The One Man Shop

[joe]

It's a tall order to open a sign business by yourself.

We see franchises opening up all the time with considerable success. While they aren't set up as a one person operation, they do have a good business model some of which can apply to all of us. I've always admired their technique when setting up a new store. They've got that down pat along with their advertising program. Even so we see some of these franchises fail. But they start off with a good program knowing what they want to accomplish. They also have the computer equipment and software ready to hit the road running.

Most franchises aren't interested in dimensional work because it takes too much skill, knowledge and equipment. Not only that, the less accomplished designer will work themselves into financial holes.

Here's a guide. To bring in good financial returns you should touch the product as few times as possible. This means knowing the materials that will be used and refining the finishing process so it comes together quickly.

Set down with a hot cup of coffee and a sketch book to list materials and techniques for the project. Try to figure out where the problems may occur. Then follow your plan to the T. Make as few changes as possible.

Getting Assistance:
It's almost impossible to cover all the necessary business steps by yourself. Part time may be the answer. For example ten hours a week for general help assistance might pay dividends. Lets say you are weak with the computer and design. I've had lots of people offering this kind of help. Then there's bookkeeping and advertising which needs to be done. The point is, there are lots of folks available part time for not much money. To make the most out of it requires making a weekly list of what you want the part timers to accomplish. And how much you are willing to spend.

The best employee I ever had came from a news paper add. He started at minimum wage and was destitute. Although he was illiterate and came from the other side of the tracks he ended up a model sign person. Over the years his skill level couldn't be beat and I paid him top wages. Terry passed from heart disease four years ago. But the point is, if you look for part time assistance in an area where you're weak, it could pay off big time.

I'd enjoy hearing about methods and suggestions for easing the burden of the one man shop. Topics like advertising, yellow pages, websites along with unusual materials. I have several materials someone might be interested in. Then there's always shop equipment Tips and Techniques.

Joe

[chiloquinruss]

Before opening a new venture the first thing is to ask your friends and neighbors if they think YOU are a PEOPLE PERSON. So many businesses fail because while the owner may be a great technician they really SUCK when it comes to dealing with customers. Your customers have no idea what any of our machines or techniques are called or how they are used, all THEY know is they would like a cabinet or sign that will work for them. What does that cabinet or sign look like, they haven't a clue. That's where Joe's highly touted 'batch of samples' comes in. Show them some 'stuff', they will say I like this or that without knowing what its called. Now you have some rapport with the FUTURE client without getting technical. PEOPLE SKILLS. At least it works for me. Russ

[David Iannone]

Yes, that's the thing. I went from the franchise, to my own business in DE, then my own business in GA. 41 years old now but I am ready to get my head back in the creative game!

Franchise: Started at age 15 sweeping the floor, taking out trash, and learning to weed, tape, and apply vinyl to various substrates. 6-7 years later I was a key employee. I handled all production and always meet customer deadlines. Ordered all materials, vinyl, sheet goods etc. Of course I dealt with some customer in the process and I have always been a people person. I worked plenty of all night projects when needed with help, we were making overtime and took pride in the job we did. Owner ended up firing me because we could not agree on terms.

1999: Started sign business of my own with financial backing of my Dad as 50% partner. Started with a Graphtec 30" plotter, and gerber software to drive it. ( this is the software the franchise taught us)

[David Iannone]

One of our big customers for 3-4 years before B of A bought them out and of course they brought their own graphic team.

We cut all the raised letters on our SB and printed the monster wrap on our printer. When we completed the graphic install that was the biggest one at that month and I just kept on making promises that I always kept.

Back then I had family working with me and also some good employees as well.

[David Iannone]

...........these were the good old days to me.

The bus and van was done with e-stat graphics back then. The q102 and the alice van I was only the installer. I was supplied the vehicle and graphics at our location.

Eagle limo I did the perf on the gerber edge and the rest was cut vinyl.

[David Iannone]

All this digital printing was done with our gerber edge, and cut vinyl.

[David Iannone]

This is another project many years ago in DE. Work was fun back then. some times on big projects like this I was just the installer. They sent graphics and vehicles to us. We used to have the room to pull a bus in and wrap it.

[David Iannone]

2006: Moved to GA to move back to my wife's home town with our daughter which at the time was 4 years old. I took a leap of faith in my opinion.

So I fell flat on my face trying to get sign work 800 miles away from people who don't know me.

2007: I got a "real" job like my wife told me to do. I became a cable installation contractor. By 2009 I have moved up to a supervisor position and at that point running an office of 12-15 cable techs and was happy with my salary.

