Instructional Dvd Realwraps 101 Shows You How To Mine The Real Gold In Vehicle Graphics Installation

July 2, 2008 - PRLog -- LOS ANGELES  “Everyone’s heard this urban myth that you can make a fortune by just driving your car if it’s been wrapped with advertising, but the real money in auto wraps is made by the installers, the people who apply the giant stickers to the vehicles,” says Todd LaBrie, president/CEO of Los Angeles vehicle graphics company Carwraps® and co-producer of RealWraps 101, a briskly selling instructional DVD available at www.realwraps.com.  “I can’t think of another situation where, for an investment of less than $100, your return could be a six-figure income.”

In RealWraps 101, master graphics installer Justin Pate lets viewers in on the secrets that earned him more than $150,000 in 2007, during which he merely worked part-time.  Pate has installed graphics on – or “wrapped” – thousands of vehicles in his 12 years in the field.  His advanced technique enables him to adhere graphics to multiple vehicles on the same day, tackle entire fleets singlehandedly, and swathe exotic conveyances like cement mixers, garbage trucks and cranes.

Pate’s RealWraps 101 wisdom encompasses the tools of the trade; the properties of the vinyl used in vehicle wrapping; how to prep vehicles for wrapping; how to install graphics on the three most commonly wrapped vehicles – an SUV, a cargo van and a box truck; techniques for wrapping any vehicle; how to lay out vinyl to achieve perfect alignment; how to cut vinyl safely; how to squeegee vinyl into place so wraps are tight and durable; how to use a propane torch to stretch or shrink vinyl into place; how to make clean patches; how to wrap complicated features like bumpers, raised door handles and contoured hoods; and how to remove wraps.  Sample layouts and/or other reference materials are included in every DVD purchase.

LaBrie concedes that Pate is a “perfect” vehicle graphics installer, completing even complex jobs “three times as fast as anyone else.”  But he’s quick to point out that even the average wrapper can make $600 to $1,200 per vehicle, can run his own business on his own schedule with virtually no overhead, and will likely find himself in great demand with only minimal promotion.  “If you’re motivated, this is a fantastic opportunity to make some easy money,” LaBrie says.  “The relatively few people who know how to do it well are up to their eyeballs in work.”

In fact, the market for vehicle graphics installation has grown exponentially over the last decade as technology has brought down the cost of graphics printing and made wrapped-vehicle promotion accessible to small businesses.  Something of a car-wrap evangelist, LaBrie notes: “There’s a ‘wow factor’ associated with wrapped vehicles that you just don’t get with a billboard.  Studies of consumer response have suggested that people remember wrapped vehicles with greater clarity and have a more visceral response to them – the quality and potential quantity of impressions is higher – than to almost any other kind of outdoor advertising.”

Formerly an art director in the magazine-publishing industry and a one-time charting manager for the New York City subway (responsible for the millions of pieces of advertising and rider information blanketing the trains and stations), LaBrie is happy to provide economic opportunity producing the DVDs RealWraps 101 and Speedwrap Xtra and publishing the industry bible Vehicle Graphics 101, especially to young people and members of minority communities who are just entering the workforce.  But his interests are not strictly altruistic.

“My primary business, Carwraps®, designs, prints and installs car-wrap graphics,” he explains.  “It has yearly revenues of over a million dollars, half of which goes to freelance graphics installers.  If I don’t have efficient, well-trained installers at my disposal, I’m not getting my money’s worth from that expense, and that’s bad for my business – and for the businesses increasingly adopting this form of advertising.  With RealWraps, we’ve created a standard installation method that’s easy to learn and will thus grow the pool of qualified installers.  The installers win, the businesses using installation win, the industry wins.  It’s an example of that saying, ‘A rising tide lifts all boats.’”

In fact, would-be installers are jumping into that pool in ever-greater numbers.  According to LaBrie, his website www.carwraps.net gets 25,000 hits a day, many from people who want to learn how to install vehicle graphics.  Pate, meanwhile, is constantly approached by folks looking to immerse themselves in the art and science of graphics installation.  Says LaBrie: “Most of the major vinyl manufacturers provide a 10-minute how-to DVD, and there was a guy out there offering weekend courses for thousands of dollars, but no one was producing an affordable, comprehensive instructional DVD.  So we dove in.”

“I kept thinking, if we could just get the word out about how easy it is to install car wraps and how much money you can make doing that,” he continues, “everyone involved would benefit.  And the success we’ve had with RealWraps – the success our customers have had learning how to install vehicle graphics and market their new skill – is proving that.  If I could, I’d train everybody in America how to do this.”

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RealWraps produces and sells DVDs and other tools to enable individuals and companies to learn how to install vinyl vehicle graphics. Founded by industry veterans, we seek to address the growing need for installers in the exploding car-wrap industry.