I hung these posters in a dentist’s office. This poster job led to more jobs from the client, which never would have happened had I not taken the poster job that I normally wouldn’t do because of the location of the job and the fact that it had to be done after normal hours.

Many of us have noticed holes in our production numbers and in our bank accounts since this recession began. Wouldn’t it be nice to find a means to fill in those nasty holes? What I’ve found is if you look in the right places, you just might find some backfill for those holes. You’re probably not going to find it by sitting there, waiting for it to come and find you. And you might not find it if you aren’t willing to look outside your comfort zone. What is required is an ability to think and look outside the usual. 

 

When everything is going smoothly and the economy isn’t on life support, I sometimes find it hard to take on work or projects that require me to go outside my comfort zone. Such projects always seem to take longer and are therefore less profitable than the types of jobs that I specialized in. Having to take the time to get special tools and brush up on techniques, not to mention sometimes having to learn completely new skills, just seems to be counterproductive.

 

For me, the jobs I specialize in are dimensional signs, including entry signs for apartments and subdivisions, and pretty much any type of vinyl lettered sign or vehicle. This type of work I can do in my sleep. I said that I am reluctant to take on projects outside this specialization, but I often find myself taking on projects due to curiosity or wanting to expand my skills. I’ve been known to lose money on a project in order to gain a skill or improve my portfolio. When the economy is on a roll, it doesn’t really matter.

 

But as the economy slowed, I found myself with holes in my production schedule and much more willingness to look at jobs that were outside my comfort zone. It was with this willingness to look outside my comfort zone that I approached a recent inquiry from Roxanne Volkman of Husk Signs. Roxanne is a project manager for Husk Signs and found me through signsearch.com. Husk Signs has a client with a chain of dental offices and the client was having Husk Signs refurbish the interior graphics of the offices. This involved quite a few poster-sized graphics that needed to be hung throughout the offices. The kicker was that this job was in Fayetteville, N.C., about an hour from my shop, and needed to be done after hours. It was certainly not a job that I would normally jump at, but after all, work is work and the after hours part wouldn’t interfere with my regular schedule. 

 

I accepted the job and showed up when I said I would. After a bit of a learning curve, I finished the job in three and a half hours. The client was pleased with my work and this made Roxanne happy. During a conversation with Roxanne, she asked me how far I was willing to travel. My stock answer is “as far as your money will take me”. There was a job in Greenwood, S.C., five hours away, that she needed someone to go and remove vinyl price points from pan faces about 25 feet off the ground. I named my price and was hired to do the job. The job was to be done on a weekend, again not interfering with normal work. The day before I was to do the work, I discovered I wouldn’t be able to use my bucket truck because of tire and alignment issues. I guess I could have made excuses legitimately, but where I come from, a man is judged by his word. I drove my car the five hours to Greenwood and bought a 20-foot extension ladder there in Greenwood. It was cold, and I probably shouldn’t have done the job from that ladder, but I completed the job to the satisfaction of all involved.

 

One of more than 300 banners installed. I was seeing them in my sleep... when I had time to sleep.

Roxanne went on to give me jobs in Greenwood again, Savannah, Ga., six hours away, and even jobs in Raleigh, where my shop is. These jobs may not have been the usual type of work I do, but they came along at a convenient time and filled in a hole in my schedule and in my pocket.

 

Next came another job through signsearch.com in which the client was having banners installed for a large drugstore chain to promote a new service. This client quizzed me about my banner installation experience and then after I assured them that I’ve hung more than my share of banners in 28 years, they sent me a list of cities that needed banners installed. I took 104 locations that had to be finished in a two-week period. Not surprisingly, I chose to do the installations on weekends when it wouldn’t interfere with normal work. After the first weekend, the client was sufficiently impressed with my work and they asked me to take another 50 locations. I took the additional work, but had to do so during the normal work week. A midweek spring storm came along blew down many banners at my clients’ locations across the country. My installations were among the best of the survivors and the president of the company that contracted me flew in from Cincinnati to see my installations and question me about my techniques. Basically, what I told and showed him was that I had pulled the banners tight at the corners and screwed the corners down using a large washer. Many of the installations were on EIFS (Styrofoam with a mesh over it and a hard coat finish applied on top) and the screws weren’t long enough to reach anything substantial. I used 3.5" decking screws and pulled the corners very tight, and even though the screws had nothing substantial to bite into, the side pressure of the banner pulling against the screw kept it from pulling out. After the wind storm, I found that the banners that had been damaged still had the screws and washers attached to the wall along with part of the banner. What had actually failed was the banner itself. 

 

Next I was asked to go into South Carolina and reinstall banners that had been improperly installed by another contractor. Two weeks stretched into three and a half weeks. In one three-day period I worked more than 50 hours and drove more than 1,500 miles while installing and repairing wind-damaged banners. Now, this is a skill that I already had, but not a job that I would have normally taken. To date, it is my second largest invoiced job of the year and there is still the removal aspect of the job. Another hole filled!

 

The point I’m trying to make is that when things are slow, you may want to take on jobs that you have the skills to do but wouldn’t normally take. If I were hungry, I’d walk your dog, plow your garden or mow your grass to put food on my table. Doing these things to the best of my ability and in a timely manner would certainly ensure the likelihood of further employment. Until next month, go out and try something new and don’t forget to fill in those holes.