Can you believe this sign company?

[Gino]

Business neighbor dropped in unexpectedly this noon-time. He is not a customer of ours, just a good neighbor. He moved in about a year and a half ago. He asked if I could make 2 small decals with his logo and address on it for his new mailbox. I asked him why his regular guy can't do it. He hemmed and hawed and had 19 excuses. He doesn't want to leave him, but he wants me to do it. Seems a bit odd. Anyway, I told him, I don't have your logo or anything on file and it'll take me at least an hour or two to duplicate. It's nothing but outlines and weird type styles with the infamous swooshes. He e-mails me a vector pdf and in about 2 minutes, I had it all laid out, he gave me the Okay on the design and he asked how much ?? Told him, they'll be ready today, yet and we'll call it $5. to keep it honest. He was ecstatic and I know he's thinking in the back of his mind...... I'm RIGHT next door and his guy is about 20 minutes away. So, those little things can add quite nicely.

 

[fresh]

"I'm so sorry for you loss. I appreciate you reaching out to us but unfortunately we don't make those. I can suggest Joe Blow at XYZ sign company, would you like their phone number?" .

We do the same exact thing. Our shop min is $50, so let them them know we can do it for $50, or they can try the dude at the auction whose entire business model is selling one-off bumper stickers.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Business neighbor dropped in unexpectedly this noon-time. He is not a customer of ours, just a good neighbor. He moved in about a year and a half ago. He asked if I could make 2 small decals with his logo and address on it for his new mailbox. I asked him why his regular guy can't do it. He hemmed and hawed and had 19 excuses. He doesn't want to leave him, but he wants me to do it. Seems a bit odd. Anyway, I told him, I don't have your logo or anything on file and it'll take me at least an hour or two to duplicate. It's nothing but outlines and weird type styles with the infamous swooshes. He e-mails me a vector pdf and in about 2 minutes, I had it all laid out, he gave me the Okay on the design and he asked how much ?? Told him, they'll be ready today, yet and we'll call it $5. to keep it honest. He was ecstatic and I know he's thinking in the back of his mind...... I'm RIGHT next door and his guy is about 20 minutes away. So, those little things can add quite nicely.

Yes Gino, that is a smart decision and I would have done it too... prob. for free. But you did it for a BUSINESS MAN who uses a sign company. Much different then most IMO decals. I know your smart enough to see the difference. Come on Nino...say Tex is right... Come on I know you have it in there, come on, say it....

 

[TimToad]

We do the same exact thing. Our shop min is $50, so let them them know we can do it for $50, or they can try the dude at the auction whose entire business model is selling one-off bumper stickers.

Again, everybody has their own approach and tolerance for not wanting to be "bothered" by small requests. We take matters of the heart seriously and are empathetic people to start with.

Our region has a lot fire fighters and hot shots, who lose a peer in a fire from time to time. It's very dangerous work and they serve the community in a spectacularly unselfish way.

A couple weeks ago, the local, long time fire chief was driving back to town after a mop up on a brush fire and a car crossed over the center line and he was killed. A few firefighters came in and we just gave them a couple dozen small IMO decals we put together expecting someone from the department to want them at some point. I did it on my own time and didn't think twice about showing my humanity about our community's loss.

I know these are coarse, uncivil times we are living in, but we try to do the little things that help us feel engaged and more than just a revenue generating entity.

 

[Gino]

Yes Gino, that is a smart decision and I would have done it too... prob. for free. But you did it for a BUSINESS MAN who uses a sign company. Much different then most IMO decals. I know your smart enough to see the difference. Come on Nino...say Tex is right... Come on I know you have it in there, come on, say it....

I just don't get you Tex.


You actually said, I did it for a business. Someone who could afford it. Someone who is looking to spend money. Someone not under any duress. Someone just trying to get something lettered and you who can't take the time to do a nice charitable thing for someone who lost a loved one and donate 15 minutes, even for $30. C'mon man/gal...... where's your passion ?? You're the one boasting about all these profit margins and workloads and you can't find the time to do the humane gesture, but you're Okay with giving a business $45 worth of decals for $5 ??

I thought YOU were smart enough to see the difference. ​

 

[Johnny Best]

I see a pattern here. Texas Signmaker has taken a page out of Gino's playbook.
Started a thread on a personal experience in the shop and gave his idea on how he handles it. Others give their take on it and Texas goes back and forth with his take on their replies.
Seems Gino has a MiniMe in Texas Signmaker.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I see a pattern here. Texas Signmaker has taken a page out of Gino's playbook.
Started a thread on a personal experience in the shop and gave his idea on how he handles it. Others give their take on it and Texas goes back and forth with his take on their replies.
Seems Gino has a MiniMe in Texas Signmaker.

Glad someone noticed my humor.

 

[Johnny Best]

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

looks like a bad nightmare!

 

[desync0]

I dunno, I'm just starting out and working on filling the niche between the several large and well established sign shops in town (that probably wouldn't do the small jobs either) and the might show up in a week (or a month) internet shops.

So the more shops that don't find it worth the time to do the 1 or 2 off jobs, the better for me lol

Just today I made up a design for a 4 piece 3 colour order while sipping my morning coffee, it'll take another 15-20 minutes to cut/weed/layer. He liked the design so much he asked for another decal with simple text in an oval, 30 second design that will take 5 minutes tops to cut and weed. Told him I'd throw in a second of the simple text decal and do all 6 for $50 and he was happy.

