Looking for some "Professional" Expertise

[SolitaryT]

Okay, so here's my situation: I've been in the industry for over ten years. I started out with a very specialized company filling a very specific niche, moved to a big city, worked for FastSigns, Sign*A*Rama, & Signs by Tomorrow. I worked for a huge company that specialized in working with realtors and making channel letters, little bit of everything. I've wrapped cars and vans, albiet slowly as I didn't get many opportunities. As of 2010, I had worked my way up to a whopping $14.50/hour. Then I found a great opportunity in Alaska of all places, kicked ***, helped the boss sort of reinvent himself, tacked on a few more bucks an hour, and did well. Then my son's mom and I split up and she moved to Denver. Too expensive to fly him back and forth from Alaska (because it's frakking extortion up there with travelling, but I digress), so I would up moving to Montana and finding a job with a shop who has me salaried and is asking me to help save the business. I've been here two and a half weeks, and here's my assessment: There is an owner, who also owns a restaurant which we make free stuff for. There's a manager, who is a realtor herself and primarily deals with customers. And there's the magic kid, a college graduate in design with no sign-making experience, but has basically been designing and producing everything by himself for the past 5 months. We're running a filthy Mimaki JV-3 and a corresponding CG-160FX cutter. Our laminator, a Seal, apparently had a fried motherboard, so the magic kid tore all the guts out so he could still manually push things through it, because nobody ordered replacement parts. We're running PosterShop 7, Illustrator CS2, Windows XP, and Cyrious POS software, none of which has been updated, as far as I can tell, in the past 5 years. The owner, who only comes by when things are needed for the very successful restaurant, insists on creating everything in SignLab, and is pushing us to sell wraps, even though our laminator is kaput, our computers will take hours to even load that sort of file, and we have no bay in which to install a wrap. When asked by the manager what I thought of the situation, I was honest in saying that we're branding ourselves as mechanics when we only have a pair of pliers. When I itemized the list of things we need to upgrade to make our shop more efficient and profitable, I'm met by the manager and owner with a "if you can make us money, we can get you these things". Of course, my response is "without these things, we can't make money". So my question to all of you very intelligent people here in Signs101, both owners of successful shops and employees who have been in similar situations or worse, is this: do I stay the course and try to steer the company in a more creative and experienced direction, and if so, how long do I stick it out and wait for change? OR do I start looking now for some place with a little more common sense? Sadly, these are my options, as I'm a passionate sign maker with a horrible credit score and about $8 to my name, so starting my own business is out of the question.

Phew... feels better just to write it out. Thanks everyone in advance.

 

[MGraphics]

Sounds like they are not willing to invest in the business so why should you invest your valuable time on a sinking ship... Maybe someone on here might be able to help.. I know there are a lot of great shops on here that know how to run a business. My advice is run and don't look back... my $0.02

Good Luck

 

[Mosh]

Magic Kid? LOL...Sound a little bitter, but I can relate to your situation. Sounds like me 25 years ago.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Want to move to Canada? we could use ya!

 

[JBusch260]

Stick it out while you are getting a paycheck and hopefully insurance, but for your own financial and psychological well-being, keep putting your resume out there!!!

 

[player]

I would pick about 5 of the most urgent repairs and upgrades required. Have a meeting with all the decision makers.
Lay it out as to what is needed to go forward. If they decide to move forward and invest, great. If not, don't kill yourself. Work your job within what you can do. Be sure to have a regular work day, and don't get stuck working crazy hours for nothing extra.

Plus get the hell out of there.

 

[genericname]

The shop in which you work was either set up because the owner thought they could do it cheaper than getting another shop to do it, or it's a tax scheme.

Run. Either you will quit, or you will have the rug pulled out from under you.

Want to move to Canada? we could use ya!

Are you guys the Watson's in Dundas or Kingston? I have a friend who needs work and has done pretty much everything a sign shop ever needs to do. She's in Ottawa, but is okay with relocating a reasonable distance.

 

[Billct2]

I would look for a job around Denver.

 

[CanuckSigns]

The shop in which you work was either set up because the owner thought they could do it cheaper than getting another shop to do it, or it's a tax scheme.

Run. Either you will quit, or you will have the rug pulled out from under you.




