Just wondering if anyone here has jumped into opening a 2nd location for their sign business. I live about 10 miles from my shop and considered opening a smaller "Express" shop where I live. As if I don't have enough to do and worry about!
Our town is expanding due to a new highway extention that circles St. Louis, MO. We are on the northeast side and the new road is getting close to being completed. Right now we are a residential community with very few businesses other than fast food, Ace Hardware, grocery stores and gas stations.Their is only one sign shop in town and they are moving due to their building being sold. I'm just wondering if anyone has any wisdom they can share about taking on another shop.
Worth the headaches, taxes, staffing and accounting? Be brutally honest and give me something to chew on!
Sign-cerely, Steve
Posted by Curtis hammond (Member # 2170) on :
DONT DO IT>>> DONT DO IT>> AND DONT DO IT..
Posted by Bob Stephens (Member # 858) on :
Number one rule of thumb...Keep your overhead as low as possible if you want to make higher profits.
Posted by Bruce Bowers (Member # 892) on :
Steve,
I feel you should approach this just like you were going to open a shop ad not approach it as a second location. Write a business plan. Research your market vicinity. Research your target market. Look at the demographics.
Is the other shop moving out of town or closing down or relocating in town? What would be the return on your investment and how long would it take you to achieve this goal? Would you need to add an employee or will your current staff levels suffice?
It is easy for someone to say aye or nay. Just do your homework. The business plan is what you need.
Posted by Jon Aston (Member # 1725) on :
Amen.
Posted by Mike O'Neill (Member # 470) on :
If you believe you've hit a unique formula for success, and can market your expertise on a wider scale, why not consider franchising.
Posted by Jane Diaz (Member # 595) on :
Along with the business plan idea...(which would be a MUST in my mind)... you might consider the possibility of just moving the shop you have. If you think this new location might have some better possibilities, better traffic, less overhead, etc., I would think your old customers from your current location would be able to find you just ten miles away. Just a thought...
Posted by Kissymatina (Member # 2028) on :
Talk to Gene Golden in Gettysburg.
Posted by Harris Kohen (Member # 2139) on :
I gotta agrtee with what Bruce and Jane said.
It's a pretty simple thing, who will be your closest competitor? You? If this is so you can prevent someone else from taking that small share of the market you think you might get, I think your in for a surprise. You already have your share of the pie if your that close. All your going to be doing is shelling out alot of dough for overhead. You might be better served if you offered to travel to their location for free and give an estimate for the few jobs you'll get and expense it off on your taxes, rather than give your hard earned money to a slumlord and be forced to increase the amount of overhead you must maintain to support another shop so close to the current one. But if your sure you will have enough work to support another shop then I'm all for opening a second one.
Good Luck in your decision, but definitely talk to your accountant and lawyer prior to doing this.
Posted by Tony Lucero (Member # 1470) on :
Just opened a second location in Feb. Its about 10 miles from our main shop. Its an 800 sq ft stand alone building on a fairly busy street. I am trying a minimum 24 month test to see if it is a viable situation. I have an option to purchase the building at an agreed amount anytime during the 24months. I have my son and another employee rotate between the new shop and our main. So far one person can handle it. They do primarily sales and design there. Orders are e-mailed to the main shop, produced and delivered to the new shop. I send jobs from the main shop to them for layouts/quotes, also if the job makes sense, I'll take over vinyl application jobs for them to knock out. (i.e. a bunch of two sided coroplast and vinyl event signs) The overhead is low, my additional burden for insurance was practically nothing, Nice building, well inslulated..so utilities are very reasonable. The jobs generated are of course tracked so we already have more than covered our expenses in each of the first three months. We're already busier than ever at the main shop...so I sometimes wonder why I wanted to expand. Then it comes back, I want to build the business for my sons who are really making our company grow. The down side...we don't have much time right now to enjoy off time...because there hasn't been much of that.
I decided to hold off on sending a plotter there because it would require stocking vinyl/substrates/etc at two locations. Besides we are printing and cutting on our Mimaki so much, we actually are doing less and less cut vinyl. Even our Edge thermal printer is seldom used because of the Mimaki.
I set a goal of selling $100,000 from the new shop in a year. If it can do a least that, I believe it is a good decision. Also you never know, one of those rare special customers who generate a lot of repetitive and predictible work could come from this new location.
Finally, on a positive side...it forces you to be better and time mgt and organizing. Wish you luck and success.
Posted by Gene Golden (Member # 3934) on :
I have to agree with Jane and Kissy... wait, I AM Gene Golden!
Location, location, location!
I never realized it as much as I do now. Our location is on a main route, and it is as if there is no other sign maker in town. Knock on wood. Because of the visibility, we have increased business tremendously in just one year. After 27 years in one market (a couple of different locations) we moved to another totally different market. Starting a new business was a real pain until... we moved into a corner storefront on a busy street. Busier than I've ever been, even considering 27 years in that first area.
Now to answer your second question, kinda. We kept the name Gettysburg Signs and we also became Gettysburg Signs Express. The two entities co-exist and we didn't have to re-market our brand. As far as two DIFFERENT locations - hell no. The location we have now though is marketed more as a quick sign company although we offer a full service. All of our messy stuff is done at another location.
Posted by Ricky Jackson (Member # 5082) on :
Seems like the quicky sticky shops aren't as dumb as y'all thought huh? (wink wink)
