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I have been working for Bellsouth for 8 years, great pay. Tuesday morning I was told I was no longer needed and you have 45 days to find something new. I have been in the sign business part time, out of my home, for about 5 years. I started off interested in vinyl signs, now I have grown to love it and have started to expand into paint and printing. It's the first job that I have ever enjoyed doing. I know there are alot of headaches with self employment. I just wanted to know what situation got you out on your own? Would you do it again? Do you make a good living at it?
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Greg, I had to laugh when I read your history. What pushed me to go on my own? Working 9.5 years for BellSouth, that's what. I was in customer service which had it's own stresses. My husband still works for BellSouth, so we've gone through a lot of breath holding every time they've started laying off. I'm currently unemployed now, having sold my shop when my husband was transferred to Miami. I don't know if I could ever go back to the corporate world. Good luck to you, and don't look back.
------------------ Kelli Cajigas aka Janda Dolphin deSigns & Banners “A satisfied customer will tell two friends, a dissatisfied customer will tell ten.”
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well greg, i worked 10 long years as a billboard painter for Lamar Advertising. working off of a swing stage, 30 feet in the air under the hot alabama sun. to make a long story short, i was sick of it. so one hot july friday morning i got pissed off and asked my boss to fire me!
so he did and i walked out that day and lettered a truck for $400 and never looked back. that was 13 years ago july 12th.
i am not going to say it has been easy, but i make a good living and enjoy the heck out of it.
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Hi Greg......I was a signpainter at Payless drug store [1975].....what got me 'out on my own' was the reps and customers who ordered signs from me! I made more money on those~ than working all week at Payless. I walked into the boss and said "I really gotta go" and walked down the stairs into the world of self employment craziness.......that was 24 years ago...and I am still going....it is hard, but worth it. Especially if you value your freedom. Good Luck!
------------------ "surf" Cheryl Nordby Signs by Cheryl 206 300-0153 Seattle Washington
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Its been 2.5 years since I left my steady corporate design gig. I too had the business started on the side, but it grew outta control so I quit the day job (before they would have fired me for sleeping on the job!)
Its been a great couple of years so far, and I am very fortunate to be doing well at this self employment thing.
Strive each day to be better than the previous, and you'll take off like a rocket...
A year from now you'll probably be saying getting laid off was the best thing that ever happened to you....
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Greg- I jumped ship about this time last year. Scared to death, as I had a new baby daughter, plus a 7 year old daughter. Big time responsibilities. Fortunately I had a good background; coming from the printing industry. Kinda proud of my design skills, mostly from dabbling in signs & (thank God) reading Signcraft magazine. Unfortunately, pretty green on computers. Had been hand cutting vinyl for several years, making signs here & there. Same as posts above, starting making more money "on the side" than I did full time as artist for printing Co. Best thing I ever did. Wish I had taken the plunge years ago--plenty of work out there, still pound the pavement on occasion, but that is getting fewer and farther between. Best of luck to you, treat people right & you WILL be successful. I don't even advertise at all, mostly word of mouth. It does take awhile, but it's well worth it --Carl
------------------ Carl Wood Olive Branch, Ms Sonicob@aol.com
Posts: 1392 | From: Olive Branch,MS USA | Registered: Nov 1999
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iam in a strange little corner of the world here.....last may i did $5000 and this may i didnt do $500.....and its slowly picking up but ive made the decision to close the shop....in 20 months the landlord and everybody else has made more from me then i did.......so i am movin to the house and hopefully ill get this thing into a mobile unit....which in this area is not as crowded as the vinyl shop market...tired of tying to beat all the lowballs workin from there garages....gona join em.....but self employ is the only thing i know...i quit my auto parts($250.00 a week)job and the 1st job i did paintng a window took 2 day(i was slow then)for $125.00..convincined me to stay slef employed....i went on a triplast week back to sarasota and a friend had me do a computer consulting job for $200....couldnt do that workin for someone else..
------------------ joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 6050 mobile hwy pensacola, fl 32526 850-944-5060
Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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hey joe, don't abandon ship. attitude is everything buddy. be confident and your customers will sense your self confidence. go out there and be aggressive, toe the line, great things don't happen unless YOU make them happen.
