[sign face recycling]

Any one know of a company that would be interested is a pile of old plastic sign faces to recycle?? Hate to through them in the landfill.

there definetly was someone and we have to find them again as well, they used to drop off a metal bin for us then we called when it was full and they paid us!

I found them years back in the pakage sent to all the sign companies with all the cards for you to fill out

if anyone remembers, finds or knows let me know as well!

[What would you do?]

The first Fastsigns in Austin I believe was in the early 80's went belly up. Then no FS franchises here for 5 yrs or so we did have 2 Signs Now and one or two Sign-a-Ramas. Now we have four FS I think and they are all going how well I don't know. The owner of three of them died a few years back and they were resold was the rumor. But it was significant that I believe FS started in Dallas and couldn't make it here only down the road. They had 23 in Dallas at the same time there were none here apparently.

But the last three Sign-a-Ramas have gone belly up and there is only one in Austin I think on the south side, brand new. I have talked to one of these owners who used me for CNC routering. He kept asking around if anyone wanted to buy his franchise. We asked him about the royalties and he said the advertising "more than paid for the percentage." But the last year he stopped paying the percentage and told one of our suppliers he just couldn't handle it. Then he was trying to sell the franchise after a significant time of not paying royalties. He finally did sell, but the owner moved out of town somewheres else I think. Another SR was just 3 miles north of my previous location and only lasted about 8 mos. He went down hard; I talked to him towards the end when he was referred to me for some digital printing while his printer was being fixed. His story was nightmarish to say the least; salesmen who stole jobs away, having to work a day job while his wife ran the shop in order to pay expenses, etc. He was in a high dollar strip mall and I kept saying to other signowners, this guy has to gross 2000.00 per day just to pay payroll and overhead plus get the required profit and they were looking at me like nowayjose. But it must have been true...one thing he DID say was he got just a few weeks of training and then got put out there to the wolves. There's no way in my mind you can learn enough to survive in this time period unless you get some mighty big accounts mighty fast. I.E. you get real lucky or you are in a good environment which has high demand and not too much competition. One guy I DID talk to said his brother was doing well in a Sign-A-Rama grossing 70,000.00 per month, but it wasn't here in Austin, but rather Chicago. On the rich side of town.

The two Signs Now were interestingly enough given the whole city as territory to two guys. Who so far will not sell at the offered price any of their territory which was I believe 50,000 which was for I don't know how much of the respective pies. So there won't be any more Signs Now in the near future in Austin unless the price goes up or the one guy who retired gives up his share for the offered price. The other guy told me he won't sell.

I am interested in the SAR guy who grossed 70,000 a month? We are here in CHicago and know all the owners, most of which are either gone or tring to keep above water...sounds like bs to me...but if I can find out which store I will find out for sure, personally we have scene 2 Fast Signs go under localy and at least 4 Sing A Ramas and this is locally her ein Chicago and recent! The other 2 seems smarter (Sign by Design & Signs Now) they have one store per large area and have been the same for along time, however, from what I hear one of them is going under to....

[What would you do?]

If you knew someone who wanted to break into the sign industry for the first time and wanted to buy into a franchise like Signs Now, Sign A Rama, or Fast Signs. Which would you recommend? Or do you think it would be a better move to invest that money in a individual who could help them along and build a company?

Not sure what the initial investment is in a franchise sign company or percentage you need to pay to keep one. I've always heard Fast Signs has a good program, but a little costlier compared to others.

personally I would run for your life! and I dont just mean the franchises either!!!!! I mean this is not a easy bsiness adn there are already way to many out there, most of which are falling on thier faces right now due to the oversaturation in the market