Recently we produced a survey of independent sign business owners focused on their business outlook for 2009 and beyond. The survey was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2008 and queried 180 shops. The 30% who responded paint more optimism than you find on the evening news or the ticker at the local brokerage. What really struck me is that these companies represent mature (more than 50% were in business five years or longer), small businesses (around 85% of them had eight or fewer employees) and represent the core of our market in the retail, commercial, digital sign space. Many of the respondents produce or service electrical signage, but probably wouldn’t identify themselves as such. None of the respondents were part of a franchise chain. Essentially, the data serves as a good cross-section of companies that make up our target market in this particular space.

The survey asked for a report of results for the first 10 months of 2008 compared to the same period on the prior year. