Just saw a commercial for this show. It is on Friday night here on the East Coast.
Could be interesting!
Posted by Neil D. Butler (Member # 661) on :
Being a former partner, this will be interesting to say the least. Look forward to seeing it....You can learn a lot from these franchises on the business end of things...
Posted by Kathy Weeks (Member # 10828) on :
I'll watch it - should be interesting.
I hate to admit it - I was desperate - I worked for a SignARama store for about 10 months (before the owner filed for bankruptcy). I will admit that I learned some good tips and tricks from the corporate field advisers - nice young kids. But, I also learned a lot about the franchise business end of it - very eye opening. I am glad to be my own boss.
Posted by Neil D. Butler (Member # 661) on :
Just saw a clip, Gary Solomen opened the very first Fast signs about 25 or more years ago....he had a vision and it worked big time.... and he had Basically no sign experience.. but plenty of Business Experience... this show is about the New CEO A woman who goes undercover and starts from the ground up..... Looking Forward to it.
I consider FastSigns good Competition... they have A Good Price Point, they don't give their work away and they stay on top of things...Technology,and materials and they do their research.
[ May 02, 2012, 02:46 PM: Message edited by: Neil D. Butler ]
Posted by bruce ward (Member # 1289) on :
that show like others is nothing but staged. Have you noticed in each episode everyone has a problem or lost a home or had something happen to them to where to owner helps them with money or something.
and if it was undercover how do they explain the cameras following them around?
Posted by Neil D. Butler (Member # 661) on :
I believe they hand pick people who do have problems, but to tell the truth everyone has problems... especially single mothers... in this episode there's a scene where the worker says he's in the process of losing his home...but I agree with you, at first they could get away with it it, but after awhile people have to catch on....but it is still interesting.
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
Just finished watching the show.
As usual, a tear jerker at the end.
I kinda thought it was strange that the CEO of Fast Signs knew absolutely nothing about the day to day business of "doing" sign work.
However, she must know the business of running a business.
And...as I have always said...If you want to be in the sign business and earn a living, learn the business end of it.
Posted by Deb Fowler (Member # 1039) on :
I agree, as that is the biggest mistake or asset to a company as for someone to run one must know what it is really like to do that.
My uncle and aunt took on a Great Clips salon as an extra income just north of San Diego. They said it was so much work as they had to learn every single detail that the employees had to learn in the schooling. They were constantly required to be involved and have no stone overturned.
Why we have it backwards for a CEO of fast signs not know how to make a sign is beyond me, not that it is easy but it's not as though they had to paint fancy fonts with one shot hanging on to a ladder for dear life 30 feet up..
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
most qualification for CEO'S has nothing to do with the actual work of the company they are in charge of!!!!! seen this same crap when i worked at NAPA. the hired some fricken bozo, to be the head manager over 5-6 store that was owned by the same guy. he was all "business talk" but didnt know a spark plug from a freeze plug. to say the least him and i had no love for each other. had a franchise sign company call me one day, because i apparently used a word of their name in my mobile sign shop. and he gave me schit that i should change my name or deal with is lawyers. i said let me get back to you. i called my brother-in-law, who is a lawyer!!! HEHE. i called the franchise CEO back, told him i spoke to my lawyer and if he wished to pursue his case, my lawyer would be glad to take his money. END OF CONVERSATION.
[ May 05, 2012, 12:02 AM: Message edited by: old paint ]
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
I wasted an hour of my life watching that program!
Posted by Dave Sherby (Member # 698) on :
Observations:
1. Franchises like FastSigns, Sign-A-Rama, McDonalds, Wendy's, Pizza Hut, etc. etc. are not in the sign business or the food business, they are in the "FRANCHISE" business. The CEO does not need to know squat about their end product. But people under them need to know, and that's where the FastSigns CEO was lacking, people under her not knowing where the competition was beating them.
2. Undercover Boss is a one up soap opera, just like all the other reality shows. I'll give them credit, on this one they had a plausible explanation for the cameras.
3. If you thought the show was going to be about signs, you misunderstand the premise of the show. I've seen this show twice before last night's show and the only reason I watched was because of the sign angle. First time I watched I thought, OK, that was different. Second time I watched I realized that it was the same thing, different boss. Anyone that watches that show on a regular basis is either easily amused or has a very short memory.
Posted by Neil D. Butler (Member # 661) on :
Yes it is sooo bloody Dramatic isn't it? The show could have a decent base to it, but like all the reality shows it is just a step, above American Hoggers and Swamp People....I have to ask you.. Where has our Intelligence gone?
If anything it was a good 6o minute Television Ad for Fast Signs...
Posted by PatRaap (Member # 4290) on :
I agree with you Neil, it was a good ad for Fast Signs, and it is sooo dramatic. We do watch that show occasionally (because there is nothing ever any good on). I think that this episode wasn't one of their better ones. Wonder how much Fast Signs paid to do it, I am sure there is a price. Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :
I watched this show once, when I was visiting my parents.... undercover? LOL.... I believe that for less than 1 second. Obviously staged.
Posted by William DeBekker (Member # 3848) on :
Can't wait, Sent them my Resume' to be head of their training program. Salary Requirements.
$1.2 Mill a year with Golden Parachute. I will teach all their crews/partners the proper use of a roto-hammer.
The one thing that got me was. "I work between 40 and 50 hours a week so I never get to see my family."
WOW Really.. Welcome to Self Employment Sparky.
Cry me a River once you hit 70hrs a week.
Posted by David Wright (Member # 111) on :
Actually, is she even a boss? These were franchisees and employees of them. Some CEO, she didn't impress me at all with her management skills.
Really, the franchises tell her what they think she wants to hear when she visits them? I bet they give her an earful if she'd listen.
Posted by Michael Gene Adkins (Member # 882) on :
Thinkin' about doing some undercover boss work here at my shop, except I'm pretty sure my wife would know it's me.
Posted by Rick Beisiegel (Member # 3723) on :
Very interesting observations I find it interesting that they had that kind of cash to throw around to their troubled employees. They have to be doing something right to be able to shell out that kind of money. Just sayin...
Posted by Rick Beisiegel (Member # 3723) on :
[ May 07, 2012, 06:40 PM: Message edited by: Rick Beisiegel ]
Posted by Deb Fowler (Member # 1039) on :
personally, that is why corporate america is going to the dogs, and they need to let the dogs out now to run the show, I think!
Michael lol
Posted by David Wright (Member # 111) on :
The money given away at the end of the show comes from CBS.
Posted by Kathy Weeks (Member # 10828) on :
I was thinking - that CEO gave all that money away, Fast Signs will be filing for bankruptcy after that show! I agree - a little too staged for me to enjoy, and absolutely a commercial for the business. The few shows that I have watched, what interested me was how things were produced or processed, what employees had to do for their jobs - that's interesting. But, all the bosses live in mansions, drive $80,000 cars, and don't know how to work with their hands! After working one day with an employee . . . they're pooped out!
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