Would people buy this business?

I have come up with a new machine that would allow people to screen print shirts at football games, swimming meets and other events. Our family has been doing this for a few years but the machine we use requires a lot of set-up, two operators, and has to be transported in a truck. The machine I鈥檝e designed can be operated by one person put in the back seat of a compact car and set up in under ten minutes. Working a 4 hour event each week and having one other order (which averages about 3 hours) in the same week makes about 21,000 USD a year. I鈥檓 thinking about setting up a small manufacturing center to make the machine and selling it packaged with training that covers art development, machine usage, and marketing. I think it鈥檚 a great business for families with Jr or Sr High School aged children. I think a package would cost about 4000 USD. My wife and kids run our operation but I don鈥檛 know if other people would take to it. So I鈥檓 just looking for some thoughts.

You may have a workable machine. I have seen the "all in one" screen print machines with the printer and the dryer being one piece. They use a special screen that means it can be made fairly easily on site. I was never to impressed with the quality.

The coming thing seems to be digital direct to shirt printers which uses an ink similar to pastisol. I have seen a few shirts printed with them and they are not bad. It is an expensive sucker and I am not sure how portable it might be.

You can see one here:

http://www.usscreen.net

I use a simulated process for most print jobs.
You should get a good prototype and looking into showing it at the next SGIA show.

http://www.sgia.org