how is business?

[petepaz]

seems that people i talk to in different industries (as far as my customers anyway) are getting busy which is always good news, especially if your business is included in that.
how is business for everyone, getting better?
we are very busy in all departments here and since the weather has gotten better the installs have gone through the roof. the last two days i have worked 28 hours, working 6 days a week and every once in a while 7days. not complaining because i know it won't be like this for ever (or will it...haha)
just wondering how the industry is doing in other areas.

 

[TimToad]

On the 1st, we marked our one year anniversary since taking over the business and the business is now 8 years old. We matched the previous owner's best year out of the last five, so we're beside ourselves with pride and self satisfaction. Today is the first day for our new full time hire and he has some good sign shop experience, enthusiasm and design sense, so its all good.

Most of our local colleagues report being busy as well.

 

[petepaz]

On the 1st, we marked our one year anniversary since taking over the business and the business is now 8 years old. We matched the previous owner's best year out of the last five, so we're beside ourselves with pride and self satisfaction. Today is the first day for our new full time hire and he has some good sign shop experience, enthusiasm and design sense, so its all good.

Most of our local colleagues report being busy as well.

nice, good luck going forward

 

[ExecuPrintGS]

We are swamped. I had exceeded last years vehicle graphic install count by the first of April.
Signs, Vehicles and banners are all up for us.
Our screen printing is steady. But our "Paper Printing" (business cards and forms) is slow (or our new guy is just highly efficient compared to the person he replaced).

Either way, this years looking up, and we hear the same from our customers.

 

[klingsdesigns]

I have a very personal question. First off we are blowing all the previous years in sales this year. It has been great. The question I have is. I have been in business for 10 years. Full time 3-4 years doing this. It is myself and my fiance. We do it out of our house/garage. I know there are a ton of variables. But what would you say my sales should be for the year.
Thanks
Also not trying to steal the thread.

 

[J Hill Designs]

Busy as all get up here, but I don't let that ruin my free time - 8 hours, 5 days. Sorry customers, turnaround is 3 weeks on that.

 

[klingsdesigns]

Busy as all get up here, but I don't let that ruin my free time - 8 hours, 5 days. Sorry customers, turnaround is 3 weeks on that.

This is what I need to change. We are working around the clock. 2-3 times a day we are working till 1 or 2 am.

 

[Gino]

I have a very personal question. First off we are blowing all the previous years in sales this year. It has been great. The question I have is. I have been in business for 10 years. Full time 3-4 years doing this. It is myself and my fiance. We do it out of our house/garage. I know there are a ton of variables. But what would you say my sales should be for the year.
Thanks
Also not trying to steal the thread.

Somewhere between $290,000 and $350,000. for the business.

edit : under a basic 40 hour week for 2 people​

 

[artofacks1]

Im extremely slow but we are only 6 months in and our niche market is very slow. I need to be smart about seeking work that I can produce with my edge fx printer other than just helmet decals.

 

[Behrmon]

FLAT OUT!! It's lunch time and my dpt (digital) has already produced 9 banner stands, 3 Chalk board signs and 1 36x48 Ecopanel full color sign, never mind all the miscellaneous Print/Lam/Cut stuff. 3 of the target 6 a day fleet vehicles completed, only about 1200 left to go there!

Our screen print dpt (spinning 3 autos and 3 manuals) has been running on OT for over a week now and the same for embroidery running 48 heads.

I'm ready to run and hide now!

 

[artofacks1]

FLAT OUT!! It's lunch time and my dpt (digital) has already produced 9 banner stands, 3 Chalk board signs and 1 36x48 Ecopanel full color sign, never mind all the miscellaneous Print/Lam/Cut stuff. 3 of the target 6 a day fleet vehicles completed, only about 1200 left to go there!

Our screen print dpt (spinning 3 autos and 3 manuals) has been running on OT for over a week now and the same for embroidery running 48 heads.

I'm ready to run and hide now!

Sounds like a nice problem to have.

