As my sign-making capabilities increased, my shop space did the opposite.

February is an eight-letter word for my least favorite month of the year. Why wasn’t it called May? That’s a short word fitting of the shortest month of the year. To begin with, that’s probably my biggest objection to the month. Except for every fourth year, I get only 28 days of month to cover my expenses. Mortgages and all sorts of monthly bills come around too fast when I get 31 day months to deal with them. At most, normal Februarys give me only 20 production days, not counting weekend production. Toss in the fact that it’s the month most likely to give us snow in my part of the south and it can be almost disastrous. Even small amounts of snow in the south can cripple businesses for days on end.

 

In my nearly 30 years in the sign business, there is one thing I have come to count on. I never can predict what a given month may bring me in terms of production figures. I might say that historically July and December have seemed to be months that have tended to have lower production, and trying to find rhyme or reason for this only tends to make me crazy. I tend to believe that July is the month that many people take vacations and are therefore not around to place orders for signs. December is a little easier to guess at. Everyone is struck with Christmas fever, buying gifts, attending parties and gearing up for New Year’s. My wife tells me that nothing gets done between Christmas and New Year’s.

 

Even if I were to buy into these theories, I have to face the fact that in some years these have been the best and most productive months of the year. I envy those of you, if there are any, that can predict production figures with any amount of accuracy. I normally keep all the work that I can stand, but seldom are there jobs more than a couple of weeks out waiting to be done. Oh there are jobs that sit on the back burner for months waiting for one thing or another before they can be done, but when they are ready, it seldom takes very long to clear them from the queue. 

 

Once in a blue moon, I will even catch up and one day look up to find all jobs have been cleared. Now this might worry some people, but I look at it as an opportunity to regroup, organize the shop and get ready for the next onslaught. I know it only takes one phone call and I’m swamped with work again.

 

I’m a strong believer in recycling and refuse to dispose of the signs in the dump, so there’s a mound of scrap letters, signs and raceways higher than my head and about 20 feet by 60 feet. Fred Sanford would be proud.

I’ve operated as a small company for a long time and have been in my same location for 23 years. My 2,100-square-foot space was more than adequate for most of the 23 years that I have been there. 

 

Vinyl production required very little production space and even when I took on a CNC router, the space was still cozy cramped. It wasn’t until I started doing electrical sign repair, installation and production that I found myself tripping all over myself. It has come to the point that it seems that every time I need to do something, I have to move 10 things to get to the project I’m working on. On top of that, my fenced side yard has me looking like Sanford and Son (for those of you who are old enough to remember Fred and Lamont). For you younger sign people, I mean a junk yard. 

 

I often have to do sign removals when businesses close or before I can install a new client’s sign. I’m a strong believer in recycling and refuse to dispose of the signs in the dump, so there’s a mound of scrap letters, signs and raceways higher than my head and about 20 feet by 60 feet. I hold on to the scrap until I have time to sort it, and still I wait until the metal prices go up. It’s not a great profit center but I get a lot of satisfaction in the process of recycling.

 

This brings me to a decision that’s been coming for a couple of years now. It’s time to find a new sign shop home. I figure I need a space that’s at the minimum 6,000 square feet. Something larger at the right place would be acceptable as well. The current economic condition has commercial space in a buyer’s market here in North Carolina. I may be able to get a lot more space than I normally could, and that’s not a bad thing. I guess there are some benefits to a bad economy after all.

 

My wife/partner is in total agreement that we need to grow in our spatial needs but asserts that we need to grow the business as well in order to afford the increased operating expenses. I reluctantly agreed, knowing all the while that she was right but at the same time wanting to hold on to the small business feeling that I’ve maintained for so long. We have started limited manufacturing of illuminated signs within the last couple of years, and this seems to be the area with the most potential for our growth. It also justifies the acquisition of a larger production facility.

 

I haven’t gone out and chased work for a long time because I get all the repeat business and installation work I can stand. Lately we’ve had some electric sign manufacturing jobs fall in our laps, but have yet to go out and actively pursue this type of work. 

 

I find it to be an overwhelming task to run my business on a day to day basis without the added responsibility of going out and being a salesman. It’s not that I can’t do it. I’ve sold a lot of things in my life. Insurance door to door for six years, cars, solar hot water systems, advertising, printing and signs as well when I started my business. Now it looks like I will have to hire an outside salesman. I guess this means that I’ll be part of the economic recovery of this country. Whew, makes me feel just as good as recycling. 

 

Here’s hoping you get a chance to hire someone this year as well. Until next month, go out and try something new.