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How's Business? - Poll


2013-2011  

91 members have voted

  1. 1. How did 2012's profits compare to profits in 2011

    • Better
      54
    • About the same
      16
    • 2011 was slightly better
      7
    • 2011 was a LOT better
      7
    • We REALLY struggled in 2012
      7
  2. 2. What is the general forecast of 2013 with new laws past and the economy in general?

    • This will be a better year than 2012
      47
    • This will be a better year than 2012 & 2011
      24
    • We will not do as good as 2012
      14
    • We will not do as good as 2012 & 2011
      3
    • We are predicting the worst year in some time
      3
  3. 3. 2013 we will - Check what applies

    • Expand our business
      45
    • Add more employees
      45
    • Layoff employees
      7
    • Sell equipment
      6
    • Shrink our business
      5
    • Buy Equipment
      40
    • Sub-contract more
      21


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Now that we're starting a new year I was curious on how 2012 compared to 2011, and what you forecast 2013 might possibly bring compared to those years. So for this I started an anonymous poll with any open discussion and comments you might have.

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. - Winston Churchill

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  • !llumenati

2010 and 2011 wasnt great, we stayed ahead and kept everyone working everyday. 2012 was the best year ever. We increased in every area. New Machinery and better jobs made a big difference. We just ordered another new bucket truck for March and another new crane for Sept.

You need to watch, listen and learn from every type of business. Look for the right opportunities and take control. You need to go after the market that others can not and go after the bigger jobs with the confidence of doing it better and more profitable.

You need to keep the employees part of the company, a family atmoshere where all feel part of the solution and profits. Everyone looking out for the other and the companies bottom line. It works and it shows in the end. Everyone benifits. Everyone wants to be part of the winning team.

Be the leader , the band master and don't follow the crowd. The streets are full of followers.

  • Like 1
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As Ringo Star sang "It can't get much worse"

So that said lets all look to the bright side, things always change we just have to stay positive. In the last 3 months we have seen a definite up-tick. The worm turns and the soil gets richer.

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2010 and 2011 wasnt great, we stayed ahead and kept everyone working everyday. 2012 was the best year ever. We increased in every area. New Machinery and better jobs made a big difference. We just ordered another new bucket truck for March and another new crane for Sept.

You need to watch, listen and learn from every type of business. Look for the right opportunities and take control. You need to go after the market that others can not and go after the bigger jobs with the confidence of doing it better and more profitable.

You need to keep the employees part of the company, a family atmoshere where all feel part of the solution and profits. Everyone looking out for the other and the companies bottom line. It works and it shows in the end. Everyone benifits. Everyone wants to be part of the winning team.

Be the leader , the band master and don't follow the crowd. The streets are full of followers.

Sounds like halftime in the movie "Rudy"!

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  • Board Patron

we got Elliott v60 in Feb 12, heavier 10 ton crane/auger in nov 12. Its been all uphill so far and looks like it will keep up. Overall in Canada most of us didn't feel a recession or decline. usually it is the lazy people out of work when times are bad, the honest and energetic always survive, i have been through 2 recessions so far, a truck stolen from me by a guy in Kentucky and a shit box parked for 8 months, a hungry lawyer than needed to be fed.

if anything we do better in bad time because the rif-rafts cant keep up.

 

63 foot Elliott v60

50 foot 8 ton crane/auger

Skid steer with forks and dirt bucket


www.signworksinc.com

www.wehangsigns.com

Signworks Inc.
Toronto, Canada
416-653-7227
1-877-912-7446

 

 

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  • Board Patron

2010 and 2011 wasnt great, we stayed ahead and kept everyone working everyday. 2012 was the best year ever. We increased in every area. New Machinery and better jobs made a big difference. We just ordered another new bucket truck for March and another new crane for Sept.

You need to watch, listen and learn from every type of business. Look for the right opportunities and take control. You need to go after the market that others can not and go after the bigger jobs with the confidence of doing it better and more profitable.

