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After what seems like years of really working hard for every job we managed to score it seems things have really turned for the better locally. In the last months work has picked up with plenty of projects on the drawing board all at once. We've been getting verbal GO's on some really nice projects for a few weeks but having been burned too many times in the past makes me really believe only when the deposit check makes it to our bank account. Last week a good sized project became official. This week three more became a reality and it is only Monday! We are now busier than we have been in a long time! The work currently in production is exactly the type of work I love to do. Our plan to establish a 'sign' business locally is now coming to life after almost four years of hard work.
The plan was simple... 'build it and they will come!'
Some of the projects will be officially announced soon but I can give a sneak peek of one of them...
This afternoon a big flat deck truck backed down the driveway with this on the back. The driver handed me the envelope with the deposit check then rolled off the cart. Phoebe and I took it for a lengthy test drive around the neighborhood before I began disassembly.
When we are done (in a month or so) it will be a new parade float/street display for a local towing company...
Up to our armpits in work in Yarrow...
-grampa dan
[ June 21, 2010, 10:10 PM: Message edited by: Dan Sawatzky ]
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!! Posts: 8738 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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It is always a challenge. My business is very much normal, but I look back on the past two years and see that despite the fact that it is quite par, I am still very suspicious. My gut tells me to not think this is over yet and to keep my expenses as low as possible. I have seen so many potential big ones slip away during these tough times.
I make weekly and monthly goals and I am meeting them, but the regular supply of regulars has changed. It is still a time to prospect every potential project and to keep building new business. I feel the current economic climate is gradually improving, but relying on the past comfort level is still a dangerous feeling.
The rules for mortgages and commercial loans have changed and they are being so much more concerned about the old, conservative debt to income ratios. We did get lulled into thinking that money was easy to get, but I sense that it is now becoming nearly impossible to get that easy help and that Cash is even more King than before. I hate to sound negative, but I seriously see that things are so much more difficult for my clients. It is just a good time to charge a little more and to bargain a little harder for the best prices on the things we need. I am cautious, not optimistic, yet.
-------------------- Preston McCall 112 Rim Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 text: 5056607370 Posts: 1552 | From: Santa Fe, New Mexico | Registered: Nov 1998
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...and it is also a great time to stay tuned in here to see the dialogue from all of us. Thanks to all who inspire, stimulate and honestly express our help to one another!
-------------------- Preston McCall 112 Rim Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 text: 5056607370 Posts: 1552 | From: Santa Fe, New Mexico | Registered: Nov 1998
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Glad to hear things are picking up for you Dan. I'm pretty apprehensive about the next year here. I think Saskatchewan's season in the sun just got drowned, but at least the province is going into this with a good economic start. I feel for those who have lost their homes to the flooding, it's definitely not a disaster you expect in the middle of the prairies. A lot of our highways are washed out including 100 meters of the Trans Canada, which will likely remain unpassable until Friday. In our area I'd estimate that over half the crop got planted, but the flooding is drowning out a lot of that and things are looking pretty grim for the farming community.
-------------------- “Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” -Winnie the Pooh & A.A. Milne
Kelly Thorson Kel-T-Grafix 801 Main St. Holdfast, SK S0G 2H0 ktg@sasktel.net Posts: 5496 | From: Penzance, Saskatchewan | Registered: May 2002
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Great to see things picking up for some of you guys. Traditionally, our economy has sort of piggy backed on what's been happening in the States or UK. Usually takes maybe twelve months but certainly this post has given me a bit of a boost thinking things might be about to turn for the better
-------------------- Kevin Gaffney Artistik Signs Kinnegad County Westmeath Ireland 044-75187 kevingaffney@eircom.net Posts: 628 | From: Ireland | Registered: Oct 2003
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No Recession here in St. John's, never was these past 10 years, and it looks very promising here for the next 20... the oil and gas and the mining is keeping the economy here humming like bee.
Glad things are picking up for you Dan.
-------------------- "Keep Positive"
SIGNS1st. Neil Butler Paradise, NF Posts: 6277 | From: St. John's NF Canada | Registered: Mar 1999
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It's Mater!!! Dan I'm so happy things are turning around for you bud; you've got way too much talent and skills for it not to be used.
-------------------- Ricky Jackson Signs Now 614 Russell Parkway Warner Robins, GA (478) 923-7722 signpimp50@hotmail.com
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Issac Newton Posts: 3528 | From: Warner Robins, GA | Registered: Oct 2004
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Our largest client of the last years just phoned this morning. We have a meeting tomorrow to officially kick another very large project (many months) into gear. It's funny how one can go through a slow period for a long time, working hard at getting things going without a lot of success... and when things finally turn they TURN REAL BIG and everyone wants to sign up within days of each other.
Please take a number in Yarrow...
-grampa dan
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!! Posts: 8738 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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Dan I'm so happy things are turning around for you bud; you've got way too much talent and skills for it not to be used.
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