posted
Yeah Janette! Nice description of what you are feeling. The sentence I mostly can relate to of yours is:
It’s about making choices and changes to suit your needs in Life.
Boy isn't this the truth? We all have to make adjustments in this crazy place called 'earth'. Major adjustment has been going on in my corner of the world. Kicking out the cheap ass customers, and greatly improving my service to those companies who have been loyal all these years, but mostly doing things that I like to do. I really did not like making birthday banners for 20.00. I like money. And I like to be busy. I get real frustated when I am bored, so I try real hard to 'stay focused on my agenda'.
I do admit at times I trip over your words, and might take them wrong. Thanks for your honest words. Keep smilin'
posted
Looks like around 60% of you guys are doing great this year. Not so bad, I've been through my high school with this note!! Hahaha! Thanks for answering.
Chris and Suelynn: Don't be sorry about other's answers, It's a democraty here and everyone has the right to express themselves. By the way everytime I buy grapes or apples, I have to throw some in the garbage.
Myra and Janette: Thanks for the reflections even if I had to read them with my english dictionnary, don't forget that I'm french-canadian and I only bla bla my english.
Have a nice week-end!
-------------------- Pierre Tardif P. Tardif Inc. 1006 boul. PIE-XI sud Val-Belair QC. Canada G3K 1L2 418-847-4089 pierre@ptardif.com Posts: 800 | From: Quebec city | Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Janette...The words that strike me the most are.
quote:Each year the goal is to become more profitable, work smarter, simplify life, get ahead and all the while I keep striving to do it on my terms, and still maintaining quality in my day to day.
Each year I review what I had charged for certain types of sign work. Some are repeat jobs for regular customers. Some are unrelated customers but similar jobs. Each year I increase my pricing, keeping in mind the increase of my materials costs, my cost of living costs, my retirement funding (DON'T WANT TO GO INTO THAT RIGHT NOW!!!!! ) and apply that to my pricing for the new year.
Not only have my gross sales increased over the years but so have my profit margins. The gross sales increase are a result of my regular customers being excellent business people/companies. The profit increase is solely my doing.
I learned many years ago to check invoices for masterial cost increases. When you are running on "credit/an account" with suppliers it is SO EASY to just pay the bill at the end of the month without actually looking at the individual invoices. THEY know that and it is up to us to check their pricing on a regular basis.
Another thing I have found to be a HUGE benefit is using internet banking...NOT for actual transactions neccesarily, but for keeping track of the bank accounts. It is so easy to deposit a cheque for $3896 and say to yourself "I just deposited about $4000" and the next day write out a cheque for $1187 and say I only wrote out a cheque for $1100"...THAT thinking leaves room for a large shortfall of percieved wealth.
Also there is the "tax" thing..depositing the cheque, which includes the "government's" money, and then using "their" money as if it is your own is also a potential future headache. (Don't ask how I learned THAT )
Anyway..enough from me...I am sure that a lot more intelligent and business-wise and world-wise folks can add to this thread!!!
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
posted
Other than being very interested in the content here are my thoughts about Janette’s post as they (again) reveal her as a human being:
If ever I’m in a dispute with someone Janette would immediately come to mind for an arbiter, and I would sign anything ahead of time that I would accept her decision. Janette: you have head and heart, which translate into the gift of clarity and diplomacy. With little ego involved and a great sense of fairness you seem to see all sides and boil away the unimportant. You seem to have the true humility of the really strong. I volunteer as the leader of your fan club, because when I grow up I want to be just like you.
-------------------- Myra A. Grozinger Signs Limited Winston-Salem, NC
signslimited@triad.rr.com Posts: 1244 | From: Winston-Salem, NC USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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What a great, honest reply. We've watched you struggle with signshops opening on every corner, and you seem to be handling it very well. I'm really glad that you are focusing on getting rid of those cheap-ass customers (I may need to take lessons from you ) Sounds like you are going through a real transformation right now...changing the way you do business, and building a new shop. How exciting for you, I wish you the best.
Suelynn
-------------------- "It is never too late to be what you might have been." -George Eliot
Suelynn Sedor Sedor Signs Carnduff, SK Canada Posts: 2863 | From: Carnduff, SK Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Hi Suelynn. thank you! The 'focus' is on my favorite customers I have had for years. The ones who trust my taste, who don't ask 'how much' and who know I will deliver quickly. I used to get ****ed at the cheap asses. But now the joke is on them. I don't play their game. I think I tried too hard before, to please everybody who called. Now I have made it my choice who I will do signs for. And I choose those who trust me, and those who actually have some bucks to spend! I have raised my prices quite a bit in the past year. (thank you Mark Roberts) I decided this past summer when business was slower than normal, I didn't want to be unhappy doing cheap signs just to be working. There are other jobs that would be much more rewarding. So that is when I changed my way of thinking. Oh I was sweatin' you can be sure! It seemed everyone who called thought my prices were too high. But I am much much happier now and that is where I want to be. The ball is back in my court! Thank you for always noticing the little things. You are very observant.
