“Quality is my principle and qualified is my attitude.” — Laverne Cox
CULTURE Monthly Team-Building Lunches
1 “We really believe in a positive company culture,” asserts Alexandra Lund, Bismarck Sign Co. (Bismarck, ND). Implementing a monthly meeting at her company, with lunch, team building and “real talk,” has really made a positive impact. “We find that the divide that would happen between sales, management and production/installation crews has disappeared,” she says.
INSTALLATION ADA Sign Hack
2 Try pre-peeling the tape from the back of ADA signs, advises Dawn Homa, Signarama Brighton (Brighton, CO). Use the leftover wax paper backing from vinyl and lam to cover the tape. “Installing the signs is a breeze, as it’s a quick removal of the wax paper and applying to the wall,” Homa says.
SALES Targeting Customers
3 In a recent monthly sales meeting, Sabrina Davis, Port City Signs and Graphics (Wilmington, NC) and two employees dedicated to sales and customer service identified a number of companies they wanted as clients, or more work from. Each made a to-do list, then followed up at the next meeting. “We have received new work from 80 percent of those identified,” Davis reports. “It was a quick payoff. We are going to do it again.” For a small sign operation with no outside salespeople, the exercise represented a novel sales effort… and it worked, Davis says.
COMMUNICATION Standardize Subject Lines
4 Greg Gimbert, Southeastern Lighting Solutions (Daytona Beach, FL), has instituted company-wide email subject line standards (PO number, store number, city, issue) to facilitate faster communication internally and externally. The strategy also retains base job info where otherwise it could get lost in subsequent replies, Gimbert says.
DESIGN Common Design Templates
5 Derek Atchley, Atchley Graphics (Columbus, OH) has streamlined his company’s design process by creating a library of pre-made design templates for commonly requested sign types.
FAILBETTER Embracing Failure and Keep Going
6 “We are all failures — at least the best of us are.” So said J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan. It’s a view held by every person who has ever achieved anything. Failure, it seems, is an unavoidable faltering step on the path to success. It teaches you what doesn’t work and it gives you the opportunity to try a new approach. But how to fail the right way?
Ad “wizard” Roy Williams, in his weekly Monday Morning Memo, suggests this three-pronged approach:
- Fail cheaply. Always ask, “What is the minimum viable experiment?”
- Fail forward. Be sure to learn something you didn’t know before you failed.
- Fail quickly. The primary goal is to prove or disprove your concept efficiently.
Finally, he says it’s important for you to laugh about your failures. “If you try to keep them secret, you give them power over you. Don’t wear the handcuffs of the past.”
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