Community Partnership

[ams]

I was thinking about how great it would be if we started a community partnership. Get a group of us together who want to help each other out by selling wholesale, doing some graphic design work or even trading or borrowing stuff.

Like you are in need of some DiBond blanks and your supplier has them back ordered for a week, you have a deadline to meet. One of the community members makes it and ships it to you at a discounted rate.

You run out of step stakes and the customer is picking up in a few hours, a sign shop an hour away will let you borrow a box, you run down and pick it up and keep the customer happy.

What about a customer wanting a custom logo or something you can't design. Such as blueprint specs or something for permitting. Have a community member make it for you for a discounted rate.

I think it would have real merit and it wouldn't hurt the merchant members because they are specialized in certain things. Like some are suppliers, so they sell you vinyl, substrates. ink, etc not something a member can give you. Plus you would keep using merchant members for everyday stuff, the community would be more for when you are in a pinch or screwed and need something fast.

 

[AKwrapguy]

We kinda do that up here already out of necessity. I think it might be more interesting to get together to do something like purchase Medical Insurance. From what I understand the more people you have enrolled the cheaper your overall rates are.

What would be the legality of creating a group or co-op that would allow for this?

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Are you in kindergarten? Borring stuff? I would never ask local shops if I can borrow a box of stakes. If I was a poor planner and didn't have them I could MAYBE see buying them above cost...but borrowing? You seem to frequently find yourself in jams. There is something over here called saving face, and exposing your poor planning to other sign shops isn't it!

 

[HDvinyl]

You've already burned all your local bridges, now you want to burn them nationally?

If I was part of a community like that, the members should be able to vote to keep certain companies out.

 

[Rocco G]

We already do that sort of thing in my "neighborhood". We have a small group of sign shops that lend each other a hand as needed. It's not full boxes of anything, but more along the lines of a few yards of vinyl or say a few 117" lamps. E.G. I got a couple peanut housings from my local neon shop. A few weeks before I sheared some metal for him. Another guy came in and welded a match plate for me when my back was sore, etc. It's that sort of thing, more a group of friends than an association.

 

[Gene@mpls]

I am afraid in today's America [USA version anyway] you would be hard pressed to get two people to agree on anything. It make me sad. Not SAD!

 

[Marlene]

Not a very good idea.

 

[bannertime]

Yikes, no way. We send last minutes orders to a shop in the next town over that has all the fancy equipment, but never would I go into a competitors shop and ask for stuff. I can have just about anything to my door within a few hours for less than $40 to the courier. Guess I take for granted having Reece, Grimco, NGlantz, GSG, and Fellers in the area.

 

[ams]

You've already burned all your local bridges, now you want to burn them nationally?

If I was part of a community like that, the members should be able to vote to keep certain companies out.

Even though you are wrong, you can keep thinking that.

 

[Rick]

I wonder what an discounted/wholesale hourly rate would be for logo design/permit drawings? (Odd question for me to ask since I have given it away...)

 

[Johnny Best]

I wonder what an discounted/wholesale hourly rate would be for logo design/permit drawings? (Odd question for me to ask since I have given it away...)

You would be lucky to get $5 an hour. Of course, you could say something took you 40 hours to do when it only took you 2.
I would like to see ams ship 5 sheets of 4x8 ACM to Guam for GAC0S and absorb the shipping costs.

 

[TimToad]

Isn't this idea what the merchant members are all about?

 

[Rick]

You would be lucky to get $5 an hour. Of course, you could say something took you 40 hours to do when it only took you 2.
I would like to see ams ship 5 sheets of 4x8 ACM to Guam for GAC0S and absorb the shipping costs.

Considering that AMS claims Corel is 10 times "better" and MyRont says it's 100 times faster, how can I compete...

