Category Archives: Education

Jul182024NOCOMMENTS

Sign Biz Inc.

Education, Events

Biggest Conference, Best Education, Most Fun!

The ELATED Convention is Coming!

The Sign Biz Convention is coming! September 27 – October 1st, get on board the biggest annual education conference and new product debut show in North America for Sign Biz Members! A big thank you to our valued sponsors for making this happen. Education and Elation at its best!

Once a year, Sign Biz Members experience the best workshops ever delivered for sign professionals. Today, what started as a small conference has turned into the unmissable Reunion for progressive thinkers of the Sign Biz Network.

Many famous names will be in the house with our stellar, amazing, brilliant Network Members! Some of the sponsored events include TWO big sales sessions, one with Wanda Allan! A $400 Sales Kit for every attendee is included. PLUS an incredible AI Presentation by Jeff Butler himself!

07-18-elated-conference-is-coming-cropped

About Jeff

Computer Science degree from University of California Berkeley
Runs 3 companies, a speaking company, booking agency, and a commercial insurance agency.
Addressed 40 industries from 4 different continents
2 published books – The Authentic Workplace and The Key to the New You
2 TEDx appearances
Focuses on workplace topics such as leadership, management and recruitment
Runs an international team spanning several continents

About Wanda

Wanda is an International Speaker, Coach, Corporate Trainer and the author of Follow Up Savvy and Follow Up Sales Strategies.

She earns rave reviews from corporate clients, associations, and entrepreneur groups nationwide.

Praise for Wanda

NAWBO Memphis

“Wanda Allen spoke at our NAWBO Memphis meeting. I received nothing but positive feedback from our members. Her follow-up practical sales tips entertained and engaged our audience. She presented common sense skills for not just those in direct sales, but for anyone selling the benefits of their business.”

Elizabeth Tate
Programs & Events Director

SPONSORS & MEMBERS

See you in September & October!

Interested in a spot on the agenda? Only 3 spots remain for full video production and perpetual exhibit booth, and three spots only remain for Breakout Session subject matter experts! Contact Teresa Young or use our contact form. Thank you!

Sep222022NOCOMMENTS

Sign Biz Inc.

Branding, Design, Education, Marketing, Training

Voice, Values, Design: A Beginner’s Guide to Branding

By Ed Carter at ablefutures.org

Your Business Identity

Branding is often the divider between a successful business and a middling one, and yet it’s still a commonly overlooked aspect of the work process by many entrepreneurs. Much of the reason for this comes down to a misunderstanding of what branding is and how to manage it consistently. In this first-look guide, Sign Biz explores its definitions, the way it can affect consumer interactions, and how to begin implementation.

What

In a sentence, branding is the identity of your business in the minds of the consumer. It is both critical for your business’s long-term success and challenging to get right. Developing a solid brand requires commitment, planning, and diligent work.

The question, then, is how can we shape and mold this identity in a way that is favorable for the company and, ultimately, its bottom line? For generations, brands have achieved this with the best creative talent. A few hundred highly-skilled copywriters, graphic designers, and marketing managers working in sync can sculpt a brand identity that is unmistakable in the mind of the consumer.

This creative team will attack three key components: voice, values, and design.

Values:

Your brand’s values are the guiding principles. It helps if you and your team also believe and abide by these values – often, companies will suggest they stand for one thing and then, internally, do something else. Your brand values will endear you to different sets of consumers, as well as affect business decisions and PR activity.

Voice:

Your brand’s voice alludes to the way your brand speaks to its customers/clients through marketing and in all external-facing, company-related media. It should be built to reflect your key demographics and to help drive internal company OKRs (objectives and key results). This means that you have a set tone of writing and a specific lexicon that your writers will draw upon. If you are a B2B financial consultancy, this is more likely to be formal, jargonistic, and direct. If you are a consumer-facing teenage makeup brand, you may opt for something more casual and laissez-faire.

Design:

As the consumer’s first touchpoint, the design of your brand is arguably its most important component. Modern consumers will form a perception of your company immediately based on the colors you use, the shape of your typography, and the style of your logo. This is why it’s crucial to know exactly who you’re targeting, their preferences, their spending habits and to craft aesthetics around this data.

It’s important to note that all three branding components feed off one another. Ideally, your brand values should affect the way your company looks, and occasionally the way your company looks can feed back on the way it sounds or the things it purports to believe.

