posted
Normally things are so slow that I don't even go in. I tell my designer that he wants to go in and do enough business to pay his wages for the day, then stay open.
This year my sales have been down 35% so we never really had to shift into our hussling mode. Just before Chirstmas, I started getting big jobs that needed quoting and a few smaller jobs, like big bannners. So it looks like I am to have to go in.
-------------------- Laura Butler Vision Graphics & Sign 4479 Welch Rd Attica, Mi 48412 Posts: 2855 | From: Attica, Mi, USA | Registered: Nov 2000
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I will be open. After all, New Year's Eve isn't till Friday night. Signs have been slow for me too. But they picked up again just the other day. I get to do Koro signs for the township this week. And they are looking for an "old-fashioned" sandblasted gilded applied dimensional lettered handpainted out the wazoo sign for their park that only I can do! I'm thinking next year is gonna be a good one. Especially once my "designer" gets here. Love....Jill
-------------------- That is like a Mr. Potato Head with all the pieces in the wrong place. -Russ McMullin Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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I will be cranking my favorite cd's and listening to my favorite talk radio shows for two days at least.
Chinese food for lunch...
Oh yeah... good times are here.
The last shop I worked for made the week between Christmas and New Year's an optional time off with no pay. Unless of course we had enough comp time coming to us.
Stay home. I would be if I could get away with it.
-------------------- Bruce Bowers
DrCAS Custom Lettering and Design Saint Cloud, Minnesota
"Things work out best for the people who make the best of the way things work out." - Art Linkletter Posts: 6451 | From: Saint Cloud, Minnesota | Registered: Jun 1999
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Now I dont have a shop, But I look at it this way, this would be the week where if your not expecting much work to come thru the door then perhaps its an opportunity to freshen up the place a bit. Maybe change a display wall or something. Put up some new sample signs try a new method of signmaking that you learned at a meet this year but were too busy to attempt during the busy part of the year, or do SOMETHING to change the atmosphere in your shop a little bit to make YOU feel more comfortable there. Its also an opportunity for you to do your yearly inventory or at least prepare things so that come next weekend you can zoom right on thru it. Wouldnt it be nice to have things done so you can run off and play like the common-folk do?
-------------------- Harris Kohen K-Man Pinstriping and Graphix Trenton, NJ "Showing the world that even I can strategically place the pigment where its got to go." Posts: 1739 | From: Trenton, NJ, USA | Registered: Jun 2001
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absolutely! i have a bunch of signs to make this week and i need to get my shop all organized so the new toy can fit in the studio.(its getting there) but hey i took christmas off...today i'm doing some cleanup...bust down all the boxes so they don't fill my dumpster...its snowing..looks beautiful outside...i'm just gonna enjoy the day knowing tomorrow the phone will be ringing and i'll have to answer it. no complaints...i love these kind of days!
-------------------- Karyn Bush Simply Not Ordinary, LLC Bartlett, NH 603-383-9955 www.snosigns.com info@snosigns.com Posts: 3516 | From: Bartlett, NH USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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No way. It's my tradition to be closed during this time to spend with my family. We don't socialize much throughout the year with others outside our home and this is the time to do it, or just stay home in pj's all day long and play.
I'm fully booked upon coming back to work 1st week of Jan and I am very grateful everyone is willing to wait for ME.
Hubby is working throughout the holidays so that only reinforces me to stand strong and stay closed for the sake of whatever family time I can muster up.
I'll admit, if I didn't have Cody to entertain, I'd be in my shop cleaning, sorting, filing, but still not working.
posted
Being home based, if I am here then I'm open. If I'm not here I'm closed.
Usually there isn't anything doing between Christmas and New Years but this time round I do have a couple of jobs to do this coming week. I just look at them as a bit more "playtime" money while we are away.
