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I haven't sold anything in two weeks. Just wondering if anyone else is in the same boat. Feel free to throw out any suggestions for getting business, especially those that make decent money! My baby is starting to get hungry!
------------------ Amy Brown AMBO Design Lake Helen, FL jabrown@cfl.rr.com
"If only my toddler was better with paint & computers!"
Posts: 3502 | From: Lake Helen, FL, USA | Registered: Feb 2001
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Hi Amy. In the 25 years I have been at this crazy business, one thing I do know. At times, it is so busy you go crazy in a good way. Other times it is so slow, you go crazy in a differnt way. I am absolutely swamped right now. I will work all weekend. And next week is booked solid. Go out and hand out some cards or talk to those who are in need of a sign. I am going to get my mojo working for you. You will be busy busy busy very soon. Take care!
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Amy, So far for making new contact sales, this has been by far my best approach: I drive around and see building projects near completion or just completed without a sign. (People wait until the last moment to decide on signage, it seems).... I then find out who the new tennent is going to be and send them a flyer and letter about my services. By this time in their project, they are desperate to make a decision, so they don't peddle my bid so often and if they already have bids in hand, I know as a small shop, I can beat them significantly. Out of my last ten approaches of this type. I have sold a $600, 1480, 2750, 4875.00. Not to bad for about a 6 hour jont on the streets. I have found that if I am the first to bid, they peddle my bid to another company to beat, although I think it is important to get their interest up in your work without giving an early bid. Having a nice flyer is my key to sales. I use a hp color printer to publish flyers for about 25 cents. They look so much more impressive than the competition, so that helps also. I also color print a mini photo on the envelope of a sign or something, that will grab their attention, and my mail doesn't get tossed to the trash so fast. Good luck with whatever you decide. Bronzeo
This is my busiest time of year too. I worked all Memorial weekend and will have to put in some time this weekend. I remember the days of sitting on a stool listening to the echo in the shop because there was nothing in here to work on. Take this time to make up some new sample signs to put in your shop. Customers seem to like the visual aids in deciding what they want. If you are like me, you will get in the middle of doing this and the phone will start ringing with customer orders. You will end up not being able to finish the sample stuff because you are all of a sudden swamped with work.
It does get pretty darn scarry at times and worrying about it doesn't seem to help matters. This year has been most unusual for us, with fewer jobs trickling in during a time when we are typically swamped. We're blaming this one on the stock market, folks are holding onto what money they 'have left'.
I must have been doing a "wah-wah" on chat when fellow Letterheads, Don Coplen and Dave Grundy challenged each other to a design contest to letter our truck. Needless to say, our truck is now sporting an awesome design and getting attention. Days after the truck was lettered, someone was waiting for me to come out of the bank to "ask me about a sign". Is your name on your vehicle.
I tell everyone I meet that I'm in the sign business and give them my card. It's amazing that people don't realize the wide range of things we do.
When I see a sign that looks like it's in need of some sprucing up, I call the potential customer offering to replace or repair.
During slow times, I try to make shop samples, small ones that are easy to tote around. I also practice new techniques, is there something that you'd like to add to your list of things you offer, now's a perfict time to practice.
Do you subscribe to the sign industry magazines, they're full of tips and tricks to strengthen your skills and make more money by adding a little something extra.
I also keep a list of all our customers name and addresses, when times are slow, I send everyone a reminder that we're still here.
Oh, one more thing.....think positive!
We're in the same boat, and waiting for our SHIP to come in...
Cher.
------------------ Cheryl Lucas a/k/a "Shag" on MIRC Vital Signs & Graphics, Etc. Cape Coral, Florida VSignsNgraphics@aol.com
Posts: 987 | From: Cape Coral, FL USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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Amy I know the feeling. The last week or so, I've just been doing little piddly stuff. Think the most I've done in 3 days is a sticker for my truck. Today my big plans were my dentist appointment (they called to cancel, woohoo!) and cleaning off my hard drive. It's nice to have this time to breath, considering how busy I've been this last couple months, but it's also kinda scary. No work = no $. Not liking that at all. I much prefer to be too busy working and making money and not having the time to spend it than not being busy, not making any $ and having way too much time to spend it. One thing I'm going to try to do, I saw in the step by step page how to do old looking signs. Picked up some old planks from a client yesterday, thinking about playing around with that. Now, if I could only get motivated to get off my butt and do something.
