Andy, you guys decide if you want to move this, leave it or delete it from here.
But with the interest this thread has...let's each...to our own ability tell these young ones what is important to get there.
ie: the things one has to have to do very good work, what you did to make it to the next step and so on.
I feel that I am a strong 5 or 6 as far as the numbers are running and on a more modern press could move up a #.
After I closed my shops and moved to the farm...I acquired...in a used market most of what I needed.
Quality graphic programs and a computer that would run them.
left the laser printers (which will do process work) and went to a wide format ink jet and rip (today there are work arounds to a rip)
a single point light source.
backlite washout...My dumb a$$ went 20 years without one.
and a press that would do the work and was in my price range at the time. I run a Brown 7/8 semi-auto. In my world I don't care about production #'s as I'm the only mule pullin the plow.
But the stronger a shop is in each of these areas the better the out come.
Is this even worth talking about and if so what did you do to go to the next level?
If you can't tell I like talking to the lurkers as much as the posters.