Are you guys the Watson's in Dundas or Kingston? I have a friend who needs work and has done pretty much everything a sign shop ever needs to do. She's in Ottawa, but is okay with relocating a reasonable distance.

Dundas, I didn't know there was another one of us!

 

[genericname]

Dundas, I didn't know there was another one of us!

Looks like it. Completely separate ends of the spectrum though.

 

[strypguy]

I would look for a job around Denver.

I agree. Save a few bucks and look for work in the Denver area. There should be something for a good employee like you claim to be. You also get to be close to your Son, which to me, is much more important then try to fix a sinking ship. Good luck! John

 

[SolitaryT]

MGraphics: I've been pretty good at turning things around from a manager's point of view. My last boss in Alaska can attest to this. I rebranded everything for him, and since then, he's been able to keep his summer help through the winter, which is unheard of. There are other shops here in town, and maybe I should start looking. Thanks for your 2¢!

Mosh: I call him the Magic Kid because, for being self taught, he's Johnny on the Spot. He's one of those guys I wish I could take with me everywhere, because he figures stuff out. Imagine what someone like that could do with any sort of actual training?

watson signs: I'd LOVE Canada, but I don't want to move anymore. Went from Colorado to Alaska to Montana. Can't do it anymore. But thanks for the vote of confidence!

JBusch260: No insurance until 90 days, and even then, probably costs more than I'm making. I've already got a potential bite on a resume, but I felt sooo guilty sending it out.

player: 5 most urgent needs have been laid out to all decision-making parties, prioritized by urgency and price. So far, the only thing on the list to get taken care of was colored paper for work orders.

genericname: Scares the hell out of me to think that, as I have a kid and another on the way...

Billct2: I don't want to move to Denver. Spent time there. Lots of time there. I LOVE that city, but it's that: a city. Too big for me. Plus, selling the girlfriend on another move would be relationship suicide at this point. We're staying here, where it's beautiful, not as expensive as Alaska, within driving distance of my kiddo, but not within fighting distance of his mom. lol

 

[JBusch260]

JBusch260: No insurance until 90 days, and even then, probably costs more than I'm making. I've already got a potential bite on a resume, but I felt sooo guilty sending it out.

Feeling guilty about applying elsewhere speaks positive volumes about your character and the care that you have for your job. But i gotta say, it doesn't sound like the owners and higher ups are doing much to make your lives easier, especially by putting it on you to make the money to get the equipment to make your jobs easier. Job loyalty is very important, but you gotta look out for yourself and your family too.

 

[DesireeM]

Definitely abandon ship. Are you getting a raise for running the show? You're going to do all this extra work and have all this extra stress for the same wage and the only people that will benefit are the owners who don't care enough to do it themselves.

You'd do better opening your own shop than trying to resurrect that place. At least then you wouldn't have all the dead weight.

 

[synergy_jim]

sounds like I pay too much…

I'd run dude… If the owner doesn't take pride in the place, why should you… My people will never tell you I don't care. This place is a close 3rd in my life…. Right behind GOD and family…. You need to work for someone with a little pride.

 

[Gino]

Yep, you're certainly in a pickle.

It's not always easy finding a new job, when the one you're in is at least paying the bills, but if ya don't put the word out, you'll never advance yourself. Here at our shop, everyone knows, if they can make the business money, they have job security and I can give them more raises and bonuses. There are plenty of areas we could improve upon for greater productivity and such, but my people are good at what they do and put up with some problem areas and it always revolves around money at the right time. We all pitch in and help each other and make the best of circumstances. When we can, we'll improve them or remedy the problems, but it can't always be done overnight. Now, this is gonna sound gross, but we couldn't do anything about it. We have a four yard dumpster out back, which gets dumped about twice a month. With all the bad weather we've had, it froze into place and the trucks couldn't take it away for weeks on end, so our trash piled up. We started putting really bad stuff outside in bags and keeping non-smelly things in the back end of the bays. Our bays aren't heated very good, so we'd have to throw a portable torpedo heater out there while doing trucks. It stank, but no one really complained, cause other than spending around $14,000 we were stuck. They all did what they had to do. This has never happened to us before with temperatures so frigid like this year and they all accepted the fact it was senseless to spend that money on a freak winter.

