I guess this statement of mine got skipped over while planning his next ad hominem attack, but it appears that I'm not just in it for the creative gratification. Or maybe he was testing his spellchecker. "While I've always enjoyed a comfortable middle class existence thanks to applying myself and working in the sign industry, I've rarely met anyone who thought this was the easiest field to make a killing in."
I most certainly work hard and for the money just like anybody else and command a decent and fair price for our efforts.
In fact, the living I've made in this wonderful trade along with my wife's hard work and our smart investments allowed us to take a 16 month, 35,000 mile leisurely RV tour of the U.S. and Canada AT THE AGE OF 42 with everything including the RV paid for with cash. We visited more national parks, saw more amazing scenery, painted landscapes, fished, hiked, visited friends and family all over then most people do in a lifetime. So much for the false narrative being spread about me being all work and no play. I challenge anyone to take a year and a half off with NO income, doing what makes you happy, seeing the sights and enjoying life to its fullest.
While you guys are busy counting all your money and thinking you've outsmarted the entire industry, the multiple shops you rely on for a good chunk of your income, installation work, component building, warehousing, welding, powdercoating, etc.... are all out there investing in their own infrastructures which help make it possible for both of your business model's to even exist. If they rolled up their businesses and disappeared, you'd be struggling to suddenly reinvest in everything you' need to keep pushing product out the door.
I've worked in four locations around this country and find sign installers first/signmakers second nearly all the same. Most wouldn't survive were it not for the half a dozen or more shops who can't or won't do their own installations doing all the heavy lifting of investing in shops, equipment, labor, materials, etc.. and feeding them their install work. It's not brain surgery we're all doing and the installation part is even simpler than coming up with cool looking signs and building them. I've done it in every size shop imaginable, been up there in the bucket, you name it.
I could triple my income if all I had to worry about was getting an installers license, a truck, a lift and some tools. The shops who can't or won't do their installations are at the installers mercy and have no other options to go to, its a hostage like situation. They make signs and either can't figure out how to get them up or don't want to, so in comes the professional sign installer, who usually charges premium rates, does things when its convenient to them and while out on someone else's job, can talk to any prospects who see them and their lettered truck on the street.
I most certainly work hard and for the money just like anybody else and command a decent and fair price for our efforts.
In fact, the living I've made in this wonderful trade along with my wife's hard work and our smart investments allowed us to take a 16 month, 35,000 mile leisurely RV tour of the U.S. and Canada AT THE AGE OF 42 with everything including the RV paid for with cash. We visited more national parks, saw more amazing scenery, painted landscapes, fished, hiked, visited friends and family all over then most people do in a lifetime. So much for the false narrative being spread about me being all work and no play. I challenge anyone to take a year and a half off with NO income, doing what makes you happy, seeing the sights and enjoying life to its fullest.
While you guys are busy counting all your money and thinking you've outsmarted the entire industry, the multiple shops you rely on for a good chunk of your income, installation work, component building, warehousing, welding, powdercoating, etc.... are all out there investing in their own infrastructures which help make it possible for both of your business model's to even exist. If they rolled up their businesses and disappeared, you'd be struggling to suddenly reinvest in everything you' need to keep pushing product out the door.
I've worked in four locations around this country and find sign installers first/signmakers second nearly all the same. Most wouldn't survive were it not for the half a dozen or more shops who can't or won't do their own installations doing all the heavy lifting of investing in shops, equipment, labor, materials, etc.. and feeding them their install work. It's not brain surgery we're all doing and the installation part is even simpler than coming up with cool looking signs and building them. I've done it in every size shop imaginable, been up there in the bucket, you name it.
I could triple my income if all I had to worry about was getting an installers license, a truck, a lift and some tools. The shops who can't or won't do their installations are at the installers mercy and have no other options to go to, its a hostage like situation. They make signs and either can't figure out how to get them up or don't want to, so in comes the professional sign installer, who usually charges premium rates, does things when its convenient to them and while out on someone else's job, can talk to any prospects who see them and their lettered truck on the street.
