Hi Everyone,
Our wall decal business is finally at the point where I need to quit my day job and jump into the (somewhat) sign business full time. We've figured out a lot along the way, mainly from sheer tenacity. I know I've got a lot to learn, and am hoping that I can pick a few very knowledgeable brains along the way.
A little about me (or rather our family business that I'm responsible for keeping in the black):
We started in 2008 with a cheap Chinese cutter, which we wore out in 4 months. We're now a Roland shop with 2 GX-300 and 2 CX-500 machines. We doubled our shop size last month so we now have 2500 sq feet and a lot of room to start growing. Our marketing strategy is a mix of newsletters, Facebook (20k+ fans!), and PPC advertising, which eats up a ridiculous amount of our margin. We have 16 employees, have been working on getting a new website for over a year (sigh), and am constantly bombarded by amazing ways to hand over money to everyone that wants to help streamline some aspect of our business or another.
My biggest pain point (beyond Google, that is): trying to find employees that can not only solve problems, but can identify that there is a problem in the first place.
So, am I jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire? Would any of you dump a perfectly respectable well-paying gig to start your business if you had to do it all over again?
~Morgan
Our wall decal business is finally at the point where I need to quit my day job and jump into the (somewhat) sign business full time. We've figured out a lot along the way, mainly from sheer tenacity. I know I've got a lot to learn, and am hoping that I can pick a few very knowledgeable brains along the way.
A little about me (or rather our family business that I'm responsible for keeping in the black):
We started in 2008 with a cheap Chinese cutter, which we wore out in 4 months. We're now a Roland shop with 2 GX-300 and 2 CX-500 machines. We doubled our shop size last month so we now have 2500 sq feet and a lot of room to start growing. Our marketing strategy is a mix of newsletters, Facebook (20k+ fans!), and PPC advertising, which eats up a ridiculous amount of our margin. We have 16 employees, have been working on getting a new website for over a year (sigh), and am constantly bombarded by amazing ways to hand over money to everyone that wants to help streamline some aspect of our business or another.
My biggest pain point (beyond Google, that is): trying to find employees that can not only solve problems, but can identify that there is a problem in the first place.
So, am I jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire? Would any of you dump a perfectly respectable well-paying gig to start your business if you had to do it all over again?
~Morgan