------------------ Chris King Paper Works & Graphix Indiana, PA
Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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The absolute most sure fire way to get very busy is to plan a long weekend or a vacation! Once your plans are made you will be slammed and b****** that you now have to cancel your well deserved time off.
------------------ Greg Gulliford aka MetroDude Metro Signs and Banners 1403 N. Greene St. #1 Spokane, WA 99202 509-536-9452
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The three most important things about being self employeed besides being good at what you do is, GOOD LOCATION,GOODER LOCATION, GOODEST LOCATION If you want to be mainstream? A great location is 3/4ths of the job but even with a great location you have to be good at what you do & be a good people person..You can make it without the location.... but it's a lot harder.
One thing I have learned after 17 years in this biz is it can be feast or famine. Try and use your downtime to organize, do something for yourself, call some friends, work on ads? Don't sweat it, You seem to have a knack for what you do, and provide service others can't do for themselves. Tommorrow you might get a bunch of phone calls and wonder, "how can I get this all done?". I'm not trying to get your hopes up, I have just seen this trend in the business year after year. Maybe mark that you were slow this time of year on your calander, and plan a vacation for next year at this time. Or maybe schedule some advertising to build up biz this time next year. Or you can sit and panic which will not solve anything....
I don't mean to sound like you shouldn't take it seriously when you are slow, just that we all have our lean times, and hopefully, they shall end for you soon!
Good Luck!
MC
------------------ Mike Clayton MC Graphics Barnegat, NJ http://www.visualnoise.com/mcg/ mike@visualnoise.com
"I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused"
Posts: 508 | From: New Jersey | Registered: Apr 1999
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As all my chat buddies told me in georgia at Jimmies "WALK THA WALK & TALK THA TALK!". Letter up your vehicle & advertise. It's amazin' what a sign will actually do for ya If ya put yer heart & soul into it!Take your spare time to do that what ya really want to do & strut your stuff!No body is gonna honk your horn but you so go for it!
------------------ fly low...timi/NC is,.....Tim Barrow Barrow Art Signs Winston-Salem,NC http://artistsfriend.com/signs
[This message has been edited by timi NC (edited June 02, 2001).]
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Use the slow time to volunteer to do some charity work. Their might be a need to do a banner for the food bank or a community service committee that needs some signs. It's usually easy to go to the lumber yard and ask for a donation of some material for a project you're donating labor on. Everyone likes to do their part to help. There are always worthy fundraisers.
------------------ The SignShop Mendocino, California "Where the Redwoods meet the Surf"
Posts: 6805 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I had the worst Jan/Feb ever this year in the entire time I've been in biz. I truely was paranoid, as I was use to being very very busy.
Wana hear about guts? In my slowest time ever, I hired a contractor to build my new home based shop. You wana know what nervous is?!? I could have won Nervous Wreck of the year. Money was so tight in the personal aspect, however we were spending like crazy in the biz related end of things. It was a very bizarre feeling to not buy certain groceries, however to freely pick out nice big new windows to my specs. You get the idea.
I needed a line of credit badly at that time, but I decided to cut back supply spending big time, and wait for the cheques to roll in. And cut back we did.
The shop was finally finished! Time to move. While moving, my phone started ringing off the hook. It's true, when you don't have the time to work, the calls come.
By the time I was moved in, I was 2 wks behind with work. Now I was nervous in another kind of way! LOL!
I learned something very valuable during my lean times. I learned how to stretch groceries and make many more meals out of what you had. I learned to use up vinyl on my shelves I had for way too long, rather than order vinyl each time an order came in. I used up so much old product, I'm happy to say that soon my shelves will be loaded with all new. I learned how to shop more wisely, and learned how to walk past things I didn't really need, that I'd buy without thinking before. I'd put the item in my cart, then by the time I was ready to pay, I returned many of them, calculating the money I saved. Know what? I even changed my mind on some of those things!
