Monday, January 30, 2012
One of the challenges of selling signs is helping the customer look at the cost over the life of the sign. Larry Elliott [www.elliott-design.net] uses a chart on his website to quickly help put the cost in perspective.
Click here to download a chart similar to Larry’s that’s ready to print and use the next time you sell a sign :
“It makes a difference,” says Larry. “When they can see it broken down over time like that, it can make a sale. As we all know, signs are always the best value when it comes to the cost ...
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Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Aluminum composite material—a sandwich of two thin sheets of aluminum with a layer of plastic between—is a versatile material in the hands of a creative sign professional. You can fabricate sign faces, build add-on panels, make pole and pylon covers with just a router and adhesive.
John Dutton, Quality Signs, Jasper, Alabama, finds his customers like the clean look of the 3D signs and panels he creates from aluminum composite sheet.
On the 4-by-19-ft. American Cutlery sign, John routed a V-groove in PolyMetal aluminum composite sheet [www.nudo.com] and bent back returns to add depth for the black panel. He ...
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Tuesday, December 20, 2011
The economy of the past few years have been hard on small businesses—the very businesses most sign shops serve. Ray and Rose Grossi of Midwest Signworks in Morris, IL, have felt the squeeze just like everyone. They've been established for over 25 years, but when things tightened up for their customers,
it affected their shop as well. "A lot of our customers," says Ray, "especially those in the building trades, just weren't doing any work. When their phone stops ringing, ours does, too."
So he and Rose have outlined a strategy to help keep the work coming in. Here are ...
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Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Standing in a yard or along the street, yard signs are a natural attention-getter. They may tap into a current need as in “Hey—I need to talk to someone about my roof…” or go into memory for when a need arises.
And they are a terrific advertising value for clients like service businesses. They place the sign on a site where they are working then leave it to continue advertising.
David Showalter, DavidDesign, Bryan, OH [www.daviddesign.biz], knows how effective they can be, and helps his clients take advantage of their low cost and round-the-clock advertising.
“The initial cost is pretty ...
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Wednesday, November 02, 2011
Most shop owners know how hard it can be to charge accurately for sign installation. It’s easy to overlook a little time here and there, leading to lost profits. Recently we had a great comment from a reader on this subject.
Rocco Gaskins Sr. Abco Signs in Pennsauken, NJ, and has tracked installation costs for years. His e-mail became an article that you’ll find in the Jan/Feb 2012 issue of SignCraft. Here’s some of what he had to say about a very typical sign installation for most shops: a 4-by-8 on two posts:
We install signs on a wholesale basis ...
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Thursday, October 13, 2011
For many service businesses, their sign, their truck lettering and their business card are their primary advertising—maybe their only advertising. Rich Dombey, Rich Designs Inc., Hillsborough, New Jersey, says the place to start the sales process for many such clients is the business card.
“I do a lot of work for small landscape and building contractors who come to me to get their vehicles lettered,” says Rich. “I start, though, with the business card design. I explain that we need an effective design to start with, and that let’s me shift the focus to the logo design first.
“Trying to ...
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Thursday, September 15, 2011
For many sign clients, it’s hard to imagine what size lettering they need on their sign for it to be legible at the distance it will be read from. Excessive copy forces the designer to use smaller letter sizes, hurting the readability of the sign. Reading from a moving vehicle also requires larger, more legible lettering.
Tired of trying to explain all this to clients, Larry Williams, Gulf Breeze, FL, created a simple chart that he output at actual size—about 4 ft. tall overall—and mounted it on the far wall of the shop.
“I point it out to the customer,” ...
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Wednesday, August 24, 2011
In our latest Trade Secrets e-letter, I passed along some “magic words” for sign sales from veteran sign pro Art Schilling [East Coast Artie’s, Surfside Beach, SC]. He sometimes tells a client that rather than spend $500 on truck lettering, they should consider using it for another type of advertising. Most realize that $500 doesn’t go far in other media, and that changes the complexion of the sales process in a hurry.
He’s got more advice on selling signs, too, from his years in the business. I’ll let him do the talking as he shares a few more great tips ...
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Friday, August 05, 2011
In our previous Trade Secrets e-letter, John Shoffner told how he sells t-shirts along with his signs, and produces them in-house with computer-cut film and an inexpensive heat press. I asked readers if any were having success with advertising specialties and promotional items, and heard from several who had.
Three key benefits kept coming up in their comments. First, it’s great to have a product to sell that you don’t have to produce. Just take the order from the client, order the products and call the client when they arrive.
Second, re-orders are likely. And, clients may also come back ...
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Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Next time you’re in the mall or the grocery store, take note of all the printed t-shirts on the people around you, advertising local businesses. Printed sportswear is a huge market, and sign shops have the ideal opportunity to sell—and make—these products.
John Shoffner, Studio36 Graphics, Medford, OR, started offering short-run t-shirts a few years ago. It’s grown to a significant portion of his business. Thanks to vinyl cutters, they are easy to produce, too.
John cuts the graphics from Thermoflex Plus film [www.specialtymaterials.com] that he gets from American Graphic Specialties [www.americangraphicspecialties.com] then uses an ...
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