Why

But wait, what if customers/clients only care about the product/service itself? Or, rather, isn’t all this superfluous? To answer that, it’s important to look into the statistics. Recent studies suggest that 89% of shoppers stay loyal to brands that share their values and 13% of consumers would pay up to 50% more for products or services if they had the impression that the business makes a positive world impact. In some markets, it may be true that branding has a diminished value but it is almost always integral to the advancement of small businesses. Acknowledging the weight of good branding in a company’s prospects is the first step towards wielding it to drive better results.

How

We’ve spoken about the traditional process of branding and how it tends to favor those with a larger budget. So, assuming you’ve internalized the basics of branding, how can you compete? Fortunately for present-day entrepreneurs, we live in the era of disruptor brands. Small businesses have created all sorts of problems for large, incumbent corporations and one reason for this is due to plummeting costs of labor and the wide availability & mobility of creative talent.

If you want a designer, a writer, a strategist, or a creative director, you need not fork out a yearly salary (although that’s an option too). Your local sign shop has talent beyond strictly design- you get a perspective on effective visual communications and local permits, legal requirements for signage, branding, and much more. But if you need a specialized service, such as a writer or marketing professional, freelancing platforms have democratized the process and allow companies to browse, vet, negotiate with, and enlist professionals for only the duration of a project. The ease and breadth of these directories mean you have access to the full spectrum of talent at competitive prices.

If you’re on a shoestring or you’re confident enough in your own artistic sensibilities, it’s also possible to do much of the legwork on your own. For example, you can sketch out and provide examples of logos you like, then ask your local sign shop designer to build a logo for you. The shop professionals know good design, effective logotypes. You could also try following one of the many online guides to craft your own brand voice — employing it across social media and on your company site.

Once you have the foundations of branding in place, you’ll often find that the next steps (to do with marketing, sales, customer service, etc.) reveal themselves. For now, your main priority should be to craft a truly unique, personal identity that resonates with clients/customers and to stick with it consistently.

Credits: Photo Top- Pexels, Eva Bronzini

Aug262015NOCOMMENTS

Sign Biz Inc.

Business Development, Coaching, Statistics, Tips & Tools

Onboarding in a Sign Shop

Onboarding, also known as organizational socialization, refers to the mechanism through which new employees acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to become effective organizational members and insiders.

Thus states the official definition developed by HR gurus, and published by Wikipedia. Most people think of onboarding as a one day or one week event, that commences with the new hire’s first day on the job. But step back a moment, and note that there is great cost to bringing on a new employee, and you have to get it right. So attracting the right hire is actually step one. And that begins with your company’s image, brand, and promise to clients.

So what do employees want? A new survey of more than 600 employees, conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management found 72% of employees rank “respectful treatment of all employees at all levels” to be the most important factor in job satisfaction.

The other factors in the top 5 are trust between employees and senior management (64%); benefits (63%), compensation/pay (61%); and job security (59%). As for the actual work itself? It ranked No. 11.

Knowing that your company culture and respectful treatment from management are top priorities, we can begin. Fact: 46% of people will fail within the first 18 months of a new job mainly because of poor culture fit. Before you let that little voice in the back of your head argue that you don’t want to coddle employees or treat them with kid gloves, remember this: When you give good treatment, you are actually keeping your costs down.

Why? Pay Attention: Thirty case studies taken from the 11 most-relevant research papers on the costs of employee turnover demonstrate that it costs businesses 100% – 300% of a worker’s salary to replace that worker. For businesses that experience high levels of turnover, this can add up to represent significant costs! If, heaven forbid, you have five turnovers in one year, you just cost your business one entire team’s salaries for the year!

Now that we have your attention, let’s talk onboarding. Fact: New employees are 69% more likely to stay more than three years if they’ve experienced a well-structured onboarding program.

You have a workstation set up, a business card order form with title checked off, a pile of HR paperwork to be completed, and a tour of your shop and parking lot instructions. You’re ready for your new hire’s first day, right? Um, not so fast.

That list of prep items is actually going to cover about an hour and a half. So then what? Assign the New Employee Handbook as required reading for the rest of the day? Lame. At least that is what your new hire may be thinking! If you plan on maximizing the beneficial outcomes for your company as well as for this eager beaver you will see every day, you need to think in terms of a month of orientation. Yes, that is what our own schedule for new sign business owners presents, in a clearly laid out calendar covering four weeks of OTJ training.

Here are some examples for the first day:

Workstation prepared, phone, file drawer, clean chair, bulletin board and trash bin
Welcome gift – a great mug, a tape measure/ note pad / all in one, a welcome to the team signed by everyone else.
Scheduled meeting with all employees, to break the ice
Employment paperwork completed, position description reiterated, paydays, the week ahead
Tour of each piece of the business, how it fits together
Informal lunch with manager or bring in pizza for everyone and hold the informal meet and greet then.
Some downtime that first day
End of day Q&A, check in with the new hire for lingering questions, etc.

