the Sign Tracker Blog

Hello friends and family.

As most of you know, we at Sign Tracker are very passionate about Habitat for Humanity. This year is Austin Habitat’s 25th anniversary and their goal is to build at least 25 houses, bringing the total to over 300 families in their own homes. Habitat builds and finances homes for families need, helping them realize the dream of home ownership.

My personal goal to raise at least $900.00 and your help is GREATLY appreciated. You can donate on line using this link:

http://www.firstgiving.com/joearenella

Much Appreciation!

– Your friend “Sign Guy Joe”

Sign Life:

Happy New Year! OK, a bit late, but still sincere! By now, you have started your year, hopefully with a bang. This will be the year that you will have to focus on customer service like never before. Your word will have to be golden to your customers; what you say is what they get. Stop and think before taking on a new commitment. Remember that sometimes it is better to say “NO” for the sake of taking better care of another customer. Take a good hard look at what projects you are committing to, and be sure to analyze whether or not it is profitable. Profitable projects are not just about the bottom line. If you over promise a delivery date for a quick buck and hurt another customer relationship, it is a bad move. In today’s economic environment every customer you have is a gift. Marketing 101: It is far more cost effective to keep ten existing clients happy than to gain a new one! As they say…..”Love The One Your With!”

An efficient way of keeping your word is to keep track of what you promise to your customers. Take notes, set reminders and follow through. Guess what. Sign Tracker can help you do this! Heck, even make it easy! Check out the Contact Management tool in Sign Tracker by signing up for a Free 30 Day Trial today. Let us help you get on track.

Sign Tracker Updates

Sign Tracker v.2 is on the way! Look for the first update before ISA and updates following every month following for the next six months.

Sign Tracker will be with SAI at ISA in booth #1462, and is also now being distributed by Sign Warehouse – check out their Spring Catalog.

Click Here: Training videos are here!

Click Here: Visit us on YouTube

Thanks, Sign Guy Joe

Now that’s what I am talking about! Is your company on track for a financial recovery in 2010? How about something unique to help your business break out of the recession mentality?

A business New Year’s resolution is a great way to get a running start for the new year. It’s also a good way to motivate your employees. Nothing builds moral like being part of a team; working towards a unified goal.

Sure, you could be like every other boring shop out there — update your business plan, file it, and not look at it again until next December.

Or you could do it differently — make a few New Year’s resolutions, pin them to your wall and review them weekly. I’ll bet a monthly assessment of your progress will show actual results.

While your resolutions will be unique to your business, here are three that could help any sign shop next year:

1. Bust your technology addiction: Calm down. I’m not saying stop being addicted to technology — we’re all addicted — just break your addiction to ineffective technology. Especially if it’s expensive and complex.

If you’re using the same software you were using three years ago, then get with the program!

The object here is to make your small business better, easier, more productive and more profitable.

It takes time to break old habits or learn new programs, but you have the time, if you follow resolution No. 2.

2. Be smarter with your time: Most sign shop entrepreneurs slave through 15-hour days.

Have you ever heard of Vilfredo Pareto? Finding out can not only change your business, it can change your life. Pareto’s principle has come to be known as the 80-20 Rule! That is 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers.

Which customers account for 80% of your profits? Do you know who they are? Well, start duplicating the relationship you have with those customers!

If one of your resolutions is to read more, here’s an amazing book on the 80-20 rule, written by Timothy Ferriss. The 4-Hour Workweek.

I’m not suggesting a four hour work week, but the idea of working smarter can save your business untold dollars.

3. Get some help! The smart entrepreneur knows that he/she doesn’t know everything. So resolve not to do so much yourself and get some help — much of which is free.

 SCORE is one of my favorite organizations. A virtual Peace Corps of retired executives and entrepreneurs, SCORE offers its confidential counseling either through its website or at any of its hundreds of offices.

 TheStreet.com: if you haven’t looked around this site yet, Wow — there is a lot to be learned there.

 The Small Business Administration is in the business of helping you succeed.

Best Wishes in 2010!

Sincerely,
Sign Guy Joe

Reference: Steven Strauss, TheStreet.com

It never ceases to amaze me how few sales people make the time to follow-up after they have made initial contact with a prospect or customer. In the last few months, I can think of at least eight different situations in my own life (business & personal) when a salesperson did not bother taking this initiative. In each of these situations I was very interested in the product or service offered by the vendor.

This got me wondering…why don’t people follow-up? I think there are several reasons.
They don’t want to appear pushy.
They forget.
They make false assumptions.
They think that the customer or prospect will contact them.
They have never been taught.

Many people have never received formal sales training and have not learned why they should follow-up and how to make this happen. This is relatively easy to remedy. Start by asking or telling your prospect that you will follow-up on a specific day or time. Tell them how you will follow-up (telephone, email, face-to-face) and record this in your day planner or time management system. I use Outlook and now include a reminder so I don’t forget to follow-up.

