2023 wrapup

[gnubler]

Inspired by this Signs of the Times article, what was good or bad for your business in 2023? What changes did you make that improved your operations? What mistakes were made?

Sign Business Ideas That Worked (and Didn’t) in 2023

Brain Squad members share this year’s hits and misses.

signsofthetimes.com

I had plans to bring wide format printing in-house, but have decided to continue outsourcing until I have enough volume to justify the cost.

I built a second work table, a 5x10 foot. I use that table for dirty work, and the 4x8 table for vinyl work (weeding/masking/facing signs). This has improved production a lot.

The best tool I invested in this year was a Makita track saw with 4ft and 10ft tracks. Prior to that I was cutting most substrates by hand with a straight edge and it sucked hard.

I started networking more with other business owners and have gotten jobs from it.

I recently set up a Facebook page for the business, mainly for SEO ranking. Haven't decided yet if that was a mistake or not.

Website was completely redone and upgraded. Have been working on getting more Google reviews. So far all 5 star reviews!

Sales are about the same as last year, I was hoping to see more of an increase.

I was able to close the shop twice for one week to take some time off (I'm a one person shop).

 

[MrDav3C]

So I finally took over the family sign making business in October 2022, have been working there since I was a child and now it's actually mine!

I have tried to make a number of changes / improvements over the past year to streamline our workflow and just generally make the place better and more professional / profitable:

Have redecorated the offices & gave the whole place a massive overhaul and tidy up (virtually every old customer says how much better the place looks).

Setup a new phone system & video door bell, we now never miss a customer if we are out on an install etc.

Created a proper procedure for workflow from initial enquiries to job completion so anyone can see what stage a job is at and what needs to be done next.

Employed a hardworking young student part time to assist with installations and learn the industry, so we can teach him "our way" which in the long run may be better than someone who has experience.

Have found a decent subcontract sign installation team to assist with some of the more challenging installations.

Have significantly increased our presence on social media, this was fairly quick and easy to do and has definitely generated more business.

Probably the biggest improvement for us was Upgrading our printer from a Roland SP540 to a TrueVis SG3, this has increased print quality, provided much better print, lam & cut capabilities & increased turnaround times for vehicle wraps etc. I feel this investment has helped to future proof our business.

Some of my plans for the next year:

Redo our own building signs & vehicle graphics, buy a new laminator, re-screed the floor in my vehicle bay or something similar, & update our website.

I think it can be very difficult to actually find the time to make improvements to the business, all these things take time and usually don't directly generate profit. We usually find Jan and Feb to be a bit quieter than the rest of the year so this is probably the best time for us to make improvements.

 

[victor bogdanov]

Taking on some "sign shop" work this year to learn/expand my offerings. Before I was strictly online print/cut/ship. Local work where I can see the finished project is pretty cool

I started doing installs for the first time this year after over a decade in business, have not applied a wall decal/mural until this year. A valuable customer asked for some wall decals and I couldn't say no. Now I've installed a few hundred decals/murals and feel like I know what I'm doing, don't mind doing a couple installs per week and feel like it is a great skill to have.

Bough a laminator and laminated my first couple of full rolls just weeks ago

Also had to buy a new backup printer, buying a printer was the last thing I thought I would be doing for the next 3 years at least

 

[gnubler]

Have found a decent subcontract sign installation team to assist with some of the more challenging installations.

This is probably my #1 wish for the business. Can't find any qualified or interested subs, and I've had to turn down big jobs because of it.

 

[Humble PM]

Moving to a new premises in the spring, larger workspace, with time to plan storage, and space to upgrade facilities.
Room to bring on one, then two apprentices, so I can take a week off without having to do two weeks work the week before, and two weeks work the week after.
Getting control of our decade old file maker solution.

Saying NO

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

My biggest change this year was adding another national client...for a total of 2. I'm 90% project management at this point and mostly deal with 2 customers. I still take other jobs to change things up... But this has allowed me to work remote and opened up possibilities on travel and living elsewhere . Way more stressful work at times, but I am home more.

 

[Pauly]

Changes we made this year:
(mostly software for us)
- A huge investment into automation software. Our prepress is now fully automated which has saved us a ton of time.
- Removed some subscription based software that wasn't essential and moved to self hosted, open source alternatives.

Things that worked:
- Upgrading to the latest versions for the essential software. RIP, automation etc, as some you need to pay for to upgrade.
- Building our Automation server.
- Investing time into our product processes. making sure every product has it's own process.
- Documenting processes. You can't remember everything, we now have our own wiki with resources.

Things that didn't work:
- Wasting time on cheap, budget alternatives. It's worth paying for the stuff you need rather than doing it twice.
- Helping everyone. While we love to help, some jobs just didn't fit our system and causes more issues than the job is worth.

Present & Future planning:
- Continue to develop the automation
- New flatbed cutter arrives any day so will be ready for 2024.
- Finish moving into our new warehouse.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas and a happy new year !

 

[JBurton]

Documenting processes. You can't remember everything, we now have our own wiki with resources.

Brilliant!

 

[Boudica]

Brilliant!

Yes, developing an internal "wiki" on processes and how-to is a great idea - when it actually works. The last place I worked at, we built one, but it was a waste of time failure. It was a company of just under 100 people... people would not use it, or not update it... if they did up date or add to it they would put it in the wrong place... total waste of effort. Tried to put people in charge, but the ones that didn't want the task "never found time" and the ones that did want the task... I don't think there were any of those after the initial build. Setting it up was one thing - maintenance was another.

