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1. You don't pay enough. $12/hr for skilled labor is a joke. You can pay $12/hr for someone between 16-22 to start out. You cannot pay a 30-50 year old that wage and expect anything but a loser. $13/hr for a welder and "engineer" is an absolute joke. That person should make $20/hr minimum...

1. Based on your financials, you're not charging enough. Jobs are typically supposed to follow the thirds rule. 1/3 - COGS. 1/3 - Fixed Expenses. 1/3 - Profit. If you screw up a job, you're supposed to lose the profit and essentially break even. You clearly aren't following that model and...

Cedar and Redwood are the most popular woods to use in exterior signs. How to finish is always a matter of opinion. No matter what, you need to tell them it will need to be re-finished regularly if you don't want it to gray. I believe 2-3 years is typical. I don't do wood signs so I can't...

1. Plywood is NOT the material you use on a sign like this. 2. Yes the type of wood you use is important. 3. Overbuild. Use the right materials and finishes.

I don't know what kind of success you've had so far, but cutting mounted prints is a little tricky. Assuming you're cutting face up so you can use the optical "eye", I'd go with a downcut bit. 1/8" bit should work fine cutting 3-6mm material. For 12mm material, a 1/4" compression bit should...

Gorilla PVC Glue from Amazon is what I use most. If you need it done today/tomorrow, Home Depot and Lowes both have 1 part PVC glue for gluing PVC Trim. I believe Home Depot carries Azek and I'm not sure what Lowes carries. All of these solutions dry and cure quite quickly. If you're looking...

6mm PVC/Sintra. .25in MDF or Hardboard 6mm Coroplast Without knowing anything about the project, I'd imagine 6mm PVC would be the way to go.

Send her a price quote before doing the work. Problem solved. Compensation should be at minimum 50% up front and 50% upon approval. All proofs should be watermarked and provided in low resolution/quality. When approved, you should release a packet of bitmap and vector images that are free...

Imagine if you moved to Haiti and had to do business there. Don't you think it would be a transition? I'm not saying that this guy was right (he wasn't) and I'm not saying you don't have the right to run your shop as you please (you do). I'd recommend saying something like "This is not how I...

Sales reps know the bare minimum in my experience. There are exceptions to the rule but that's been my experience. The answer is Coroplast is safe to cut on the laser. It's not the best material as it's not solid thus making it cut less than consistently. It won't cut poorly, but it also...

Take the price to buy it new today and subtract the cost of a tube, bearings, belts, rails, mirror, and lens. That should get you to a pretty fair market price. If your machine is really low hours/good condition, then you can be a higher. If it's been run hard, then I'd expect it on the lower...

If you want something that works 100% of the time, go and find a paint that works well with vinyl. There are plenty of them out there. Tell any customer that wants a wall mounted graphic they can either repaint the wall, have the graphic applied to a panel, or find another vendor. The paint...

How do you plan on making money? I'm being serious. If you charge wholesale pricing to the customer at 2x3, you're looking at $15 for each board for decent calendarded vinyl and laminate. That's $30/set and that's just printing ready to go art. I wouldn't even include install in that price...

Laser cutting metal requires either a fiber laser or a CO2 laser with gas assist. A while back a decent source recommended CO2 Chinese machines were not exactly the safest metal cutting units. I'd imagine Fiber units would be much safer and not crazy expensive considering fiber laser pricing...

Understanding people come from different cultures is a prejudiced stupid$$ idea? If you picked up and moved to a different country tomorrow, you're telling me you'd pick up the local traditions immediately? I'd say roughly 30-35% of my business is done with first generation Americans. I can...

Brad has it right. As someone from a very culturally diverse area, the problem is simply cultural differences. They simply are not used to doing business the "American way" and as a result, it's a more difficult transaction. The trick is to stand firm. I had a guy busting my chops over $3.50...

This is not true. There is a signifcant difference between the manufacturers. Speed, quality, price, table size, and print driver all can be significantly different. As for the original question: Kern and Vytek are two companies that specialize in larger lasers. If cutting is your priority...

Why dots and not strips?

Sign foam/HDU has absolutely no grain structure. Drilling and tapping it is basically pointless. You could do that and I'll yank out the stud with fairly minimal effort. Now it may be satisfactory in this circumstance but generally speaking, it's the wrong way to install studs even by...

Economically speaking: You haven't outgrown your home if you can't afford to move. The only way I could even think it would make sense is if you're outsourcing jobs simply because you don't have space despite having the ability and time. Other than that, you're basically banking on the idea if...