Flatbed Digital Print Pricing Plugin Now Available!

| October 5, 2009

Clicking the flatbed digital print pricing plugin in the menuThe new Flatbed Digital Printing plugin for EstiMate represents a great leap forward in pricing technology, not just for flatbed printing, but for EstiMate overall.  We’ve really put our all into this one and if you have a flatbed printer, and are using EstiMate, it’s an absolute no brainer to get this plugin.  If you’re not using EstiMate, this just may be the reason you should grab a trial and get started.

This plugin has many powerful pricing features, as you can see in the following screenshots.

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Sandblasted Signs Pricing Plugin Now Available!

| October 5, 2009

Sandblasted Signs Pricing Plugin In Quick Quote MenuThe new Sandblasted Signs Pricing Plugin is one that I’m really excited to release, from my old-school perspective.  This has been long asked for and many people will find it to be the perfect complement to the Vinyl and Painted signs plugin as far as pricing dimensional blasted signs.

Quick and Easy Pricing Of Sandblasted Signs

You’ll find this plugin to be extremely easy to use even though it has a lot of behind-the-scenes pricing math going on.

First, you do the usual, selecting your blasting substrate (cedar, redwood, SignFoam)… and enter quantity, # of sides, width and height.  That’s when it gets interesting.

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SignBuilder Illustrated Hingst’s Sign Post, Sept. 09 – Great Reading!

| September 24, 2009

Hingst's Sign Post from SignBuilder Illustrated

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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Sneak Preview: Flatbed Digital Printing and Sandblasted Signs Plugins

| September 10, 2009

Great news! Two new hotly requested plug-ins for EstiMate are right around the corner. We’ve developed plug-ins for flatbed digital printing and for sandblasted signs that are just about ready to go.   From the get-go, we have wanted to cover as many areas as possible in the sign business, and EstiMate 2 really lets us deliver.  These plugins should be available for purchase by October 1. 
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$20 Signs — Ironic, Isn’t It?

| September 2, 2009

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.

Rainbow Christmas 05
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If You Ever Wanted To Know How To Grab an RSS Feed…

| September 1, 2009

RSS Icons

This morning, I set out to implement a whole bunch of great suggestions from the book The Web Startup Success Guide by Bob Walsh. Even though EstiMate is a long-established Internet business, I’m always looking for valuable information about how to improve our relationship with customers and our web presence. For any of you taking your business to the web, I can’t recommend this book more highly. Even though it’s based on starting up a software business, it’s chock-full of ideas that will help any business move to the next level online. Especially in the area of social media, such as Facebook, twitter, and other social media services, it really shines.

Anyway, I digress. This post is really about RSS feeds.

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How You Can Use EstiMate 2 To Increase Your Income By 400%

| July 9, 2009

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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Just Married!

| June 18, 2009

p1030109

Long time no blog! Jennifer and I got married on June 11, and all of the prep work for the big day was incredibly time-consuming! However, everything is relatively back to normal now, so over the next few weeks expect to see posts coming with more regularity.

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21 Ways to Drum up Business in a Slow Economy

| April 16, 2009
  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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