it is game over.
Entrepreneurs in this situation do their best to defend their valuations saying it is based on their projections of the future sales/earnings. At this point however, Manjit loves to crush the spirits of the poor entrepreneur by asking a totally nonsensical question. She will ask in an almost incredulous yet accusatory tone “you expect us to pay for future earnings of your business?”. The clear and obvious answer is yes…that is generally how business are valued. Unfortunately, the entrepreneurs are so flustered by this point that they fumble and often make a fool of themselves.
In coming up with my valuation, I used companies that were successful on the Den as a guide. Specifically, I looked for companies that had similar revenues and margins as our business. Most companies on the show provided their revenue figures, so it was easiest to do the valuation based on revenues. I decided to come with a valuation of 2.5x revenue for a valuation of $2.5 million. Although this valuation was lower than what I believed our business to be worth, I thought it was at the upper level of what would be considered acceptable by the Dragons’.
As you might expect, the best pitches are well rehearsed and are delivered with energy and confidence. Since the opening pitch is only about one minute the delivery part isn’t as hard you might expect. The challenge is cramming a pitch that is engaging, entertaining and to the point into just one minute. You need to explain what your business does and more importantly how it makes money. A lot of pitches get lost here don’t get to the point fast enough. If the Dragons can’t figure out how you’re making money and have to question you about it, that is a bad sign.
It is also important to remember the Dragons are sizing you up as an entrepreneur, so it is important to have some of your personality show through. You also want to exhibit some standard qualities that anyone would want in a business partner (confident, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, etc.).
The last thing to consider is having a “hook”. A unique story, a surprising twist, anything that will get the attention of the Dragons while making for good TV. I decided not to go for this as I felt like the uniqueness of our business had enough draw to provide the “hook” and that I would be better served by using this time to explain how our business worked.
Here is my complete pitch:
Hello Dragons, my name is Jonathan Wong, I’m from Vancouver, BC, and I’m here seeking $250,000 for 10% of my business, Custom Car Posters.
I’m a CPA, CA, an Accountant, formerly a Director of Finance, turned full time Artist. My business, Custom Car Posters got its start by selling customizable fine art prints to car enthusiasts. I’m a major gearhead and have restored, modified and raced cars over the years. The basic premise of my business, and where the magic happens, is that if you have a particular car in a particular color, you can purchase a print that matches your car exactly.
We are a print on demand business, meaning that we only print orders as they are received. As a result, we run a very lean operation.
While we started out in the business of car prints, we soon realized that we could apply our business model of customizable art, and our production capacity, to other areas in the home décor market. We’ve recently started to expand, such as with the customizable print for couples that you see in the Den. This particular design become a #1 Best Selling print on Amazon in the lead up to Valentine’s day.
I’ve been working full time as an artist for the past year 3 years and with my background in finance and accounting we have been profitable since our very first year. This year we are on track to sell well over $1,000,000 in art. So Dragons who here is feeling creative?
If you make a strong pitch, the Dragons’ will ask follow up questions to get a better idea of your business. They genuinely want to learn more about your business, so as a general rule, the more questions they ask, the better.
One thing you absolutely must do is have all your numbers completely memorized. If you provide the numbers with absolute certainty, it will show the Dragons that you really know your business well and are the type of entrepreneur who is prepared. If you don’t know your numbers (Revenues, Gross Profit, Net Profit, Cost to Acquire a Customer, etc.) You will get eaten alive by the Dragons.
The Dragons’ do tend to ask the same sorts of questions in almost every pitch, so you should also be prepared for their standard questions. Refer to part 3 in this series, where I provided the complete list of questions that I was asked on the Den.
Assuming the first 3 steps went well, you should be receiving offers from the Dragons. Wohoo! In general, it seems like it is an acceptable practice to thank the Dragon for their offer and then respectfully ask the other Dragons if they would like to make an offer. Although it may be exciting, don’t be too quick to jump on the first offer that you receive! Also, don’t be thrown off by the implied valuation in the offers. Dragons will commonly want 2-3x more ownership of your company than you initially presented, substantially diminishing your valuation. For example, I offered 10% of my company for $250,000 and most of the Dragons’ wanted 20-30% for that same $250,000.
With any luck and some patience, the Dragons will start to make more competitive offers if they know others are interested. Generally, it pays to hear them all out. After watching numerous episodes of the show, it appears there is some room to negotiate with the Dragons, although it doesn’t seem like much. If you do decide to negotiate, it is best to come back with a firm offer that is somewhere in the middle with a solid justification that supports your valuation.