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
posted
We'll be in this week. Got a couple of jobs that need to be completed this by the end of the month. The phones will probably be quieter, so I'll be able to finish the new shelving units upstairs for our Standoffs stock. Also I've got to get started building that new bedroom suite I promised Laurie. Boy we had a nice Christmas, later today well be over at a friends annual Boxing Day open house...more eating. I'm looking forward to another busy new year.
posted
The office for my company is in my home - that's where the phone rings. Someone actually called Christmas evening to say they're ready for me to deliver their sign. They were pretty surprised to have the phone answered by a human voice. So, yeah - I've already put in about an hour today (Sunday) delivering that, and Monday will begin a full and critical work week around here - the culmination of a very brisk year.
SONGPAINTER Original Sign Music by Sign People NOW AVAILABLE on CD and the proceeds go to Letterville's favorite charity! Click Here for Sound Clips! Posts: 1974 | From: Orleans, MA, Cape Cod, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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My designer is taking the week off, but the rest of us are working Tuesday - Friday noon. We have work to do, but will probably work short days if possible.
[ December 26, 2004, 08:11 PM: Message edited by: Rick Beisiegel ]
""Good judgment comes from experience; and a lot of that comes from bad judgment" - Will Rogers Posts: 3487 | From: Beautiful Newaygo, Michigan | Registered: Mar 2003
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If the phone rings, I usually answer it. Tomorrow I have a bunch more stuff that I've sorted through & packed up that needs to go out to the shop to be put away.
I'm hoping I have to take Thursday off to drive to WV & back. Really don't want to do that drive on Friday.
If it's slow, I may sneak off to the courthouse for an hour here & there like I did last week. Got the brilliant idea to start the family tree. I think I lost my mind.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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I'm homebased too, and when I'm here I open up. Especially since I travel with EstiMate during the year, and am sometimes just aghast, albeit grateful, that I am able to retain my customers. I have explained my dual role enough to not alienate the bread and butter ones, anyway, and I give them my travel schedule for the year.
I have found that on days when other shops are closed I always pull in extra business because the phone is answered with a "live one". Even telling them that I'm closed but can answer questions, is good.
This next week I am cleaning up. I have sold my drying rack, and my two Gerber 4B's, I was lucky again, to have Timi like me. He found both buyers for me immediately. My large basement shop is nevertheless like a NY apartment. Every square inch in allocated, so getting things out of here means sweeping, organizing, moving furniture, and breathing deeply while allocating the new space intelligently. It is a very big 5x3 foot 50 rung metal rack
I decided to hang up the long screen printing runs for good. I am just simply tired. Gone are the nights of my house smelling. Gone are the mornings of vinyl fume headaches. Gone are the late nights of screening large quantities, which during the day I can't do since interuptions might be lethal to my screen's surviving the interruption, and my progress.
The 4B's and much paraphernalia to go with them were going to be sold along with my first Edge. Twice I had people telling me they would buy them, twice they did not follow through, so I now am cleaning house by selling the two plotters( both in good shape, but one is a spare for parts)- and I have pretty much decided to just uncrate my Edge and run it to death which may take a really long time still.
Other than that I have lists of chores I have been adding on to daily for a couple of weeks.
After all, the closeout of a year is the time I have to put on my Secretary and Bookkeeper hats. And communicate with my accountant, thank goodness I like her and it's mutual. Have I ever mentioned here how much I detest those hats?
It will be a whirlwind. And I look forward to the results, if not the process.
-------------------- Myra A. Grozinger Signs Limited Winston-Salem, NC
signslimited@triad.rr.com Posts: 1244 | From: Winston-Salem, NC USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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same story here as many of the replies above... I'll be open some, partly for getting signs out, partly for some year-end wrapup type chores, & hopefully also finding time for the start of many organizational chores I have planned for a good deal of the next months extra time I'm expecting.
posted
Open- yes, to get ahead before the new year- I've just enrolled in an "Airbrush Venturi" course, 3 weeks full time 3-21st January. Tony Vowles runs them in Victoria, and a few years ago he (or one of his students) started them in Sydney. Now they're offered in Brisbane.
