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Increasing business

Z

zedd2006

New Member
Hello,

I have set up a sign shop tshirt business at a flea market. I do about 500-1000 a weekend. I'm working towards a shop but i need a way to increase business somehow. although my flea market allows me to be in my booth on the weekdays they dont want customers at the market so i would either have to meet them or goto them. Can some of you give me some ideas to increase business? i'm looking to do work during the week as well as the weekend. I thought about putting flyers on peoples windows but most people just throw them away and then it's just a waste of money. I was looking at landscape companies but the chamber of commerce list the big league landscapers , and i doubt i would ever get there business. I have a few guys who know me. They get 5-10 t-shirts a month plus 10-20 signs a month. I need more of these small landscapers but i cant seem to find out how to find them. Any other suggestions on types of clients would be helpful too. There is mainly only screen printers in my area so i have the corner with signs and banners and stuff without someone having travel 30-40 miles to a sign shop.

thanks in advance
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Here's one thing for you to chew on.

You say you'll never get the big guys, so you want to go after the little guys. If you don't set your goals/sights high, you'll never grow. Go after the big guys, get a big order and damn well sure find a way to get the job done. You don't grow a business by staying in your comfort zone. You'll never feel ready to take the leap.
 
Z

zedd2006

New Member
Yeah that is something to chew on. I never thought about that. Thanks. So what other types of clients are there besides landscapers? How do real estate companies do there sign orders? Like Remax and Caldwell banker. Do they leave it up to the individual shops to purchase signs or do they order them as a company? I worked at fedex for 10 years. Most of our work was onesie twosie jobs. We had a big real estate client for a while. Mainly just small non-repeating jobs like now open banners, dot numbers, etc.

I was just thinking of the little guys to help get me going so i can get me shop. I didn't think most big businesses would want to do business with a flea market sign shop.

Is there any kind of sign bidding websites? Like you have freelance graphic websites do you have anything like that for signs?
 
Z SIGNS

Z SIGNS

New Member
Get up early in the morning.

Hit the ground running.
Knock on doors and keep knocking on doors un till you build up a backlog of
orders and reputation for your brilliance and excellent service.

When you have completed the above

Do this...

Get up early in the morning.

Hit the ground running.
Knock on doors and keep knocking on doors un till you build up a bigger backlog of
orders and reputation for your brilliance and excellent service.
 
Billct2

Billct2

Active Member
Look around for signs that need redoing and have a business card & proposal ready to fill out if they're interested.
 
SignManiac

SignManiac

New Member
Wedding proposal. Find a rich cougar and marry her. Then you don't need to worry about making signs anymore.
 
Billct2

Billct2

Active Member
Proposal=Contract=Quotation Form= something that makes you look like you know what you're doing....
 
rjssigns

rjssigns

Active Member
If I was doing a grand worth of t-shirts every weekend at a flea market that's all I'd be doing. Try and expand on what you do best.

No fabrication, no paint, no ladders, no truck, no tools, no high insurance premiums, no massive utility bills, no employees...well you get the idea.

Friend of a friend does t-shirts only during the summer/fall fair and car show circuit. Doesn't work the rest of the year because he doesn't have too.
 
jfiscus

jfiscus

Rap Master
Try getting into some of the local business networking groups. Join the Chamber of Commerce, join your local BNI group. Seriously, even through it seems like a decent chunk of up-front change and a large time investment; once they get to know and trust you the referrals will start pouring in. Make sure you always keep your promises and keep everything realistic. Also, get a website and get your social media campaigns running.

Also, I am not sure of how good/bad you actually are in this profession. Anyone can buy a plotter, etc - watch a LOT of videos and take some online training classes if you haven't been doing this for years. Most newcomers don't ever grow or last that long, and that is due to lack of knowledge.
 
FireSprint.com

FireSprint.com

Trade Only Screen & Digital Sign Printing
Z SIGNS said:
Get up early in the morning.

Hit the ground running.
Knock on doors and keep knocking on doors until you build up a backlog of
orders and reputation for your brilliance and excellent service.

When you have completed the above

Do this...

Get up early in the morning.

Hit the ground running.
Knock on doors and keep knocking on doors until you build up a bigger backlog of
orders and reputation for your brilliance and excellent service.
Click to expand...

This. Open the phone book and start calling. Right now, you need to figure out what you are going to be known for. Find your "Cash cow." You can't know what it is yet. Just put as many fishin' poles in the water as you can until you find one that works. Then keep doing that until it gets boring. When it get's really boring, you'll notice something positive start to happen to your bank account.
 
Z

zedd2006

New Member
I worked at Fedex Office/Kinkos for 10 years, got laid off, and then started my own sign shop. I worked with HP printers and Gerber machines for that time. I love the gerber machines but waaayyy to pricey for me. I had absolutely no tracking issues what so ever with the envision cutters. Had a few alignment issues with the edge. Overall i have a pretty good knowledge of the industry. I am not an expert by any means (and far from it) but im also not a noob either.

As for the take home. It's about 400-700 profit. roughly about 3/4, maybe 2/3, depending on what i sale. If it's mainly tshirts one weekend then it's roughly about a 2/3 profit depending on the designs.

I have a 5 year plan and it all starts with getting more business. What i dont know is how. The pricing i'm learning as i go. Fedex overcharged on everything so i never really came in contact with true pricing for the sign industry.

I've been hitting landscaping companies up on facebook. I've been jotting down numbers of landscaping trucks that look like they need a redo of the vinyl. I was thinking about calling some of these numbers on the signs that say "We buy ugly homes" or similar sayings and seeing if they needed more. I'm about to be purchasing a HP Latex printer so i'm trying to find ways to market full color decals and banners. Seeing as i did canvas prints at Fedex i was going to offer that but thats not something i can offer to a business. Canvas prints are more of a consumer product i imagine. It would also be something that was advertised mainly by word of mouth i think. I'm not sure how to market those. I need some ideas on types of clients other than landscaping that might need signs and/or banners, tshirts are an added bonus. I noticed in one post that there was a poll about real estate clients. It seems thats a client that i dont want. Most people rated real estate clients as "crummy". I figured it best to stay away from real estate clients unless they came looking for me.

I was thinking about walking around to all the local businesses and handing managers/owners flyers for my business but most places have a strict policy on soliciting.
 
P

player

New Member
That depends on how good your design skills are; your manufacturing skills are; and your salesmanship skills are.

The best in the sign business can charge well over what the regular shops charge.

Within each industry there will be businesses who work on a low bid wins policy, and others that want the better product- so
they don't grind everyone down. Some have tried the low bid wins and found they got less than what they paid for.

You will have to bring an A game, and then start to identify the potential customers that are grinders, and ones who are good customers.
 
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