In the end, I got an offer that didn’t require giving up any equity, so I decided to not risk a failed negotiation and accepted the offer as presented.
Overall, I had an amazing experience being on Dragons’ Den and I’m so glad I was able to leave the Den with an amazing offer from Arlene. After appearing on the show, I had so much interest and questions that I thought the best way to share it would be through this 4-part series. I hope you enjoyed reading and if you have read the previous parts, you can check them out here (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). Follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date with Custom Car Posters latest adventures!
]]>As nine o’clock approached, I was called into a dressing room to get ready. I continued to rehearse my opening lines and paced around nervously waiting for my chance. Shortly after, a producer entered the room to microphone me up. They clipped on a lapel microphone and gave me an earpiece to wear. I was led into the studio, stood on my mark, and was told to await instructions from Molly, the lead producer in Toronto (who could see me remotely on camera). I waited for a moment in complete silence, but no instructions were transmitted. After what seemed like an eternity, a producer came to check my microphone gear. It turned out my earpiece had not been plugged in by the audio team. After correcting that small oversight, I heard Molly come through loud and clear on the earpiece. She gave a few words of encouragement and then started to count down to go live with the Dragons. The Dragons appeared on screen and the instructions came through…time to start my pitch.
Pitching remotely was more difficult than expected as I couldn’t gauge the Dragons’ facial expressions or body language. There was an audio and video delay and the screen that displayed the Dragons was too small to discern any useful information. I decided the best approach was to power through my pitch, sticking to the script exactly as I had practiced it. I smiled, made gestures with my hands, and made it through without stumbling. Yes! I had survived the first part of being in the Den.
The questions immediately followed which proved to be difficult from a logistical point of view. First of all, several Dragons started to speak at the exact same time. Coupled with the fact that the video feed didn’t always show who was talking, I couldn’t get any visual cues either. I did the best I could and decided to answer the question that I could hear most clearly. Given his loud voice and personality, this often meant I ended up answering the question of Vincenzo (Mr. Sunshine) first as he shouted overtop the other Dragons.
The questions period was approximately 25 minutes with the Dragons asking the usual questions you see on the show. It seemed like they genuinely wanted to learn more about the business and how it worked and as a result, the Q&A went smoothly as I had planned responses for their standard questions.
Since the 25 minutes was edited down to a 7 minute segment, there were a few notable moments that didn’t make the final cut. Some of them include:
Overall, I’m really happy with the way our episode turned out. I’ve read stories from other entrepreneurs who didn’t feel like they were accurately portrayed by the show. I felt the producers edited our segment in such a way was a fair and accurate portrayal of what actually happened. Nice work CBC!
In the final part of this article series, I’ll discuss how I got offers from every Dragon and what I think were the most important keys to my success!
]]>Knowing that Dragons’ Den could be a huge opportunity for our business, I went to great lengths to ensure that I was fully prepared. I had two weeks to prepare and during this period I made the following action plan which took about 80 hours to execute.
Step 1 – Watch a lot of Dragons’ Den
I watched the previous 2 Seasons of Dragons’ Den in its entirety and took notes on each of the Dragons. I summarized what questions Dragons liked to ask as well as what type of investments they preferred. I also took notes on which pitches were successful and why and kept track of the valuation Dragons were placing on businesses.
Step 2 – Research each Dragon
I dug deeper into the background of each Dragon. I researched their previous deals, what types of business they owned, as well as watched interviews to get a better idea of their personalities. Since I made a Custom Car Poster for each Dragon, I even researched their taste in cars.
Step 3 – Research Companies that were Successful on Dragons’ Den
I researched other companies that were success on Dragons’ Den. Many companies have posted about their experience on Dragons’ Den and this gave some insight into what to expect behind the scenes.
Step 4 – Build a Cheat Sheet
I synthesized all my findings into a cheat sheet using my research. The cheat sheet included my notes on each Dragon, a list of likely questions, responses to each questions and other general notes about being on the show.
Step 5 – Practice Until the Pitch is Perfect
I spent numerous hours rehearsing and tweaking the pitch. The first step was memorizing the pitch and then working on refining it to where every word and hand gesture was planned, but still looked natural. During my practice, I would film my pitch, play it back, and make the adjustments I thought necessary.
I also spent a lot of time rehearsing my responses for the Q&A period. Based on my research I focused my practice on the questions that were most likely to come up as well as the ones that entrepreneurs struggled the most with (question like “how did you come up with your valuation”). I’m happy to say that I was prepared for every question except for one. Arlene asked me about NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), but luckily my crypto game was strong enough to make a solid response on the fly.
