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Here’s a (edit to add “Hypothetical”… thanks Ron) letter (edit to add "that I think would be funny to") hand to the customers that we do end up firing. Please feel free to help us add a few more “tips” I’m sure there are a bunch funny ones that you guys have thought of.
Dear Sir or Madam.
So you have decided that our prices are too high and you believe that with the right tools and a basic understanding of the trade that you can do the same job at a fraction of the price. Well… You can. And we would be more then happy to tell you how.
We want to see our business do well and wish to be blessed with an abundance of work, but… we feel it’s more important for us to educate the public on how we do our job. We believe that if everyone knows how to approach what we do on a daily basis that it will only help this industry as a whole by creating a competitive market, thus lowering the price of signs and design work for everyone.
So feel free to start this project on your own. Better yet start your own sign shop. It’s easy and fun and we will be right down the street to help you get started. In fact, to help you start off on the right foot we at ____________ thought it would be helpful to share a few tips and tricks:
-When removing vinyl, make sure you do it in the coldest possible weather. We have found that vinyl becomes brittle and easy to remove in this type of climate.
-To aid the vinyl removal process, be sure to use Easy-Off oven cleaner. The use of a steel wool or a brillo pad is also recommended.
-It’s a trade secret that most sign shops use the cheapest materials/vinyl. To save money we would recommend this. Cheap vinyl lasts just as long as high performance. This is just a ploy that vinyl companies use with the intention of getting us to spend more money. Don’t fall for it. They don’t know what they’re talking about. Besides even if cheap vinyl didn’t last long, it’s a good tactic to use to insure that customers return to have their signs redone more often, meaning more money for you.
-It’s very cheap and easy to start your own sign shop. All you need are a few colors of vinyl. I would suggest black, red and maybe a few fluorescent colors.
-You can get a plotter on Ebay for about $50.00.
-A cheap computer should be fine. You don’t need a whole lot of speed to do design work.
-Designing is quite easy. All you need is a collection of a few fonts. Most signs are designed on MS Word, Paint or PowerPoint.
-You also need a production table. We would recommend using one of those folding card tables. They work well.
-Some sign business use transfer tape to transfer their vinyl from paper backing to the surface but you can just as easily do this one letter at a time.
-When designing a sign, be sure to fill every square inch of the surface with lettering and content. Don’t leave any white space. Every square inch of the sign is valuable space and should be used with as much copy as possible.
-Contrast isn’t very important in design. Most people pull over to read signs anyway.
-Red or navy lettering with a big beefy black outline is always a good color combination on a white surface.
-A banner is always a good alternative to a permanent sign.
*Note as you probably already know, everything written above this is a joke. Don’t take this seriously. We will not be held responsible if you do.
If you do wish to start your own sign shop because we didn’t give you the deal you thought you should have received, we would recommend doing the opposite of what we just said above. Then… spend several years struggling to get to the point that we are at now. And while you are learning how to run a profitable sign business by selling dirt cheap work, learn how to deal with customers that that still complain about your prices…… Or better yet, why don’t you just let us do our job.
Thank and good luck, __________________
[ November 26, 2007, 06:03 PM: Message edited by: Joseph Diaz ]
-------------------- Joe Diaz Diaz Sign Art 628 W. Lincoln Ave. Pontiac, IL 61764 www.diazsignart.com Posts: 538 | From: Pontiac, IL | Registered: Aug 2005
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It's a joke!! He is totally NOT being serious about handing this to customers! It was suppose to be a funny post to get people going about what you'd LIKE to say. We politely tell our customers that we get who are price shopping that if they think we are too high and they can get it for that price somewhere else, they should jump on it! We were talking, jokingly over lunch today how we'd like just tell annoying jerks a bunch of junk so they would just go away! We don't get that many of them, but when they DO come in we joke about it later (between the family)..."what we SHOULD have said was...." It helps to relieve tension and makes a joke at their expense yes, but not to their face!
-------------------- Jane Diaz Diaz Sign Art 628 W. Lincoln Ave. Pontiac, Il. 61764 815-844-7024 www.diazsignart.com Posts: 4102 | From: Pontiac, IL USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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Oh yeah I know Ron, This is pretty much just for Letterville. We’re usually pretty polite to all of our customers, even the deliberate price shoppers that we won’t get for clients anyway. Even if we don’t get their job we realize that word has a way of traveling and we don’t want to get a reputation of being a bunch of a$$holes. We would much rather have the reputation of being too expensive. Which, to some in our area… we do. Others in our area realize the amount of time, money and energy that goes into what we do. Bless their hearts.
But really this was just supposed to be a fun post. A way to poke fun at all the mistakes that are made in this industry… some of which many of us have made before. Wouldn’t it be funny to hand a customer this little letter rather then spending 15 minutes trying to convince them what we do has value.
That being said I do think it’s okay to fire a customer every once in awhile. We have the right to not work for people that are being total jerks. And chances are the few people that do degrade what we do, probably degrade what others do also. Their word won’t amount for much when they complain that we refused to do work for them to someone else. And , while I’m on the subject of reputations, it might not be all that bad to have the reputation of standing up for your self once in a while.
-------------------- Joe Diaz Diaz Sign Art 628 W. Lincoln Ave. Pontiac, IL 61764 www.diazsignart.com Posts: 538 | From: Pontiac, IL | Registered: Aug 2005
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If you find designing signs difficult, just ask your 9 yr old nephew, I'm sure he'll create wonderful designs that are far superior to ours.
(this one only applies to painted signs here in Indiana).... All signs have to incorporate process blue. It's a local law. It's cheaper to just buy it in 55 gallon drums.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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Its more than just OK to fire a customer - it's more often that path one needs to tak to build a better business for themselves.
We're firing more and more these days, and not taking on work we're not excited about, and it's made us a better firm (and even more profitable), We are better able to keep ourselves focused on the work we choose to do and the clients we choose to accept.
A wise man (RIch Dombey) once said: if you don't want to work on white coroplast signs with red helvetica, then don't sell white coroplast signs with red helvetica.
"Some are born to move the world, to live their fantasies. But most of us just dream about the things we'd like to be." - Rush Posts: 1192 | From: Washington, NJ | Registered: Feb 1999
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this reminds me of a job for a large mural to be done is a neighboring town. Skies were cloudy and there was a chance of rain. The owner kept calling and insisting he had become one with GOD and there was to be no rain.
I sat down and typed up a "Weather Contract" just for him. I listed all the things that could and would go wroing if it rained on me during this painting with latex!!! at the bottom it said that his signature would release me from any responsibility and that the cusotmer would have to pay for work done.......HE DID NOT SIGN IT. HE WOULD NOT ANSWER PHONE AFTER I FAXED IT TO HIM. I DID NOT HEAR ANOTHER WORD OUR OF HIM. I called his gopher about 5 times and begged her to get him to fax it back signed so i could start the job.
Funny when YOUR the one that has to foot the bill aint it!!??
-------------------- You ever notice how easily accessible people are when they are requiring your services but once they get invoice you can't reach them anymore
![[Rolling On The Floor]](graemlins/rolf.gif)
now that was funny.
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