You need to keep the employees part of the company, a family atmoshere where all feel part of the solution and profits. Everyone looking out for the other and the companies bottom line. It works and it shows in the end. Everyone benifits. Everyone wants to be part of the winning team.

Be the leader , the band master and don't follow the crowd. The streets are full of followers.

Paul, I think you and your company are role models for us to look up to and strive to operate like. Good work.

Installation & Maintenance Services

Brian Phillips | expresssignandneon@sbcglobal.net | P. 812-882-3278

Express Sign & Neon | 119 S. 15th Street - Vincennes - IN 47591

express%20neon%20sig.jpg

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We are swamped right now because 3 neon benders in the region have gone toes up. Love the work but hate to gain it this way. Last year was a boon for us too. How ever come June when our lease is up the company will dissolve as two of us move out of the area. Our bender will most likely start another business with less overhead and focus on just bending.

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We thought we might have turned the corner in 2011 when we almost (not quite) broke even but pretty much retained our gross. But last year was a disaster, due to a lot of perfect storm stuff that I won't go into. Let's say that we no longer will do any installation work for LAUSD! It is hurting us to turn down all our chances to bid, but it's just too risky.

We have cut way, way down, still have more stuff to try to sell, and are hoping we won't have to let anyone else go. We are so lean, it's ridiculous! But, we are in a new, much nicer, but much smaller space, and maybe it will give us a new lease on life. We are all enjoying it there. It's light, bright, cheerful, hopeful!

Good luck to everyone, and if your electrical business ever needs to do some interior work or exterior wayfinding as well, please ask us. We'll make you look good.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We had our best year ever last year with growth the last 5 years in a row. We are strictly wholesale though. We may be getting the builds that people use to do in house and have laid off people. We've hire new people as well as expanded the shop by almost double in the last 2 years. All we can do is continue to try and please our customers and keep turn a rounds fast.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • Board Patron

We were slow in 2011, had a super great 2012, and this year.... I think we all expect to slow down, but we've been pretty busy so far.

Interesting (and sad) how hard it is to find neon benders. We are lucky to have one nearby - I know a couple of companies in WA shipping neon to places in Oregon to get it repaired/remade.

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I would imagine companies that did a lot of retail neon might still be surviving, but the wholesale end is useless. A neon company can't survive on neon repairs...unless they're charging like $250.00 for a repair.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Interesting results Eric......I am a simple man with a simple plan....not much overhead and not much debt. The recession has not had an impact on my business model. Folks order neon signs everyday and I ship them everywhere. Early on, I was like most sign guys....I wanted to do it all....paint billboards, letter race cars, hand paint signs, bend neon, sell rental signs, service signs, sandblast signs, form faces, stretch flex faces, fleet graphics, awnings.....are you catching my drift????? I wanted to be "your one stop shop" sign man....Like most sign guys, it exposed me to the potential of enormous debt, clock punching employees and customers who never even considered the importance of a sign when they went into business. In fact, in most cases, there was NO MONEY left for the sign, but they wanted a cadillac job yesterday, for as little a money as they could get by with.

I walked that road for many years before I realized that this pace was way to fast for my pea sized brain to survive. My dad and I had a talk one afternoon after I finished installing a sign over a mall parking lot and he asked me "Son....why in the hell are still trying to be everything to everybody?".......I sat there and just said.....WTF........ He added..."I know you love the sign business, but is there one element you love more than the rest?" Without hesitation, I said NEON.....then he replied, "wouldn't your business, time and energy be better served if you turned all your focus toward being the best you can be doing just NEON?"

The answer was obvious....I sold EVERYTHING I had related to all elements of the sign business except my equipment used to produce neon signs. From that point forward, I have had work to do everyday and tilts in the economy have had little impact on my success. I have managed to get a good days pay for a good days work. I have learned to tell folks that want something for nothing to shop elsewhere....or sometimes I use my favorite response....."mam, not everyone can afford a neon sign" LOL

Seriously, I have learned over time that my dad was right....big is not necessarily better and keeping it simple solves most problems. You guys have a great summer.

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