This topic is particularly relevant to recent years when many small businesses started turning to digital and online platforms partly to make up for the access to customers lost during the pandemic and partly because business is generally trending in that direction anyway. Crystal Lengua wrote an...

Before Father's Day, Roland published a post about how to create and produce this-belongs-to-Dad stickers using your Roland DG VersaSTUDIO BN2-20 desktop printer/cutter.  But, as often happens, one idea can lead to another (sometimes better) idea. In this case that idea might be to produce a range...

I was looking through my personal book collection recently and opened Harry Beckwith's book, You Inc. By the way, if you are serious about growing your shop or even just running it better, I urge you to visit your local bookstore occasionally and check out the business books section. Flick through...

I've been reading about the importance of customers being greeted by not only a pleasant smell but one appropriate to the nature of the business and the merchandise. This might sound a bit frivolous but, on reflection, I've been into some businesses and been put off by the smell of everything from...

We should by now all know that today's customer is impatient and thus not willing to wait for as long as some small businesses seem to think they can take to respond to inquiries. In this regard, and to make my point, I unearthed a study from a few years ago in which it was reported that a survey...

Part of taking your shop and industry seriously, is joining at least one industry association and participating in its activities and benefits. You can exercise influence through committee or task work. You can save on products and services through special membership discounts. You'll have access...

Henry Ford is reported to have said: “I do not believe that a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.” If he did indeed say this, and was implying a 24-7 business preoccupation, we must hope that he wasn’t addressing small business people like sign...

Every now and then a billboard or sign makes news because of perceived poor taste. They’re often of a political or sexual nature, and often they’re pretty bad. I realize that “bad” is a matter of interpretation, and that they're intended to shock, but some that have made it onto the news and gone...

Giving back to the community can get your sign shop a lot of valuable attention. It's not just a noble gesture to give back to the community, it also makes good business sense. Some time ago I read about a sign shop that encouraged local not-for-profit organizations to get in touch so that they...

I sometimes wonder if some members of the sign industry do enough to advise customers. Much of what I see suggests that more can be done in this regard. Is it too much to expect a sign shop owner to have some design expertise? One of the best examples of the many that I've run across was in my old...

Of the many ways of communicating with customers and potential customers, email takes some beating. The question though is one of how to build an email list, particularly in Canada where we have to contend with CASL (Canada's Anti Spam Legislation). Your shop's email list can only consist of...

If you run a small sign shop, then this story is for you. I was once looking for a sign shop to produce vinyl window graphics. I generally support smaller local businesses so I set about finding one. I had the names of four small sign shops capable of doing the job I needed. As is common practice...

For about 8 years, this blog has been steaming along at the rate of two posts a week. This last post is here merely to explain that older posts are archived and that we only show three-month's worth of posts in order to keep the site current and limited to a reasonable length. But, not to worry,...