A simple plan of action for the weeks ahead will help you avoid assigning “busy work” to the new team member. We’ve all been there: Knowing that the newbie is not ready to “go it alone” we assign a safe task that will eat up some time until we can get to the next piece of training.

Many companies have a 90-day introductory period during which new employees are under assessment for their fit with the company, and their job performance. Though you likely intend to provide the feedback at the end of the 90-day period, it is wise to give 30-day and 60-day evaluations along the way. In addition, informal feedback daily is extremely important.

One of our new business owners – a first-time entrepreneur – explained the impact a new hire has on the existing team. He noted that it is not a new member of an existing team, but rather a new team that is created. Brand new. If you think of it this way, you can recognize the signs of the team being formed over that 90-day period, and you can help to guide its development.

Those reactions ranged from nervous, to insecure, to downright ill.

At the 2014 SHRM Annual Conference and Exposition, the founders of Baudville spoke with many attendees about what it feels like to be a newbie. Those reactions ranged from nervous, to insecure, to downright ill. According to the stats, by the time your new employee has made it to the six-month mark, they have likely determined if they will stay long-term or not. So what you do beyond the 90-day mark matters.

Here’s the kicker: Retention rates for employees who are mentored are 72% higher than for those who are not mentored.

Hopefully this has given you a fresh perspective on the great onboarding process, and how this system can become a true representation of a great company culture. Spend a couple of days focusing your energy on developing a good strategy for new hires, and gain returns from this effort for years to come.

We thank Sign Biz Members who contributed their experiences, and photo credits to Mustang Signs and SIGNWorks of Montery. We credit Roberta Chinsky Matuson for her insights published in Recognation. Roberta is known globally as The Talent Maximizer, and is the President of Matuson Consulting. www.matusonconsulting.com

Jul062015NOCOMMENTS

Sign Biz Inc.

Design, Industry, Tips & Tools

Sign Maintenance Guidance

“The Sign’s story is a saga of constant and near-fatal brushes with poverty, decay and outright extinction.”

This was posted fifteen years ago on the public information website of the Hollywood Sign Trust, the non-profit organization responsible for the maintenance, preservation, improvement and promotion of the world’s most famous sign, and Hollywood’s most beloved landmark. For over two decades, the Hollywood Sign Trust has actively protected and popularized Hollywood’s premier landmark, to ensure that this once seriously threatened monument survives and thrives. Their role: to physically maintain, repair and secure this 50-foot-high monument perched high above the Hollywood hills, to educate the world about its historical and cultural importance, and to raise the funds necessary to accomplish these long-term projects.

It takes hard work and intelligent planning to build an identity for a company, a building, or even a city. Memorable images, such as the Hollywood sign resting in the hills, are expensive to come by. Yet that important “first impression,” the sign displaying corporate graphics, is taken for granted with little concern given to its appearance after installation.

Every day, each impression made on those viewing it is a negative one when the sign is not operating or looking its best. The expense associated with major repair or replacement can often be avoided with proper care. To borrow an old adage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” A sign maintenance program can simplify your work life, save time for business owners and purchasers, and save money. Here is an astonishing fact that comes out of a recent nationwide survey of nearly 1000 consumers, conducted by FedEx. Nearly 60% of consumers said that the absence of signs deters them from entering a store or business. Over 50% of survey respondents indicated that poor signage (e.g., poor quality, misspelled words) deters them from entering a place of business. Think about your monthly revenue. Now cut it in half. That is what could happen if your sign becomes cracked, faded, illegible, graffiti-marked, or has misspelled words!

Over 50% of survey respondents indicated that poor signage (e.g., poor quality, misspelled words) deters them from entering a place of business.

The Cost Effective Solution: Gain peace of mind and avoid losing thousands of dollars in business with a Preventative Maintenance program for your on-premise sign. There is a “preventative maintenance” contract to fit virtually any need. It may not be as involved as the 2005 renovation project undertaken for the Hollywood Sign, but for your business, it is just as important.

Sign Maintenance is part of a complete sign management program, which includes the following:

· Site Inspection and Evaluation

· Design and Visual Presentation

· Planning Applications

· Manufacture

· Installation

· Maintenance

· Project Management

There are three basic methods of sign management that are used as follows:

1. Total Replacement Method

In this method, all signs in a building or section are replaced after a set interval of time, regardless of how long they have been in place. The length of time between replacements is based on the service life of the material.

