How to build a $1,000,000 Sign Shop

[Johnny Best]

When you go fishing and you get a keeper it gets thrown into the cooler. I am one of those incapable people you mentioned.
Also go to the gym everyday and hang with the big boys in the yard.

 

[Emd2kick]

I am one of those incapable people you mentioned.

That’s not surprising.

Sorry if I did keep score by how my company does and grows, I don’t understand owning a business and not trying to be as large as possible....to me that would be a hobby. And please don’t give me “happiness” as a reason not to try and grown you business...

 

[Johnny Best]

I think it is great you have a 5mill company and I never wrong a person for trying to make money.
But the fumes from the Lamborghinii, mixed with the smell of cigar smoke, the loud voice and the diamond pinky ring are a bit much.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

As I get older... I've learned to listen more and take older folks advise more seriously, because most of the time they are trying to genuinely share their experience to give me a perspective that age has not allowed me to learn. I've talked with retired / near retiring business owners and some sign shop owners. A common theme of the "unsolicited" advise from them was to enjoy life while you're working. They regret not spending as much time with their kids as they could have. They say if they could do it over again, family-time and a proper work-life balance would 100% trump the time they spent growing their business.

Personally, I'm not on an ego trip that need to see how large I can grow my business and how much $$ can I make. I'm secure in knowing my abilities and knowing where my priorities need to be. I don't think I would "feel" any different if I have $100k in my account or $1 million in my account.

I'll retire comfortably going at my pace, and I feel I'm making the right choice staying small and enjoying life at a slower pace...Besides, $1,000,000 can't buy you an extra day with your little one once they are grown up.... But I guess if you have no family or they have abandoned you, then none of this matters...Cheers!

 

[Emd2kick]

As I get older... I've learned to listen more and take older folks advise more seriously, because most of the time they are trying to genuinely share their experience to give me a perspective that age has not allowed me to learn. I've talked with retired / near retiring business owners and some sign shop owners. A common theme of the "unsolicited" advise from them was to enjoy life while you're working. They regret not spending as much time with their kids as they could have. They say if they could do it over again, family-time and a proper work-life balance would 100% trump the time they spent growing their business.

Personally, I'm not on an ego trip that need to see how large I can grow my business and how much $$ can I make. I'm secure in knowing my abilities and knowing where my priorities need to be. I don't think I would "feel" any different if I have $100k in my account or $1 million in my account.

I'll retire comfortably going at my pace, and I feel I'm making the right choice staying small and enjoying life at a slower pace...Besides, $1,000,000 can't buy you an extra day with your little one once they are grown up.... But I guess if you have no family then none of this matters...Cheers!

Growing your business does not need to be at the expense of your family. I have young children, home by 5-5:30 for dinner every night. If you grow and create the proper infrastructure you can have both. I've always been of the belief that my role is to be the hunter, and growing by business dictates my success.

That being said, Texas I can agree w/ the family point 100%. I had a sales manager once tell me time is something you cannot get back, and make sure you're at your child's firsts for everything (baseball games, etc). So to your point, if I found that I hit a wall and the only way to grow would be at the expense of my family...I'd stop growing as well.

 

[neato]

Not everyone thinks life is about having a big business or being able to use the word "Million" in some way do describe your success.

Sadly, many don't recognize what true success in life is until it's too late.

 

[billsines]

Says the guy who calls someone else out for a so-called 'stupid comment'. Not everyone wants the headache of a $5million business, trust me. To say that everyone who doesn't fit that bill is simply incapable is ridiculous, pretentious, and arrogant. I'll bet you're a blast at parties.

It depends on what's most important to you. To me, I want to make a good wage working no more than 40 hrs a week. I did not start a business to work 60-80 hrs a week, and if that's what it took to get to $5mil then I would be out. If I can get there at 40 hrs a week with minimal headache, then I'm in. At some point in your professional life you have to go from "I wanna win" to "I won" (whatever "winning" means for you) and enjoy your work and whatever doors your business has opened up for you. Quality of life, not money at all costs.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Growing your business does not need to be at the expense of your family. I have young children, home by 5-5:30 for dinner every night. If you grow and create the proper infrastructure you can have both. I've always been of the belief that my role is to be the hunter, and growing by business dictates my success.

