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....on a rainy Saturday. This time I'm wondering, why do we SELL signs to clients... why not LEASE them? Example: Let's say you are doing a sign for a restaurant, that would normally sell for $5000. Instead of selling the sign for that price, what if instead you offered the design/fabrication for $1000, and a five-year lease for, say, $200/month? Over 60 months at $200per, that's $12000; add the initial grand, and now a $5000 sign has become a $13000 sign.
I don't think this idea is as crazy as it sounds. The advantage to the clients is that instead of paying 5k out of pocket, they pay 1k, then 200 a month. The sign shop is the legal owner of the sign; they are responsible for maintenence over the life of the lease (within reason), and if the contract is broken (the client stops paying for whatever reason) the sign is immediately re-po'ed. Think about it. If a client put that 5k on a credit card at 15% interest and took five years to pay it off, he'd pay at least that much to some bottom-feeding banker - why not to us, instead? Or better yet, work it through a leasing company the way manufacturers do with any other kind of equipment.
Here's the advantages as I see them. 1. The sign shop retains a continuous cash flow. Imagine if every client you had last year was sending you money every month. Nice dream, eh? 2. Signs become perceived as advertising, as they SHOULD be. A client who pays $$$$ every month for other forms of advertising would now also do the same for their signage. This would go a long way in correcting the public image of sign-making as the poor cousin to the advertising industry, because by leasing instead of selling, a shop is now providing an on-going service rather than selling a commodity. 3. Clients are now able to purchase expensive, high-quality signs they same way they buy any expensive, high-quality service or equipment.
Ultimately, it means that signs are paid for according to what they DO (which is to increase a client's sales and profits) rather than the traditional way, which is for what they ARE (a graphic image on a substrate).
The whole idea hinges upon contracts and following the lead of other types of leasing, but I see no reason why this could not be done. Businesses lease all sorts of things they don't want to buy outright - why not their signs?
Anyway, that's what's cooking in my head on a rainy saturday when I can't go outside and play.
-------------------- "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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This topic needs to be discussed over some ice cold lagers or other suitable beverages...
On first thought, sounds interesting to pursue. It certainly has some real advantages.
If you have any other great ideas, other than ones concerning farm animals, scantily clad big busted amazon women, explosives, or general civil unrest, please feel free to share them. Hmmmm.... I might let you slide on the amazon women...
Have a great one!
-------------------- Bruce Bowers
DrCAS Custom Lettering and Design Saint Cloud, Minnesota
"Things work out best for the people who make the best of the way things work out." - Art Linkletter Posts: 6465 | From: Saint Cloud, Minnesota | Registered: Jun 1999
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Very "COOL" Yes This is What HEATH and Company sign designers and builders did in the 60's and into the 70's There is a lot of Big signs in Navada that are leased only.
-------------------- Danny Bussell Tujunga, California
Bootleg on Chat
"Keep The Rubber Side Down" Posts: 213 | From: Tujunga, California | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Actually I was talking about this exact same idea with a friend a few months ago and I'm still considering and looking into ways of doing this. I like the idea.
-------------------- Bob Stephens Skywatch Signs Zephyrhills, FL
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Great concept Cam but it becomes an ongoing administrative headache that not many one-person shops are willing to deal with. I've heard of large companies around here doing that with multi-business pylon signs.
-------------------- Happy Signing...... Marty
M.F. (Marty) Happy Signmaker Since 1974 Happy Ad Sign & Design Regina SK, Canada S4N 5K4 306-789-9567 happyad@sasktel.net www.happyad.ca
Get Happy & Get Noticed! Posts: 773 | From: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada | Registered: Jan 1999
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Incredible! Signs as verb instead of noun. Cam, how DO you think of this stuff? (he probably wonders how I DON'T think of this stuff) I'm tempted to ask if you were thinking of signs as advertising, or payment of signs, but as long as you're willing to post you're ideas, it doesn't matter. I'll just go along with that neat old saying: Lead, follow or get the 'heck' out of the way.
You lead. Thanks, Jim D.
-------------------- James Donahue Donahue Sign Arts 1851 E. Union Valley Rd. Seymour TN. (865) 577-3365 brushman@nxs.net
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for lunch, Benjamin Franklin Posts: 2057 | From: 1033 W. Union Valley Rd. | Registered: Feb 2003
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Over twenty years ago, I bought a crane from a sign company in a small town in Kansas. The owner told me he hadn't sold a sign in years, he always leased them. He said that way he got paid about three times for every sign he produced. He had a wad of hundreds in his pocket that proved it.
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5112 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I like to concept of changing the image of sign making to more than the poor cousin of the advertising industry. Something I read recently was of a sign company that had deals with several cities to sell advertising on the back of city trucks. The advertisers paid for installation of the signs and also paid a monthly rental fee. The amount was split with the sign company and the city. Also sounds like an administrative burden but the guy doing this said that business was good.
-------------------- Dawn Ellis Signs by Dawn Long Beach, CA signsbydawn@aol.com
Trust yourself. Listen to the voice within. It is always right. Posts: 456 | From: Long Beach, California | Registered: Jan 2003
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I think they would have to be a really big and permanent store, no? I know that here the names and stores come and go so fast that it might be hard to collect if the new owners changed names. If they leave in 4 or 5 months, then what? It would be hard to collect, no?
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Cam, Your idea sounds good. Leasing is a great way to encourage start up and cash strapped businesses buy big ticket items. I worked for a neon sign company that did a lot of leasing at one time. They were above board and the system worked well to a point. They later got out of the leasing business, and now refer cash strapped customer's to "leasing companies", and they went back to making signs instead of lending money and being book keepers. Other sign companies in the area continue to lease signage, but some of them practice questionable business ethics. A favorite is the automatic lease renewal. Unless notice to cancel, in writing is given within a certain time of lease expiring,the customer may unwittingly renew a lease for an obsolete or inadequate sign. Then if he wants to change the sign, he first has to buy out the lease. My advise, stick to something you know, let the experts handle your leases. I admire your "thinking out side the kit" Cam. Keep it up!! Hey maybe that would be a good slogan for a Signwriter.
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There is a text published by ST in 64 entitled electrical advertising/sales by Chas. D. Meyers. Although it deals with electric signs the data about leasing signs would be quite pertinent to this topic. Although the text is old the basics are still basic. I don't think that the old ideas about leases are necessarily current however since even individuals "lease" cars today. The final sale must also include some percieved extra value such as a maitenance contract for a specific period and the like. I have leased many signs to customers with good success for the most part. The leases were limited to main identity signs or sign packages.
-------------------- Kent Smith Smith Sign Studio P.O.Box 2385, Estes Park, CO 80517-2385 kent@smithsignstudio.com Posts: 1025 | From: Estes Park, CO | Registered: Nov 1998
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"Signs as a verb instead of a noun..." James, that sums it up, right on the nose.
I'm thinking about involving a leasing company - GE Capital comes to mind because they handle my EDGE lease - to handle the financing and bookwork. The idea, of course, is to keep a consistent cash flow coming in on each sign.
The other aspect of leasing is that like with any type of lending, the customer is qualified according to credit rating, etc. That weeds out the customers who have a history of not paying their bills.
Bruce, I tend to keep my more activist ideas about civil unrest and Amazons off the internet. Too many effing snoops.
-------------------- "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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