SEPT 2009: While training one of my techs on a Voip phone install, I fell off the ladder at least 14'. I had my ladder on the house and was in the process of pulling up the new cable line to the house. It was a rainy day and the next thing I knew I was seeing stars and the guy I was training called 911. My left leg bones all broke at the bottom and the only thing holding on was my skin. I never passed out, and it hurt a lot. Well long story short it was about 5 years of surgeries, surgeries, lots of different doctors. Good thing is they actually saved my leg, and the doctors told me back then I would only be able to do this and that. Well, I surpassed what they thought I would be able to do

[David Iannone]

2014: Finally getting around better on my feet without crutches or wheel chair. Started to get back to my roots....SIGNS.....its been tough but this year I have a lot of business momentum, but my personal life is in ruins, sad but I realize I need to get back to the one thing I have ALWAYS been good at........making signs

[Bob Eustace]

Thanks for posting such an inspiring story Dave.

[David Iannone]

Well....Bob to be honest I feel bad for high jacking Joe's thread and airing my dirty laundry. It was a weak moment on my part.....

Back to Joe's original post....I do everything myself now a days with very little help. Long hours and for a while I have felt like I just want to sell all my stuff and maybe move to Colorado and work for a nice sign shop out there...or California. That's just pipe dreams though. GA is my home now.

QuickBooks, good point Joe, I am going to talk to my accountant and see what the extra fees would be for them to handle my books. I have QuickBooks online so I can give them access and in todays electronic age they probably could make quick work out of it and do it much better than me too.

Design, I have started to build a working relationship with a webdesign/computer repair shop a few stores down from me. They are young guys like me and hungry. The web design guy has talent. He has good design skills. I had a customer come in my shop yesterday afternoon talking about wraps......I told him the way I do wraps. The design is firmed out to the guys a few stores down, and I am the print, lam, install guy. We talked for about 45 minutes in my shop as I showed him my capabilities and also limitations, samples, pics. I gave him rough numbers based on sq/ft of his trailers and trucks he wants done. He didn't even flinch. He came from another shop in my town that are butchers and don't know what they are doing (my opinion). Their work looks like **** and some of the designs and wraps I have seen from them are way too busy and hard to read. Im not a designer but I know what is readable and what is not. Then we walked a few stores down and I introduced him to "the design team" so to speak. Well later that day I walked down and asked the guys how it went. They said great. They are putting a proposal together for him for not just the wrap designs but he also asked them to price doing him a professional website. I plan to give this potential customer a follow up call tomorrow afternoon just to touch base with him. We will see, you know how these things go, so he may just be price shopping.

Part time help, yeah I guess I need to find someone steady to work maybe 10-15 hrs a week. I don't need anyone highly skilled or nothing. Like you say Joe, just a willingness to work and learn. Most I what I would have this person do is so easy a caveman could do it....haha but seriously its just a lot of boring laminating, trimming, cutting.

To do list is key also. I used to be organized, but for the last few years I run my shop like a pig pen. Well that needs to change. Not only is it unproductive to be always looking for tape measure or pencil or knife. It is not the image I want potential new customers to see.

Dave

[David Iannone]

I have worked all weekend and still here today. Sometimes the one man shop has to say "uncle" and ask for help. I have two friends coming in tomorrow for 8 hrs to help me get caught up. By the end of tomorrow I will bill out about $7000 I have been in cutting vinyl, printing vinyl, cutting substrates, etc all weekend.

Yeah this is all boring easy vinyl sign stuff, weed, tape, apply, some of it is laminate, trim etc. Lucky for me I have some friends with flexible schedules.

My to do list is ready for tomorrow and I will still be here till at least 10:00 tonight and back at 7:00am tomorrow morning. I am putting my focus back where it belongs and thank goodness I have more work than I can handle right now. While those two are doing the cookie cutter work I have setup for them to do I have a big job to cut on the shopbot for my local sign shop contact so I will be floating around the shop doing what I do best.....fabricate and manage sign projects.

Dave

[joe]

David,

Glad to see you are busy. I'm concerned you are burning the candle.

Just wondering if a little organization might help. Good part-time help isn't all that hard to find. We're all rooting for you.

Joe

[David Iannone]

Thanks Joe,

Yeah I have had some late nights in my small home workshop "brainstorming" so to speak......

The one man shop is tough. But I am going to call a kid I have used a few times in the past. He gets done his fulltime job at 2:00 each day so I am going to commit to 10 hrs a week if he is still willing to help.

