We're in an industrial park among mostly other business parks along the main commercial route in a town of about 28,000. Not super visible, but not hidden either.
We have another town of a similar size 10 minutes away and we also draw work from the entire county of 250,000 residents and towns ranging from the largest at 55,000 down to a few thousand. That includes as many as 350 vineyards within a 30 mile radius who are our main target clients. Often the vineyard folks like to come into town to discuss their signage needs in person while attending to other business. We also get the majority of our work from email and phone inquiries like everyone else.
We do not discourage walk ins and they have led to many a great client with far bigger projects. For every PITA, tiny waste of time project that we chew through, fifty good ones come as a result of NOT insulting the customer or coming off like we can't be bothered. The little customer doesn't know any better, they see a sign that says we do signs and they don't perceive a qualifying statement in there. There are three of us here full time and we all were taught how to walk and chew gum at the same time. Multi-tasking like talking and wrapping up finished orders after the client sees them, collecting payment and most importantly SINCERELY thanking them for their business are all within our wheelhouses as professionals. I'm often surprised at how many of our colleagues hold the actual source of their revenue in such discontent and disdain. We don't open our doors and engage in a people oriented skilled craft trade to avoid the customers at all costs.
You want a tough business with little privacy, constant customer demands, very self-entitled guests, and being exposed to multiple online review sites where the slightest misperceived action on your part can be lied about, exaggerated and shared with the world? My wife and I owned and operated a Bed & Breakfast for eight years. Only crazy people would want that kind of pain. We loved it when it went great and still have friendships with a few of the guests, but all in all it was pretty awful. We succeeded beyond our expectations and were very popular, but the PITAS were both horrible to deal with, they WERE IN OUR HOUSE! I have hundreds of stories about the whole experience and how the breakdown in civility in our society extends even to people on vacation.
We actually take pride in being the "mom and pop" "small town" sign company with a big city attitude towards service, quality and professionalism. We also do free deliveries when its convenient or when we are driving right by a customer's locations. When we took over this business there were piles of completed signs collecting dust and I asked the outgoing owner why they hadn't been dealt with. He steadfastly told me that "We don't deliver!" So, he'd rather have jobs sit and collect dust, not get paid for them and be perceived as unyielding by some customers. He'd drive right by many customer's businesses more than once a day to go pick up materials, go to the bank, a restaurant, go home, etc. but dropping off a sign was beyond some principled line he stood by.
Our hours are 8-5pm Monday-Friday and Saturdays by appointment only. If we are here on a Saturday, we answer the phone if it rings. We've picked up a ton of good quality work doing so while the competition is off playing. We're in the business to succeed and be perceived as approachable and ready to provide our services above all else.
We've heard that one of our competitors and now his successor are avid surfers and can be found down on the coast some days surfing instead of working. Well, that's great until you miss deadlines, work gets done wrong, employees shrug their shoulders and are either forced to lie for you and why you aren't there, or don't feel comfortable doing the customer relations work only the owner should be doing. We're not all work and no play either, we just know when and how to prioritize the stuff that enables us to go have fun. We just returned from an awesome weekend up in the Bay Area and took yesterday off in order to see U2 last night and not have to drive home 3.5 hours. Working hard allows us to do stuff like that, go camping, go visit friends and family, etc. but those things get worked around our business, not at its expense.
I used to live in several major fishing and hunting regions. Between October and spring, you couldn't get barely a contractor to do much of anything in a timely fashion.
The reason most owner's are in business is because they possess a higher degree of initiative, self-motivation and accountability as well as ability to deal with adversity better than the average employee and to make more money than working for others allows. For those reasons, you gotta be there to deal with problems when they arise. The buck stops with us.
