Question for medium and large sign shops

[ams]

Question to those who have larger sign shops such as 7+ employees. What areas do you have in your shop that are super important to your operations?

Such as:
Conference room to discuss projects with projector and conference table
Meeting room to talk with customers about their needs
Lounge or sitting area for customers to hangout while they wait
Showroom to display all your cool stuff
Etc.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Weird question AMS. Isn't the whole shop kind of important?

 

[Russell J. Bean]

Show Room. We have a conference room but only use it doing the catalog. Waiting room we had, but we mostly do posts and large signs or stock stuff. When they wait they usually go across the street to get food and come back

 

[GAC05]

With that many employees running around a AAA+ rated restroom is super important. Especially if there is a coffee pot in the break room.

 

[Front Signs]

Reception, which is also the main area where we discuss projects with our customers and take orders.
Meeting room, for our stuff to talk over new projects.
Break room for our employees.
Showroom, as we find that having a showroom is vital for every sign making company. That’s why we have recently opened ours with about 100 sign samples.

 

[ams]

Weird question AMS. Isn't the whole shop kind of important?

In a way. If you were selling strictly online, you wouldn't need a showroom or reception area, if you were wholesale to the trade, you wouldn't need certain things. If you had a ton of walk in traffic, then yes everything is important.

 

[Bly]

Bar and pool table. For sure.

 

[eahicks]

? I would say the design workstations, printer area, production tables, fabrication areas, offices, the front door that you walk through? Agreed....odd question.

 

[HulkSmash]

We strongly discourage walk-ins, as most of them are just tire kickers, so our showroom is more just a very clean and professional lobby that shows our certifications, has a nice clean logo and thats it. Show rooms are really unnecessary unless you're selling like real estate/trade show stuff. I think a conference room is important for meeting clients/employees to go over projects.

 

[papabud]

its nice to have a room away from production. this can be a multi function room. break/meeting room
its great to get the production staff together and talk about current job status and upcoming jobs.
a place quiet enough one can relax a little or you can sit and talk with a client.

 

[jfiscus]

Definitely a break room, makes it a lot easier to de-stress during breaks. After that, multiple restrooms are really nice. We have 2 mens rooms and 1 womens room. (14 male employees and 3 female employees)
We have a conference room, but really it could be combined with the sales office. The most important thing we have is a really nice job scheduling tracking software and multiple computers/monitors for managing/viewing the schedule.

 

[HulkSmash]

Definitely a break room, makes it a lot easier to de-stress during breaks. After that, multiple restrooms are really nice. We have 2 mens rooms and 1 womens room. (14 male employees and 3 female employees)
We have a conference room, but really it could be combined with the sales office. The most important thing we have is a really nice job scheduling tracking software and multiple computers/monitors for managing/viewing the schedule.

i 2nd this. The most important thing is a program like cyrious for job tracking, and invoicing.