I had considered a partnership with the large sign company in my town who sends me a lot of wholesale work. Well we may have just figured out the answer. He is in the process of looking into putting up a 2000sq/ft building on his property, heating and air, big roll up door and I will rent it. He has a lot of land where he is at. At this point when we are next door neighbors he will save the time and gas running back and forth across town to my shop. Some days multiple times, and we are gonna sit down and figure out a price we can agree upon for me to start to do all his vinyl signs in addition to the printing and CNC work I do. This way he can be out selling fulltime. I told him I can even help make sure his guys stay on track on thier projects while he is on the road. We keep our separate companies, but it works for both of us. At this point I will have a full time helper. I will probably take over lettering all his vehicles hopefully, we will see. We have worked together since 2012 down here and it has been great. This will solve my isolation problem and give me the shop space I am looking for.

If business keeps up like this the rest of the year, and if he follows through on the building I am going to swing for the fence and try to finance a 4'x8' flatbed printer. I need the space and temp control which in a new building I will have. I am looking at the roland UV. Its just under $60,000 but if I am looking at it right that machine saves me an employee. The material savings and labor savings alone make it work, and I now would be competing with the screen printing guys for the 18x24 coroplast rat race.

I have realized that God has much bigger plans for me than to have me leave my family and business in DE 10 years ago, to come down here to GA, break my leg so bad I almost lost it, and to live in a miserable and unhealthy marriage.

Technology is moving so fast and in my opinion any business not embracing it and keeping up with it and taking a chance on that new high end machine that could change their business is going to eventually see their bottom line slipping away.

As I stand right now my gross sales this year should hit $150,000 or more as a one man shop with little help here and there.

With a flatbed printer and one helper I think I could do $250,000 a year.

Someday with a third person being a designer, well you see where my mind is headed.

Dave

[GeneMpls]

David- I would strongly suggest outsourcing the work you are thinking of doing on the flatbed. The best/easiest money we make is sending the design to Signs365 and it shows up a day or two later ready to deliver. They are good and fast and dependable and easy to work with and print(and cut) on many substrates now. At least use them (or someone like them) until you have a market share that you know will support a flatbed. A 60k printer that is a year old is going to be worth a lot less. Gene

Signs365.com

Also if you are not subscribed to Signs101.com, you should. A lot of info on all kinds of printers and a lot of (mostly) helpful people. Some are not as tolerant of people asking questions as they are on this forum, of course.

[joe]

I'm in full agreement with Gene. Some of the easiest money I make is by farming out work.

Here's some excellent dimensional artists. http://www.sandblasted.com/signs101/

[GeneMpls]

Have you personally used them Joe? Looks like they are in Georgia. Gene

[joe]

Thanks for asking. I haven't used them but may do so in the future. They have the largest group of signs I've seen. Especially so in the V carve section.
One of my concerns is the depth of blasting or route. Looking over most of the signs look a little shallow. I've found a deeper relief imparts a richer look. I'm sure a little extra depth can be had on request.

[GeneMpls]

I searched Signs101 for them and all of the posts are quite old. They offer samples for the cost of the materials- that might be a good way to start out. Gene

[joe]

Gene,

It could be the clients aren't the right kind. Most of them are sticker heads. For a while I participated however they didn't have a designation for dimensional work.

I hope Sandblasted.com is still up and going.

[David Iannone]

True that flatbed printing, cnc carving, digital printing can all be farmed out. But with a flatbed printer in my shop I save money because I could keep it running at least 4 hours a day. I think if i buy the fancy machine it will pay for itself in about 2 years or less.

Lets not forget about all the last minute stuff. the faster you respond and get the sign in the customers hands the better.

Same day signs are coming and it will be a premium price in my shop. cant get that kind of turnaround from a 2 day shipper. I like to have the new toy that will make me money

Dave

[joe]

At last I found a few pix of a recovery sign I did a couple years ago. This one had been laying face down on the church lawn. It was from 2" rough cedar. The mixture of Bondo & Fiberglas Resin, 50-50 came in handy to fill holes and cracks. It turned out nice and brought in a good profit.

The last photo shows epoxy, tinted with One Shot Maroon, being poured in the well of the letters. In the background is a bucket of ice to keep the epoxy from flashing too early.

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=28492&stc=1

[joe]

When a panel had dog ears around it's edges it will help to take a router with a round over to smooth it up. If a panel has letters that have been routed deep, it's a breeze to slop on the letter color and roll the surface with a low knap foam roller. Same goes with sandblasted signs except if the blasting is shallow I throw in the towel. To make good money you need to move forward at a steady pace. No messing around. You cant start dinking around with this kind of sign. They always look like a novice was involved.

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=28493&stc=1

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=28494&stc=1

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