Future of the industry?

[visual800]

Before the economy hit bottom, the work was astronomical. It was unbelievable, it was a freaking joy ride. I was amazed at the work going out and the money coming in. I paid my home off, and all vehicles (now dont get excited I dont live all that great) Right when you thought you couldnt take another job, another one came in and someohow you pulled it off.

When it stopped...IT STOPPED! the phones were dead, there was no more activity, no more building no more spending. I saw compnaies closing left and right and I questioned then if my career choice was in jeapordy. It was as well as hundreds of others BUT I took care of my debt in the good times while others wallowed in their new found mint pi$$ing money away on frivilous BS that had no value after they bought it.

IMO, we will NEVER see another booming economy as that was. NEVER. There was too much money being thrown at too many people that couldnt afford it. Thank to the govt and their "giving" rules. "Everybody can have a home"...NO! Everybody can't have a home cause some people are broke and do not deserve to live inside a neighborhood where working folks are. THAT is what took all of this down. As the indigent moved into working class neighborhoods, the working class left to other neighborhoods and that sparked more building, more money being loaned....vicious cycle.

Reinvent yourself and your businesses. Do stuff the print shops aint doing and let them have all the BS jobs, birthday banners, coro signs. just like Jill said. sign up with every contrator and architect in your city as a vendor, close unversities and cheak out local towns with large manufacturing places going in. its gonna be rough the next few years till we get that freaking idiot and his band of f***tards out of office. This wasnt caused bt them I know but they sure aint helpin

 

[Hero Signs]

I took over a 37 year old company Feb. 2012 and I see the online wholesale to public kicking our butt in real estate and also traditional warning signs. Local governments have also issued a "Hate Banner" legislation so there went $12K in profit per year.

But we are busier than ever! And I need more space.

What I have done is expand to install in house. We branched out to use dye sub. printers, we added business printing (through trade printing).


How I am making the change: We are re-branding through new logos and brochures, which have never been made at the shop. I need to update the website with some of our "Wow" projects.

All this time in the last 2 years there are 3 new companies, one being a former disgruntled employee and 1 company installing for less than online wholesale, and one big outfit who does shirts trying to get into the signs and wraps business. And they have wrapped 3 of my customers vehicles..RRRRR They are just kicking my but in marketing right now.

But here is how we win: I am the hungriest, I have a better designer, we create a call us first mentality, each employee must do 1 community event per month. We increase our install and also sub out our electrical service. I will finally wrap my vehicles this next month also and park them at high traffic events. Next year I plan on using my seniors as Public Relations because I cannot get out of the shop since I am key in the design process. I know getting out myself will be even better but I just need a public image.

"Your network is your net worth" I fully believe this.

 

[Z SIGNS]

Here's what I think.Just change the the name buggy whip maker to sign maker
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/mone...strauss/2008-08-04-buggy-whip-mentality_N.htm

 

[visual800]

Here's what I think.Just change the the name buggy whip maker to sign maker
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/mone...strauss/2008-08-04-buggy-whip-mentality_N.htm

as I said Re-Invent yourself, good article

 

[Mosh]

In 1990 I heard the same thing, too many plotter will ruin "the industry". That was almost 25 years ago and "the industry" is still here...

 

[OldPaint]

been at signs since i was in my teens(1957-63). played at em till 1986.....when i went full time to sign painting!!!! just got in when the "goober " was coming into play. did good for many years till i hit 60. medical stuff, and dirt cheap dum dums....took a lot of the work i had. i still have a few good clients. i do maybe 4-5 banners a year now, 1999 i was 5-10 a week!!!! still have HAND PAINTED WORK... which i luv to do....and PRICE IS NEVER QUESTIONED...usually it is "go ahead do it!" 68 now, would like a small printer......WRAPS SUCK....most who do them, have no talent so they throw poop at a wall, and more poop seems to be all they got.

 

[Rick]

Sign Industry? Which one?

Promotional (which is what most mom and pop sign shops do)
Specialty promotional (wraps, banners only, directionals... etc)
Architectural
Craft (hand lettering, carving, gold leaf, murals)
Exhibit
Interpretive
Electrical
Interior
--- code related (ADA, Fire Safety)
--- architectural
--- retail/display
Environmental Graphic Design
Wayfinding
MUTCD/Traffic


I have had better luck with architectural/environments because the budgets are bigger, you have the element or permits and city reviews and a required contractors license (depending on the state)... that alone takes experience and time and hard to lowball... though I have been lowballed. I also don't need hundreds of walk in customers, I only need a few.

The more you know about the various parts of the sign business, the wider the customer base and the ability to charge appropriately.

 

[SignManiac]

I'm currently suffering from a self imposed identity crisis as I have no idea where I fit in anymore. I'm not sure if I can get a classification and this is causing me great emotional distress. My shrink thinks I'm schizophrenic and have several distinct sign persona's. I'm torn between old school and high tech often with a yearning for futuristic. I just don't know anymore. It's all so confusing.

 

[Gino]

You could try building an airplane out of plastic and becoming a niche marketing/fabrication company. How many passengers could something like that fly ?? Not that I want to find out first-hand, just inquiring minds want to know.

 

[SignManiac]

Currently working on a real flyable ultralight Gino. This one was a bit more serious. It will be the first in the fleet of "BananAir" It will be used for aerial advertising for our Monkey Huggers franchise brand!

