Sign Shop on CNBC's "The Profit"

[CES020]

I thought it showed how brilliant Marcus is. He saw through all of the crap and walked. What's a real shame is how many people, members of this forum, that could have knocked that out of the park and inked a great deal and go on to do amazing things, but never got the opportunity.

 

[nikdoobs]

Imagine what this show has done to his already tarnished reputation. I don't know what is added for TV drama but I'm interested to see how well his shop is doing a year from now.

One part I found interesting is when they asked for a ballpark figure and Marcus was is shock that he didn't want to give a ballpark figure off the bat. A lot of times I tell a customer I need to run the project through the estimator before giving them a price. Anyone else do this?

 

[copythat]

Best post!

I think the thing that got me the most was when he said "I don't want to do work for mom & pops anymore, i'm only interested in national companies" you've got to be an idiot to say that on TV! he's in a relatively small town, a majority of his local work will be for "mom & pops".

yes national contracts are great, however, they certainly don't pay you your normal rate for work, they expect you to give them a HUGE discount on their work! you need the "little jobs" to make some real profit.

overall I think the guy has some great employees working for him, i'm not sure he knows what he is doing, but he seems like a horrible manager!

Also, national companies don't give work to companies who brand themselves with a cartoon of the owner giving the thumbs up :ROFLMAO:

That's the way I see it. I am a mom & pop store like he is. And that is the bulk of my business. Well in his case POP. I would never would have had my father sweeping floors. Especially when he exist because of his funding! He is certainly got to have a REAL reality wake up call. And his GF surely had a big reason to cry.




Sign Up!

 

[k.a.s.]

What stuck out to me is that he claimed to be getting $450.00 for what appeared to be about a 20"x30" single sided PVC sign. I realize he is in a tourist area and if he can get it more power to him, but I think he was trying to inflate his margins to Marcus.


Kevin

 

[SignProPlus-Chip]

I almost fell out of my chair when he said $450.

A print on half inch PVC with a custom cut like that would fetch no more than $100-125 here...and that's WITH about 30 minutes of design work thrown in.

What stuck out to me is that he claimed to be getting $450.00 for what appeared to be about a 20"x30" single sided PVC sign. I realize he is in a tourist area and if he can get it more power to him, but I think he was trying to inflate his margins to Marcus.


Kevin

 

[kgirl]

It depends on who your cliental is....beach front property or a trailer park...

 

[Pat Whatley]

I almost fell out of my chair when he said $450.

If he'd posted that here with a "How much should I charge?" tag he'd have gotten people telling him that he should be charging at least that much, a couple of people would have posted pictures of similar jobs and claimed they get $950 for them, and OP would have chimed in and told everyone that he used to paint them on the backs of cereal boxes and sell them for $39)))))))))))))))87___))))))))))).

 

[James Burke]

All kinds of things wrong with this picture:

1) Dad was obviously an astute businessman in his day to be able to position himself to loan that kind of money.

2) Dad is obviously a poor judge of his son's character, and no amount of money will fix that kid's problems.

3) Girlfriend is living with a guy who is all talk, no action. The sign dude says he's all "go go go", but he's obviously afraid of putting ring on her finger...and paying her at least a little something for the work he expects from her...especially at this stage of their business.

4) Sign dude is his own worst competition.

 

[HDvinyl]

I hope the son doesn't sue the father when daddy is saying $223k-$225k contributed and the son is saying $200k.

 

[David Wright]

The dad may have been an astute businessman but now lets his familial relationship cloud his judgement.
You can kiss that 200k goodbye.
Sweeping floors no less? Got some guilt dad?

 

[player]

The dad may have been an astute businessman but now lets his familial relationship cloud his judgement.
You can kiss that 200k goodbye.
Sweeping floors no less? Got some guilt dad?

He could have a lean attached to the equipment and assets so if the biz tanks he is first in line.

 

[dan1942]

So I was looking at his site (ALS) and was looking at his vehicle wraps section. I guess he is using other peoples work for his images ( I may be wrong?) .

Look at his:
http://aslservicesmb.com/vehicle-graphics-myrtle-beach/?pid=65

Then look at this from a company in Montana:
http://scswraps.com/majestic-truck-wrap-for-majesty-riding/

Maybe he did the design and printing for them?

 

[Gino]

Ouch.........

​

 

[300mphGraphics]

Caught the rerun on cnbc last night and just knew y'all would have some comments. :Big Laugh

 

[signed off]

I can't watch it because I'm in Canada apparently....

That's because we are ahead of the game, it was on about a month ago, sorry you missed it.

 

[themadsigntist]

My Competition

My shop is just miles from this sign company on the show. As a sign shop owner, we try not to talk badly about our local competition, but I have to say that we were very disappointed in the way he represented sign companies in our town. I am a successful "Mom and Pop" shop here in town 7 years now and I LOVE the business we get from our "Mom and Pop" businesses because those are the ones that help pay our bills. I started my company with no help from any parents or loans and am very proud to say so. We have a lot of customers that come into our shop that say the exact same comments that you all have here about him. I am glad that there are others that saw and feel the same way we do.

 

[CanuckSigns]

I was looking through his gallery of work on his website, he has a floor decal that says "custom floor graphics by" and its not his logo on it lol
http://aslservicesmb.com/interior-signage-myrtle-beach/
It's near the bottom

You gotta be pretty dumb to use a photo like that on your site!

I'll be curious to see how he's doing in a year or 2. He seems to be trying to make every type of sign under the sun, and judging by the pics on his site, he's a jack of all trades, master of none

 

[TXFB.INS]

wow,

looks like every industry has them

 

[1goodguy]

Marcus is too smart to work with a schlepp like that guy. He was all ego, or as they say in Texas, all hat, no cattle. And, he had no understanding of layout, ad effectiveness, or the basic psychology of advertising impressions.

As Marcus says, its all about people, process, product. That kid may grow from the experience, but, most likely will remain shallow and self-interested.

He had great people- maybe they only showed the bozo part of his act. Maybe he has the ability to bring out the best in his people, but that was too boring to air?

If there isn't more to the kid than what he showed, his people will leave him, and his business will dry up. You can't fake it forever.


Love the show, The Profit. Marcus gets it. He knows the people are the key, the process drives the train, and the product needs to pop.

Tom