Signs of the Times - December 2013 - (Page 20)

VINYL APPS Sergio DeSoto developed The Bad Wrap vehicle-wrap template, has served as a wrap-shop consultant, and currently owns The Dezynery, a Phoenix-based, wholesale, vehicle-wrap provider. By Sergio DeSoto Maximize Your Money Sergio offers a basic formula for considering In my early 20s, I wasBlock, a large, the marketing manager for Arizona concrete-block company. The owner, Max, was a very intelligent, older man who built his business from the ground up. On my first day, he walked me through the yard and provided background and history about the company. I stood in the dirt, surrounded by stacks and stacks of concrete blocks - hundreds of them. Know your business With a bird's-eye view of the massive equipment in front of us, Max asked me a question: "Sergio, what business are we in?" I thought about it for a second and asked if this was a trick question. He said it wasn't. I replied, shyly, "The block business?" He laughed and said, "No, we're not in the block business. We are in the machine-time business." This meant that it was our job to bring in and retain business to keep our machinery working as close to maximum capacity as possible. Arizona Color (Phoenix) produced this colorful, playful wrap for a local restaurant and banquet facility. To operate a successful wrap shop, Sergio emphasizes that you must utilize your printers and other equipment at the highest capacity your staffing and facility will allow. The shop executed this print with 3M™ Controltac™ with Comply™ air-release media that was decorated on an HP L26500 latex-ink printer. Fast forward to 2007, and I'm standing at ISA in the Fellers booth (I was Fellers' CMO at the time) with approximately 100 people, and I asked the same question. The crowd's responses were what I expected - the banner business, Table 1: Sample Monthly Expenses Fixed Expenses (materials, overhead, insurance, taxes) $20,000 Payroll $10,000 Miscellaneous or Variable Expenses $2,500 Total Expenses $32,500 Table 2: Cost per sq. ft. Calculations (Maximum monthly production is 23,800 sq. ft.) Capacity Sq. Ft. 20% Capacity 4,760 60% Capacity 14,280 $32,500/4,760 = $6.83/sq. ft. @ 20% capacity $32,500/14,280 = $2.28/sq. ft. @ 60% capacity Add $2.20/sq. ft. Cost of goods sold 20% capacity: $6.83 + $2.20 = $9.03/sq. ft. 60% capacity: $2.28 + $2.20 = $4.48/sq. ft. 20 SIGNS OF THE TIMES / DECEMBER 2013 / www.signweb.com the wrap business, the sign business and so on. I have asked this question to owners of more than 2,000 shops across the country, and I always get the same replies. To be honest, it was years later before I recalled my long-ago conversation with the concrete-company owner. I was watching a news segment about a conflict in the concrete industry. I looked at my wife and said, "We are not in the wrap business, we are in the machinetime business!" Remembering this changed my perspective. This was also the message I delivered to the crowd in the booth. Do the math I have a passion for design; it brought me into this business. Coupling that with my love of cars, SNA Graphics was born. It wasn't until I started to look at the business, and began to create efficiency-oriented systems (read The E-myth Revisited, a book by Michael Gerber, for more in-depth ideas related to this concept), that my operation harnessed its potential. After these steps, my shop became http://www.signweb.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signs of the Times - December 2013

Signs of the Times - December 2013
Contents
ST Update
Technology Update
Vinyl Apps
Strictly Electric
LED Update
Software Update
Technology Review - Universal Laser’s ILS9.75 and ILS12.75 platform lasers
Technology Review - CET Color’s 500K X-Press flatbed, UV-cure printer
New Products
The Hands Have It
Digital Print Update
The First Neon Sign in America
The USSC Design Awards
Advertising index
Editorially speaking

Signs of the Times - December 2013