Channel Letters Partnership Models??!

[tradesigns]

OK, Let's assume these signs are the bomb, UL, great design, light well, good quality, even the customer was easy because he ordered the same style he saw from a previous job, OK, so I get these in my shop, have an install day set to 3 days before Grand Opening & open up the crate & find 2 letters bent from Mongo shipping, whoops, now I gotta get a replacement & let me guess, they will arrive on a slow boat from China, meanwhile I gotta fight with Mongo for payment & the clock ticks by all the while I could have gotten them from Sign America in Ohio made by some American workers who (in my past experience) have never damaged any of my signs. I realize I wouldn't get the benefit of splitting my profit but I will have to learn to get over that, I won't even let Visa in for 3%, why would I let someone in for 50?

I think importing things can be profitable but when you throw in the word "custom" the easy button gets tossed out of the window. Shipping damage is only one thing that can go wrong with the job, I tend to find people across the water from me don't speak the same language & that in itself is an issue. I like to outsource only to people I can get my hands on if things go sideways.
just my opinion...

1. Usually projects need a few months to be confirmed, I am talking about plublic bidding, 10 days production time and 4 days DHL shipment won't take that much time, that's only your imagination to take a long long time to get arrived.

2. If letters got broken, even in US it takes time to got finished right? here we only need 4 more shipping days, maybe even less because we may finish it faster than the production in US, yes this is the disadvantage I admit, but not every project is that rush and need to be done 3 days before their opening ceremony, right? Those urgent projects you can surely have it made locally.

3. Customs thing is not that complicated as you thought it to be, we are using DHL flight, not sea shipping, they do almost everything. We have 70% discount with DHL forwarder, freight cost is not an issue for sure!

4. 50/50 is quite fair in my opinion, yes of course it's not for you because you don't want to take a try and think that's risky to gain extra projects and money, yes that's extra money, because I bring more clients to you, our German partner work quite well and he even got a big project from a big company in the next 5 years talking about $xxx,xxx, believe it or not, because there are so many potentials behind.

Trust me, 99% of those guys don't know this forum.

 

[Gino]

You sounds so unfriendly because I potentially hurt your benefit?
Come on, there are so many people have been doing the same things you are doing, also my price rate is just an example to explain him how the 50/50 works, not to tell my true profit, if you just that afraid your partners may see this thread and cut your margain, that's not true and not going to happen. There are so many clients and customers in the world who you never met before and 99.99% won't find this thread forever.

On the contrary…. I’m not unfriendly at all, until someone becomes annoying and misbehaved….. not to mention arrogant.

Read my post #7 and you’ll see I asked you VERY politely and even added ‘PLEASE’, but you totally ignored it and continued with your own opinionated agenda and method of listing things… which others here don’t do.

You want to come in here and just push your wares on some unsuspecting individual and take advantage of the ‘Partnership’ as you call it. You don’t like being called out, but that’s exactly what you’re doing. I don’t have to like it or dislike it to see what you are actually trying to do. You are very transparent and I won’t let friends or neighbors be hurt by the likes of you, your partnership or misguided ways.

You want everyone to think you have all their answers and you don’t have diddly. You either need us badly or are just acting the part of a friend. You have all this worked out with the Germans, so why don’t you just leave it at that ?? I presume you’re in a race with some other foreign companies doing this same deal…. and you want to land an account first.

Merchant Member or no Merchant Member….. no one needs to have something shoved down their throat. I’m getting the complete impression, you read and write English, but you don’t understand the language. I can understand the language barrier thing going on here, but you understand just enough English, to be dangerous. Your accusations and baseless threats as to how worried I am or my partners… just prove how wrong you are about business in America. Good American sign people don’t need your crap shoveled at them. I would invite you to take an ad out in the trade magazines and some of the bigger city newspapers and see what response you get there. Your sugar-coated nonsense is riding thin around here.

 

[UFB Fabrication]

Sheeeeesh

This " deal" was posted on another forum as well

 

[tradesigns]

On the contrary…. I’m not unfriendly at all, until someone becomes annoying and misbehaved….. not to mention arrogant.

Read my post #7 and you’ll see I asked you VERY politely and even added ‘PLEASE’, but you totally ignored it and continued with your own opinionated agenda and method of listing things… which others here don’t do.

You want to come in here and just push your wares on some unsuspecting individual and take advantage of the ‘Partnership’ as you call it. You don’t like being called out, but that’s exactly what you’re doing. I don’t have to like it or dislike it to see what you are actually trying to do. You are very transparent and I won’t let friends or neighbors be hurt by the likes of you, your partnership or misguided ways.

You want everyone to think you have all their answers and you don’t have diddly. You either need us badly or are just acting the part of a friend. You have all this worked out with the Germans, so why don’t you just leave it at that ?? I presume you’re in a race with some other foreign companies doing this same deal…. and you want to land an account first.

Merchant Member or no Merchant Member….. no one needs to have something shoved down their throat. I’m getting the complete impression, you read and write English, but you don’t understand the language. I can understand the language barrier thing going on here, but you understand just enough English, to be dangerous. Your accusations and baseless threats as to how worried I am or my partners… just prove how wrong you are about business in America. Good American sign people don’t need your crap shoveled at them. I would invite you to take an ad out in the trade magazines and some of the bigger city newspapers and see what response you get there. Your sugar-coated nonsense is riding thin around here.

lol, is there any problem of me not speaking perfect english? As long as I understand the technical terms...
If you are not happy of what I am offering here, you can just leave this thread, but you don't have proof so stop emphasizing telling others I am offering "crap".

