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How much money do people make in this business?

Fatboy

Fatboy

New Member
I have been wondering.....how much money can you make in this business? I am new to sign writing....about two years now.I also own a printer cartridge supply business with a few little retail outlets (4) in shopping malls for the past nine years. The cartridge business have always been good to me. Recently I bough a used Roland printer and I am amazed how the work just keep on coming in. Right now I am working double shift(granted I am doing a lot of world cup work) but still...every day the work just keep on coming in.This makes me wonder...what is the limitations in this business? Where can you take something like this? Any thought on this will be interesting!
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Gross, net, owner, 10 employees, 35 employees, part time, hobbyist, beginner, 40 year veteran, neon, fabricator, pictorial artist, computer cookie cutter and the list goes on.

It's all relative. Some people make enough money to raise three kids and send them off to college with no headaches while others are busier than all get out and don't have a pot to piss in.

It's all what you make of it. If you have a successful first business.... you should have an idea of what you need to make things work for you on a educated level. If you're covering all of your bases, then it's time to raise your prices and start a retirement fund or a vacation layaway plan.

Like Dan said.... I don't think many people will tell you a number and if they did.... they'd probably be lying.
 
Letterbox Mike

Letterbox Mike

New Member
You can make as much in this business as you can in any other business. If you're working 80 hours a week, missing family functions, not saving for retirement, not investing money elsewhere, etc. and only dragging in $25k per year you might want to seek employment elsewhere, you don't own your business, your business owns you. There's no reason whatsoever to own a business and endure the long hours, stress and sacrifices that come along with it unless you're making more money than you can elsewhere. Business isn't a hobby, it's a way to make a living...
 
Fatboy

Fatboy

New Member
Gino said:
Gross, net, owner, 10 employees, 35 employees, part time, hobbyist, beginner, 40 year veteran, neon, fabricator, pictorial artist, computer cookie cutter and the list goes on.

It's all relative. Some people make enough money to raise three kids and send them off to college with no headaches while others are busier than all get out and don't have a pot to piss in.

It's all what you make of it. If you have a successful first business.... you should have an idea of what you need to make things work for you on a educated level. If you're covering all of your bases, then it's time to raise your prices and start a retirement fund or a vacation layaway plan.

Like Dan said.... I don't think many people will tell you a number and if they did.... they'd probably be lying.
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See your point there Gino.It is more a general question,not really asking people what they are earning(because what is whealth anyway) Life style to me is very interesting.I am curious to understand your statement of raising the prises(I like the Idea) Please explain what your thoughts on this is
 
Fatboy

Fatboy

New Member
insignia said:
You can make as much in this business as you can in any other business. If you're working 80 hours a week, missing family functions, not saving for retirement, not investing money elsewhere, etc. and only dragging in $25k per year you might want to seek employment elsewhere, you don't own your business, your business owns you. There's no reason whatsoever to own a business and endure the long hours, stress and sacrifices that come along with it unless you're making more money than you can elsewhere. Business isn't a hobby, it's a way to make a living...
Click to expand...

Good answer there insignia. That is what I think some of us are sometimes doing wrong.The hobby business.
 
Letterbox Mike

Letterbox Mike

New Member
It really drives me nuts when I see people trying to scrape by on next to minimum wage by owning a business (any business, not just this one). It's stupid, frankly, it's a huge pet peeve of mine.

Nobody works because they want to when it comes down to it. You work to make money. It's a means to an end. Some people are really good at figuring out how to make money by doing their own thing, others are terrible at it. If you're not good at it (i.e. running your own business) you just shouldn't do it. You're doing yourself and your family a huge disservice.

Life is about so much more than work. If you can make a better living elsewhere, do that. In the end, what's important isn't how much money you bring home, but the lifestyle that owning a business affords you. If you work non stop but still cant afford to fill up your gas tank you shouldn't be in business for yourself. Maybe that sounds harsh but it's true.
 
anotherdog

anotherdog

New Member
insignia said:
you don't own your business, your business owns you.
Click to expand...

I have not had more than a long weekend off in four years. Either I'm too busy or too poor. You have customers, regular customers who need you to be there when they want to do business, or they find someone else.

grow the business, get employees and overhead you are now sweating the margin.

It is a business like any other, you are smart, lucky and hard working you can have a comfortable life. Lack any of those three and you will likely live hand to mouth or go under with debt.

