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What's your company's Year over Year growth percentage?

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
What is your sign shop's year over year growth (or decline) percentage this year? What's the average?

I'm a small 2-man shop and the growth has been nice but I'm sure the percentage is distorted because of my small business size. I'm curious what more established shops are and what I might expect as I get more established.

Mine this year is around 35%, but I know that's probably distorted due to my size. I became full time in February and the next month hired an employee this year which allowed me to take on a lot more work. There is another large shop near me and they said they were around 15% this year which for a multi-million dollar a year shop is impressive.

Just curious how other shops are doing this year and maybe what your average is?
 

Johnny Best

Active Member
15% is good for a large multi million dollar company. Your doing good at 35% but since you just started it will be kind of hard to base it on the last year's profit. If the new tax cuts go through for 2018 companies might see more.
 

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
It's held steady at 30% last 3 years.. but I'm pretty sure that will lower the larger I get, just curious as to when.

This is the first year I'm 100% self-employed with no other job withholding taxes and the amount I'm paying in tax is a RAPE! From what I can tell that tax reform stuff really isn't going to help me directly? Indirectly by way of my investments its been awesome though...long as trump can keep it together.
 

Johnny Best

Active Member
You have to put into consideration your's and employee's salary from the company, overhead, supplies, taxes and lots of other things when figuring it out. Not your personal gain but the company's gain.
It's not Trump keeping it together, it is the Left trying to tear it down and distribute to everyone. Keep up the good work and one day you will be as successful as Gino.
 

Sign consultant

New Member
Hey there
You just started so you have a lot room to grow .
Remember a new product has mo limit to grow but if they are below 40% than it is alarming.
So you should plan to grow by 100% ...
It seems illogical but ut works. ...
 

SightLine

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For years we stayed static on staff with 3 to 4 people and averaged 10 to 20 percent. This year however we landed a good size contract which literally doubled our revenue for 2016 but that is an exception. I am planning on expanding equipment in the next couple of years though to add a flatbed and CNC capabilities.
 

bannertime

Active Member
After 08 it got pretty bad for us. I left for the Army for awhile and came back and took the store over. Broken machines, out sourced a lot, running through employees, etc. I've been back for 3 years now and have seen a steady growth of 20-35% in gross income. However, not only have I grown income, I've cut back on expenses. So I imagine the gains are much better than just the income percentage.
 

DerbyCitySignGuy

New Member
15% is good for a large multi million dollar company. Your doing good at 35% but since you just started it will be kind of hard to base it on the last year's profit. If the new tax cuts go through for 2018 companies might see more.

Depending on the size and location of your company, you might break even or get hammered by the new tax bill. My understanding is that LLCs and S corporations might take a hit in areas where you can no longer take some of the previous deductions. Remains to be seen how it's going to affect most people. My gut says it's not going to be good, but I've got my fingers crossed.
 

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
I appreciate all the replies. Sounds like 10-15% is about average for established companies, that really gives me an idea of what I should be looking for.

I worked in the technology business for 5 years prior to going full-time at my sign company and there was explosive growth when I first got there followed by a rather quick decline last two years. I tried everything (in my limited manager power) to figure out how to reverse that but ultimately I think what I wasn't able to try was hampering the turn-around, along with an absentee owner. What was bringing in huge $$ was largely fixed with Windows 8 & 10 and that killed a huge revenue source.

I'm fearful and cautions of my sign business because I would hate to live through something like that with my company, although I think the sign business changes a lot slower then the PC tech world.
 

Billct2

Active Member
Signs of the Times does an article every year about the industry trends including a survey of companies broken down by size, that might have the kind of info you're looking for. I always liked seeing what other companies gross per employee was.
 

equippaint

Active Member
Our yearly sales were virtually the same as last year but our net has went up close to 50% in 17. We did some pricing adjustments, stopped going after lower margin work (we still take it when it walks through the door) and spent a good amount of time organizing workflow.
I spent too much time in the past focusing on gross revenue figuring that the net will follow in line. 14-15-16 we were around 30% gross increase year over year. After a certain point I feel like the marginal increase in net does not seem to justify the added risk and the major stress that comes with pursuing more and more work.
 
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