You become wise in leaner times. Chalk it up to yet another growing pain in better money management and biz sence. Put away for tomorrow. Spend less than what comes in. Calculate every dollar spent and earned; learning to budge is tough when you aren't use to it.
Most importantly, don't give up on yourself. The phone will start ringing again. Until then, divide up your time, some to marketing, some to your family. It will happen.
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Talk about freaky! After posting here yesterday, went out for my usual friday night ritual of shooting pool and drinking a few hard lemonades (gotta love Mike). Friend tells me she has to introduce me to a friend of hers. Him and I start talking, He has a trucking business. I have to call him Monday morning to go look at his coal trucks (2 or 3, plus co. pickups) because he didn't really like what was on them to begin with, it's been a couple years and he just ordered 1 or 2 (can't remember) brand new, virgin trucks. (virgin as in they've never had sticky stuff put on them before. I get to "de-flower" them, so to speak. Talk about a good feeling on my way home. So, Amy, besides taking everyone else's wonderful advice they've given you (I'm trying to do some of it too), just hang in there. The next big (ok, maybe not big, maybe just good) job will pop up when you least expect it. I'm not saying don't advertise, have the best looking shop vehicle, etc. On the contrary, do all of that (I'm trying to work on my truck, just can't get the perfect layout figured out. Nothing I come up with excites me, and of course, mine has to look better than everything else I've done. I'll know it when I see it, in my mind). Don't antagonize over being slow. Who knows, maybe you'll be coming out of the grocery store and someone'll stop you to discuss getting a sign done, trucks lettered, whatever. It'll be happen. For now, just enjoy the relaxing time, for soon you'll be too busy to remember if you showered today.
------------------ Chris King Paper Works & Graphix Indiana, PA
Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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my shop went belly up last april,may, and june i closed it...may of 99 i did $5000 in the month of may, year 2000 i did $500...big dif...so june was even worse so i closed it. i moved to the house, took a room as an office, called the clients that i had done work for told them i was at the house....i had been trying to buy a step van while i in the shop...and i finally got to bid on it(when i had the least money doncha know) borrowed $4000 from benificial, for the truck, found a laptop for new for $750.00, scanner...and moved into my mobile sign shop. took me a couple more months of tinkerin with it and had a good friend i met here on chat send me all the paint, hardners and reducers i needed and in the color i wanted for free(there are good people here and ill never forget them and ill be there when they need something i got)got the purple and yellow sprayed on in oct then by thanksgiving i had it all lettered up....as alan says LOCATION LOCATION, LOCATION...well i got the bestest one...iam everywhere and anywhere i want to be....ex. today i went to a car show, and parked the truck...very visable. left there went to another car show, MOPAR and amc, got some inquires...then at 5 pm i went to the mud bog races, all the people there see my truck that say on the side SIGNS HERE & NOW, sign shop on wheels 944-5060...right now iam swamped with work....and just got a new restaurant to do all his sign work..went today and measured signs and wall i have to paint...so since its slow get your vehicle lettered up to be as outstanding as you can make it...it will sell you....
------------------ joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-944-5060 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND
Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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I've found that trying to work on my own signs is a guarantee of new work coming in. When I got back into the sign business full-time I talked to a local business consultant that convinced me that I should spend 20% of my time every week working "ON" my business and the other 80% of time working "IN" my business. Working on your business could mean working on your own signs, developing or learning new skills and just plain marketing whether it's cold calling new potential clients or just visiting old ones. You'd be surprised what could happen if you just paid a social visit to any of your existing clients. Ask them if they know anyone who could use signwork. Chances they know many possibilities because life is a contact sport. BTW "Life Is A Contact Sport" by Ken Kragen is a great book help improve your marketing know-how. Good luck!
Happy Signing.....Marty
------------------ Marty Happy Signmaker Since 1974 Happy Ad Sign & Design Regina SK, Canada S4N 5K4
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