If you need help, use whats out there...
https://www.facebook.com/MYCRIMEINDESIGN/
http://semehicrew.wixsite.com/signs
http://marcoaospinasigndesigns.blogspot.com/?view=timeslide
http://www.brentlogandesign.com
http://www.letterboxsigndesign.com
https://www.charboneausigns.com
https://www.chatterboxdesigns.com

 

[equippaint]

Am I the only one that thinks this is a decent idea? We borrow stuff from our competitors, then we just order the material we took and have it sent to him. One of them also buys all of their decals and sandblast sand from us. Our neighbor even let me "borrow" 2 of his employees from him for a week a few months ago when we were really backed up.
Id be willing to print for people on here if they have print ready files and they were ok with whatever material we have.
When I was in sales I always built relationships with competitors, they will usually send things your way (and vice versa). The biggest thing was that the other companies are less apt to go after your customers when its personal.

 

[ikarasu]

We have some shops in the area we do this with. We have a Flatbed, and a lot of the smaller shops don't... So we get a lot of flatbed work from them, and we discount it heavily. There's been times when our printer died, and they've got us out of a jam on deadlines by pushing back their non time sensitive orders to help us out also.

We've borrowed rolls of vinyl when we got a huge job that needed xx rolls, we bought every roll stocked by all 3 of our suppliers and still needed more... They loan us a roll, we either buy it, or ship them another roll. Smaller shops buy xx yards of material off of us that's only sold in 50 yard rolls, because we have the volume to use full rolls, but they don't.

I like it, I don't see it as bad planning, or helping a competitor out. We do a lot of traffic signs, government jobs, municipal jobs, and large company jobs. Most of the people we "collaborate" with are ones who have completely different customers.

It works locally, but I don't see how it'd work nationally.

 

[ams]

Am I the only one that thinks this is a decent idea? We borrow stuff from our competitors, then we just order the material we took and have it sent to him. One of them also buys all of their decals and sandblast sand from us. Our neighbor even let me "borrow" 2 of his employees from him for a week a few months ago when we were really backed up.
Id be willing to print for people on here if they have print ready files and they were ok with whatever material we have.
When I was in sales I always built relationships with competitors, they will usually send things your way (and vice versa). The biggest thing was that the other companies are less apt to go after your customers when its personal.

Exactly, it's not an all of a time thing. but it's nice having someone there for a backup. The problem with people on this forum is it's all about competition and making money. They think if you own a sign shop near them, they want you shut down. I live in a small town with 10 sign shops and 4 print shops who do signs. We are extremely busy, there is enough business to go around for everyone. You will never get all of it and you wouldn't be able to handle it anyways.

 

[ams]

We have some shops in the area we do this with. We have a Flatbed, and a lot of the smaller shops don't... So we get a lot of flatbed work from them, and we discount it heavily. There's been times when our printer died, and they've got us out of a jam on deadlines by pushing back their non time sensitive orders to help us out also.

We've borrowed rolls of vinyl when we got a huge job that needed xx rolls, we bought every roll stocked by all 3 of our suppliers and still needed more... They loan us a roll, we either buy it, or ship them another roll. Smaller shops buy xx yards of material off of us that's only sold in 50 yard rolls, because we have the volume to use full rolls, but they don't.

I like it, I don't see it as bad planning, or helping a competitor out. We do a lot of traffic signs, government jobs, municipal jobs, and large company jobs. Most of the people we "collaborate" with are ones who have completely different customers.

It works locally, but I don't see how it'd work nationally.

It is tougher nationally, but can be done for certain things.

 

[GAC05]

You would be lucky to get $5 an hour. Of course, you could say something took you 40 hours to do when it only took you 2.
I would like to see ams ship 5 sheets of 4x8 ACM to Guam for GAC0S and absorb the shipping costs.

I could send my canoe to pick them up. Next full moon current will be flowing in the right direction.

 

[Johnny Best]

I could send my canoe to pick them up. Next full moon current will be flowing in the right direction.

You're a real life Thor Heyerdahl.