I'd try to help where it makes your job easier, but don't give away the farm, if they aren't paying you enough. They might pick up on the fact, you could make things move faster and actually increase production, but do it little by little. They'll never change everything on something someone new has to say. They're gonna hafta believe it was partially their idea in order to make it happen.

Good luck....................
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[DigiPrinter]

It sounds like you've got a good picture of the current company and what is lacks based on your experience. It seems like the owner may not have an understanding or doesn't care about the sign company because he/she has the restaurant to live on. I would sit down with the ownership and in a diplomatic way find out their goals with the sign company and if they are willing to invest in it. If they are, then I would position to work yourself into a role where you can build the company, get onto a salary base with a percentage of net profits at the end of the year. If they seem reluctant to upgrading and growth, then I would probably make the move to another company or go work at the restaurant. By the way, who runs the show? If I read correctly, (which I don't always do and too lazy to go back to the top to re-read) the owner isn't there much, if it all. Might be a place you can be the "boss" without starting your own company and could be a good testing pad to see how you'd do. As someone else said, you have to watch out for yourself first so don't invest too much until you know all the facts. Good luck!

 

[ColoPrinthead]

Billct2: I don't want to move to Denver. Spent time there. Lots of time there. I LOVE that city, but it's that: a city. Too big for me. Plus, selling the girlfriend on another move would be relationship suicide at this point. We're staying here, where it's beautiful, not as expensive as Alaska, within driving distance of my kiddo, but not within fighting distance of his mom. lol

You don't have to move to Denver, there are plenty around the burbs and FT. Colins, Longmont, and Boulder (if you can stand white people with dreads).

 

[TyrantDesigner]

Computers are a dime a dozen, software to boot. Equipment can be cleaned, fixed and refurbed ... or in some cases replaced. Business itself can be built alone on good customer relations and providing a good product. I've seen shops start with less than what you have there ... work with what you have and see if you can get it going without having to re-invent the wheel or invest a tiny fortune. I would still be looking for other opportunities and I wouldn't let salaried life take over your actual life ... but it at least be a jumping point to something better.

At the least, you could get by with a decent design computer for about $500 from office depot, with the monthly adobe creative cloud cost of $50-$100 a month. Let alone if you have an older machine ... you should be focusing in on 99% vector designs to save processing power and ram for printing. The mimaki can be cleaned and have some general tlc done on it ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQbIzy_6GbE so that is what ... a day's work? You probably need to clean the shop and set up proper storage, use and quality control standards (make sure it's in writing) ... that is a long weekend. You will probably need to review all the invoices for the last 6 months and compare sales vs materials used and overhead ... and correct pricing if need be ... that will probably take about a week of accounting and about a month to three months to shift pricing slowly if it's wrong. Give the wonderboy standards and quality requirements to his job ... if he can't match them ... fire him ... he's dead weight if he can't adapt or improve. if the manager is just acting as a receptionist ... treat her as such and give her receptionist duties. If she can't handle the actual work load of a receptionist (making and receiving calls, being able to do invoicing, basic book keeping, scheduling jobs and installs effectively, taking basic job specs of what customers are looking for, etc) fire her as well, get a real receptionist. Get word of mouth going, word of mouth advertising is the most effective form of advertising (good and bad) ... focus on customer service and it will go 3 times farther than just putting out a good product. 90% of the things you can change in a shop is all time and effort. Most EMPLOYEES don't look past their paychecks (and rightfully so) ... but having a dedicated workforce that is motivated to make a business succeed will in the end make themselves more money and have better working conditions in the long run ... so be a leader and take this bull by the horns and teach it to bake a cake.

And for the love of all that is unholy, get profit sharing as part of your compensation ... if you're doing all the work to make someone else on a side business money ... negotiate for a share of the profits. It's not personal, it's business.

 

[SolitaryT]

Here's an update: last week, I took a day and a half off for my daughter's birthday. She was born. I went to the hospital and cut the cord and all that stuff. (Ember Grace, by the way... 6 lbs, 1 oz., and totally healthy... redhead to boot)... Anyway, as I said, I took a day and a half off. Yesterday, before I left work, I was asked when I was going to make up those hours. Does this seem right or even legal? I looked up Montana's laws about salaried OT. Apparently, even salaried workers are entitled to time-and-a-half overtime. The deeper I get into this place, the more I wonder what I don't know.