posted
Deb and kissy wanna rant but I'm in too good of a mood today so I'm startin this thread, even though it's been hashed and rehashed over and over.
I like my biz cause I get to create, get paid for it, and when my customers rave about my work it's even better!
I like calling the shots too. I've recently gotten to the point that I don't care about customers' reactions when I give them a price, thus I don't "Hmmmm and Hawww" over it which puts the power in my court.
Recently I've gotten into building automotive accessories and realizing that I need MSRP AND Wholesale pricing on everything has made me really take a good look at costs and profits. I've been able to carry that back into my graphics biz, and I don't feel as... wishy washy... trying to always get the customer the best price. I now look at it in terms of having to payback a wholesaler 40%, so I have to crank up the retail price in order to offer wholesale paybacks and still make profit on it. It's made me more confident in commanding a good price.
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
There's only one thing about the biz that doesn't **** me off: Designing a sign from initial concept to presentation, having the customer approve MY design w/o revision, creating the sign with little or no hitch, installing it & seeing that it came out EXACTLY like I wanted it to!
-------------------- Glenn S. Harris
....back in the sign trade full time. Posts: 293 | From: Baton Rouge, LA, USA | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Wow I didn't know **** was going to get censored! If I would've known that **** was going to get censored I wouldn't have typed ****, I would've chosen a different word that still means ****.
(:
ok ... I better get back to work.
-------------------- Glenn S. Harris
....back in the sign trade full time. Posts: 293 | From: Baton Rouge, LA, USA | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I got a reminder of why I like this business just this past Saturday.
I finished up and delivered a sign for an interior decorator, and she was absolutely thrilled with it. I still have to do her Trailblazer, but she couldn't have been happier.
No gripes about price, design, delivery, nothing. Just a very happy client.
It reminded me how much fun it can be to please A GOOD CUSTOMER.
posted
Exactly like Kathy said....F R E E D O M. It's definitely what I enjoy the most about this biz. Sometimes when I look back, I cannot believe I spent so many years working for other people. Jeez...it was a hassle just getting a haircut sometimes.
-------------------- Jeff Ogden 8727 NE 68 Terr. Gainesville FL, 32609 Posts: 2138 | From: 8827 NE 68 Terr Gainesville Fl 32609 | Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged |
This is the first "job" I've had for as much as 5 years, and I worked a lot of years before starting my business. I have been doing this for 16 years now, and I still look forward to coming to work every morning.
-------------------- Don Hulsey Strokes by DON signs Utica, KY 270-275-9552 sbdsigns@aol.com
I've always been crazy... but it's kept me from going insane. Posts: 2286 | From: Utica, KY U.S.A. | Registered: Jan 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Hi Mike! Good transverse post. What is my favorite? When I get a customer who says(without quibbling about prices)"I don't care what you do! Just make it look pretty". And I do. And they are tickled pink when they come to pick up the job and even give me a tip. This happens about twice a year for me and it gets me through the rough patches. I also love being a Letterhead. Love..."Little Mary Sunshine"
-------------------- That is like a Mr. Potato Head with all the pieces in the wrong place. -Russ McMullin Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Wish I had seen this post first....much more positive. Here goes:
In reality, I love my work. I love the people I work with and the clients I work for. I love the process from begining to end. I love to see a clients face when they see the finished product for the first time. I love my freedom as well.
I love interacting w/the Letterheads in this forum. I respect many of you because of your experience. many others because you are not afraid to ask questions.
""Good judgment comes from experience; and a lot of that comes from bad judgment" - Will Rogers Posts: 3489 | From: Beautiful Newaygo, Michigan | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I LOVE the variety of people and work we do. We did a sandblasted, glue chipped, gold leafed set of doors for one of the fanciest house in town this year...very nice doctor & his wife. We do LOTS of truckers' semis. I did a portrait of a little boy who died and his parent's cried when they came to pick it up. We are working on some sandblasted skylights for a millionaire here in town. We are embellishing a Harley Davidson emblem with flames for a biker's bar. We did helmets for the sports teams, pinstripe just about anything that moves, and made all kinds of service vehicles for plumbers, electricians and septic tank pumper-outers look good. And every where we go, country club to football game to biker bar, we have a friend that comes up to talk about his job we did for him or her. We even helped to host a letterhead meet and went to another letterhead meet for a week vacation! Can life get any better than that!
-------------------- 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
| IP: Logged |
posted
Working with my hands to create stuff. I grew up a tomboy, had my own custom made hammer & toolbox at the ripe old age of 4, Allis-Chalmers orange of course. Something about having a power tool or brush or even sandpaper in my hand just feels natural.
Variety. Not doing the same old thing day after day after day. I get bored easily.
Freedom. Doing the jobs I want to do, passing on those I don't and working the hours I set.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Positive!!! positive outweighs the negative! I have been gone all day on a seminar, and wanted to add the positives too.
The passion of all these years learning from my experiences of my own and with customers, and other sign folk and artists, and having the freedom to express myself with design to help others to achieve their advertising goals just gives me all the hope in the world of a new chance everyday...
The choice that I can treat people with dignity and not be ordered to "say this, say that, hide the truths for company gain", etc. I can say no to anything I put my mind to, as it is my choice.
also to have the skills to keep my family afloat financially while watching them grow up and be there for them; While adding color and pizazz and professionalism to that too, and make children and teens smile as they learn or share..either with gifts from teaching or even sharing holographic vinyl or the swirl of the brush with their names shining aloud...being a part of the movement toward better advertising and expression through paint and handiwork the way it used to be; the joy of having the technology to work with designs if needed or desired.. the choice!
