Too many sign shops!!

[Billct2]

9 out of 10 guys were really good at their trade. Today its more like about 2 or 3 out of 40 are good at their job.

Good point, and from my experience seems accurate.
One field this has become very evident in is billboards, I'm amazed at the number of illegible billboards out there, when you think of the money involved you'd think the client would want their $2k/month ad to be readable. I was never a wall dog or bulletin painter, but most of those guys would put this new digital stuff to shame for effective advertising.

 

[btropical.com]

I have one I want to knock on his a$$ , rest i care less about . Hunting his big fish

 

[Gino]

Good point, and from my experience seems accurate.
One field this has become very evident in is billboards, I'm amazed at the number of illegible billboards out there, when you think of the money involved you'd think the client would want their $2k/month ad to be readable. I was never a wall dog or bulletin painter, but most of those guys would put this new digital stuff to shame for effective advertising.

I’ve only a few billboards under my belt, but the thing that gets me in that department is…. not only about the crowded text, pictures and poorly executed effects, but these idiots that pay for LED digital billboards for next to NO EXPOSURE. These signs are sold on the way they light up and grab the driver’s attention. Yeah, the same drivers that we told years ago have about 2 to 3 seconds to look at your board without driving off the road. Main difference is that back then…. the drivers were driving, passing, putting on their make-up or eating this new thing called fast-food. Today… you have road rage drivers, make-up artists, eating entire of meals behind the wheel, text messaging, cell phones, kids in the back seat, not to mention jockeying for position at the ‘YEILD’ ramps and most of all..... the message changes about every 25 or 30 seconds. I see a message that I want to read sometimes and because of all the unnecessary copy, I can’t read it and by the time I get close enough…. it rolls over to the next piece of crappy artwork. Yep, there’s your advertising budget at work for you. You don’t get seen for another 4 minutes, so who is really making out ??

While talking about readership…. how about all the misspelled words on billboards and television these days. Has our language become that much harder to read & write that hardly any young person can write without making 38 mistakes in one simple sign ??










.

 

[coyote]

I remember a local sign painter: he was like the old Model T: you could have your sign in any color as long as it was white, and any color lettering as long as it was red or black. He couldn't be bothered to stock all those cans of 1-Shot and didn't want to confuse his customers by offering them too many choices. He was always busy...
C

 

[OldPaint]

i was a kid of 10-12 when this "shaky jake" started hangin out at my parents BAR. guy lived in a 51-52 buick 4 door, was painted green 142L one shot, lettered with 134L chrome yellow and a lot of ALUMINUM paint. this was his home, shop, office. no kiddin. AND I WAS FASCINATED.........not how he lived but what he could do with a quill and couple cans of paint. seen him letter truck doors,windows with nothing more then a piece of chalk to lay a few reference lines or curves, and it was PAINTIN TIME. and paint he did. was a lot of different scripts, did a lot of the "tails" like on sports team logos. also he would paint the background......and leave the letters....and the looked like he painted them instead. he gave me my 1st set of quills. and i still have the utmost respect for this man...........and he has been gone a long time............how many of the "digital/vinyl only" people will leave a mark in this business?

 

[gbahue]

Big Fish

I have one I want to knock on his a$$ , Hunting his big fish

Hey Tropical,

Thats how to do it. Takes a little bit longer to land the big fish but they provide more meals!

g

 

[FrankenSigns.biz]

Some 20 or so years ago, (before I was in the sign business), a friend came to me and asked me to suggest a business he could start. I thought about it and said, "you should start a sign business". A few days later we crossed paths again and I asked him what he thought of my suggestion. He said, "I looked in the yellow pages and decided there was WAY too much competition." I told him that the number of sign shops in the yellow pages was indicative that it was a lucrative trade and certainly no reason to forgo my suggestion. He didn't see it that way. Ironically, 20 years later, he manages a shop for me.

 

[Jon Aston]

You have a problem if, in the customer's mind, you are just one of many signshops - one of many places where they can buy basically the same thing: A sign is a sign...is a sign, right? In that scenario, price will inevitably play a disproportionately larger role in the buying decision.

If you don't create real value for customers in a way that your competitors can't, or won't, then I suggest you start thinking about how you can. What do your customers value? What do they want more than anything else?

I know it's a cliche, but it's a suitable one: Nobody ever bought a drill because they wanted a drill. What did they want? Holes. Nobody wants a sign either. Signs are the drill. How can you help them get what they really want?

You could start by knowing more about marketing than your competitors, and more about designing to help them get more of what they want. You could learn more about each customer's business than your competition - more about their business objectives and challenges, more about who their target market is, and what persuades them buy.

Here's a book that can help you with your problem, and with your customers' problems: Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.

I know. The cover is butt ugly. Proof that you should never judge a book by its cover. Here's a pretty good summary.

 

[ToddM.]

Well I'm only 28 and haven't been in the business a fraction of the time as some of you, but here's a little tip from me...

