Search results

You get what you pay for and what you expect. I prefer to hire young people right out of high school with little or no experience. That way I get to train them the way we like to do things. I do the interviews and look for positive can-do attitude and a sense of humor. If I can find young...

We built our shop ten years ago. The lighting installed back then was four banks of T12 fluorescents and two high bay lights. That technology is now obsolete. The old style ballasts are now replaced with electronic ones which we have found to have a much shorter life. The old bulbs are getting...

Why wait till you die. Follow your passion (whatever it is) today! -grampa dan

We don't own a vinyl cutter or printer and only do dimensional work. Either I sign my name proudly to the project or we pass. we bought a new truck last week and had another shop (good friends)letter the doors. :) -grampa

Thanks for the kind comments. We currently number sixteen wonderful and fun employees for this project. It is about six miles from our shop. Most are part time university students with six full time staff. Another big year long project for Trinidad is set to start the day we finish this one...

We are currently in the middle of a ten month design build on a theme park project. As you can imagine there are plenty of cool signs to be build and all of them will be dimensional. Every ride, attraction and building will sport a cool dimensional sign in keeping with the theme and story of the...

Still optimistic about my future in this business after 46 years of making signs So many I see in this business are doing what just about anyone else can do - especially these days with plotters and printers. The only thing they have to compete with is price. That's a business model I wouldn't...

Our timeline is much longer than you asked for but our story is relevant I believe. I started in our home almost forty years ago. We lived in a mobile home at the time and the rooms were small. With two small kids and a business in a 60x12' space it was tight! Eventually we purpose built a home...

Here's the 'secret' plan that works. The time to start building your future is TODAY. It will take time and plenty of practice without a doubt but you have to start TODAY. Tomorrow do more. The day after that do even more. Tomorrow you will be known for what you did today. Wishing does not...

Steering my own boat Thanks for the vote of confidence and kind words. While I am sure there are some very good employers out there in the sign industry I instead chose to be self employed. I knew very clearly from the start what type of shop I wanted to own and the kind of signs I wanted to...

We are home based on a small acreage in a small town. The property is residential zoned which allows a small business. Our shop is 350 feet off of the road. Our new house is 28 feet off the road and is designed to be a visual showcase for the kind of work we do. The sign allowed by the city is...

Six years ago I did a few months of research before purchasing a router. The specs were confusing at the time and the options were endless. Every manufacturer had the perfect machine or so they said. Talking to many owners of different machines helped some but most folks tend to recommend what...

Cool piece Charlie! We are currently working on our biggest sign ever.... our new house which fronts our property that also is home to our studio/shop. The house will use and showcase every trick we can muster. We are keeping a blog of the house progress on our website. -grampa dan

Great work as always John! -grampa dan

Great sign Paul! -grampa dan

Charlie does some pretty cool work. As he has figured out, it is challenging and FUN to build truly dimensions signs. Charlie's work is largely built from lightweight and what I would think were temporary materials. This keeps his cost down but I would worry about the durability. If it hasn't...

Nice! -grampa dan

We use squarespace.com for our website. Easy to use. Keeping the site current is critical. As others have said above content is the most important thing. I add to our blog 3-4 times a week and it drives a lot of traffic to our site. I post pictures of customer's projects there and progress...

When I was looking at a CNC machine the first time I spent months looking at every possible option. I did a business plan too. I knew my investment would be substantial. I looked through my back issues of sign magazines and found work that was similar to what I wanted to do. Then I racked up a...

A real CNC? I was going to stay out of this one - until my name was used and my work was referred to. A CNC is a wonderful tool. And yes the CarveWrite qualifies - barely. It has it's place and you CAN do some cool things with it. I have a good friend who owns one and does some amazing things...