How much does your shop make?

[ChiknNutz]

I am trying to get some anonymous information regarding what some other sign shops are making. Of course if you want, you are welcome to comment, but I sure this is somewhat sensitive to some. It would be nice to see how the different shop-types compare as far as income goes, but I don't think the poll is sophisticated enough to do that, Fred?

 

[Fred Weiss]

You would have to post a different poll for each shop type and that would still be confusing IMHO. There are only two ways to set up a poll .... either single choice radio buttons like you've done or multiple choice check boxes like I did for software used.

Most polls here need to be taken with a large grain of salt anyway because you won't get enough replies for anything close to an accurate statistical sample. Your poll question may be interpreted differently by different readers. I take it to mean gross sales but it could be taken to mean gross profit or even net profit.

They're fun though so we'll see how it comes out.

 

[Jon Aston]

Chris:

Signs of The Times magazine publishes a "CAS/Commercial State of the Industry Report" that might prove interesting/useful to you.

 

[VinylLabs.com]

my sign shop is not making enough money in the past couple of months I went one stretch for almost 4-5 weeks without a single client, and in the past 3 days I've gotten 5 clients on rush job

one client called me up, talked with him about all the stuff he needed done (windows, outdoor sign, decals for prices and rebranding) I asked him when he needed it buy and he replied "oh, I'm opening the store in 2 days."

uhm.... so i did a big rush and finished it on opening day.

 

[MAB SIGNS]

Fred it would be interesting to revive this thread in the multiple choice format you spoke of, could you lend a hand in the descriptive choices and gross levels that might associate with them? I see a lot of shops in the 240k-500k annually and I've worked for a couple over several million. All very different within the industry. Would be interesting to see where the majority of members reside. Hopefully everyone would participate in a blind poll. Let's give it a whirl!

 

[sullosau]

might also need to add something like ho many people working in your shop, one shop with two ppl might make 30K net and one with 45K and one with several 100K, just a thought to make data more accurate?

Steve

 

[New Sign Guy]

My shop will never generate income because it is a part of a non sign business.

 

[iSign]

might also need to add something like ho many people working in your shop, one shop with two ppl might make 30K net and one with 45K and one with several 100K, just a thought to make data more accurate?

Steve

I'm with Steve on this...

keep it simple, but also level the playing field to get some useful data.

for example:

annual gross sales per full time employee

in my case, I cleared a quarter million in sales this year, with 2 full time workers (myself & 1 other) and 1 part timre person... so my answer would be:

$100,000 in annual gross sales - per full time employee.

 

[Just Another Sign Guy]

as mentioned prior i really feel this poll needs to be re thought. i would be interested in gross sales and at what profit margin we are all operating on as sales for the sake of big numbers really mean nothing if you are operating at a minimal profit (or no profit for that matter). and as isign has mentioned it would be nice to have a way to level the playing field per employee (including owner) as obviously a shop such as my old one with 32+ employees although the annual sales are impressive at first glance it would be very safe to assume that many smaller businesses are probably generating the same profit if not a larger profit when reduced to a individual employee basis.

 

[Fred Weiss]

The problem I've always had with this poll was the use of the word "income" which to me has a different meaning than does sales, volume or revenue. I answered it on the basis of gross sales which would be the most meaningful figure because what you end up earning from the gross sales will depend on a whole bunch of other factors.

There was something similar at Letterville a couple of years ago. My interpretation of both this poll and that one was that $70K a year in gross sales was the median (not the average) point of the responders. In other words, half the responders do less than $70K a year in sign related business.

With that as a conclusion any answers more detailed would be skewed. Consider This Poll which showed that only 28% of the responders are fulltime and work from a commercial location. Yet another ended up with 78% of the responders are owners.

 

[Fred Weiss]

I have posted a new poll which may be more to the point.

 

[Gene@mpls]

I'm with Steve on this...

keep it simple, but also level the playing field to get some useful data.

for example:

annual gross sales per full time employee

in my case, I cleared a quarter million in sales this year, with 2 full time workers (myself & 1 other) and 1 part timre person... so my answer would be:

$100,000 in annual gross sales - per full time employee.

I like Doug's idea (sorry- isign)- Gross in the door / how many employees
as being an indicator of efficiency. I try to track the numbers every which
way but this seems a good indicator of performance. Gene

 

[ScottyDoo]

We were right around 3 million last year, but we're a large shop with a full electrical and commercial department so $30-60K individual jobs are common.