$49 profit for half an hours work is fine with me.

Do I want to do the little jobs forever? No. But someone has to do them.

I'm working out of the house, so I don't have to worry about people wasting my time in person, which if I did have a shop I can see being an issue. But emailing off 3-4 variations and making a minor change to the one they like best works great.

 

[CanuckSigns]

I dunno, I'm just starting out and working on filling the niche between the several large and well established sign shops in town (that probably wouldn't do the small jobs either) and the might show up in a week (or a month) internet shops.

So the more shops that don't find it worth the time to do the 1 or 2 off jobs, the better for me lol

Just today I made up a design for a 4 piece 3 colour order while sipping my morning coffee, it'll take another 15-20 minutes to cut/weed/layer. He liked the design so much he asked for another decal with simple text in an oval, 30 second design that will take 5 minutes tops to cut and weed. Told him I'd throw in a second of the simple text decal and do all 6 for $50 and he was happy.

$49 profit for half an hours work is fine with me.

Do I want to do the little jobs forever? No. But someone has to do them.

I'm working out of the house, so I don't have to worry about people wasting my time in person, which if I did have a shop I can see being an issue. But emailing off 3-4 variations and making a minor change to the one they like best works great.

How do you figure you made $49 profit on a $50 job, if you said it took you 30 minutes to do? I hope you don't consider your time to be free just because you are home based, there are so many issues with doing that.

Also, profit is defined as the money your business makes after all expenses are accounted for, so in this example you didnt pay yourself, didn't account for the electricity used, the cost of your equipment, cost of your software, cost of your gas to pick up the vinyl, cost of advertising your business, I could go on and on. I would actually venture to say you lost money on this transaction.

 

[desync0]

How do you figure you made $49 profit on a $50 job, if you said it took you 30 minutes to do? I hope you don't consider your time to be free just because you are home based, there are so many issues with doing that.

Also, profit is defined as the money your business makes after all expenses are accounted for, so in this example you didnt pay yourself, didn't account for the electricity used, the cost of your equipment, cost of your software, cost of your gas to pick up the vinyl, cost of advertising your business, I could go on and on. I would actually venture to say you lost money on this transaction.

Sorry I didn't pull out a calculator to get the exact cost of materials. But I don't advertise yet, all my materials are delivered to my house, I get a long fine with inkscape, my plotter and computer are paid for, but I didn't account for hydro, so take another .50 out for electricity.

So any portion of $48.50 is available to either pay myself or reinvest in the business. My time isn't free, I use the L+W/2 to figure a base price for decals, then decide how long it's going to take me to do it. If L+W/2 isn't close to $50/hr I don't do it, or I add in cost to bring it up there.

Also my day job guarantees me 40hrs a week even if I don't leave the house, if this was my fulltime gig and I had overhead you'd be right though.

 

[Johnny Best]

You have a regular job and on the side you made $48.50. Great, next thing you will be doing is commenting on economics of the sign industry and explaining scarcity and supply and demand.

 

[Gino]

Desy, that has got to be about the lamest response I've ever seen here.

Because you have no business plan, model, overhead, utilities, taxes, expenditures and whatever else you refuse to acknowledge, you think you only have $1.50 invested with that customer ??

Why be so ruthless and charge the guy 50× what it cost you ?? Wouldn't $10. had been enough ??

You sound like a very successful businessperson.

With your business smarts and lack of any investment, my hat is off to someone who can make $50 out of thin air. Just wait til you graduate and can make $100 or $200. with no money invested.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Swaggins, relax, there are plenty of IMO decals to go around for you to have your pick. Heck, I'll give you some of my referrals, no cost.

 

[TomNJ]

Got a call today from a prospective customer. Wanted to know how much we charge for two "In memory of" decals. I told him we don't make those and he proceeds to bad mouth one of the longest standing (and respected) sign shops in town. He said he called them three days ago and checked in with them today to find they don't have the decals ready. "Well, I'm not going to give them my business, I will give it to someone else" he said. Our of curiosity I asked how much he was buying them for, he said they were selling them for $15/ea. He then told me that's up from $12 from (another respected shop) in town.

My shock is that these two long standing and respected companies were even doing them! They are far from small shops.

I guess I missed the point.

Funny thing is that how some members with hundreds or thousands of posts are too busy to take small jobs because their time is too valuable.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Point was be careful even with the smallest of orders, you could have someone posting bad reviews about you online over a $15 decal.

 

[TomNJ]

Point was be careful even with the smallest of orders, you could have someone posting bad reviews about you online over a $15 decal.

Thanks, I agree wholeheartedly.

 

[Rebel Graphics]

No job too small for us.... you never know who's who and money is money

 

[Bradley Signs]

Geez... I hope when I grow up I can be an insensitive, money hungry, self-centered jerk!
Christ, I work all over the Metro-Plex and all the way to Austin and where ever.... Send those IMO people to me!
I'm no sympathetic cow, but I'm a human and will treat others the same way.
Somebody died? I feel your pain. Lost many a friends over the years.
I can't do it for free, but I will do the best I can, for a soul in the time of need!
Man oh man...
To think these are theoretically, grown ups....
ugh.....