Step 6 – Prepare for the worst
Failing on Dragons’ Den was a real possibility. A lot of entrepreneurs have appeared on the Den and have been eaten alive by the Dragons. I wanted to make sure that this did not happen to me. After watching numerous pitches that went south, I knew the producers at CBC would look for any slip up, stumble, or stutter to use against you. With the magic of editing, they can make you look like a complete idiot fairly easily.
I determined that the best approach would be to give them absolutely nothing they could use against me. I practiced how I would respond to things like not getting any offers (looking slightly disappointed, but not overly bothered), or being ridiculed by a Dragon (a neutral face with a matter of fact response about the profitability of the business). I spent a lot of time trying to cap the downside by rehearsing worst case responses. In the end, I was received favorably by the Dragons, but was glad to have prepared for all eventualities.
Summary
To summarize, it took about 80 hours to prepare for a 1 minute pitch and 30 minutes of questions. $250,000 for 81.5 hours of work? Not too shabby.
For anyone who is looking to be appear on Dragons’ Den, I’d be more than happy to share some notes and tips. Just send me a message.
]]>After a bit of brief research, I quickly determined that it looked like they were short on applicants for the current season due to COVID. The initial application deadline had passed and yet they were still accepting new applications. Luckily the application was online this year. Previously, you had to line up American Idol style, which would have deterred me. Determining that my chances for success were fairly high and the barriers to entry low, I decided to whip together a quick application video and had submitted it within 24 hours.
In the video, I decided to keep it short, but also add a little more random flair to keep things a little more interesting. You will see that I used a globe as a prop, just so I could spin it for effect. Admittedly it was a little lame, but it got the job done!
As you can see, the pitch was not bad, but by no means perfect. Given that time was of the essence, I opted for speed versus quality and the results paid off. Within 2 days, I had received a reply that I would have follow up zoom audition!
The zoom audition followed a week later which gave me time to prepare. During that time, I watched several episodes of Dragon’s Den and took notes on the pitches. I put together a script as well as a list of answers to common questions and spent a day rehearsing. I didn’t have time to fully memorize my pitch, so I ended up printing it out in really large font and sticking it on the wall directly behind the webcam and took full advantage of the remote pitch environment!
The audition started with some background information on the audition process and then I had the floor to do my pitch. The pitch went smoothly and next came the questions to just like on the show. I anticipated the worst and prepared for the tough questions, but the producer mostly seemed interested in simply finding out more about the business. A few of the questions were financial questions and I put my CPA to good use. The audition concluded and I was told I would hear back in a week or so.
Thankfully, 3 days later I received an email to schedule a second follow up audition. Again, I took a day to prepare anticipating that the hard questions would follow. In the end, it turned out not to be a second interview, but a surprise call to let me know that I would be on the show and to figure out details! We talked about some logistics and they gave me the option to fly out to Toronto or film remotely via CBC Vancouver. Given that travel cost and accommodation would not be covered and COVID testing would be required with no guarantee of being on the show.
I opted to pitch remotely from Vancouver. I really wanted to go into the Den and meet the Dragon in person, but as COVID was also on the rise during this time, we decided it wasn’t worth the risk.
Thanks to a little luck, some hard work, and improvisation I got my chance to appear Dragons’ Den. This article is part of a 4-part series on my experience appearing on Dragon’s Den and getting a $250,000 deal.
In Part 2, I will discuss how I prepared to be on Dragons’ Den and how I got ready to make the $250,000 deal.
]]>This should be enough to help any future artists get started. The YouTube channel is called Drawing Cars, so check it out if you want to see some drawing in action!
]]>As Custom Car Posters has continued to grow, I’ve been receiving more and more custom order requests. As a result, I’ve had to become more selective in the custom work that I take on. While I wish I could help every customer, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day!
Basically, I evaluate each custom order request on a case by case basis. The factors that I consider are generally the following:
Generally, the turnaround time is 3-5 days and I’ll send the customer a proof to review before printing. Customer satisfaction my top priority and I will work closely with the customer to make adjustments as necessary to make sure we get the design just right!
Custom orders start at $75 USD for a single car as each car design takes roughly 2-3 hours to draw. The pricing is generally based upon the estimated amount of time required to complete the design. For more complex designs, or more cars, the price increases accordingly.
The average custom order is somewhere between $100 - $200 USD, although we’ve had a few that have been well over $1,000 USD.
Visit the form on CustomCarPosters.com and submit your request!