 

[gnubler]

That's a great idea, even for small shops. Too often I get stuck on something and refer to a past job where I had the same problem and my notes are cryptic, at best.

One thing I definitely want to improve for 2024 is my job ticket/work order system. Half the time I don't even fill in all the info and I want them to be more complete for future reference.

 

[Pauly]

Yes, developing an internal "wiki" on processes and how-to is a great idea - when it actually works. The last place I worked at, we built one, but it was a waste of time failure. It was a company of just under 100 people... people would not use it, or not update it... if they did up date or add to it they would put it in the wrong place... total waste of effort. Tried to put people in charge, but the ones that didn't want the task "never found time" and the ones that did want the task... I don't think there were any of those after the initial build. Setting it up was one thing - maintenance was another.

This works best when you doing it for your employees for them to reference how things work.
For example, we have QR codes around various equipment etc that link to a page with the essential info.

Could be the Graphtec, and it'll show our default settings, which blade holder is for what process. etc.
Or the Fotobas list of preset media.

 

[Pauly]

That's a great idea, even for small shops. Too often I get stuck on something and refer to a past job where I had the same problem and my notes are cryptic, at best.

One thing I definitely want to improve for 2024 is my job ticket/work order system. Half the time I don't even fill in all the info and I want them to be more complete for future reference.

This use to be us in the earlier days.
We had some make shift systems, we used Asana, Trello etc. But noticed we never used it how we wanted and half processed the jobs.
At the same time we had to manually enter it into Xero, and anywhere else it needed to be entered.

We found when we moved to onprintshop and build a system where we have 1 point of input, It was a lot smoother, and so much more consistent.

 

[rydods]

The Good: We purchased a new rollover table for transfer tape and sign application, well worth it. Also a new hire that has really rounded out our team. Our sales increased again for the 13th consecutive year and we've seen a lot more new customers in 2023, started jogging for 3 miles a day (week days).
The Bad: We lost our biggest customer 2 days ago (50%) or our sales. The sales part is the bad part, they were also our biggest headache and we knew something had to change at some point.
Mistakes: Renting machinery that wasn't right for the job, Hiring a developer for a personal business workflow/pricing app and spending a lot of money only to find that it's not any better than trello.

 

[ColorCrest]

Mistakes: Renting machinery that wasn't right for the job, Hiring a developer for a personal business workflow/pricing app and spending a lot of money only to find that it's not any better than trello.

In a concentrated effort to help anyone considering such an endeavor, I encourage them to ask questions here in the forums or contact me via DM ("Conversations").

There are a very few fundamental basics one should be aware of to be successful. A simply analogy is if somebody were to design a car, it's likely to have four wheels. However, if the designer has never seen a car, where would four wheels be positioned and why not 3 wheels or 5 wheels? The workflow diagram of a sign shop solution is far simpler and less complicated than what QuickBooks presents to users of their application. So there's that.

Forward ahead.

 

[White Haus]

This works best when you doing it for your employees for them to reference how things work.
For example, we have QR codes around various equipment etc that link to a page with the essential info.

Could be the Graphtec, and it'll show our default settings, which blade holder is for what process. etc.
Or the Fotobas list of preset media.

I've trying to think of a way to incorporate QR codes and this sounds like a great way to use them!

This use to be us in the earlier days.
We had some make shift systems, we used Asana, Trello etc. But noticed we never used it how we wanted and half processed the jobs.
At the same time we had to manually enter it into Xero, and anywhere else it needed to be entered.

We found when we moved to onprintshop and build a system where we have 1 point of input, It was a lot smoother, and so much more consistent.

I'm in the same boat. What little processes/systems are documented, are sprinkled all over the place. Google Docs, paper prints, word files, PDF's etc etc.

Time to pick one central location and make sure it's known/accessible to everyone.

 

[White Haus]

The Bad: We lost our biggest customer 2 days ago (50%) or our sales. The sales part is the bad part, they were also our biggest headache and we knew something had to change at some point.

Sorry to hear. We had something similar happen right when covid hit - took us a couple of years to recover/replace that business. You will miss the money, but not the headaches. Once you get over the loss you'll appreciate replacing that 1 customer @ 50% with 5-10 new customers that are better to work with.

 

[JBurton]

Finally wrapping this monster project up. Here's one of 3, 20'x20' cabinet, 45' overall height. We tried to talk them into something closer to 125' overall, so it wasn't so dwarfed by the net. Got 2 more to be finished up in the next couple of days, otherwise liquidated damages come into play...

 

[Stacey K]

I love these kinds of posts, everyone has such great ideas!!!

The good:

-Learned how to do partial wraps! Best thing I ever did was listen you guys that said "you can do it" when I did my first partial wrap on a police car - so to you I say THANK YOU!
-Increased overall sales 34% - mostly because I can do partial wraps now and have the printer in-house
-Implemented SignTracker - absolutely love it!
-Hired a friend to press all my large apparel orders - she comes in at night and it works great for both of us

Needs improvement:

-Learn to say NO - I really struggle with this.
-Need to choose which customers are worth working with and who is not
-Update my pricing and utilize SignTracker better - January/February project
-Use my new saw for the first time LOL

 

[Boudica]

Needs improvement:
-Learn to say NO - I really struggle with this.

Just picture them as a marijuana cigarette.

 

[Humble PM]

Just found my Christmas box set