These Sign Pros Are Adding New Services to Their Shops

THIS IS PART TWO of an article on sign pros and side gigs, with the shops below describing new and different types of signs or services they’ve recently taken on. Click here for Part One and click here for Part Three.

• We have taken some additional wholesale work. We don’t consider ourselves a wholesale fabricator, but do so now and then to assist some of our signage partners and keep certain key pieces of equipment running more frequently. — Tom D., Tewksbury, MA
• Custom lighting fixtures. For some reason we received one request and now a few more projects came down the pike. — Tish S., Los Alamitos, CA

• We decided to channel our efforts into more internal signage. We bought a new printer — [a MUTOH XpertJet 661UF Tabletop Flatbed UV-LED]. This will give us more in-house control of our production line and timeframe. — Gwen S., Vista, CA

• We assist electricians and low-voltage companies when they need to get up high. We have also assisted window washers in the past. — Melvin L., Augusta, GA
• Introduced ADA sign manufacturing to get another chunk of the bid packages. — Adam B., Milwaukee
• We are simply expanding our sales effort into other regional markets. Making a bigger sandbox to play in. — Steven C., Minneapolis
• We added a laser, which will allow us to keep some jobs we outsourced under our roof. It allows us to control our turnaround and do some jobs for other sign companies in the area. It also allows me to keep my guys working. — Pat D., Torrance, CA
• In the middle of expanding to residential customers. — Herbie N., Mason, OH

• We’ve explored and started some ventures into vertical markets that we hadn’t approached before as a way to continuously supplement our growth and expansion. — Derek A., Columbus, OH

• We are doing more small jobs like stickers and vehicle decals to fill the slots left open by fleet customers. We are expanding into in line sales of these items. — Catherine B., Orlando, FL
• Added flatbed printer. First time for us. Cheaper production. — Ted D., Covina, CA
• We are always looking for new revenue streams. More and more products are becoming commoditized, making them unprofitable for us. We are a Mom & Pop again instead of having employees. Scaling back on expenses and pushing marketing will help the bottom line. — Jean S., Jacksonville, FL
• Back in 2020, we created an e-commerce shop. Now this can be hard to do in a custom world, but the signage we offer on there is pre-designed or the customer is able to upload their own artwork. This seems to have the most activity during graduation season as we have a lot of pre-design graduation signage for the local schools in our area. We are considering adding simple pre-construction site signs as well. — Mallory L., Brighton, CO
• We dove into electrical signage. We saw a need for responsive tech and we filled that need. — Jeremy V., Salinas, CA
• Last year I purchased a 6 x 10-ft. CNC router to expand my offerings. In addition to signs I’ve been pricing making flat, Victorian-style railing balusters for a local woodworking shop, etc. Also other sign companies are calling for CNC work. While not really a side hustle, we’re doing non-sign work with the new machine. — Rocco G., Pennsauken, NJ

• We are always open to adding products, and offerings. A lot of our customers get our company involved in many fabrication projects that are outside of the traditional sign products we offer. — Tim W., Frederick, MD