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Advice on choosing premises for a sign shop.
Now that I have Jess in to run my NZ shop, I am going to start a sign shop in rural West Sussex over the next few months, and share my time between the UK and NZ.
I have spent the last couple of weeks visiting various premises, and it seems my options are limited to the following:
1. A high visibility shop front on a high street, small size and not able to get a vehicle inside, no parking for customers. Very high rent, and round here they get snapped up fast for antique shops.
2. A good sized unit on a slightly depressing business park. Perfect for the job but without any public profile at all. Low rent. lots of these units are available. There are also a number of decent farm park units which are a bit nicer but still no profile.Finally, I have spotted a very promising listed building which used to be a farm shop on a busy main road, great visibility, large area for car parking outside, but the building itself measures only 12 meters by 4 meters and the only door is less than a meter wide. The rent is quite high given the size of the place, and I would have to either rent another unit some distance away for doing vehicles and assembling bigger signs, or do them outside in the rain. Having said that, at least there is loads of outside space.
My thinking is this: whatever is spent on expensive rent for a high profile shop is money saved on advertising, but there are limits to what you can do even as a one or two man band in 48 square meters.
What would you do?
Simon.
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6 Replies
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When I took over the business it was operating from a retail shop, on a busy road, parking to the rear, but no where inside to install graphics. It was a pain in the backside to make up larger signs, no room to carry to much stock.
I moved then to a 820sq/ft unit, with drive in bay, small office, and separate production room. It’s still ‘cosy’ but a far better working area than we had, the rent is cheap and we can work on vehicles in comfort, and still be printing other bits at the same time.
My uncle who’s building we were originally trading from was of the firm belief that you needed a shop front, but he also didn’t believe websites worked and Facebook was only for looking at pictures of cut cats. 😆
The shop front for us bought in lots of ‘cash’ jobs, posters, small signs, a few stickers, and also a lot of mithering people wanting to see different papers etc for a 10p photocopy, trouble was upstairs we had 3 designers all working on larger projects, and these smaller jobs were more of an inconvenience.
Moving to a unit took much of that away, we find ourselves doing more vans, rather than single poster prints, and more corporate & commercial work.
I think it depends on the type of customers you’re looking for. A shop front works for some, not for others.
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Agree with David 100% – if you’re targeting mainly commercial work then working from a shop is just a hindrance with lots of timewasting types of enquiries, lack of space , high rent. And the advertising gained by having a high street presence doesn’t really compensate. You could get the same free advertising simply by parking your van on a busy street every day.
On the other hand, if your business is going to be selling to the general public and you are relying on walk in trade – then a shop is the ideal solution.
It all depends on the type of customer you are targeting
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I have had a similar decision to make recently, I work from 1200 sq ft but the majority of that space is 1st floor which is a pain when thinking about adding new production and in particular machinery.
I sell online and my product ranges are targeted at retail customers, I thought that moving to larger retail space would be the best way to move forward. putting a "shop front" on my production setup and expanding some product ranges that dont work online because of unworkable price points etc.
To cut a long story short, for me, retail space was too expensive to put production machinery in as well as the added cost of servicing retail customers.
From how I understand things, sign making is a reputation business, the capabilities and expertise of the management is what drives the business. Having low cost production space is more valuable than a high street location which may only target a very small percentage of your market.
IMO the general public dont appreciate or care if you can make beautiful bespoke signage- they write happy 50th birthday on a bed sheet with a marker pen then cable tie it to railings and spend the saving they’ve made on extra prawn vol au vents"
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My tuppence worth. When I started 3 years ago the only space available was a 6m x 6m office 1 mile off the main road tucked away on the local country estate. I have no signage directing people to me because the landowner doesn’t want signs everywhere. Not ideal I know. I have the occasional use of a massive shed for vehicles if it’s raining. I don’t have space for stock so have to order materials for every job. 3 years on and thanks to word of mouth and facebook I am busier than ever, almost too busy. My work comes from as far afield as Campbeltown which is 70 miles away. I am proof that you don’t need a shopfront or even a unit on an industrial estate to attract customers. Don’t get me wrong I would love a bigger space but I get by with what I have. Yes maybe my growth has been slower than I’d like and expansion is limited but I have a good wee business which pays the bills and allows me a couple of holidays a year.
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Hi Simon, nice to see you branching out [emoji106]
I started back in 2010′ mainly working from my home office and garage like a lot of sole traders. After 2 years, I took on a 1000sqft commercial unit on a small industrial estate, tucked up a corner, with no passing traffic or trade. I was doing ok, but not brilliantly, workshop was not being utilised fully and spending so much time on the road, became a money pit.
We looked at high street premises but decided not to go that route as there are far too many "Tyre Kickers" that will walk in, take up your valuable time, ask you to show them the latest air release vinyl for wrapping their car, only to find out they are expecting it done for £50[emoji15][emoji15]
Finally, we came up with a viable alternative, which definitely works for us now, and maybe something you might consider.
We did some investigations around the local industrial estates, and found a couple of companies that were willing to rent us office space for our machinery, and also the use of their workshop as and when needed for vehicles and large signage.
We chose the building we wanted to work from and have never looked back.
Our business has quadrupled in just over a year, we have far less overheads than before because utilities etc are shared, and the best part came a while ago when the company we rent the space from gave us a contract to produce graphics and stickers for them [emoji6]
Whatever you decide Simon, I’m sure will be great, this has definitely worked for us, but might not for everyone. -
Thanks all.
Personally I like being on a street with some activity or it tends to get quite dull. Also I dont mind the odd time waster, I find if you are nice to them, one day they will recommend you for a proper job, and they usually have a story to tell.
In NZ we are in a small row of 6 shops and a service station, in an otherwise residential neighborhood, with a good bakery across the street, a dairy, a hairdresser, framer, and a physiotherapist. Easy and free parking also.
We actually get very few timewasters, we do get the odd perspex and vinyl scrounger but we are happy to see them to take away our waste vinyl.
Its pretty ideal for a small sign shop. You cant get a vehicle inside, but my house is 100 meters away, with an attached garage where we do wrapping.
Most importantly I dont do any advertising or leaflet dropping, or adwords or yellow pages. Just a facebook page that I post pictures of my work to. ( https://www.facebook.com/noah.sart.96 if your interested.) Jobs just seem to keep on coming in.
Simon.
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