Location, location, location?

[signswi]

Foot traffic is great if you're a small shop making your living off small jobs for small businesses.* Once you get into print fulfillment and higher volume it makes much more sense to be in Class C digs instead.


*Or, it was, the internet is the new foot traffic. Most customers worth pursuing are researching you long before they ever walk in your door. Class B is good enough these days, imo.

 

[FrankenSigns.biz]

Thanks for all the comments. This space is on a busy 4 lane highway, 50,000+ cars a day, no median, so easy access / egress. We have a second sign that is perpendicular to the road, something we've never had before. Here is a photo of the font of the building. 3600 Sq ft. and lots of parking. We can't believe our luck. The management company told us the space was vacant for only 6 days when we signed the lease. I'll try to post photos as we progress.

 

[Hicalibersigns]

*Or, it was, the internet is the new foot traffic. Most customers worth pursuing are researching you long before they ever walk in your door. Class B is good enough these days, imo.

There you go. The storefront locations that we did investigate were much more expensive in our area. We do almost 100% internet advertising. I can't believe that someone even mentioned yellow pages. YP and newspapers are about as relevant as a telegraph key.

About the only time a customer visits our location is when they bring vehicles in for wraps or lettering. That was another big deal for us...having an air conditioned area with a roll up door and enough space to do wraps. It was very difficult to find that.

I don't discount that exposure to traffic has value, and for the same as you were spending it is definitely a win, but there isn't just one way to successfully operate a business.

Again congratulations, and I look forward to hearing about your success in the new location.

 

[FrankenSigns.biz]

There you go. The storefront locations that we did investigate were much more expensive in our area. We do almost 100% internet advertising. I can't believe that someone even mentioned yellow pages. YP and newspapers are about as relevant as a telegraph key.

About the only time a customer visits our location is when they bring vehicles in for wraps or lettering. That was another big deal for us...having an air conditioned area with a roll up door and enough space to do wraps. It was very difficult to find that.

I don't discount that exposure to traffic has value, and for the same as you were spending it is definitely a win, but there isn't just one way to successfully operate a business.

Again congratulations, and I look forward to hearing about your success in the new location.

You bring up interesting valid points. This space seems almost as divine intervention as we had just given up looking. We were looking for a space that had high visibility (Check). A ground level roll up door (Check). A large air-conditioned space for vehicle wrap installation (Check). Priced in the range of our current, albeit expired lease rate, (Check).

We are not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but we can not FATHOM how this space can lease for the rate we signed. Financially, it is a lateral move.

Imagine your current lease rate, but with 50,000 cars a day driving by. That is what we are moving into. Color me lucky, but this is what seems to be going on.

 

[FrankenSigns.biz]

Here are 3 more "before" photos.

 

[TheSnowman]

Looks good!

 

[SightLine]

Looks like a great layout! Right now I'm looking at moving as well. Been in the same 1500SF for about 5 years and just have no room. Great location on a frontage road next to an interstate exit, facing the interstate now. The place we are looking at will not be nearly as visible but the price is about half of what it's worth and it's over 10x the space! Waiting to sign the contract right now and I'm both excited and terrified at the same time. Not going to jack your thread though. Looking forward to seeing how your move goes. Once I know for sure on the thing I'm looking at I'll start a different thread on it.

 

[Suz]

Good luck to you, looks like a nice place! Can't wait to see what it looks like when you are all moved in!

 

[FrankenSigns.biz]

If I can, I'll post photos as we progress. We hope to be up and operating sometime during the week of the 20th.

 

[signswi]

Whoa check out that mirrored reception desk. Was it a strip mall strip club?

 

[Bigdee]

FrankenSigns - looks great and I'm excited for you. I am in a similar situation as you but unfortunately not as lucky as you to find a high traffic location like yours but with industrial pricing.

Please keep us posted!

 

[10sacer]

Curious as to how much more exposure you will get there than your location that was on South Blvd. which is one of the highest traffic areas in the city.

We are moving to 5600 sf. on 9/1 to make room for another flatbed and a new router along with all the other printers and residual stuff we have.

I need more space just to store material to print on.

I don't really want walk-in traffic, so an out of the way location is ideal for us.

Good luck!

 

[FrankenSigns.biz]

Whoa check out that mirrored reception desk. Was it a strip mall strip club?

Yeah. That is gone now.

 

[FrankenSigns.biz]

Curious as to how much more exposure you will get there than your location that was on South Blvd. which is one of the highest traffic areas in the city.

That location was 3X as the rent here and I don't know if you recall, had almost zero parking.

 

[signworldusinc]

Congrats on the move, the new location sounds promising! It is always exciting to start fresh in a new location, we recently moved as well a few months ago from our old warehouse(8000sqft) in Ontario, CA to a much larger warehouse(16000sqft) in Chino, CA. We now have twice the headroom we had before and this allowed us to overstock many of our printing media rolls and banner equipment, our forklift can barely reach to the top due to our inventory being stacked so high up . We are very interested in how well this new exposure works out for you and good luck.

 

[TopFliteGraphics]

Wow, great looking space. I am jealous! Best of luck on the move

 

[FrankenSigns.biz]

http://360.io/J5bwFg

Future showroom / reception area for FrankenSigns Pineville NC.

The floor should be carpeted tomorrow.

Our service counter, digital press, one of our 54" Roland Printers, small conference table, and slat wall for our screen printing and embroidery services will be in this area. Plus lots of POP samples, signs and a large menu of our products and services.

Stay tuned? Okay!

 

[Scott Reynolds]

WOW, I would be worried about turning around too fast in there and inducing a seizure.

Im sure it will look nice when done. I like to layout with the shop in the back. Good luck with your move.

 

[binki]

We are in an old downtown area that gets a lot of foot traffic. It is one of 13 shopping centers in the city but the only one that does not have common ownership. We have an association of merchants that plans events for the area with a market night during the spring and summer.

The value of a good location that has high visibility is so important. We get customers just because they walked by and saw us.

 

[Bly]

What are all you nay sayers doing selling signs if you don't believe they work?

I moved from an invisible location to a high visibility shopfront 5 years ago.
It seems business owners driving past every day do think of you when they need advertising material.
Of course you get time wasters and tyre kickers but once your radar is tuned you don't have to waste much time on them.
A good location combined with decent Google ranking sees us getting inquiries from new customers daily.

Good luck with the move Frank. I hope it works for you.

 

[Suz]

Franken,
Do you have a garage or covered area or place to do your vehicle wraps in? Anyhow, it is nice to see the progress!!