The adventure and challenge of doing the impossible, but then realizing we had it in us anyway, and to find out how much I need others to work together in this world, as I believe "people that need people are the luckiest people in the world";
... the freedom to vent and have an intelligent critique to learn from, and that which is highly regarded by me to hear the truth and perspectives of others, and not to be condemned for it in our free world, reaching out to other cultures and countries through various art forms without censorship. And, best of all to be invited back time and time again because of a particular common thread or two. This is what the world of lettering and design has brought to me. God Bless.
[ November 17, 2003, 08:17 PM: Message edited by: Deb Fowler ]
-------------------- Deb Fowler
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible - Walt Disney (1901-1966) Posts: 5373 | From: Loves Park, Illinois | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
I spent today in a town I haven't been to in several years and it was fun to look at some of my first signs. Of course, most of them are pretty rough looking, a few almost laughable, and a couple of them I'd forgotten I even did.
Fun to watch a truck coming at you with a bug deflector you forgot about.
Guess you hadda be there... Rapid
-------------------- Ray Rheaume Rapidfire Design 543 Brushwood Road North Haverhill, NH 03774 rapidfiredesign@hotmail.com 603-787-6803
I like my paint shaken, not stirred. Posts: 5648 | From: North Haverhill, New Hampshire | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I LOVE what I do for a living!!! I enjoy all aspects of it...
From doing the way over the top blue sky concepts... so outrageous that even if the customer does have what I design it's still a cool and challenging project.
I enjoy the negotiating as projects are pitched to the customer. That task is made easier by my enthusiasm and passion for the work.
I enjoy starting projects, going where we've never been before, always stretching our skills to the max and learning new things in the process.
I love working with a fabulously talented and generous crew, who love the projects we do almost as much as me.
I love celebrating our progress each day as we create outrageous worlds of fantasy.
I love new tools and new techniques. And each new book, video, or other source of inspiration is a valuable treasure, eagerly sought out in my daily travels.
What I get to do each day is way more fun than 'working'!
AND they pay me for my fun too!
-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: 8740 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
| IP: Logged |
posted
Steve Hughey (Hughey Signs), Larry Orr (Orr Signs) and Bob Timmerman (Sunshine Signs) called, and our "T" time is 10:00 this morning...............Freedom!
-------------------- Tony Vickio The World Famous Vickio Signs 3364 Rt.329 Watkins Glen, NY 14891 t30v@vickiosigns.com 607-535-6241 http://www.vickiosigns.com Posts: 1063 | From: Watkins Glen, New York | Registered: Sep 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
What I enjoy the most is when the customer shows up to pick up their job and they are impressed and overjoyed of the results, then I know that I've done my job and it reminds me why I chose this profession
-------------------- Chad P. Preseault Ottawa, ON
Now Unemployed! Got a job for me? Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 18 | From: Ottawa | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
It's much more pleasant to write a positive, rather than negative response.
FREEDOM is a huge part of it - Kathy couldn't have said it better.
Letterhead Meets! I have traveled all over the US and British Isles to meets, and met and made friends I wouldn't have otherwise.
Creativity! When a client trusts you to create the image that goes out in front of their business, and pays you well for it.
Here's something that wasn't mentioned: the impact on a community. We've all been through towns where you could tell there was a specific sign shop doing a lot of the work. I know I have had a positive aesthetic and economic effect on my town with the signs I've done, and I feel good about that.
-------------------- "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
| IP: Logged |
posted
The freedom. When I first stared out it was me and my sign kit. I've gone through working in commercial shops, running my own shop and getting on board (reluctantly) the computer revolution. It's back to me and my sign kit these days. I do mainly pinstriping, totally on location. I work for who I want, where I want, when I want. Not being tied down comes in mighty handy as does the ability to pick up work just about anywhere. My overhead is as low as my truck.
-------------------- George Perkins Millington,TN. goatwell@bigriver.net
"I started out with nothing and still have most of it left"
posted
AHHHH freedom!!!!!!!!!!!.... well said Kathy! Of course the crazed groupies throwing their delicates at you when you perform an exqusite pinstripe job really makes my day too.... ...... someone pinch me
-------------------- "No excuses!.... No regrets!..."
posted
In younger years, I tried many things but never stuck at them for too long....my years touring in the music business where great and I thought I would never find anything to top that or give the same satisfaction...I was wrong there:)
Working in the signbusiness is a way of life, its really great to find and attempt new and challenging projects, on a regular basis, its great to be creative in so many different ways.
While I understand Kathy's feelings of freedom, my lady Åsa, wouldn't perhaps agree she thinks I live for my business, and am married to it:)
I get stressed and feel a certain amount of pressure to meet all my monthly outgoings here and at home....bit of a worrier, although there is no real need as my turnover has been pretty much the same each month for several years. I don't feel too much freedom to take time off or pick and choose too much!
But I do love my work, and feel that even when I 'm tired and abit run down, there are always new things to look ahead too and look forward to doing or making, that is not easy to find in just any occupation, I wouldn't want to change.
posted
Cam, I encountered that about a month ago in Breckenridge,Colorado. I don't know who did the signage around the town there, but it was great. Some stuff was ordinary, but there were several dimensional signs that were unbelievable. Does anyone know who did those?
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Applause]](graemlins/clap.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic