Loyalty Means Everything for Sign Businesses

ON APRIL 10 AT 8 A.M., Rick and I closed our company, provided breakfast for our crew, then loaded all 30 of us on a bus to the Orange County Convention Center for the 2026 ISA International Sign Association Expo!

They were all dressed in brand new M1/WT light-gray polos and all of them had new, soft-touch, double-sided, radius-corner business cards. After a predetermined gestation period, all our employees are eligible for business cards.

An expense? Sure, but minimal compared to the benefit. I want all of my people passing out their cards on the regular! We want our guys to be proud of where they work! We want them to be at their kids’ soccer games, sitting in those stupid, uncomfortable seats, proudly handing their personal business cards to someone who might just own five Planet Fitness locations and unhappy with their current sign company.

Additionally, our company handbook outlines a 5% commission for employees who bring in a new client. But in our case, our guys all know that we’re kinda picky on who we accept as clients. This is not a cocky or egotistical approach, but with over 40 years in this industry, we have intentionally honed and molded our client base to land the exact companies we want to work with.

And sometimes, we have to explain to these employee-generated leads that we may not be the best choice for them. That sounds crazy, right? Turn down business? That’s ridiculous, counter intuitive, heading in the wrong direction.

But is it?

Story: 20-some years ago a national restaurant chain based here in Orlando — not mentioning any names, but the endless breadsticks, all 52 Seasons, and the occasional Eddie’s Seafood will give you a hint — was our #1 client. Dropping over $500K a year in our laps in the late ’90s.

Rick and I fired them. Our #1 client. Why?! Because they had no loyalty. After dozens of successful openings across the US, if we were $2K more than another bidder, they went with the cheaper bid.

Even though Media 1 was literally called out in the architectural drawings, and all the bidding GCs called us for proposals.

Did we hate that client for bidding us out, after we proved dozens of successful ventures with them? Of course not. That’s just what they needed to do. It was their business model: Find the cheapest price.

But that wasn’t the ideal fit for Media 1. We had other clients who were fiercely loyal. And they were who we needed to make sure we were taking care of. And that’s been our M.O. the entire past four decades.

You own a sign company? Want more business? Then make all your employees salespeople. Make them extensions of you. Encourage them, based on your direction. You’ll have 10x more exposure than just you, by yourself. Then reward them for their efforts. Tell them how much you appreciate them standing by you, 40 hours a week, 2,080 hours every year — potentially more time than they spend with family and friends.

We are blessed with employees who have been with us for 5, 10, 15, 18, even 26 years. People ask what we’re doing right to facilitate decades of employee loyalty. Rick and I look at them with blank stares, because honestly, we don’t know.

But we are 100% grateful for the people who signed up with us for life. Makes all the crazy of trying to run a successful company worth it. Absolutely.