Hello Chaps!

Paulsad · Post by **Paulsad** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:15 am

Been having a good read!
What a great site - some good blokes on here!
I'm Paul and have been in the printing/signmaking business for the last 30 odd years - with my trade(s) generally dying out / becoming saturated. I'm about to join up with in business my son who is a plasterer/tiler.
Hope to be able to adapt after being reasonably diy oriented (started out life as an electrician many moons ago). Nice to find you lads here; where hopefully I can ask your expert help occasionally to make sure any work I do is well done and achieves satisfied customers!
All the best Paul.

tim'll fix it · Post by **tim'll fix it** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:30 am

blimey paul, good luck

30 years in printing must make you 50 odd by my reckoning,

I reckon your gonna ache soon, its hard work

Paulsad · Post by **Paulsad** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:47 am

Yes I know mate already feeling it - thought golfer's elbow was bad! Quite fit though still! Like the rest of us older blokes thought I'd only have a few more years at work with the fabulous pensions I took out in the 80's - Now worth about £5 a week

!
My missus would hate it if I retired anyway - would drive her mad!
Havin worked for myself I recon I can help my son get going and he'll have a decent business in a few years when I'm past it!

Post by **ultimatehandyman** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:54 am

Hi Paul,

Welcome to the forum

I work with a guy that used to be a printer (newspapers) and he tells some great stories of when his work colleagues used to drop a spanner into a machine revolving at 15,000 rpm. The good old days

I am a wage slave and go to work in a chemical plant and over the past few years our wages have been eroded and our pensions are worthless pieces of paper.

As part of my job I once went to a large sign manufactirers in Yorkshire, can't remember exactly where but they made the signs for BP. They had some very impressive machines there for making signs.

Your son is lucky to have a dad like you

Best of luck with your business, there is quite a lot of demand for plasterers and tilers from what I can gather!

Paulsad · Post by **Paulsad** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 10:16 am

Cheers UH - Was a time when print was in regular demand from party invites letterheads etc - now its 99% digital and done in-house (you can even get business cards done for free on the net - what's all that about!?). Nowadays most of the calls I get are asking if we repair inkjet printers!
As for signs, well just like print the large firms with massive investment get the best work. The vehicle signwriting/vinyls work is very time consuming and you have people working from home to compete with on price.
I'm not daft enough to think i can just jump in and change trades in a week - it would be disrespectful to time served tradesmen out there - I know I'm on a learning curve (which gets harder with age - physically anyway!). But i have got my lad who knows his stuff (he can do the ceilings and the stuff that requires bending down - only joking!).
What I do know is that the main thing is to get jobs right and I'm looking forward to once again doing a full days graft even if it kills me.
(Not quite what I meant all those years ago when i talked about dying on the job

)

Jaeger_S2k · Post by **Jaeger_S2k** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 10:19 am

tim'll fix it wrote:blimey paul, good luck

30 years in printing must make you 50 odd by my reckoning,

I reckon your gonna ache soon, its hard work

Cheeky Monkey!

We're not all Spring Chickens like you Tim!

Good Luck with it Paul. Starting much in the same way as you and not a million miles away from that 'retirement' age Tim mentioned!

tim'll fix it · Post by **tim'll fix it** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 10:25 am

Jaeger_S2k wrote:
tim'll fix it wrote:blimey paul, good luck

30 years in printing must make you 50 odd by my reckoning,

I reckon your gonna ache soon, its hard work
Cheeky Monkey!

We're not all Spring Chickens like you Tim!

Good Luck with it Paul. Starting much in the same way as you and not a million miles away from that 'retirement' age Tim mentioned!

i am 30 but feel like 60 some days

Paulsad · Post by **Paulsad** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 10:27 am

Good luck Allan - Eh Tim it bloody flies past!
Talking about backache I have also done quite a bit helping my mate who is a general builder when he does fencing - now breaking out those old concrete fence posts and replacing them is fun?!
You don't realise what the term "experienced labourer wanted" means till you try it!

Post by **ultimatehandyman** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 2:33 pm

Best of luck with this Paul

I'm sure you will make a successful business out of it.

Working for yourself is the way to go now as there are many more benefits than working for someone else.

Being an employee is a mugs game now, all the time employers are trying to increase profits at the cost of the workers and are constantly trying to force down wages by employing eastern europeans, who will work for much less money!

The firm I work for has been giving us a bad deal for years. When I first started working there it was owned by the great ICI and you were looked after and had profit sharing schemes, option schemes and a good pension scheme- now it has all but gone

Because the firm I work for is based in Darwen they are constantly trying to shaft us by giving us crap pay rises because there is nothing else around here that pays the same amount of money, whilst workers at our other plant in Billingham get good payrises, because there are lots of chemical companies around them and if they don't pay decent money they will loose many workers.

One day I may walk out, but at this moment in time I don't mind going too much. I have been working shifts there for 16 years now and I guess that is enough for anyone!

yourweb · Post by **yourweb** » Sun Aug 12, 2007 2:38 am

Hello Paul and welcome to the site. Manual labor, ahhhh.

Hoovie · Post by **Hoovie** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:13 pm

Hi Paul, welcome from another Newbie member.

Signwriting huh? As you say , trouble nowadays is everyone thinks they can do everything.

Wonder how much Steve charges?
http://ivman.com/fp-lettering.html

You couldn't make it up!!

yourweb · Post by **yourweb** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 5:13 pm

That is a funny pic. Did he post his phone number on the side also?

That truck looks like it has been around for awhile.

leebwk · Post by **leebwk** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:59 am

Hi Paul