• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Hello from Florida!

njkreger

The Swiss-Army Knife for Sign Shops
I know North Port well. Spent a good bit of time down in Venice area. Howdy from a bit further north (gainesville-ish)
Nice! My parents live in the Venice/Nokomis area, hence us moving here from Indiana to be closer to them and ship our two littles off to them to give us a break.
 

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
I wouldn't mind hearing some Robert stories, might give a bit of context here... :)
He was our last "business coach" who was obsessed with listening and sharpening scissors . At least he had a merchant membership. You need one to hawk your services here.
 

njkreger

The Swiss-Army Knife for Sign Shops
He was our last "business coach" who was obsessed with listening and sharpening scissors . At least he had a merchant membership. You need one to hawk your services here.
I think I'll pass on the "hawk" thing, sounds a bit predatory, not to mention that'd make you all rabbits or squirrels, which seems kind of weird. I'll be helpful when I can with the experiences, knowledge, and resources I have, no strings attached.

Now, the people who tried to sell me solar panels yesterday... whew...
 

ColorCrest

All around shop helper.
Anyhow, I own a solo coaching and consulting company, primarily working with sign companies from about $500k to $5 million, doing all sorts of things to support shop owners like
I'm curious to learn what software someone like yourself use to handle and track the day-to-day tasks and accounting for a business like yours.

Just wondering. Thanks in advance.
 

njkreger

The Swiss-Army Knife for Sign Shops
I'm curious to learn what software someone like yourself use to handle and track the day-to-day tasks and accounting for a business like yours.

Just wondering. Thanks in advance.
Sure...

On the accounting side, my business is pretty simple - service-based with no products/inventory/COGS. I use Wave for accounting/bookkeeping/payroll. It's free, integrates with bank/credit card to import and categorize transactions, handles invoicing, and then I pay for their payroll service so I don't have to manually calculate and pay payroll taxes.

I also use a variation of Mike Michalowicz's Profit First to manage budgeting and cash flow, and have done so for the past 7-8 years.

As for day-to-day, again, simple. The coaching part of the business is calendar-based, so conversations are managed by my calendar. Any project-based work is kept in a task list - either a simple document I keep on my desktop, or sometimes I manage it in an Airtable base I set up for tasks. Most I.T./technology work is request-based, and I have a support ticket system for clients to submit requests, and track those there. I also have Airtable bases set up to inventory client workstations/servers, keep track of warranties, report on when equipment needs to be cycled out, etc.

There's other various systems I've set up over the years, but that's the bulk of it.
 

Boudica

Back to "educational purposes"
I'm sorry. It sounds like you all had a negative experience with Robert.
I wouldn't say that. We had a lot of fun at his expense. he was very cryptic, and we could never understand his point. Then he would say weird things. The best was when he was offering to sharpen scissors. Still not sure if that was a weird metaphor, or he just wanted all of us to send him our scissors.
 

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
He was like politician, "Hire me hire me, I can do all these things for you". Really like what? "Oh look, the sky is blue". He couldn't answer any questions or give actual advise.
 

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
Well what the heck! I'm in Fort Myers a couple times a year visiting my parents. Next time I'll have to see if you're around when I'm there
We would come down here a few times a year to visit grand parents. They are starting to age and most of my work went remote now so we decided to get a place down here. I go back to TX every two weeks to do local work.. but so nice to come back here.
 
Top