You can really set yourself apart from the competition by taking extra time to make your customers feel special...When someone talks to me about a sign, I've been preparing several different layouts for them to pick from, even on the very simple jobs. They like having choices. Plus, I always throw a really spruced up design in there, which often leads to them spending more money than they planned.

Some of the sign guys around here just type up a plain jane layout in arial black and that's it.

 

[Jon Aston]

Well I'm only 28 and haven't been in the business a fraction of the time as some of you, but here's a little tip from me...

You can really set yourself apart from the competition by taking extra time to make your customers feel special...When someone talks to me about a sign, I've been preparing several different layouts for them to pick from, even on the very simple jobs. They like having choices. Plus, I always throw a really spruced up design in there, which often leads to them spending more money than they planned.

Some of the sign guys around here just type up a plain jane layout in arial black and that's it.

Dude! You're speaking my lingity! What you're doing is "experiential" branding...and it is a terrific way to nurture customer loyalty (the whole point of branding).

So... Think about how you might build your positioning strategy around what you're doing. I would also suggest thinking about how you can continuously improve on the experience you're providing - in order to maintain your competitive advantage.

 

[anotherdog]

And it's likely to get worse before it gets better. With the sub 20k solvent printer and lots of newly unemployed people... "Darn it, I'm gonna open me a Sign Shop!"
and a whole demographic of people hitting the (I'm going to be my own boss) age.
At the same time you have this biting recession starving these baby sign businesses while they strip the land of food.
The answer is quality, of service and product. Keeping a loyal client base is the answer.
When someone tells me they wan't it cheaper because they have seen the price less elsewhere I let them go with one comment, "you buy your clothes at the cheapest you can find it too"?

 

[The Sign Dude]

Here's a book that can help you with your problem, and with your customers' problems: Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.

I know. The cover is butt ugly. Proof that you should never judge a book by its cover. Here's a pretty good summary.

 

[Gene@mpls]

1. lingity
a saucy twist on a way of speaking, another word for language or lingo
"Your lingity is so whack."

Jon- you are so progressive! Gene

 

[scarface]

There is about 5 sign shops within a 5 mile radius here. These are all small sign shops, then further away you have the dreaded fast signs which charge by the letter ect

 

[David Wright]

I thought scarface was going to say, "I'll bury those cockroaches!"

 

[btropical.com]

I thought scarface was going to say, "I'll bury those cockroaches!"

Funny :scream:

 

[OldPaint]

the worst one here, is someone WHO THINKS THEY CAN PAINT...........is doing dealership CAR WINDSHIELDS!!!!!!!!
i keep stopping in and askin the dealers if they know the person who is doin them.........I WANT TO TEACH HIM..............how to make them look GREAT!!!!
i am dun doin them..........dont wana do that any more.

 

[Ponto]

You have a problem if, in the customer's mind, you are just one of many signshops - one of many places where they can buy basically the same thing: A sign is a sign...is a sign, right? In that scenario, price will inevitably play a disproportionately larger role in the buying decision.

If you don't create real value for customers in a way that your competitors can't, or won't, then I suggest you start thinking about how you can. What do your customers value? What do they want more than anything else?

I know it's a cliche, but it's a suitable one: Nobody ever bought a drill because they wanted a drill. What did they want? Holes. Nobody wants a sign either. Signs are the drill. How can you help them get what they really want?

You could start by knowing more about marketing than your competitors, and more about designing to help them get more of what they want. You could learn more about each customer's business than your competition - more about their business objectives and challenges, more about who their target market is, and what persuades them buy.

Here's a book that can help you with your problem, and with your customers' problems: Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.

I know. The cover is butt ugly. Proof that you should never judge a book by its cover. Here's a pretty good summary.

Well said...the "technician" mentality as opposed to the "entrepreneurial" one!!!

JP

 

[AlexT]

Too many indeed... And the worst part is that they come up to my area and vandalize my advertising. Or they park their cars and put up banners in my area.

The sad truth is that many of them are mindless morons with a $300 plotter from eBay, who don't know one end of a computer from the other. There are even a few deuche bags with mobile operations... Yes you know who you are... stay away from my shop!

The sign business is not what it used to be. I started 15 years ago making good money, now a days we are just surviving, thanks to the real estate brokers turned sign guy.

But as they say knowledge is power, which is one thing we have going for us.

Hey maybe we should buy diplomas online and become lawyers?

 

[round man]

Just did a search on the talking yellow pages here and ended up with 24 pages with ten shops to a page and thats within a 50 mile radius of my zip code,.....and that is only the shops who paid to advertise there,...back in '78 when I first started out on my own after a couple years of doing the grunt work for a couple of old wall dogs,.there were only four shops in that same phone book and a computer filled a whole building and usually had a guard also,....We had to hand cut our decals after we hand lettered them,...they were looked down on in the trade as an inferior product alot like we look at magnetics today,...a cheap alternative to the "real" thing,....