How Should a Sign Company Scale Up to Match Sales?

Does it help or hurt signshop owners if they post or react to something on “Those Damn Sign Guys” Facebook page?

Our understanding of Those Damn Sign Guys Facebook group from Dale Salamacha, Media 1/Wrap This (Sanford, FL), is that his shop runs better thanks to them (see ST, June 2023, page 47). However, Dale says, “be warned: This is a rough-n-tumble, say-anything group … though all members share a passion for this industry.” We take it this question is assessing the risk of either asking something considered “dumb” (our word, not likely theirs) or commenting on something in a “say-anything” way. It’s a large community with more than 26K followers. Does their opinion matter to you? Do you already have or plan to maintain a presence in the group? Signshop owners with reputations they’d like to remain exactly as they are may want to “lurk” on this site for a while before deciding this group is right for them.

How should you scale when sales are over the top? Footprint, people, operations, etc. — any suggestions would be great.

First, well done! You’ve got over-the-top sales and that’s the hardest part of any business. Just about every other aspect can involve outsourcing, wholesaling, part-time employees or otherwise to scale up production. Design, fabrication, installation — even accounting to help count all that money! But subcontracting has drawbacks as well as advantages (see ST, June 2024, page 28) including some sacrifice of creative control and schedule. As areas such as design, fabrication or installation scale up sufficiently and consistently, consider whether they merit hiring, purchasing equipment, relocating to a larger facility or even opening a second location. To minimize risk and gather up more confidence in your high level of sales, it’s probably safer to sub out what you need first.

Considering adding “walk-ins by appointment” on our website and on the door but these customers are mostly time-suckers — pulling out their phones to scroll through images. Easily 20 minutes of disruption for low ROI. A few have turned out to be good jobs. What to do?

The qualifier “by appointment” may hold the key to both limiting the time being sucked away on low-ROI prospects and jobs, but still hold open the possibility for the few that turn out to be good jobs. Adding “by appointment” will lead to more serious walk-in customers, as they’ll have to be conscientious enough to visit during your (presumably limited) walk-in hours. During what hours of the day is it least disruptive for you to deal with them? Decide what portion of your total workday you’re willing to give over to these appointments. Is it half the day, perhaps mornings or afternoons, or maybe a short slice of hours around lunchtime when customers are out and more likely to walk in? You can monitor your time and track the leads and sales that result from the “walk-ins by appointment.” If you find the time is not being well spent or the policy yields too high a percentage of low-ROI jobs (and not enough good jobs) you can roll back or eliminate the practice. As “a few” walk-in jobs have turned out to be profitable per the report, it seems worth it to experiment.