To explain my comment, to hansman, I would say that I'm probably not alone in my feeling that a trade which once took years to perfect, where you were known by your distinctive style, where what you did was an art form, is now pretty much long dead.
If you can buy a cutter, you can make signs. If you can afford a printer, you can puke out signs. If you study design, good for you, but most "signmakers" do not.
We are in a McDonald's/Walmart instant gratification dumbed-down cheap society.
Potential clients seem to only care about price. Just like gas, the price of our sign materials has gone up. New technology costs more. Signs in many ways have become easier to produce, therefore their cost and their perceived value has decreased. Nearly everyone has a home PC with Microsoft Word on it, and many people design horrendous non-effective images on them they they expect professional sign makers to reproduce.
It's become a push-button world "Oh, you just press a button and it prints, right?" "How much to letter my truck doors? $250? Really? I can get that on Craiglist for $50!" I still charge my 2002 price of $99 for a set of magnetic signs (which I hate to make, really) but people can buy them for $29.00 at Kinko's, so I seem like I'm asking for their left testicle by charging this.
Am I going to lower my prices? Hell no. But I am forced to compete for the same uninformed, cheap customers that the local hacks are willing to give a blister-free handj*b too. I refuse to lower my prices. I refuse to haggle. When someone comes to me for a sign, they are getting my 29 years of experience, design and layout skills, and a damn good effective product. (albeit Sign Nazi type persona)
The stress is incredible. I have my phone message telling people to email me, because I am sick of the "how much?" tire kickers. I can tell just from 5 seconds on the phone that they have called all of the 25 sign makers (I won't call them sign shops because there are only about 5 "real" sign shops here) in a 10 mile radius. With an email, I can take my time to reply. I can tell from emails who is a tire-kicker, too, and 95% of all my replies to inquiries never reply again as soon as I type a price.
Jim is a fantastic sign guy. His heart and soul, as well as his wonderful talent, is in every piece he's ever produced. He can do an elaborate sign equally as well as a quick one-color vinyl sign. But I know where he's coming from. he has to compete with the low-ballers in an ever-decreasing market.
I am intend on making drastic changes this year too. I am done with courting people, educating them, only to have them settle for the cheap crap they end up with. Are my signs expensive? Somewhat. Compared to what you get from them, as opposed to some digital flashing eyesore or a print with everything but the kitchen sink, my signs are a bargain. But people, who are all trying to get the most for their money, don't see it that way. I am glad I am on the tail end of my sign career rather than just starting out.
Like Jim, I will still do signs on the side. I plan on gearing my business to design-only for other shops or selling small handpainted signs on Etsy. I will take my good customers with me when I move (to an area with ONE established sign person who is also a good friend, and maybe I can work for him but I sure as hell refuse to compete against him) but I'll be happy to leave this over-saturated area and let the hacks deal with everyone.