]]>My second car was when things started to get interesting. One day, my while my Grandpa was visiting, he told me that one of his friends was selling his car collection. In the collection was a 1951 Studebaker Champion that hadn’t been driven in probably 20-30 years. My Grandpa asked if I wanted to work on restoring the car as a project with him. As a 16 year old, I jumped at the opportunity and eagerly agreed.
My Grandfather’s friend was the original owner of the car, so we knew that it had a clean history and would be a great project car. A few days later we went to check out the car and bought it for $3,000. Over the next four years, my Grandfather and I would work on the car (mostly during the summer). It gave us plenty of opportunities to bond and I learned a great deal about cars and life from my Grandfather. The Studebaker has been at the epicentre of many fond memories including my wedding, family trips to Studebaker Car meets and more recently, outings with our young son (who also loves cars).
My third car was purchased in my final year of University. Not having a lot of money at the time, I was looking for an affordable yet fun car that would be easy to work on and upgrade. As a long-time fan of Mustangs, the Fox Body 5.0 fit the bill perfectly. After a few month of searching, I located a GT with only 130,000 KMs on it, which ran great. The car had a terrible aftermarket paint job which had faded in a very strange way and an unpainted bumper, but otherwise was in solid shape. Not being able to drive a manual transmission at the time, I had a friend come out to test drive the car for me and I purchased it for $2,800. The car was an absolutely steal. The best part of it was that I had just received a $5,000 scholarship. The money that was left over was used for future upgrades of course.
I quickly got the mod bug and began to modify the Mustang every chance I could get. I did all the work myself and continued to improve my automotive skills. I completed many projects including: heads, cam, intake, maximum motorsports suspension, racing seats, 5 lug conversion with big brakes and rear disc brakes, and many more. I started to get into Auto-X and track days with the Mustang and had an absolute blast taking it out with my friends. The car was even my daily driver for about a year, which was super unpractical because the car was pretty low and very loud with the side exit exhaust I had fabricated!
My next purchase was another Mustang. This time an 1995 Mustang 5.0 (SN95) that I bought with 2 other friends for $1,800. This was a fun project that we worked on together after work. We wanted to build a track toy, but ultimately life got in the way. We made some pretty good memories working on the car even though we had a few mishaps with some of our parts. Luckily all the parts were cheap and easily replaced. We did take it out for a few Auto-X session but ended up selling the car after a few years as we just didn’t have time to work on it like we thought.
With a baby boy on the way, my wife and I decided it was time to get a more practical car. We needed something reliable and affordable which also meant boring… We ultimately landed on a 2009 Honda CR-V in an ugly green color. Due to the cars detestable color, we got a great deal. Although I hate the way the car looks, I must say it is an insanely reliable and practical car. CR-V FTW if you have a small family!
The next car was again nothing exciting. With a growing business we needed a pickup truck to move printers, paper, boxes and other supplies. We decided to go the Honda route again and purchased a 2006 Honda Ridgeline for a song. The 4 doors have been great as we have plenty of room for the car seat even with a full load. If you’re looking for a practical light duty pickup a used Ridgeline is hard to beat in terms of value. They are insanely reliable and there are many owners out there who have hit 500,000 miles! With the amount of stuff we’ve moved with this truck, it’s probably paid for itself in the first year of ownership.
My last purchase has been perhaps one of the most exciting. Late last year, I found a 1965 Fastback Mustang a few towns over. It was in great shape and was upgraded with a 5.0 from a Fox Body. It also had a few other nice upgrades such as disc brakes, power steering, and other suspension bits. Overall, it’s a super fun, yet reliable car that you can pretty much drive every day. To increase the number of days of the year that I can drive the car, I’ll be adding heat and A/C in the near future.
]]>By keeping our print shop in house, we are able to turnaround orders extremely quickly (typically 1-2 days) and have full control over the quality of each print. We offer our prints in a variety of easy to frame sizes and use two amazing premium photo papers: satin and metallic.
Thanks to our wonderful customers, we hit our maximum capacity for the print shop several times during the holiday season and had to work some very long shifts to get orders shipped on time. As a result, we are going to be expanding our print shop for the 3rd (and hopefully final time). This time we are building capacity for up to 40 printers (a crazy number of printers) and will have plenty of room to grow in future years.
]]>With the leadup to Christmas, we are extremely lucky to have our story featured in Driving.ca and in several Canadian newspapers. This has given our book a tremendous boost and we’ve made it up to #7 on the Best Seller list on Amazon! We greatly appreciate the support from everyone out there and hope that you’ll get a chance to enjoy our book with your gearhead this holiday seasons!
Gearheads is available for sale on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.