Yes and no. Typically the sacrifices are made in creation of that proper infrastructure. Especially when just starting out. Once you are past a certain point, maybe. it depends. There are always areas of "teething pains" and sacrifices to be made to make them work. No matter what level you are at. As long as your are in the process of growing. One has to stabilize at some level in order to minimize those painful areas as much as one can.

Sorry if I did keep score by how my company does and grows, I don’t understand owning a business and not trying to be as large as possible....to me that would be a hobby.

You must have a big swath of what it means to be a "hobby".

And please don’t give me “happiness” as a reason not to try and grown you business...

Unfortunately, "happiness" is the mile marker for everything. "Happiness" is used to see if one has reached their goal or not.

Your "happiness" may be growing your business as large as you can and that's fine. Go for it.

 

[equippaint]

There is always someone with more than you and chasing bigger dollars is a tiring endless game. I've always looked at moderated growth as a necessary means of security and a hedge on bad times, but only up to a certain point. This works as long as you don't over-leverage in order to grow and know when to stop too. Times are good now but it's cyclical and many people that are all high on the hog right now will be caught with their pants down.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Times are good now but it's cyclical and many people that are all high on the hog right now will be caught with their pants down.

Sounds like the oil-field economy down here... Amazing to see how fast they can spend $$ on the way up, only to lay everyone off and close up shop the second it starts to dip.

 

[Chriswagner92]

“Not everyone wants to own a 5 mil $ business.” Hopefully they want to be even bigger.

Smaller companies that don’t want to be a 5 million dollar company (as you are implying), are like guys at the gym that “don’t want to get too big”. It’s because they are incapable.

or they just don't want that additional stress and want to maintain their sanity.

 

[Emd2kick]

or they just don't want that additional stress and want to maintain their sanity.

You do realize (actually based on your comment you don’t), that there is almost a similiar affect as the law of diminishing returns as you grow. A small 100k-500k shop, the owner is doing way more work then a larger shop (if structured appropriately).

A small company has an owner playing accountant, salesman, running equipment etc. In a larger company, owners don’t need to do that. Have a rush job that must run after hours? Small shop has the owner up all night running equipment. Larger shop, I’m sleeping while one of many employees runs the job.

 

[eahicks]

i say go after the real estate broker market...those guys are rollin in dough and have no problem shelling out loads of cash!!!

Oh god no....these are the tightwadiest customers around! Almost all real estate people are pains....always wanting cheap cheap cheap, and making 50 revisions to a stupid rider sign.

 

[equippaint]

Sounds like the oil-field economy down here... Amazing to see how fast they can spend $$ on the way up, only to lay everyone off and close up shop the second it starts to dip.

Man they know how to spend some money. (Im repeating myself here) We see a lot of their crane trucks from out that way that come through the auction, loaded out KW and Petes, high HP, all aluminum etc. They say everything's bigger in Texas, apparently that includes the payments as well.

 

[bannertime]

Sounds like the oil-field economy down here... Amazing to see how fast they can spend $$ on the way up, only to lay everyone off and close up shop the second it starts to dip.

Right before I took over our shop I was an electrician for an oil equipment manufacture. Built the massive trailers and coil tubing units. These companies would spend an extra 50k to have us install a little a/c unit on the cabin. They'd use these $10,000,000 trailers about 3-4 months, send it back, have us build a new one and refurbish the old one. Insane amount of money was being thrown around back in 2013/14. I built a mast level sensor and display with about $1500 worth of parts and 12 hours of labor. Company sold it for $30k.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Right before I took over our shop I was an electrician for an oil equipment manufacture. Built the massive trailers and coil tubing units. These companies would spend an extra 50k to have us install a little a/c unit on the cabin. They'd use these $10,000,000 trailers about 3-4 months, send it back, have us build a new one and refurbish the old one. Insane amount of money was being thrown around back in 2013/14. I built a mast level sensor and display with about $1500 worth of parts and 12 hours of labor. Company sold it for $30k.

Geezz... that's a whole nuther' level. Just goes to show why I jack up the cost of oil field signs...they don't give a rats what it costs..just get it done.

That mentality runs all the way down to most of the employees too. Spend big on fancy $80k pickup trucks, large house...then when the company goes belly-up and they are out of a job their expectations are wayyy too high for non-oilfield related jobs.