Posts: 3729 | From: Seattle | Registered: Sep 1999
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posted
I've personally chosen to work less and can feel it in the ol' bank account, so I am down this year by choice. But when I work more and have more money, I actually feel worse off from a Mom's perspective. So basically, I work less at more profitable jobs so I can pay the bills, and the rest of my time is with my son. I spend less than I earn to stay in the black. I'm budgeting for the first time in my LIFE and it's an experience!
I thank God everyday that I have my regular clientelle to fall back on.
quote:I thank God everyday that I have my regular clientelle to fall back on.
Building a business is about building a relationship with clients.
I also thank God that I have a few clients that keep me as busy as I want to be. (and sometimes more busy than I want to be. )
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
posted
Isn't it weird how when you have a real good month, you end up just as broke as when work is slow! Those 'good' months are the ones where you play catch-up on bills. It would really be a plus if the customer would realize that for a SMALL business, the CASH FLOW is almost more important than the actual cash, if that makes any sense! It goes without saying that paying the bills goes so much easier when the cash flow is working!
posted
Our business is very much on the upswing again. When we moved back to B.C. and then turned down all work for eight months as we did our own project it set us back business wise for a while.
We tightened our belt, something that took a bit of getting used to after five roaring good years with a large crew.
But now things are back into roaring mode but in a much smaller scale. I'm more selective than ever about what I take on and I have a very small but skillful team to rely on. And as I've said before we are in the process of switching from hands on theme construction to design and consult instead. There is no risk and the profit margin is much better.
I will still take on a few choice hands-on jobs from time to time but they will be much smaller in scale and the deadlines will be of my own making. We will still be mostly our own client for the most part.
It only takes a good client or two to give me a great year as the jobs tend to be large in scale. It looks like we will be busy with a major client for the next 16-18 months as it stands now. The best part is that the job will be in my own home town... something I've dreamed of my whole career!
So combine this with a few small design jobs I've committed to and one or two murals... its gonna be a record breaking next two years. Not in gross income but rather in take home pay.
And that's what counts - right after thoroughly enjoying what you do for a living.
-dan
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!! Posts: 8761 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
The fundamental truth about "the economy" is that it is nothing more than an attempt - an not always a successful attempt - to measure human activity with money. All of you have some interesting points of view, some thoughtful, some more emotional, all valuable. But the fact remains, NONE of us are capable of monitoring the health of the economy as a whole - even Greenspan's crystal ball is cloudy. Measuring the net results of the activities of 250 million people, not to mention the globe's 5 or 6 billion, is a staggering task.
All we have to go on is A) Our own perception of how our businesses are doing, and B) Anecdotal evidence - from customers, suppliers, friends, the media, etc. - of how others are doing. Then we have the government's analyses of the health of the economy at any given moment, which is based on tax revenue, the stock market (which is itself only a measure of corporate America, not necessarily the rest of us), and which is ALWAYS clouded by political considerations (surprise!)
Out of 250 million people, it is ALWAYS possible to find individuals or businesses that will tell stories of success or failure, of good times or of bad. There were businesses that thrived during the Great Depression; just as there were those that failed during the recent boom of the Clinton years. Pierre's question, as I recall, was a call for anecdotal evidence - how are each of us doing, in our own market, this year. To extrapolate those responses into anything beyond what they are, or to question their validity based on your own or someone else's experience, would be a mistake. To do so in order to find justifications for one's own political opinions, is a mistake compounded by cynicism. Let's leave that to the politicians, and stay down here where it's real.
-------------------- "A wise man concerns himself with the truth, not with what people believe." - Aristotle
Cam Bortz Finest Kind Signs Pondside Iron works 256 S. Broad St. Pawcatuck, Ct. 06379 "Award winning Signs since 1988" Posts: 3051 | From: Pawcatuck,Connecticut USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
But Cam, that's why this coming election is so critical, right? Somebody has got to fix the economy and why shouldn't it be those that have never run anything but their mouths.
-------------------- Wright Signs Wyandotte, Michigan Posts: 2787 | From: Wyandotte, MI USA | Registered: Jan 1999
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![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
) and apply that to my pricing for the new year. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
)![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
) Sounds like you are going through a real transformation right now...changing the way you do business, and building a new shop. How exciting for you, I wish you the best.
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