the Sign Tracker Blog

Is Vendor Loyalty Always A Good Idea?

After building a sign business for over 10 years you come to realize that your vendors are your business partners – a key component to your success. But, all good relationships have bumps in the road – or occasionally need a spot check. Do you rely so heavily on one vendor that if something went wrong with your shipments your production & customers would suffer?

I am not saying that you should question the loyalty of your long standing vendors, but your are in business to make the best decisions for your customers, employees and company profitability….the “P” word. Don’t put vendor loyalty over profitability! OK, I said it! Now that we have the tough stuff out of the way let’s outline some simple steps to ensure your vendor relationships stay strong.

• Compare the prices of competitive suppliers (great customer service does have a premium, but not if the prices are 10% higher across the board).

• Order Catalogs from your vendor’s competitors and see if there are alternative materials that cost less without sacrificing quality.

• Go to your industry trade show and meet other vendors in your area – ask them to visit your shop and see what they can do to help improve your material ordering productivity (thru-put / “just-in-time” inventory controls).

• Order (and read) your industry magazines for new types of materials being introduced that might cost less and do a better job.

• Lastly, ask your current vendor to give you a list of materials you have ordered over the past 2 years. If your aluminum orders have double in 2 years than it is time to negotiate better pricing for that product, or an overall pricing reduction if your volume merits the adjustment. If you spent 10% + increase over the previous year and you are trending up…time to negotiate points.

Bottom line – your loyal vendors are going to want to work with you to help you succeed. The sign shop that does 5 million in business is going to getter better pricing than the shop that produces 1 million, but if your vendor is truly your friend he/she is going to want to help you get there!

Happy Tracking,

Your Friend – Sign Guy Joe!

Posted in Sign Business Tips | Comments >>

Business Credit: Do you have it? How do you get it?
 

As a business, you have a unique opportunity to build, maintain and acquire credit. Fewer than 10 percent of all business know about or understand how business credit is established and tracked or how it affects their businesses. It’s just as important to your business as your personal credit is to your life.

 
Many shops think that just because they’re in business, they’re automatically building the good business history required to get credit. But unlike the personal credit that we build (almost naturally) by paying our credit card and other bills on time, building good business credit requires a different approach. If you’re not actively and purposefully building your business credit history, then you’re probably not building it at all.
 
http://www.companiesinc.com/services/corporate-credit/build-credit-yourself7.asp
http://www.entrepreneur.com/money/paymentsandcollections/article76886.html
http://smallbusiness.dnb.co

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Hello Sign Tracker Friends & Family

We are happy to announce updates to Sign Tracker!

You Can Now Upload A Company Logo:

In the admin section you’ll find a Logo line with a View / Upload option. Your logo will be printed on all new contracts.

Editable Contract Terms:

Also in the admin section, you now have the ability to edit your contract terms. The new terms will print (as page 2) with the new contract.

New Contract:

To support the new logo and contract terms, we have redesigned the contract. Now, instead of printing directly to a PDF, the new contract will open as a form. You can now add a license number and give specifics about the project location before creating the pdf. You can even change the name of the contract. Any changes you make will now be saved to the forms section.

Find Tool and Pagination:

You can now filter Information by simply typing any portion of the contact, company or project name/number. You can also select the number of entries to be displayed on any of the list screens.

Coming Next:

You will soon be able to upload files into the files section. We have already provisioned 5Gigs of secure space for each account. You will also be able to link artwork to a specific estimate and print a thumbnail of that artwork on work orders.

Coming shortly after that:

More forms, a summery “line item” contract, internal project management and job costing.

We appreciate your support as we continue to build the Sign Industry’s most cost effective management solution.

Happy Tracking!

Sign Guy Joe

Posted in Sign Tracker Happenings! | Comments >>

Question from customer:

Ok, you sold me on sign tracker, I even bought the cd & it’s answered a lot of questions for me.  Now I want to set up an outside sales force what should I pay for commissions?

Answer:

At our shop we paid commission only, and some expenses like phone, gas, trade-shows etc.  We started with a base salary for 3-6 months, which varied by individual person. We paid 10% commission on new sales / 8% on national accounts.  We allowed our reps to add money to a job, but they had to split it with the house.  If they discounted commissions, sometimes the house would match the reduction to make the sale on a case by case basis.

Hope that helps!

Posted in Sign Business Tips | Comments >>