The EstiMate Software Blog

“The biggest mistake many businesses make is to believe that price alone drives sales.” — Elizabeth Wasserman, Inc.com.

I read Ms. Wasserman’s article titled “How to Price Your Products” this morning, and if you know anything about me by now, you know it inflamed my passions.  She very accurately describes the processes required for pricing products accurately and consistently.  I think we all know a lot of what she says to be true; however, in the sign industry, our products just don’t fit the cookie cutter model of pricing – which means every time we price a job, it’s a real challenge to pull all the variables together and get our prices out the door on time.

Why are you in business?

I mentioned a couple of months ago that I was involved in a discussion on an online forum where one of the posters essentially said that he felt he was ripping his customers off if he made a great profit on his work.  This continues to mystify me because the whole reason we are in business is to make money.  Sure, we love our work, the interactions with customers (well – most of ‘em ), and the time we spend actually creating graphic arts for sale.  At the end of the day, though, our whole reason for being in business is to take home a profit that allows us to save for retirement, put the kids through college, take vacations, and ultimately secure our lives.  Otherwise we’re in business for all the wrong reasons. (more…)

Have you ever “just known” that if you were more efficient, or organized, you could be making more money from your business?  EstiMate DiamondMine takes those feelings and boils them down to math. Using EstiMate DiamondMine, you can now very easily see where the financial “leaks” are in your business and learn how to plug them, all by answering a few simple questions and generating a free report.

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I recently read Jim Hingst’s “No Time To Hunker Down, Part Two” in his column Hingst’s Sign Post in SignBuilder Illustrated.  He presents several powerful strategies for drumming up business in a tough economy, including:

• Following up on old leads
• Sending mailers to your customers
• Networking
• Upselling
• Becoming a consultant
• Constantly closing sales
• Flexibility and leadership

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Setting The Scene

I live in a really beautiful part of the country — near Asheville, North Carolina — on a relatively rural road with gorgeous views of the backside of the mountains in Bent Creek that I can see from my bedroom window every morning. The other day, I was heading out to the grocery store when I passed a coroplast sign in the front yard of a small home.

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Are you concerned about the economy? Is business slowing down? A recession is a scary time for all businesses, and often it is hard to see the forest for the trees when making business decisions in a difficult economic climate.

At a time like this, it’s absolutely critical to be working with the best tools you possibly can to squeeze every ounce of profit out of each job that comes your way. Estimate 2 offers you extremely powerful features that allow you to identify the type of work you do that’s most profitable, and focus on that in your marketing.

You see, here’s a secret: when you do less of your low profit work and more of your high profit work, you make more money effortlessly and automatically. Estimate 2 gives you the tools you need to identify this type of work and give it your full attention.

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1. Drive around looking for signs in need of repair, and visit the owner with business card in hand and EstiMate on your laptop.
2. Right now, everybody is having sales. Take out a classified ad advertising banners to the local business community, as a “cross marketing” opportunity. When people call inquiring, explain that you are offering 5% off in exchange for having your name on the banner.
3. Get creative with direct mail. Take the type of work that makes you the very best profit, and direct mail small target groups offering your services. A great example would be holiday window splashes (there’s a new holiday every couple of months).

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Some years back I was speaking with my accountant about burnout and how grateful I was to do some monotonous work now and again because it didn’t have to engage my brain.  The equivalent when I was making signs was those nice long afternoons when the phone wasn’t ringing, but I had plenty of work, and I just had to assemble 10 banners or something while watching TV or listening to good music.  You know, “brain dead” work that kept me happy and busy but didn’t require too much real thought.

I said to my accountant, “I feel guilty because I feel like I should be doing more valuable work, but sometimes I just need downtime.”

And she replied, “well, what’s the highest and best use of your time?”

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I caught an article on the BusinessWeek website today that I wanted to share — it’s timely (tax season – buh) — and there are some pretty good points, especially about subcontractors vs. employees.

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This morning I read an article by Rich on the Working Smarter Blog over at SmartDraw.com titled “Winners Over-Deliver – Are you a Winner?” that really got me thinking about my experiences in the sign business and how this was true for me. Also, how it has translated into my experiences with EstiMate.

Always Go The Extra Mile

I always tried to go the extra mile with sign customers.  For example, I had a guarantee on all my work, and one horrible day I got a call from a customer that her 4×6 Painted and metallic vinyled sign was falling apart (that I had just installed two months before).  This was early in my sign career, and clearly I had a lot to learn.

What the hell happened?

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