Follow-up should also be completed after the sale is completed. A quick telephone call after your product or service has been delivered confirms their decision to buy from you. I make an effort to send every client a handwritten thank-you card once the sale has been confirmed and again when the services they requested have been delivered.

Here’s the bottom line. You can easily differentiate yourself from your competition by making the effort to follow-up with your prospects and customers. Don’t take it for granted that they will call you. Be proactive and contact them.

Ref: Kelley Robertson.

Read the full article at http://www.salespractice.com

In its simplest form, cash flow is the movement of money in and out of your business. It could be described as the process in which your business uses cash to generate goods or services for the sale to your customers, collects the cash from the sales, and then completes this cycle all over again.

Inflows. Inflows are the movement of money into your cash flow. Inflows are most likely from the sale of your goods or services to your customers. If you extend credit to your customers and allow them to charge the sale of the goods or services to their account, then an inflow occurs as you collect on the customers’ accounts. The proceeds from a bank loan is also a cash inflow.

Outflows. Outflows are the movement of money out of your business. Outflows are generally the result of paying expenses. Your largest outflow will mostly likely be for the purchases of raw materials and other components needed for the manufacturing of the final product. Purchasing fixed assets, paying back loans, and paying accounts payable are also cash outflows.

It is important to manage your cash flow because:
 Smart cash flow management is vital to the health of your business. Hopefully, each time through the cycle, a little more money is put back into the cash flow cycle than flows out.
 Our case study illustrates what can happen to your business if you don’t carefully monitor your cash flow, and take corrective action when necessary.
 Your profit is not the same as your cash flow. It’s possible to show a healthy profit at the end of the year, and yet face a significant money squeeze at various points during the year.

Our Sign Tracker Starter-Kit can help you get and stay organized. Click here for more info!

Reference: ToolKit.com

Outside sales are very important, and approaches are as unique as your sales staff.

Here are some sales tips for outside sales used at our sign shop:

1. Join your local Chamber of Commerce and go to as many networking events as much as possible. You will receive some leads from these events, but more importantly you will build relationships with sales reps from different industries that will recommend your services. (and please recipricate!)

2. Visit the general contactor’s jobsite trailer with a couple of dozen breakfast tacos or doughnuts. Ask to look at the plans and inquire about who makes the decision for the purchase of the signage. Use the G.C.’s name when contacting the decision maker…a few tacos can land you a great sign contract.

3. Set up a “meet-and-greet” at your local property manager’s office. Set it up ahead of time with the office manager and email her a flier that she can forward to the staff. Arrive a ½ hour early with a cooler of beverages, snacks, and a nice plant for the kitchen with your card thanking them for referrals. Just pass out cards, snacks and handshakes….this is always a winner!

4. Go to at least one good tradeshow a year for: General Contactors, Retail Developers, Architects, Environmental Design, Etc. Be sure to have a nice booth and materials to hand to participants. Also, be sure to attend the mixers or after parties to make as many contacts as possible. Hint: treating someone to a cold beer goes a long way!

5. Read your local business journal or newspaper for new real estate developments and new businesses coming to your community. Also, look for new hire announcements of property managers, business bankers, etc. Send them a congratulations note and a card.

Bottom line, people buy signs from people they know, so get out and network, and save your yellow page money for networking events. We never used the yellow pages, yet we built a 10 million dollar sign company one handshake at a time.

Remember, you’re a selling organization that builds signs, not a sign company that hopes someone will buy from you.

I hope this helps. Just some thoughts from a ‘humble sign guy”!

Sign Guy Joe

Now more than ever it is important to have a web presence. Gone are the days when an ad in a phone book would get you business. Customers need to find you on the web and get a professional presentation when they view your website. So many small business put off building a website because of the cost and hassle. You may have the best sign shop in town, but if the guy up the street has a slick site, you will start loosing business. You don’t have to one up the other guy with bells and whistles; you just have to have a competent presentation of what you have to offer. Downtime is the perfect time to get your website up and start getting new customers!

 Get a Plan

 Start with a plan. Before you begin the design of your site you need to figure out how people will find it. You need to create a search engine marketing strategy. How to get your site found on google is a constantly changing endeavor. There are plenty of online resources to help you with search engine marketing or search engine optimization.

You can also hire a specialist to do it for you. That is what we do.

Why learn something that will change tomorrow.

 Start Small

 Designing a website can be daunting – what to say, how to say it and what technologies to use can be overwhelming. It is better to get something up that you can modify later than to have nothing at all. We are not recommending throwing something up with a cheesy “under construction” graphic. Think about creating a one page site that just gives the important details. It can be as simple as…

      Company Name

      Phone Number

      A couple of sentences about

       What you do

       Where are you located

That’s it – that is a web presence. If designed well, it is often all a customer needs to make a decision and contact you. Good Luck!

If you would like to talk to us more about web design issues, contact us at Agave Design.

Thanks Joe for the Time!