That said I'm a creative type who loves to design and make things. I have worked for over 25 years mostly for bosses I either didn't like or didn't respect (with some exceptions). I love my business, the challenges and the freedoms of self employment. I do not miss the commute and the clock watching, I no longer dread Monday morning (even if I'm working all weekend).

My advice is get a government job, get an index linked pension, take vacations and have weekends. (the last thing we need is another sign guy).
 
W

wildindian

Grumpy
Man when I got married and started in this business I had $13 and no worries last week I had $26 in th bank man that's a 100% profit but with a lot of worries.
 
I

imagep

New Member
Some people make $4 (US), others make $9(US). One guy I know make $12,000 US but another loose $1,400,000 (US).

Me? Well for the last few years I have made BILLIONS of dollars more than General Motors. So I guess that makes me RICH (and much smarter than all the employees at GM put together)!
 
F

Fitch

New Member
I look at it this way.... I make as much money as I WANT.

There are guys out there (granted I am in Oz) who are "flat out" doing ten jobs for $300 each. That's $3000, the same $3000 that I charge $750 for each of 4 jobs. I take my time, do a better job, have pride in my work and have no stress and always deliver on time. I don't have another 6 people asking where their job is. Fixed costs - rent, utilities, lights etc are going to be the same whether you do 10 or 2 jobs, whether you are open 1 or 24 hrs per day.

I have NEVER given two hoots as to how much someone "turns over" as in gross. It's what's left that counts. In some years, I have made more money than those turning over millions of dollars.

Busy does not always equate to profit. Consider how the guy that spends $25 on a litre or quart of paint can turn that one can into $10,000 just because of what he can do with it - splash it on a wall.

How much money can you make in this business? Too many variables, such as materials, individual supplier costs for same product availability, outgoings, staff, stuffups, fuel costs, general business confidence, who your competitors are - their pricing: who they know: how good they are: how ambitious they are, even down to the weather and how this affects dry times, installs, courier deliveries for stock, staff illness etc etc etc.

If you are a good business person, you can make enough money to do the things in life that you want to do. If you are passionate about doing something that you absolutely love, then it is a joy to go to work each and every day.... and get remunerated for it.

Hope this gets the cogs ticking... my point really is do what you love and you will be happy. THAT'S what life is about. Lotta dead rich people.

Cheers - G
 
Pat Whatley

Pat Whatley

New Member
anotherdog said:
I have not had more than a long weekend off in four years. Either I'm too busy or too poor.
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Then you've got a problem. If you're so busy you can't get away for a week...but it doesn't matter because you don't have the money to leave for a week YOU really need to look at your pricing. Raise your prices until work slows down to a level you can handle, you'll be making more money doing less work
 
trakers

trakers

New Member
How much do people make.... The universal answer is probably "never enough"

Me, I own businesses because I find it challenging and interesting. I could certainly make more by going back to corporate life, BUT, the way it is I answer to no one, do what I want when I want and really enjoy my days at work, even if some of them are a bit long.

Life is too short to live it out in a dank corporate cubical working for the man. There is *WAY* more to life than money, IMHO.
 
Rooster

Rooster

New Member
Jeez I wanted to post in this thread earlier but I got lost on my way back to the computer. These 12' high stacks of hundred dollar bills laying around the office have turned the place into a bit of a maze.

Oh well, it's a nice problem to have I suppose.
 
James Burke

James Burke

Being a grandpa is more fun than working
Yep, for sure

Rooster said:
Jeez I wanted to post in this thread earlier but I got lost on my way back to the computer. These 12' high stacks of hundred dollar bills laying around the office have turned the place into a bit of a maze.

Oh well, it's a nice problem to have I suppose.
Click to expand...

Double ditto...I try to keep both office doors open so the breeze can clear out the office, but they just keep accumulating...any solutions?

JB
 
OldPaint

OldPaint

New Member
what i made..........when it was a BRUSH/TALENT ONLY business, was FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!
very little money paid to any suppliers, no vinyl, no computer, no plotter or printer, no lease payments, no inks to buy!!!!!!!
in those days i got paid $200, and maybe $10-20 bucks was invested in material!!!!!
since then............its been a downhill run with all the plotters/printers cuttin each others prices..........just to make a payment.
i still PAINT, and the profit in this is STILL BOUT 80%!!!!!!!!!!!! thats makin money.
 
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