2. Sign Inspection Method

In this method, a physical sign inspection is conducted periodically, preferably on an annual or bi-annual basis. Those that do not meet the minimums are identified for replacement. Since only those signs that are below acceptable quality are replaced, there is no salvage value (replaced signs cannot be reused).

3. Sign Management Method

In this method, all signs are included in a computerized database that contains detailed information about the sign and the sign installation. The sign management system predicts when a sign should reach the end of its service life. The list of signs needing replacement is then used to order/fabricate the necessary signs and perform the replacement. When this method is utilized, it requires the least number of personnel.

What services might a sign maintenance contract provide for your facilities?

1. All signs will be properly maintained and kept in good condition

2. A copy of all sign design and text should be maintained so as to be legible and complete.

3. The sign structure shall be maintained in a vertical position unless originally permitted otherwise, and shall be maintained in safe condition at all times.

4. All parts and surfaces shall be cleaned, painted or replaced as necessary to maintain the original permitted appearance.

5. Electrical systems shall be in a safe condition at all times.

In addition, signs that are replaced regularly due to excessive exposure to the elements, change of tenant information, or vandalism, are now inventoried by the sign maintenance company for a 72-hour turnaround.

A maintenance contract means a non-deductible, no cost service call anytime your sign needs service or repair. For you, a maintenance contract eliminates costly internal paperwork, approvals for repairs, as well as embarrassing delays for parts and service.

What sign maintenance services can you undertake for your facilities?

Professional sign companies will use the finest materials and construction methods to insure that your sign lasts as long as possible and requires the least amount of maintenance. There are few things you can do, however, to prolong your sign’s service life and retain it’s appearance. Here is a list of recommended actions to take:

Cleaning

For flex faces and awnings, you will need to pressure wash the vinyl material every six months using a manufacturer-approved cleaning agent. We suggest Cooley Clean tm, available from your local Sign Biz Professional. Most other types of signs do not normally require scheduled cleaning, but may be cleaned with a soft brush and a mild household cleaner on an as-needed basis.

Lighting Problems

If your sign or awning isn’t lighting properly, several things could be wrong:

If it isn’t lighting at all, there is probably a problem with the wiring, timer or photocell. In some cases, you can adjust the time and day on the timer or put your hand over the photocell to test those items.
If a large portion isn’t lighting or appears dim, there is probably a problem with a ballast (in cabinets and awnings) or transformer (in lighted letters).
If a small portion or single letter isn’t lighting or appears dim, there is probably a problem with one or more lamps (in cabinets and awnings) or neon tubes (in lighted letters).

In any of these cases, you will need to place a service call to a qualified sign company to perform the necessary repairs (see below).

Service Calls

If your sign requires repair work, you may call the local member of the Sign Biz International Network. As a member of an international network of sign professionals, local and long distance service calls are usually completed within three working days with the exception of replacement neon which typically takes 1-2 days longer.

Your signs can be covered by a comprehensive program of regularly scheduled preventive maintenance and as needed corrective maintenance. And unlike the famous Hollywood sign, you won’t need a trust fund to underwrite your investment!

To find a sign professional, use the Sign Biz Member Locator service and place your trust in a well-trained sign expert!

1 2 → »

Category Archives: Education

The ELATED Convention is Coming!

The Sign Biz Convention is coming! September 27 – October 1st, get on board the biggest annual education conference and new product debut show in North America for Sign Biz Members! A big thank you to our valued sponsors for making this happen. Education and Elation at its best!

Once a year, Sign Biz Members experience the best workshops ever delivered for sign professionals. Today, what started as a small conference has turned into the unmissable Reunion for progressive thinkers of the Sign Biz Network.

Many famous names will be in the house with our stellar, amazing, brilliant Network Members! Some of the sponsored events include TWO big sales sessions, one with Wanda Allan! A $400 Sales Kit for every attendee is included. PLUS an incredible AI Presentation by Jeff Butler himself!

About Jeff

About Wanda

Praise for Wanda

NAWBO Memphis

Your Business Identity

What

This creative team will attack three key components: voice, values, and design.

Why

How

1. Total Replacement Method

2. Sign Inspection Method

3. Sign Management Method

What sign maintenance services can you undertake for your facilities?

Cleaning

Lighting Problems

Service Calls

Client Kudos

Recent Posts

Follow the Fun!

signbiznetwork

CONTACT INFO

HOP TO

Latest Posts

Follow the Fun!

signbiznetwork