]]>Gearheads was a passion project created for my 3 year old son, who is a major car guy. He spends a good part of his day playing with hot wheels, building cars with Lego, and talking about cars. After purchasing a variety of children’s automotive books, I realized that none of them had enough substance to engage him as a true car enthusiast. I wanted him to be entertained and learn about cars at the same time. Just like that, the concept for Gearheads was born.
Gearheads introduces young readers to some of the most iconic cars of all time in a way that is both entertaining and informative. This book was designed as a fun way for car enthusiasts to share their love of cars with their kids. Upon reading the first draft of the book to my son, he was instantly hooked. He asked me to read it to him every night for a month and he quickly memorized every line and rhyme in the book.
To get the book off the ground, I decided to launch Kickstarter campaign which quickly exceeded it’s target and raised over $6,000 to bring the project to life. With the funds from the campaign, we were able to get the book produced and have now made it available to all you car enthusiasts out there!
If you know a little one who shows an interest in cars, get them a copy of Gearheads!
]]>We’re looking forward to a business holiday season thanks to Amazon!
]]>Step 1: Research
The first step involves a lot of research. For each car that I draw, I look at numerous pictures of the car from various angles. For older cars, it is really important to cross reference several photos since modifications could have been made over the years.
Step 2: Draw
I create all my artwork using Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator is a vector-based software, which means that you can scale your artwork to an unlimited size without losing any details. This software also allows me to change the color of the car relatively easily, which is how we are able to offer customizable prints to our customers! Illustrator is basically the industry standard for vector based graphic design, so I’d highly recommend learning how to use it if you plan on becoming an artist or graphic designer.
In terms of hardware, I use a Huion Kamvas Pro 16 Graphics Drawing Tablet. The neat thing about these graphics tablet is that you can draw right on the screen. With a graphics tablet, I’m able to draw highly detailed illustrations and I use the zoom feature in Illustrator to get every last detail just perfect. I’ll often use a second or even third monitor to display my reference photos of the car while I’m drawing.
The hardest part about drawing each car is getting the perspective right. I spend a lot of time and effort on the perspective because if even one car is drawn from a slightly different perspective, it can throw off the look of the whole design. There’s no easy tricks for this part unfortunately, just years of practice and drawing and you’ll start to develop that sense of perspective.
Step 3: Print
Once the design is finalized and a customer places an order, it is time to print! I love this part of the process and seeing the art come to life. I still find a great deal of satisfaction seeing a new design come off the printer for the first time. In our print shop, we exclusively use Professional Epson Printers which are the industry standard. We print on the most premium papers (they are very thick as far a paper is concerned) and use archival inks which means you prints will stay looking great for years to come.
]]>A few weeks later, my Mom told me about an artist’s work she saw at a local art gallery. He depicted a Mustang being propelled through the air by a giant rocket blast in a style that was eerily similar to my own. Not to mention that the price tag for this particular piece of work was $5,000. With this in mind, I decided to see if anyone would be interested in purchasing any of my art. I drew 20 or so new cars designs and put them design up on Etsy for the world to see. As luck would have it, I had my first sale the very next day. Needless to say, I was elated and was literally jumping up and down with excitement. As a hobby artist, it never occurred to me that others would be interested in my work, yet here I was with my first sale in less than 24 hours. Spurred on by this first sale, I continued to add more designs as time would allow. The business continued to grow slowly but steadily as I added more designs. At this point, I still held down a regular day job as the Director of Finance for a Non-Profit Organization.
After 2 years, I reached a fork in the road where a decision needed to be made. On one hand, the business was showing a lot of potential, but couldn’t grow without my focused attention. On the other hand, I had a fantastic job working with great people towards an amazing cause. The factor that tipped the scales was my 1 year old son. I didn’t want to miss a moment of my son’s childhood, so I decided that the life of an entrepreneur would allow me the flexibility to parent on my own terms. Well it has been about 2 years now since committing to the business and I haven’t looked back. I get to spend time with my wife and son everyday while working on a business that I truly love. Seriously, what could be better than drawing cars for a living?
]]>To make things easy, we purposely offer our prints in the most common picture frame sizes. That means you’ll have plenty of options when it comes to framing. You can go to any store that sells pictures frames, from Ikea, to Michaels, to a custom framer to get your print framed. Of course, you can also shop online and find tons of frames to choose from.
If you’re looking for the maximum number of options for picture frames, 8x10, 11x14, 16x20 and 24x36 are the best sizes to go with. We often recommend finding a frame that you like at the same as you purchase the print, so that you can find a combination that works well together. When in doubt, a simple black frame works well with most options!
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