 

[jfiscus]

Balls to the walls here too. We've added more installers this past week, and we're still booking 2-3 weeks out!
The "new jobs" stack is buried under and proofs are like 1 week lead time... Every machine seems to be running all day every day (and night!).

 

[SignManiac]

Barely able to keep up. Always a constant stream of work coming in. Diversity is key.

 

[Chasez]

Completely swamped. Booking almost into August for installs at this point. Got a bunch of large graphic jobs to install (floors upon floors of 48" high print) and not enough installers! Consistently working 60+ hrs a week for couple years now.. you get used to it haha There's just never enough time in the day to get done what you need too (especially having to deal with all the idiots and put out fires)

Chaz

 

[Gino]

Feast, famine and everything inbetween. We've seen one of the slowest first quarters in about a decade. Now, were going great guns and like many of you, it's hard to keep up with things. We still don't work Saturdays or Sundays, but I still work long days. Sometimes the people will get overtime, but they generally don't want to, nor do they need to.

Basically booked out about 3 or 4 months into October with some really big quotes hanging, but look very promising. Have a few jobs booked for 2016 as some of our customers work a year or two in advance. Politics and the economy have created some problems, but again, the weather this past winter, brought not just our customers and us to a halt, but many of our distributors couldn't get the stuff out.

Happy just to be happy and healthy. ​

 

[StarSign]

Up Up and away every year for the past 7-8 years. No weekends but 10 hour days are the norm here.

 

[Jillbeans]

My business has been utterly dead for about 3 years.
Last year I had a profit of $3K. Working from home-based, no employees.
That is why I decided to quit doing vinyl completely, return to logo design, wholesale design, and murals, and small painted signs only, and make signs be my hobby.
I've referred about 4 vynull jobs to a guy 2 miles away because it simply is not worth it.
This is after 30 years of the sign business.
My lowball competitor did move away, and another long-time local sign shop filed for bankruptcy, so it's not just me.
I think the best year I have ever had was $49K but that was over 10 years ago.
I work 4 days a week at a fence company.
Love....Jill

 

[visual800]

dead as hell down here. no one calling but time wasters. no big jobs at all in this area. Schools are causing small biz and middle class to move out. Nothing good here anymore. But on a good note Im flipping a house so all is busy and fine there.

I miss the good old days where it just didnt stop coming in

 

[HDvinyl]

3 businesses good - printing, bar, document conversion (high-speed document scanning) and 1 bad (not to be named)

BUT, I will always make time for signs101

 

[petepaz]

glad to hear the majority are busy and i wish the rest some good luck going forward. i know for us the biggest thing is we aren't locked in to one thing this way if one dept/area slows down the other picks up the slack. over all the whole company is very busy. left the office at 3:30 to do an install and i am back here running some decals for a rush order (cust pick up tomorrow) and some more graphics for an install tomorrow.

 

[Nuagedesigns]

Weather has broke and Garage doors are open! We have had a great first qurter and staying busy in all Depts. Seems as though customers are dropping off vehicles every other day. Wraps, Fleet graphics and signs are keeping our printer running long hours. Our Screen printing Dept. has our auto running 12 hours a day. Our Embroidery Dept has really picked up this year with less small qty Jobs and larger long running production jobs. Currently running 15 hours a day on 6 heads. We too have faced the issue of trying to get estimates and artwork proofs out in a timely manner.

Our next move is another full time designer. We have struggled with filling this position. We have tried 3 times already with college gradutes with "Graphic Design" degrees and art majors. I have lost faith in some of the younger generations work ethics as well as our education sytem. Some have had previous work expereince and some were green to work at all. Just can't find someone that fits our team and brings some creative input to the table.

Booking 3-5 weeks out depending on job and 3 week production on apperal.. Looking to be a good year. We have also agreed as a team as this is our year to cut the fat and take on less of the jobs that either are less profitable or just the PITA jobs. And we are sticking to our shop minimums.

Best of luck to all glad to see most everyone staying very busy.