Looking Ahead to EOY Tops October’s To-Do List

SEPT. 28-OCT. 4

PLANNING Kelly Bookheimer, The Mad Signtist, Myrtle Beach, SC, will start getting ready for end-of-year awards and Christmas season. “We offer personalized gifts and our real estate agencies give out a number of awards,” she says. “Time to stock up!”

INVENTORY Prep for Q4 is also in the cards for Derek Atchley, Atchley Graphics, Columbus, OH. “We audit our ink and material stocks — nobody wants a mid-November scramble,” he says.

OCT. 5-11

ORGANIZING Cody McElroy, Commercial Signs, Houma, LA, will collect the items they don’t need and try to sell them. They’ll also clean out their other building, go through what is needed and throw away the rest. Across the Gulf of Mexico, Rick Ream, Media 1 Wrap This, Sanford, FL, will have each department reorganize. “We have been busy the last six or eight weeks and it is time for a big cleanup and organizing party,” he says. Finally, Robert Burke, Burke Enterprise, Oakdale, CT, will “condense,” as he says. “We are downsizing our square footage but not our operations,” he clarifies.

PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO

OCT. 12-18

MANAGEMENT If your typical response to handling day-to-day affairs is, “Let me take care of this,” then try this experiment: For the next two weeks, free up two hours a day just to manage. Delegate some admin work, drop less important meetings and spend the extra time giving more guidance to your team. You may find the extra productivity far outweighs your “lost” hours.

OCT. 19-25

PRIORITIES “In October, we’re prioritizing larger-scale signage projects to maximize profitability and streamline production efficiency,” says Dennis Schaub, FastTrack Signs, Bellefontaine, OH. “Our focus is on high-impact jobs that make the best use of our time and resources.”

OCT. 26-NOV. 1

SEASONAL Gearing up to promote interior installs for winter is on the list for Sara Geiger, Fox Cities Sign, Appleton, WI. Inspecting and evaluating equipment and trucks for winter are tasks set by Bernard Giarraputo, L.S. Sign Co., Ridgewood, NY.