Giving a customer choices

[joe]

Somewhere about 50% of my customers haven't previously purchased a nice sign. Most of them have no idea of the cost or the process in getting something they will be happy with. The illustrations below are for a new customer who is in this category.

Pricing can be difficult unless you have photo's or samples. With this fellow I started out with a drawing using rough cedar. He wasn't sure the wood would last. O, I had priced that sign for approx. $2,800. After looking over the portfolio he wanted to see something like the Carmen Family Dentistry. About that size was good. Custom signs like that will double in price. First off the post alone are a good $1K.

After all thee years I'm still amazed at how long it takes to make a set of nice posts.

Back on the topic of a one man shop: Much of this job will farmed out. All my routing is done by my former employee. The heavy work of installation is also done by others. This leaves me in the shop for the texturing, painting and fabrication. Since most of my signs are now made from PVC, there's no wasted time with priming and the PVC glue sets up in a few minutes.

Once again I encourage giving customers options with materials and designs.

[David Iannone]

Joe, great point. You have it figured out. Looks to me you are doing the most fun part and part your best at, design, customer interaction and production. Let's face the facts, there are plenty of people who can do installations, and we know plenty of people with CNC routers. The artist you are is what makes your business so successful, along with your communication skills and many other things.

Keep up the good work and keep posting. You have me thinking maybe I should start to think about farming some stuff out until I find the right helper since things are so busy this year.

Dave