Signshop Owner Versus Prospect Stealing Design

I WOULDN’T HAVE believed it if I hadn’t seen it: A prospective customer tried to quickly take a picture of our boss’s preliminary sketch of a sign for her, but he was able to snatch the notepad-doodle off the coffee table before she could snap it!

Let me explain… A customer emailed us last week, saying she’d visited our website after finding us on Google by searching for “signs in my area.” She was impressed with our gallery of various jobs — that’s one of the things I do here! So she made an appointment to come in this morning.

Our shop isn’t that big. The boss could hold these kinds of meetings in his office, but it’s kind of small and he’d also have to clean up his mess. “Organized chaos” is what he calls it.

Back to the meeting, though… She pulled up in a Lexus — I always wonder if they’re leased. She came in carrying a coffee, which was a good thing ’cause it meant I wouldn’t have to run three doors down to get some! The boss introduced himself and invited her over to the small sofa-chair-table setup we have in our front room.

“Did you find the place okay?” the boss asked.

“Yes, no problem,” she replied. “I noticed your sign a block away.”

“That’s the idea,” the boss smiled and nodded. “What can I do for you?”

She described her new business. It would cater to a more upscale clientele. She wanted her brand to represent “high class, but in a clean, modern kind of look,” as she said.

After they spoke for a while, the boss, who’s definitely an old-school kinda guy, suggested he take out his notepad and sketch a very rough idea or two. She heartily agreed.

In less than the time of an early Elvis Costello song, he’d produced two sketches on the page, held it up and asked, “Is one of these in the direction you’re looking?”

“The one on the left,” she answered. “But I’d like the letters larger within the space.”

Maybe a minute for take two… “This?” the boss held up the pad showing a new page.

“Yes!” she said. “That’s great! I mean, not final, but definitely well within the ballpark.”

“That’s great,” the boss answered, laying the open notepad on the table. “Should we talk more details, including materials, schedule, that stuff, and we can put together an estimate for you?”

They did, after which and as she was about to say goodbye, the customer asked if she could have a copy of the more refined sketch, “so I can remember it better. It can even be a scanned copy,” she said.

“Well, I can do a lot of things for you,” the boss replied, “But I can’t do that.”

“I’m not saying I would take your only copy,” she attempted to clarify.

“That’s not why you can’t take it with you,” he said. The look on his face said he hoped not to have to say more.

“Okay,” she seemed to relent, but as she gathered her belongings, she sneakily unlocked her phone and pointed it at the notepad on the coffee table. The boss saw her locating the notepad in the lens of her phone and abruptly yanked the pad from the table.

He then detached the two pages from the pad, tore them in half and dropped them into a wastebasket — the classy, wire-wicker one we otherwise never use!

“I’ll ask you to please leave now,” the boss said to her. “And don’t expect an estimate,” he added as she approached the door.

“As if I would ever work with your company!” she retorted as she pulled the Lexus keys from her handbag and stormed out. It took ages for our front door to close.

“‘As if!’” I exclaimed. “Wow!”

But the boss was still fuming. “I ought to call Briana to warn her,” he said, referring to our friendly competitor across town.

He stalked into his office, I exchanged raised-eyebrow glances with the gal who runs our printer… and then I finally had this chance to call and tell you!

David L.
Yonkers, NY

I often run into a situation where after a design session the customer wants to take a sketch or rendering with them. I walk them outside the design area and point to the sign above the door:

“Absolutely positively no sketches or designs can leave the premises without a deposit.” If the customer is willing to pay me for the time invested in the sketch plus a hefty markup, I will give them the design. Otherwise, I will hold it until they make up their mind. By stating the policy in writing, the customer can’t take it personally. My work is not free.

Joseph L.
Port Chester, NY

Why we stopped giving away free sketches: Early in my career I made the mistake of giving away free sketches. One day a prospective client came in, visibly frustrated. She told me that a competitor down the street had refused to do a sketch. Instead, he advised her to come to me, get both a sketch and a price, and then he would build the sign for less money. That was a hard lesson and a turning point. Since then, new policy: Sketches and concepts are billed at a nominal fee, typically $150, which is fully credited back if the project moves forward. This approach does two things: It ensures my time is respected, and weeds out clients who aren’t serious. Frankly, I’d rather have someone walk away than spend hours on a design that only creates headaches later.

Sandro
Long Branch, NJ

I am surprised that a seasoned owner of a sign company would be sketching a sign in front of the customer on the first meeting rather than just collect information, prepare an estimate, get the job going with a deposit and then start working on designs — which is our process. He opened up for the customer to do what she did. Maybe she just wanted a picture or a copy of the design to show her family and friends, to get second opinions or maybe to steal the design and go to another signshop, which doesn’t make much sense since she went to that shop for the quality and she didn’t have an estimate yet… They end up losing a customer that probably would bring more orders as she was just opening her business.

Kevin O.
Dallas

“Nice try! You should work for TMZ, haha!”

Andy B.
Wausau, WI

Anyone in the sign business long enough has had something like this happen. We have had a sign company underbid us by taking our design and using it for the project. We have a disclaimer on our layout page warning that using our design can result in a $1,000 fee for any reproduction. We have won in small claims court a few times after our design has been stolen. We have also called the sign company that was using our designs, warning them that we were going to bill them for the design also. They quickly stopped using our designs. Make sure you clearly explain designs are your property until purchased and what the fee will be if reproduced without your permission.

Kevin M.
Cookeville, TN

Just because the customer wants a copy of a sketch or design doesn’t mean they intend to rip us off. Face it, for almost all sign pros, suing a lost customer or a competing company over a stolen design is neither realistic nor cost-effective. In this case, a little good faith and a simple request for the customer not to share his ideas with a competitor would have probably played out more positively. Who knows, the BOSS may have wound up being the low bidder instead of a topic of discussion. Sure, similar situations have occurred to most of us who’ve been in the industry for a while, and it always stings. But who’s got the time to police others’ morals? You win some and you lose some, I say.