I'm looking forward to it. The hard part is to switch off the old bad habits & learn their system!
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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Well I'm happy to say I am open with work again for the first time in 3 years between these two holidays. I also have to finaly install a chimney for my permanent heat source this week.
Being home based as well it gives me the flexbility to go sledding with my son if I wish and get some lettering done
-------------------- Bob Rochon Creative Signworks Millbury, MA 508-865-7330
"Life is Like an Echo, what you put out, comes back to you." Posts: 5149 | From: Millbury, Mass. U.S. | Registered: Nov 1998
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Yup, I'm here this week. I took off Christmas eve, Christmas and the day after and will do the same for New Years. I also rent Budget Trucks so I'm open most of the time, including saturdays and 1/2 day Sundays. I'll spend this week reading, cleaning and thinking. These are the things I don't have time to do during the season. I have a wooden sign and 1/2dozen small signs on the books, I'll be hitting them also. I have resigned myself that I will never be ahead, just want to keep not so far behind!
-------------------- Michael A Latham Tee's Me Shirt & Sign 16462 Jefferson Davis Highway Colonial Heights Va. 804-835-3299 signdogopie@aol.com Posts: 379 | From: Colonial Heights, Virginia | Registered: Feb 2004
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might as well go on vacation......everybody else is.....iam here and have had just a couple little things to do.......nothing to make any money on.
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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I was out of town and just got back in tonight (Wed).. no sense in "opening" up for two days before a weekend... in other words, I won't be returning any emails or making any phonecalls til the 3rd..
In the meantime, I'm gonna be putting in some serious pen/ink time drawing bad ass bombshell comic book babes. Gotta get my practice in.
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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I have been VERY busy this week! I had 2 walk-ins, which is weird. A last-minute banner for a church that turned into 2. Window stickers for an old client who told me he has 2 new vans coming in. Coro signs for the township public works garage. A lady called me to say her zoning officer FINALLY approved her sign. A painted one! And gate signs for a self-storage place. This is all more work than I had the entire month of November! Love....Jill
-------------------- That is like a Mr. Potato Head with all the pieces in the wrong place. -Russ McMullin Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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I was hoping I wouldn't have to open until the new year, as I have some fun projects on the go at the moment. But, when the phone rang at about 2.30 this afternoon and the lady was looking for five large commercial signs I thought I'd better show some interest. Interest rapidly waned when a deadline of today was mentioned! At least it proved there are still a few optimists about.
-------------------- Arthur Vanson Bucks Signs Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England arthur@buckssigns.co.uk -------------------- Posts: 805 | From: Chesham, Bucks, England | Registered: Mar 2002
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I hadn't figured on it but I forwarded the phone and thought I would coast til the phone rang...Well as it turned out I've had about 5 phone calls ...3 were wrong numbers and t were willing to wait til after the first...so I been hunkers in front of the T.V. watching Turner Classics and playing golf.
It's been good ...I'll probably pay for it next week! But you know what? I DON'T CARE...I've enjoyed it!
-------------------- "Werks fer me...it'll werk fer you"
posted
a $1400 rush job showed up Thursday. I was 20' up on their roof at 7pm that evening & will do the install tomorrow morning. So much for a precedent against evening, weekend & holiday work for the new year old habits die hard!
posted
I've been slammed all week and worked Friday until 5:45. I had planned to shut down at lunch, but had too much going on. I'll even be working tomorrow on New Year's day. Gotta make it while you can.
I hope this a good omen for 2005.
-------------------- Jeff Poitevint Sign-A-Rama Augusta 4015-M Washington Rd. Martinez, Ga. 30907 706-364-6393 augustasigns@comcast.net www.augustasigns.com Posts: 102 | From: Augusta, Ga. | Registered: May 2004
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