Discussion How do you see it? What is it going to take to survive the next few months?

[dypinc]

The excitement is pretty much gone for me. Win or lose, dragging this counting out is an absolute JOKE. No matter what side you're on, election night is exciting, it's like the Superbowl for me.

Allowing ballots to be counted until Nov 10? Who makes these laws up? Imagine if we ran our businesses the way some of these states run their elections. We would be out of business. I hope to see some law changes or you might lose a lot of enthusiasm for future elections.

I think we know who the winner will be here, and it is not US.

 

[Gino]

Only government cheese I ever saw was that crap the school systems bought back in the 50's and 60's of the country's surplus. It was total sh!t...... just like it still is. It didn't even look like cheese. But when it's considered free...... THEN it's good. Guess that's how they think.

Hey stacey, you have his plugs in upside down. Roots are on the bottom.

 

[Robert Armerding]

First of all, thank you to those who have replied to this thread. And, thank you to those who have read it. I appreciate your interest and taking the time.
Because I always wonder why so few write a reply, I want to ask for more replies. At this moment, 21 replies and 806 views. I hope more will reply to this very important topic. Too many sign shops are going out of business.

 

[SignosaurusRex]

Workload wise, I'm backlogged, and usually am throughout the year, only more-so now. That in itself is good looking forward. The only slow-down I've experienced this year was in the first few months of the "Pandemic". That slowdown was mostly due to the non-delivery of new vehicles scheduled for fleets. The vehicle manufacturers cut production in order to fill orders for Ventilators. What a joke that is.
One of the moves I made many years ago was to position myself in the industry so as to not be to badly hurt regardless of the current economic or political situation in the country ...most of the time. I've also always planned ahead for lean times... just in case!
My biggest concern right now is staying healthy so I can be productive and hopeful that the new year does not bring even more taxes and so-called wealth-sharing. Unfortunately, I think we are screwed from here on out and I may be looking for the lighted exit sign before the apparent in-coming administration is out.

 

[balstestrat]

The excitement is pretty much gone for me. Win or lose, dragging this counting out is an absolute JOKE. No matter what side you're on, election night is exciting, it's like the Superbowl for me.

Allowing ballots to be counted until Nov 10? Who makes these laws up? Imagine if we ran our businesses the way some of these states run their elections. We would be out of business. I hope to see some law changes or you might lose a lot of enthusiasm for future elections.

I thought it was called something like democracy and common sense.

Like you could handle 10 sign jobs a day and then you are offered 100 jobs to be completed in 12 hours and after that no more jobs for the rest of the month. Also you can't choose if you get the low or high paying job, it's random.

Anyways I'm not going too deep into the election. Probably how it's going now is the best for me.

 

[Stacey K]

I thought it was called something like democracy and common sense.

Like you could handle 10 sign jobs a day and then you are offered 100 jobs to be completed in 12 hours and after that no more jobs for the rest of the month. Also you can't choose if you get the low or high paying job, it's random.

Anyways I'm not going too deep into the election. Probably how it's going now is the best for me.

I have to disagree. Last year our high school football team went to state. We found out on Thursday, we had one week until game day. I took in over 400 t-shirt/hoodie orders all personalized with name/number on the back. All individually bagged per family, all different sizes, some tshirts, some hoodies, some families 1 player, some 2. On top of my regular sign business. I had 3 production days to get this done after the orders were taken. I work alone but I "hired" an additional 9 people to help over the course of 2 nights to help...because I had a deadline. I borrowed another heat press and put my friend in charge while I sat at the cutter for 2 days straight. It all got done by gameday. EVERY SINGLE SHIRT. NOT ONE MISTAKE. We had 3 people check each order before it went out the door.

Any business owner reading this has done something similar, too many times to count...if it's important, you find a way to get it done.

 

[balstestrat]

I have to disagree. Last year our high school football team went to state. We found out on Thursday, we had one week until game day. I took in over 400 t-shirt/hoodie orders all personalized with name/number on the back. All individually bagged per family, all different sizes, some tshirts, some hoodies, some families 1 player, some 2. On top of my regular sign business. I had 3 production days to get this done after the orders were taken. I work alone but I "hired" an additional 9 people to help over the course of 2 nights to help...because I had a deadline. I borrowed another heat press and put my friend in charge while I sat at the cutter for 2 days straight. It all got done by gameday. EVERY SINGLE SHIRT. NOT ONE MISTAKE. We had 3 people check each order before it went out the door.

Any business owner reading this has done something similar, too many times to count...if it's important, you find a way to get it done.

We are kind of talking about the same thing. It was never the deadline for them to count every vote in one day. They have their deadlines and they will stay in them, just like you did.
I bet vote counting/checking machines are a bit more scarce than heat presses even if you got the people to do it. And more people makes it more difficult and bigger mess all around.

 

[myront]

Just like last year we'll be closing for a couple of weeks for Christmas/New Years.

Why can't mail in votes be cut off some weeks prior to actual election day? Count those first.
Early voting works great. You casually go in, take your time, vote as you like and it's input right away. They check you ID too. Mail in votes leave too much margin for error. How do you know YOUR vote was in fact received? Voting the day of didn't seem as chaotic as most would think either, at least not at my precinct.

Side note: How many do you know that did not vote for one reason or another? Me? 3

 

[unclebun]

Just like last year we'll be closing for a couple of weeks for Christmas/New Years.

Why can't mail in votes be cut off some weeks prior to actual election day? Count those first.
Early voting works great. You casually go in, take your time, vote as you like and it's input right away. They check you ID too. Mail in votes leave too much margin for error. How do you know YOUR vote was in fact received? Voting the day of didn't seem as chaotic as most would think either, at least not at my precinct.

Side note: How many do you know that did not vote for one reason or another? Me? 3

You really don't have to count mail-in votes ahead of time, and doing so runs the risk of vote counts leaking out, which we know influences subsequent voters, hence the requirement that news networks not report vote totals until polls close, and why many feel that it should wait until polls close in AK and HI.

The real key is not to accept mail in ballots after election day. There is absolutely no reason why there should be an extended deadline for mail in ballots....there's a reason why they (using the example of absentee ballots) have always been available far in advance of election day. Typically states have their ballots prepared by the end of September. The excuse given for states extending mail in deadlines was supposedly that Trump was cheating by telling the USPS to delay mail delivery. I have experienced no slowdowns in mail delivery. We mail checks for payments to all our vendors. And the emails you get back stating payment has been received show that for the last several months, mail delivery to all parts of the country has been normal, typically 1-2 days. And ballots only have to travel within your county, if we're talking about a mail-in ballot chosen in lieu of voting in person due to COVID fears.

I have voted in a number of jurisdictions around our state, including my largely Republican capital hometown, the Democrat controlled city where I went to college, the liberal Democrat run college town where I did graduate work, and the rural Republican area where I now live. I have only experienced long lines for voting in the Democrat towns. It seems they choose not to have as many precincts per capita on purpose in those towns. Same is true of DMV offices in those towns as well, now that I think about it.