Online Checkboxes, Client Partnerships and More Tips for Signshop Management

ABOVE PHOTO: GABE GRIFFIN, CLEAR SIGN & DESIGN

“The next best thing to success is a valid apology for non-success.” — Frederick Douglass

CUSTOMERS Simplified Process

1 Sign Pro of Skagit Valley (Mt. Vernon, WA) is trying to improve their online approval process by implementing a checkbox for quantity, single or double, material, spelling and grammar, according to owner Chad Lawson. Down south, Jeffrey Fusaro, Fastsigns of Pflugerville (Pflugerville, TX), shares this lesson for when a customer’s project falls outside your area of expertise: “Instead of stressing over how I can meet their request — while knowing that we likely cannot take on the project — I quickly refer them elsewhere and focus on projects that we can handle and complete in a timely (and profitable) manner.”

DESIGN Prospect and Placement

2 It’s A Good Sign (Dallas) is offering initial comps for prospects then engaging them in a charged design project. “We are seeing really great results in partnering more closely with clients who have a desire to create the highest-quality sign, versus delivering highly concepted designs to win new business,” says owner Gayle Goodman Lynch. Meanwhile, CAT Graphics Inc. (Great Falls, MT) has designers place ground signs for site photographs so that installation can proceed smoothly. “The installers will make sure that all the utilities are clear as they will also be staked,” says owner Carey Gray.

PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO

CREATIVITY Clog Clearing

3 Don’t stop at three ideas the next time you brainstorm, recommend Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn, the authors of Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters. Push for 20 or force yourself past your comfort zone. The magic happens somewhere between idea 12 and 18, when your brain gives up trying to sound smart and just starts being creative.

INSTALLATION Know Your Target

4 FastTrack Signs (Bellefontaine, OH) has standardized taking consistent “before / during / after” install photos and immediately sharing one or two with the customer, along with a short explanation of why certain design or install choices were made, says owner Dennis Schaub. The Mad Signtist (Myrtle Beach, SC) has also streamlined by doing away with most jobs that have to outsource boom trucks. “We cater to the mom-and-pop businesses that most big sign companies won’t touch. Not a lot of places a person can go to get one sign or one sticker,” says owner Kelly Bookheimer.

FABRICATION Clever Substitutes

5 If you cut off the triangular lip to standard 1-in. trim cap, you can use the smaller lip to wrap your faces and create a less-obtrusive face retainer for your channel letters, advises Matt Robinson, Eastern Sign Tech (Burlington, NJ). Switching from aluminum to steel angle has also reduced costs for Wendy Allgood, FSG Signs (Austin, TX). In addition, she’s switched from Excel to an app that produces more finished and professional documentation.

Remember: Candor Is Kindness If a firing surprises them, you’ve failed.

6
The biggest mistake managers make when firing? Blindsiding people. Former GE CEO Jack Welch was famous for telling his bottom 10% performers exactly where they stood — every single time. “If they don’t improve, you tell them to go,” he wrote in The Real Life MBA. The key: No one should ever be surprised they’re being let go. If they are, you failed long before they did. Hard conversations now prevent harder ones later.