 

[jen.reelez]

There is an expression that all change isn't progress, and all progress isn't forward.
It is a lie we use and pull mixed analogies of so called progress in other areas. It is not all for the betterment of us, it just is, and we live with it.

Back in the day (70's and even 80's) an average wage was much higher than it is now. If you use the auto factory wage or union wage of those years, few come even close to it now. $10, $12, or even $14 an hour is what most young people get now, even the college educated ones.

So just because skilled sign people with much experience lack some more skills that will allow them to adapt to a changing market, they should accept their fate as part of progress? Maybe accept it is all you can do, but blame yourself for your fate. This is way to socially darwinian for me.

The "kind of change" matters indeed! :Big Laugh
Principle of sowing and reaping; adapting to the changing market (or changes of people's taste and preferences rather!)

Open-minded and smart risk takers got a greater probability to survive in the industry

 

[chafro]

Printing is being done and tons of it. And people are making money out of it, lots of it. This is a fast moving market and you need to adapt constantly to stay ahead.

there are tons of opportunities in the industry. You just need to be looking for them and more important being able to see them.

 

[OldPaint]

sorry.but when you got 5 PRINTERS in a 5 mile area.........the only thing it does is bring the prices for that work......LOWER......most with a printer have nothing else to offer THEN LOWER PRICES......... when printers 1st hit the market, it was not unusual for anything you had done to be @ $15-20 sq ft. i got em selling to the public......$5 sq ft.....and their paying off a $20,000 machine)))))....thats the cheapest i do vinyl.........for another sign shop))))) any less i may as well go flip burgers...

 

[skyhigh]

I'm currently suffering from a self imposed identity crisis as I have no idea where I fit in anymore. I'm not sure if I can get a classification and this is causing me great emotional distress. My shrink thinks I'm schizophrenic and have several distinct sign persona's. I'm torn between old school and high tech often with a yearning for futuristic. I just don't know anymore. It's all so confusing.

Thats too funny Bob.

Or perhaps you weren't trying to be funny??? :Oops:

 

[Mosh]

I bet you guys all watch Fox News, I can tell from all the "doom and gloom" outlooks you all have! LOL

 

[WCSign]

Jill, I think your idea of selling novelty signs online is a great supplement and they can be sold as a high end customized product.

My thought on the internet stuff has multiple angles on both sides.

1- some people will always like to walk in and touch the products they are buying.

2- the average person does not have a design and you can offer them something custom.

3- jump on the bandwagon, i own a handful of sites that bring me this cheapie business. Its nice to get an email saying youve made a sale while you were sleeping. Ok so I made a sale and only profitted $50, I may have had nothing else going on that day, and we all know these printers work better when they are running daily.

Besides, the avererage worker nowadays barely makes $50 a day.

4- be active locally, visit your client businesses , offer suggestions.... Offer delivery, I often tell restaurants ill deliver thier banners etc. and I get a free lunch out of it.

 

[TimToad]

While not trying to be overly coy or dismissive of the pessimism some have revealed, I just don't see much difference in the volume or type of work displayed in both my town and anywhere I travel.

The nuts and bolts, brick and mortar, feed your family type sign jobs are still in abundance and from what I've encountered, those willing to be even the slightest bit flexible, reliable and in possession of a better than average work ethic and skillset will always be in demand. Sure the wholesalers and corner cutters are out there, but they don't have boots planted firmly enough on the ground or the staying power to outlast those us with the fundamental desire and skills to be professional craftspeople.

It is true that our nation has been undergoing a large scale transformation of our economy since the late 70's. But that fact shouldn't mire us all down in negativity about an entire industry. To the member who blamed any of this on the current administration, I suggest you open a history book or two. Or cast a glance in the mirror if you rejected any local attempts to unionize the trade, or have voted for anti-labor candidates in the past.

I don't care if I'm pushing a mouse, quill, sabre saw or other tool, my approach each day starts off with enough self-respect given my 30+ years of time honed experience to not blame anyone else for my lot in life and to give it 110%.

If properly motivated and exposed to other professionals engaged in higher caliber work, a hard working, fundamentally sound signcrafter is capable of surviving any economic variable.

I was mentored and taught this craft by those who survived the Great Depression and at times were forced to pack their kits and work trucks and hit the road each off season to survive. If they could hold their heads up each day after years of that with little technology to fall back on or to expand heir offerings with, ANY of us should be able to do the same.

 

[nikdoobs]

I've only been in the sign industry about 6 years. I'm pretty young but optimistic about the future of the industry. People and businesses are always going to need signs. Rick asks a good question, Which Sign Industry?

Obviously cheap stuff like stickers, banners, & t shirts will be done overseas and online. I'm fine with that. I can't make much money off your bratty kids sponge bob birthday banner anyway.

You will always need local fabricators and installers for environmental signage. You will always need to go do a site survey, and until they invent transformers and light bulbs that never go out, people will still need to have their signs serviced. I agree with Rick. Architectural, Channel Letters, Shopping Centers Signage will be the way to go for local sign companies.

Technology changes every industry, you have to keep up with it and learn to adapt.

 

[hansman]

Good thread here.

 

[petrosgraphics]

speaking for myself, i have been a sign guy since the early 70s.
**
always offered full service. design, fabrication, hand letter, hand carve,

installation, service, all phases of the sign industry. all within the confines

of a summer resort area. *so so many changes. sign bylaws, historical bylaws,

name it it has happened. you adjust to all of this and change with the ever

changing times.... keep ones head up as you move into the breeze..

forward ever forward. *