Also, I can expand what markets I want, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Italy and also US, that's none of your business. The first model work, why not entering other markets? an interesting question...

Anyway, as Fred said, you can't stop me in self promoting, if that's the problem about the "price example" listed here, admin, please moderate that.

I don't want to argue on this, it make no sense.

 

[Gino]

lol, is there any problem of me not speaking perfect english? As long as I understand the technical terms...
If you are not happy of what I am offering here, you can just leave this thread, but you don't have proof so stop emphasizing telling others I am offering "crap".

Also, I can expand what markets I want, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Italy and also US, that's none of your business. The first model work, why not entering other markets? an interesting question...

Anyway, as Fred said, you can't stop me in self promoting, if that's the problem about the "price example" listed here, admin, please moderate that.

I don't want to argue on this, it make no sense.

:Oops:so, are you telling me you won't 'partner' with me ??

















.

 

[tradesigns]

:Oops:so, are you telling me you won't 'partner' with me ??

.

I didn't mean that, but it's just not for you, because you won't understand the benefit of this business model, and only think that idea is crap, then you can only see the drawbacks, which can be avoided if you are experienced enough.

 

[Just Another Sign Guy]

haha if you are experienced enough...now that's funny.

 

[Gino]

trade…….

I’m sorry. You are entirely correct. I might be hindering your doing business. I guess its just your peculiar way that I’m not accustomed to that has me scratching my head. Anyway, I’m not trying to stand in the way or keep you from advertising here or anywhere else. I’m merely pointing things out to unsuspecting people. I won’t stand in the way of you expanding your markets around the world or here in the USA. Perhaps you think too much of me to be pointing me out as someone that you want to leave YOUR thread ??

Again, I’m sure you mean no disrespect by telling me to leave your thread, but it still remains…. you want me gone for a reason. I won’t leave, but I’ll refrain from some of my remarks…. for a while and not be responsible for lack of content and get your thread locked down.

My last question, since I can’t read your mind… I would presume you can’t read mine. Therefore, why or how is it you know so much about me or my business and know that I won’t understand you or your methods ??

Anyway, happy hunting down a partner and good luck to the both of you.

:Welcome:

​

 

[Marlene]

just what we need is one more thing an American used to make being made overseas. do you ever watch the news? seems like everyday some product is recalled because there's some toxic substance being used to cut costs. trust is a big issue and I don't trust any products coming from your part of the world, sorry but true. maybe when you guys can make kids's jewlery, drinking glasses, baby food and pet food that doesn't kill the user people over here might be more willing to want to deal with your products. sorry to lay the blame of all of the above on you personally, but I think you might see why we aren't all yelling woopie! at you offer

 

[modernmav]

this whole thing has seemed like a scam to me from post #1 but i've refrained from saying anything untill marlene & gino's posts...

 

[tradesigns]

this whole thing has seemed like a scam to me from post #1 but i've refrained from saying anything untill marlene & gino's posts...

I will prove it's not. I don't speak perfect english to exress myself well, so it looks more scammy to most people, but I don't think that's a big problem because if you know all technical terms you are not going to misunderstand each other.

 

[Just Another Sign Guy]

hey at least you were honest enough to tell us that you don't fabricate the product yourself...

what really troubles me about this in regards to this product (and taking you at your word that the letters you are outsourcing are UL Certified) is that there is no way to check the authenticity of this and there has been multiple instances of people creating their own UL stickers.

i would never recommned blindly ordering a product of this nature. if any of us are outsourcing a product like this we can quickly do a search to see that the manufacturing company is in good standing with Underwriters Laboratories.

i'm not going to rehash all of the other concerns that have come up already.but another concern of mine is what a pain it is going to be when (not if) you have to service the project in the future...if you need to replace a letter, if you need to replace any part or component. if you build a working relationship with a local fabrication shop you make a pattern, take your measurements and get the job done make a profit.

with you we would have to add shipping wait times on top of the production time (which may cost you the job right there because when people's illuminated signs are not functioning properly they usually want them repaired asap..and someone locally will be able to do that much quicker than waiting on parts to arrive from asia) but just as you have had challenges explaining what your intent is with this project communicating the project is going to be challenging, making sure that both parties understand completely what is being built...i can only imagine the frustration of communicating a detailed repair.

on top of that you stated that your source of illumination is 'CREE' (an LED manufacturer) for whatever the reason LED's are not always an option nor the best answer for every project. You are going to have to find someone that is willing to provide neon units for letters they didnt create, supply them with patterns or files (and then hope that the files actually match) not that i would recommend shipping letters with neon units as the source of illumination from asia..what i would recommend as i always do is to build a working relationship with a local manufacturer..i've dealt with these projects for over 20yrs problems occur, repairs are necessary, troubleshooting is going to be necessary.

if you do not have the ability to manufacture projects of this nature yourself most likely you are going to need someone who can help you with some aspect of the project.

just my experience.

now that i've been a total killjoy. there are multiple people on this site who are sourcing products from asia. i see great value in having someone who can find those companies, make sure they are the legit company they say they are and not just another company reselling a product they have found, that the products meet the description and quality as described and all that goes along with doing business when you are far removed from the country.

we have members here who are constantly searching for printer parts, consumable products, etc. i have discussed it with multiple members how nice it would be to have an individual who understood our industry and could do that type of work. there are companies here who are sending representatives to China and Korea (but we don't even know where you are located other than 'asia' which last time i checked is a pretty big place..i'm just saying...it's like my location being North America) multiple times a year to verify that products are as described, that companies are legit, etc etc.