Question Average yearly revenue for sign shop

[elitetech]

Hi folks question. I've been renting my office from this lady in the back half of her store for the last 6 years and all my customers are
those I picked up personally. It was a good time to really put all the piece together on my own pace but now I want to expand. I've found a good main street retail location and I'm phishing for any info in-regards to what an average sign shop total revenue is.. any idea?

 

[Zendavor Signs]

There are about a million factors....could be anywhere from $100k to millions. I would advise you talk to your accountant or a business mentor to walk you through this. As a side note - a main street retail location is going to be very high cost per sq ft. You may want to look at industrial locations. This depends on your customer mix.

 

[TimToad]

Even though you have an existing business to gauge yourself by, I'd start with a well written and researched business plan that factors in the increased exposure, more space to work, equipment needs, market targets, etc..

 

[netsol]

while shooting the breeze with a fstsigns person a couple years ago,
he used the average of $750,000/yr

if i were guessing i would figure a store with no bucket truck, farming out installs would bring up the low end (my guess $450,000 -$500,000) and a location that installs, obviously the high end

he and i always argue, he says fastsigns teaches you to market signs, not manufacture. you can always farm out to another member of the fastsigns "family", it doesn't make any difference who does the install

i always reply it doesn't make any difference to him, corporate sells franchises, not signs, but it certainly makes a difference to the store owner. fastsigns teaches you a lot of ve

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

There is no average per se... It's spans the gamut

 

[netsol]

i think zendsvor signs is entirely correct. we are moving intoa 4300 sq ft warehouse location. it should open up alot of opportunities for work types we couldn't do in our tiny retail location

we have quite a bit of equipment just waiting for a large enough warehouse
we never looked for walkins. our plan has always been to pursue the clients and type of clients we want

 

[ikarasu]

Way too many factors to have an average.

You already are in business... what do you make now? Can you afford your new place on what you're currently making?

Your customer base isn't going to jump up just because you move to a new location - You may get a bunch of walk ins and tire kickers... but those usually cost you more than you make with them.

Location isn't the be-all-end-all. We do about $150-250,000 per month gross - way less net. So we're doing 50-100 different customer orders per day... I can count the number of times a client comes to pickup their product each day on 1 hand, most everything gets shipped... it all depends on your customer base, whether youre selling to other business's or selling to people off the street.

My advice - Stay where you are until your customer base is big enough to allow you to move. And only move so you have the space to buy more equipment, maybe get a boardroom for clients to come meet you in - Don't move to a new place expecting to get new customers just because you have a bigger building.... unless the clients you're going after are ones that want to see your shop, then walk away from you because they think you're current location is unprofessional.

 

[Jeremiah]

Average income ? Think about it. It all depends on you .There are " know it all " business owners that have no money after 15 years in business. They live month to month. But they " know it all ". If I Dont load myself up with overhead and I will make a comfortable living. If I stay on top of every job there is less chance of failure. I am the one responsible for success or failure.

 

[FireSprint.com]

While there are sign shops at every end of the spectrum, I do beleive there are just thousands of shops out there that do well under $200k gross.

 

[Billct2]

Signs of the Times does a survey every year and it includes revenues with different factors taken into consideration.

 

[rjssigns]

How much do you want to make? Not talking blue sky stuff either. Once you have a goal you can plan how to reach it. As you plan to attain that goal your plan should reveal its feasibility.

The bigger you grow your lion the more work it takes to keep it fed.