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I have friends that work as carpenters and gt $24 an hour with benefits. They don't take their work home with them. They have health insurance and retirement packages. They show up on time and do their best for the day and go home. In all honesty, sometimes that looks verry appealing to me. To get a job like that in a sign shop could be rather sweet, as long as it's not working for Lenny!
There are no such sign shops in my community, so this is just an emotion being expressed. Chasing down money, dealing with the feast or famine aspects of business, and finding every customer is my boss sometimes gets tiring.
Before starting a business, take some classes. Develop a business plan. Outline a strategy.Know what you have to offer that sets you apart from the other sign shops that you'll compete with. Define your market.Project how long it might take to get back to the income you're accustomed to.Establish some understanding of business accounting, so you can learn to price your work and make a profit. do this, and then when you jump in, you'll have an edge over alot of the others.
------------------ The SignShop Mendocino, California "Where the Redwoods meet the Surf"
[This message has been edited by Rick Sacks (edited June 16, 2000).]
Posts: 6712 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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It's not easy, but if you try to make it, you will.
I own my own home-based shop, in a house that I rent, in a town 1800 miles away from where my "career" was.
First, you should know that I'll turn 24 just next Wednesday.
At age 19 and fresh outta college because having three engineering majors doesn't jive with the wallet very well, I got a job at an architectural engineering firm doing design and engineering work on skyscrapers. It was a great job and when I started there were only two other people in the company.. me, the boss, and an associate. The company grew to 15 people and as it grew I maintained a pretty decent position within the corporate ranks. I ended up being the head of the IT guys, as well as an associate.
I left at age 23 (last October) with close to four years there. The reason I left.. well, I wasn't happy with where I was, geologically.. and I was BORED with that job.. everyday, the same monotonous crud..
I had a small-time decal business running at the same time, and everyone at the firm knew about it. I was running mostly small decals and lettering for guys to put on their cars.. I even made signs for the glass doors within the office!
I now run my shop full time in a small AZ town dubbed as the "jetski capital of the world". This is a big reason why I picked up everything and just MOVED. I love jetskiing, I love the beach, I love the sun and I love the dry desert.
I've built my business targeting the motorsports type of people, mainly the professional jetski racers that also live here in town, as I am interested in that kind of stuff. That keeps me interested and excited to do the graphics work I have!!
I also sell truckloads of stuff through the internet. In fact, online sales account for about 80% of my business.
I've realized one very important thing though.
When you try, you will make it. When I have a slow month, I look back to see why and everytime it's because I didn't make an effort to make my name heard.
I don't advertise at all either, except for signage on my vehicle and via the internet at my website.
With my business being just a year and a few months old, I can't say I'm livin' on the hog but I'm not starving either. A large portion of my income is actually going out to gain an inventory of vinyl.
All my equipment has paid itsself off within their first couple months of service so I am not paying bills on machines at all.
I have very low overhead working from home and actually owning my equipment, which is fabulous because I still charge an average $50/hour shop rate, depending on the service.
In a whole.. GO FOR IT!!
This business is very gratifying! When you drive around town and you see your work all over the place, it's just the coolest feeling in the world! especially when it looks better than the other shops' work.. =)
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics Lake Havasu City, AZ
Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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I'm sure you'l do well. And take Rick Sacks advice about taking some classes on how to run a business. I am going through a phase right now. I'm thinking of quitting my 'job' to go back to being self-employed.I make more money doing my side business than I do running the sign shop at an amusement park. I only took the job because I was new to the state, and I didn't have any clientel buildup. Now I've got more work than I could take. So, like I said, I'm thinking of going back to being self-employed. Besides, my main objective in life, is to make more, but work less.
------------------ Signs by Alicia Jennings Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel.
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It's great when your working out of your home shop and you look out the window at the horses. They are looking back at you as if to say "ride me!". So, pack it in for a couple of hours. Woo Hoo!! Get distracted from work once in a while. It's good for you. Just work a little later that night.
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Posts: 100 | From: north gower, ont., canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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