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What was the smallest change you made in your business that had the biggest impact?

Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
Cameron Hoag said:
Notarealsignguy, did you purchase a software for the daily schedule or just do a manual dry erase type of system?
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I just made a dry erase board and fill it out at the end of the day. If we did use software, I would still transfer the tasks to a daily schedule board like this.
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
Rocco G said:
Aside from raising prices, when we started to charge by the hour for permit acquisition. Sometimes it was a simple process but we lost out on the majority of them. When I bought the business from the family that was the 2nd thing I did - after raising prices. Now I don't mind getting permits so much.
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I was just going to ask this question about permits. In my town it's quick and easy and nothing much more than sending an email and I have an answer in a couple days. Now I'm dealing with another little village near me that I've been told is extremely picky even for the smallest things and to expect a few emails back and fourth, etc. By the hour sounds like a great idea vs. a set price. Thanks!
 
D

DPD

New Member
204SignGuy said:
Far too often people think that you need to make leaps and bounds before taking the first step. What was the smallest (or easiest) change you made in how your business operates that has pushed you to the next level?
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Getting rid of a couple of low budget high maintenance slow paying customers. It was a breath of fresh air.
 
jfiscus

jfiscus

Rap Master
Upgrading laminators was a great "small" change that helped a LOT. Went from a Seal that took 2 people to work properly and didn't do R2R correctly to a GFP that one person can do in 1/4 of the time R2R.
Another good simple upgrade were creating a "chuck" that fit into a drill out of a hole saw and a spare roller to rewind rolls of cut media back onto the core. Save hours per week with this tool and no more sore arms.
We also added roll holders to the ends of one table so we could weed roll to roll.
Changing from horizontal storage to vertical storage of sheet goods for the router was also a HUGE time saver.
Buying cases of drinks, chips, and adding the Keurig also cut down on employees taking trips out to the corner store.
When we moved to the new shop we planned all of our areas and how to store materials for each area so that it was more convenient for everyone.

When we see something that takes time out of our day or someone complains about more than once we try to find a solution to remedy the problem.
All those minutes per job/day add up and are used to produce more product after the "upgrade" is done.
 
White Haus

White Haus

Not a Newbie
jfiscus said:
Upgrading laminators was a great "small" change that helped a LOT. Went from a Seal that took 2 people to work properly and didn't do R2R correctly to a GFP that one person can do in 1/4 of the time R2R.
Another good simple upgrade were creating a "chuck" that fit into a drill out of a hole saw and a spare roller to rewind rolls of cut media back onto the core. Save hours per week with this tool and no more sore arms.
We also added roll holders to the ends of one table so we could weed roll to roll.
Changing from horizontal storage to vertical storage of sheet goods for the router was also a HUGE time saver.
Buying cases of drinks, chips, and adding the Keurig also cut down on employees taking trips out to the corner store.
When we moved to the new shop we planned all of our areas and how to store materials for each area so that it was more convenient for everyone.

When we see something that takes time out of our day or someone complains about more than once we try to find a solution to remedy the problem.
All those minutes per job/day add up and are used to produce more product after the "upgrade" is done.
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Sounds like some good improvements there! I've got a growing list that we need to start working on...now to find the time!

Definitely a good idea to track the key frustrations and implement solutions to resolve them. So many little annoyances throughout the day go undocumented and you just get frustrated and find a temporary workaround and move on.
 
A

Andy D

Active Member
Stacey K said:
As a rule, I stopped doing "personal jobs" and stick to commercial jobs. I also raised my set-up fees for smaller orders. I stopped wasting a lot of time on estimates for smaller jobs or "what if this, what if that". Especially now, I've been extremely busy, either you want it done for $100 or it might be $110. Do they want it done or not? Most people don't even ask prices anymore, they just need it done, especially my regular customers.
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THIS! Especially personal vehicles! I want to put a "No Car Club Members Allowed" sign on the front door.
 
jfiscus

jfiscus

Rap Master
White Haus said:
Sounds like some good improvements there! I've got a growing list that we need to start working on...now to find the time!

Definitely a good idea to track the key frustrations and implement solutions to resolve them. So many little annoyances throughout the day go undocumented and you just get frustrated and find a temporary workaround and move on.
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One thing we started doing here to help us find the time was to create orders for in-house projects like these. If you put an "order" in for work around the shop and put it for a couple weeks out, you are able to plan for it when the day gets here and know that the block of time is already used / budgeted for that project and you don't just fill the day with other (customer) projects. Otherwise, you just keep putting your own projects off.
 
White Haus

White Haus

Not a Newbie
jfiscus said:
One thing we started doing here to help us find the time was to create orders for in-house projects like these. If you put an "order" in for work around the shop and put it for a couple weeks out, you are able to plan for it when the day gets here and know that the block of time is already used / budgeted for that project and you don't just fill the day with other (customer) projects. Otherwise, you just keep putting your own projects off.
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Good idea. We've done this occasionally but I will start doing it more often, as our list of internal projects is growing.

Just yesterday we figured out how to gain more vehicle install space in the shop by moving our "offices" upstairs to a nice quiet office space that we very rarely use to begin with. Looking forward to getting this done as we have 4 cube vans to do next week. Needing more install space is one of the key factors in us moving/building a larger shop, so this will buy us some time and allow us work more efficiently while we save and plan for our expansion. Kills 6 birds with one stone!

Thanks again for the ideas!
 
FireSprint.com

FireSprint.com

Trade Only Screen & Digital Sign Printing
The main issue we have with our summa is the opus cam. It will throw an error every few jobs. In theory not that big of a deal to restart it, in practice, we run full rolls so that means we can't walk away.

Could be our materials, workflow, anything.

Honestly, it's probably us. Just what we know and what we're used to. The graphtec just runs smoother for us.

We're about ready to sell our summa and get another graphtec.
 
P

ProSignTN

New Member
To quote Nancy Reagan, "Just say No" and to quote Phil Knight, "Just Do It". There are a lot of complicated responses on this thread, enough to confuse me. It's simple, just say no to what you don't want to do or does not make you money. Just Do what you want to do and make money doing it. Remember, you got in the sign business because you were captivated by it, you were creative and you thought a little different then the others. You realized the huge cultural impact design and signage has in this world. The joy of creating. Oh!, wait, wait!, did you get in this business because the profit margin looked good. Because, all I have to do is make a drawing and the MACHINE does the rest. Prints it right out.
A few years ago, I raised my prices, qualified each customer and their potential for profit or trouble. I quit handing out business cards and referred anything I wasn't comfortable with doing to another shop. I'm good at what I do and I charge for it. A single decal for your truck window, try Fast Signs, Express Signs, or another of the shops set up by entrepreneurs who got into this just to make money. See, I love designing, I love fabricating, and if I don't have to dig too deep, I love installing. Taking completion photos is as rewarding as depositing the check. If getting rich was the goal, I would have chosen any number of other occupations.
Go into the shop in the morning and enjoy your profession.
 
M

malav

New Member
Notarealsignguy said:
Having employees keep time cards for each thing they work on throughout the day and sticking that info into a spreadsheet. It calculates cost of the job, a target price/margin based on time/materials and a desired profit percentage and then what that actual margin was when it is all finished. At any point in time, I can also look to see where we are at on a job cost wise. Second thing was a daily schedule board that lays out the job, task and time for each task for the entire day per employee. (i.e. Jose 8-10am weld frames)
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I like this idea. If possible, Can you please share with me the spreadsheet format and the daily schedule board?
 
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