Ziapro

Growing up my dad tinted and ran a shop for years but never would show me the ropes because he said never tint you are better than this. Well he moved on from tint as he got older and i always would bring up the idea lets open a shop because i love cars and working around them. Again he turned me down lol . So i had a great career as a petroleum engineer but was never home so the idea of opening a shop just kept sounding better and better to stay in town and close to my family. Dad got sick and passed away from leukemia, that caused a lot of issues so long story short i needed to have a job in town to take care of my mother and my own family better. Got a bright idea looked up at the heavens and said dad im gonna do it, so make sure you watch over me haha . Quit my badass job, paid some money for a tinting class to teach me how to tint. Took the 4 day class ordered a crap ton of film way more than i needed and started tinting on a leap of faith. Got a few dealerships on board within the first month and have been tinting non stop since for the past year or so. Shop is doing great and love what i do! The class helped me get going but all the cars i have tinted over the past year has really been the best learning experience, every day i learn something new. I am a problem solver by nature so it has been a fun ride learning this trade and solving my own issues while tinting. This forum has been a huge help and thanks to everyone that has brought value to this forum and continually is trying to innovate our industry!  Also its baddass that im tinting and feel dad is here with me everyday, another reason why i chose tinting was just to embrace all those memories we made as a kid hanging out at the shop with him lol! he started in the 80's in a storefront directly across the street from where my shop is now. Crazy

You're a class act @Sunbreakers. I'm off the FB tint groups a couple weeks now because of all the nonstop sh*t talking and people thinking they're some sort of God of Tint, basically all the ongoing negativity gets to be too much. Nice to see some real humans here in this group. 

@Bham It was good to get to stop for a visit today. Told you I would try to make it more frequent .  I wish I had read your post above before I stopped by. I would have told you in person what I will type to you now.
In life I have learned that for every one or two good decisions you make there is bound to be a bad one. Not hiring you back in the 90's was a terrible decision on my part and an oversight that I should not have allowed to happen. I wasn't willing to give you a chance, didn't think you had the drive for it, and I let other folks influence my decisions when I should have at least given you an opportunity. You have proved me wrong many times...you have certainly been driven and you have achieved my achievements...your own shop. That one mistake of mine not only was very obviously my loss, but it also alienated us from each other and put a strain on our friendship maybe even still today. In front of all of these good, professional folks here on this forum, Jason,  I want you to know I am very sorry. I hope others here can learn from my mistake and always be willing to take a chance on others. I am very proud of you for what you have achieved. 
 
Charley 

Anyone know how to get out of it? Is it like the mob, they'll kill you? 

My friend was tinting for best buy and he told me that it was really hard. I'm a competitive person so I tried it and installed a roll down pretty good. But to me it sucked. He showed me while they were on a verge to opening an electronic shop. I told them that I will get really good at tinting and my other friend told me to do it. 20 cars tinted off of youtube videos and I was still not satisfied. So I went to training with @flat rock stan facility, found him on this site about 10 months ago. After training with him, 2 weeks later we took off. We landed 5 delearship accounts within those 2 weeks and now we are getting booked almost every week with walk ins and call ins. We probably have to hire soon. I dont think people understand how much help I am giving them when I recommend Stans training. But, like I always say, this site and Stan has changed my life. It's up to the individuals who ask for help to grasp my knowledge and experience or not. Keep in mind that all of this is done in under a year, we are about to to do PPF in 2 weeks period. Stan taught me that. NEVER STOP LEARNING. He is pretty *cough* old *cough* but he is still learning new things. 

You tint windows on the side right? I tint on the side and cabinet maker full time. I only see drawings like this by the architects . Very nice drawing👍

Oh yeah it seems a little short I stand 69" my peel board is about 72" but plan on putting casters to raise it a little . I cut my film upside down and having around I level makes it easier as I have my big board mounted higher on the  wall. Just what I've experienced.

You gonna pay on the next one.  

Dude i know what i'm doing and i still watch tint videos on youtube just because i like it and i learn from other people. get the DVD's and watch them, watch youtube, read these groups, always keep learning. I was going to buy the DVDs just to see how Stan does his work and maybe pick up a few pointers. You're lucky this is a time when you can ask anybody on the planet a question via the internet. there's a lot of good tips out there, but also a lot of low quality people making vids. but to answer your question yes get the DVDs, Stan is one of the top people out there and well known among the tint folk. @flat rock stan 

and you better pray that they don't love their armour all that makes life a nightmare.

Any vehicle that has felt, and not plain rubber, needs tape to contain the felt particles that will fly off during install.  
 
Edit — this needs to be done before any water EVER hits the vehicle.   This is important.  

The pattern is cut on the plotter from Silver15-20%. Is tinted to the glass. On top of the pattern is pasted charcol film 5%.

I don't know why but I LOL when i read "caca". I haven't heard that in years.

Quit while you're ahead.

I can only speak from my experience, which my story is pretty similar to yours. I did however tint full-time out of my home garage for three years, prior to I did three years part time out of home. I've just recently moved into a shop and have had great success with it so far. I can definitely tell an increase in business, and I wouldn't change what I have now for anything. That being said everybody's situation is different, so kind of depends on the whole Spectrum. You have to factor in a lot of things besides just your rent. There comes a lot of expenses with getting a shop opened up that you don't even realize beforehand. It's a lot of hard work and if you think you'll just work 9 to 5 you'll be sadly mistaken. It's a constant struggle to balance everything between paying bills, tinting windows, and of course the main thing getting customers in the door. That being said if there are no other legit shops in town I don't think it would be a bad idea. And oddly enough as I was typing all this out I had a call from a local service center right down the road from my new shop that they saw my sign and now I'm giving them a quote haha.