Does Size Really Matter for Signshops?

ONE VERY CHARMING and wonderful thing about the sign industry is how different every shop, store and production facility can be. Even among our Signarama franchises, you see everything from a mega-factory pushing out national client projects to a four-person vinyl shop learning to wrap for the first time.

Not all small shops are striving to get big; some are just the right size for the owner’s appetite for stress and work. Not all huge signshops are happy; we’ve seen our share of massive sign industry titans fall!

When we opened 23 years ago, I had a huge appetite to grow — partly out of my own utter terror at failing, but also because our franchise gives out shiny plaques and I had to try to collect them all, like Pokémon!

What I learned from my signshop peers over the last 15 years is that size really does not matter. Whether it’s your monthly sales, the numbers put up by your best salesperson, collection of cool gadgets or the size of your building, none of those things can guarantee you a bottom line you will be happy about.

It’s easy to focus on the visible. One of the first things owners talk about when they meet is, “How many employees do you have?” Or, “What were your sales last year?” No one asks, “How much did you take home last year?” It’s no one’s business but yours, and that is my point.

It’s okay to want to be successful, to have all the cool toys, to be the biggest and the best — I drink that Kool-Aid every day! But don’t neglect your bottom line or take big risks that you can’t back up in the name of “feeling” or “appearing” successful!

If you’re not profitable, or maybe have never been very profitable (yes, I know shops that are unprofitable for years in a row), these questions that can help you diagnose the issue:

• Are you overstaffed and fearful of cutting people?
• Are you holding onto underperforming employees because firing or managing them is hard to do?
• Are you afraid to hire because it is a pain in the butt, so you just expect everyone, including yourself, to work like a dog and barely get by?
• Are you charging enough for your work? Or are you so afraid of customer objections you just go for the lowest price?
• Are you so involved in the daily operations you can’t grow? Maybe you are allergic to giving away authority and accountability?
• Are you unwilling to do the marketing effort to grow?
• Would you rather weed vinyl and run a printer all day?
• Are you unable to read your profit and loss statement, and thus have no clue where to start to fix things?
• Do you just check your bank balance to determine how things are going?

Were things going great and then suddenly something changed? Maybe you have no idea what changed!

If you are tired, frustrated, scared, confused or just out of ideas, you are not alone! So many in the sign industry end up running a shop because they loved making signs, and now they are trying to figure out how to love owning a business.

Many Resources are Out There to Help:

Many communities have a Small Business Development Center with free services, including “SCORE” which are retired executives volunteering to help business owners.

• Vistage and other peer group services can be expensive but very effective.
• Form your own peer group from signshops outside of your area! Share your financials and learn to help one another thrive.
• Meet with your CPA and ask for education. Or fire your really bad CPA and hire a new one.
• Get to ISA events and build your knowledge. Invest in you and not just the next cool printer.