Equipment Investments, Cookie Offerings and More Tips for Sign Business Success

“The future is not to be forecast, but created.” — ARTHUR C. CLARKE

EQUIPMENT Wise Investments

1 Louise Jackson, Signs of Art Graphic Design (Philadelphia), recently treated herself to a brand new pickup truck fully loaded with heated seats and even a heated steering wheel. “The newness and how sharp it looks makes me look or feel even more professional. I’ve already got nice comments from customers,” she says. North of the border, a channel letter bender has been worth it for Michael Van der Melen of The Media Works (Norwood, ON, Canada). “After handmaking letters for years I took the jump and invested in one. It’s paying off already,” he adds.

FABRICATION Size Matters

2 Building their ADA interior signs in house, RP Signs (Charlotte, NC) often has trouble assembling the multiple pieces in a way that lines up all of the edges. “We took a tip from a vendor of ours to cut each piece larger, then set up a flush trim bit on a router table and rout all edges. That yields perfectly aligned edges on all sides,” says project manager James Neely.

INSTALLATION Take the Lead

3 “Pave the way for your installation team!” advises Dave Hostios, Trav-Ad Signs (Huntsville, AL). “We have recently had to double down on making sure that whoever is in charge of project management for a particular job lets the customer know what’s happening — particularly if it’s a third party!”

OUTREACH Warm Treats, Warm Welcomes

4 Signs by Autographix (Branford, CT) is located in a town of 28,000 neighbored by similarly smallish towns, making it possible for the shop to be on good terms with the zoning boards. Owner John Miller brings a tray of cookies to each zoning office when the holidays come around.

“Some of my clients have told me we were recommended by the zoning board. Cookies can’t hurt,” Miller says. On the Pacific coast, Jim Sutterfield and Signs Plus (Bellingham, WA) always invite potential clients to visit their facility, as well as the facilities of companies they are contemplating purchasing from.

SALES Old-School Accounting

5 Jeff Thomas, Crossroad Sign (Lynnwood, WA), recently handed the shop’s monthly “white board” — a hand-calculated counting of every phone call, email, website and walk-in inquiry categorized into “new” and “client” sources, including referrals — over to a new employee. “Annual tally done and shared with all. Dumbest system ever but we work it and it does help track inbound activity that leads to sales,” he says.

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MONOTASKING IS IN Productivity

6 Most people now appreciate that multitasking is a generally poor way to go about a work day. Switching among tasks is cognitively demanding and impacts the speed and precision with which we do things. Studies have also found that multitasking can raise your blood pressure, trigger anxiety and hurt mood.

At the same time, the modern work environment makes multitasking almost the default. What to do? Like so many things, it starts with awareness. According to Dr. Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California-Irvine and author of Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity, start by observing yourself throughout the day, noticing when and how you task-switch without realizing it. From there, the advice is simple yet challenging: You’ll need to practice monotasking, just doing one thing at a time, to gradually retrain your focus and build your tolerance. If you’re struggling, start small. Can you monotask for five minutes? How about 10?

Tip Briefs

• Dropbox has changed my life. It is so easy to have access to all my files on multiple computers. — Dennis Schaub, FastTrack Signs, Bellefontaine, OH
• For sales, just make the call and start a conversation! — Jonathon Yasko, North American Signs, South Bend, IN
• A separate log sheet of “no sales” is always humbling. — Jeffrey Chudoff, Fastsigns of Maple Shade, Maple Shade, NJ
• Care more about your customer and that relationship than any single sale. Put their needs first. This mindset will pay off incredibly. — Earl Charles, Branded Sign Solutions, Helena, MT
• Focus on what your customer values in addition to price. — Don Budde, CalComp Graphic Solutions, Cypress, CA