How Should a Sign Company Handle Post-Approval Changes?

What are people’s exit strategies?

Among its nearly 80 questions, our 2024 Big Survey asked, “What is your exit strategy?” (See ST, Mid-March 2024) 33% responded, “sell it on the market.” Next, 26% plan to “pass it/sell it to someone in the family,” followed by “hire a professional manager but go hands-off” (9%), “sell the business to an employee” (6%) and “go out of business/close the company” (3%). However, 17% — about one in six— responded, “I have no exit plan.” And these are not only the survey’s younger respondents. Fortunately for all of us, our online columnist Paula Fargo, who recently exited her own company Curry Printing (Baltimore), is writing a multi-part series on why she opted to sell it. She’s written five parts to date, with more to follow over the next several months. Find out more about Paula’s experience and her advice on the numerous different ways to exit the industry at signsofthetimes.com/fargo, starting with “Why I Sold My Print and Sign Company.”

How do you manage mistakes by clients after the proof is approved and the product is made?

Savvy sign companies cover this contingency in writing with express repercussions and charges related to post-proof-approval changes. You have every right to charge the stated rate for whatever needs to be remade due to the customer’s mistake. That’s the contract — and the ladder of law has no top and no bottom — but you may not want to enforce the contingency fully with every customer. Depending on the level of sales to them, how well you get along with them, even how much time/cost you are facing to correct the error in that instance — you could offer a gesture to charge only a certain percentage of the stated amount. The main thing is to protect yourself by spelling out in your sales agreements exactly what can happen in this instance.

Why do sign companies in the same city backstab other sign companies? Why can’t they work together? There are several smaller sign companies that we swap vinyl or materials with and call on each other if we need help or want to refer a customer. But other sign companies are hateful, will bad mouth any other sign company and will absolutely not refer anyone, ever.

Though we may like to think differently, sign people are like all people. Some are cooperative, others not. Looking past the human-nature aspect, let’s consider the more likely outcomes by working with sign companies in the same city versus refusing, bad mouthing others, etc. The question mentions swapping materials and calling each other for help. This will only happen between cooperative shops. The “hateful” shop has no resource for either of these fairly important parts of the business. As for referrals, once again shops that help each other will refer jobs and have other business referred to them. Meanwhile, for them an easy commandment to remember might go, “Those who don’t refer my shop shall not be referred by my shop.” This will deprive uncooperative companies of business they may not otherwise win. In short, while it’s confounding that we can’t all get along, for those who don’t, it’s their loss in the long run.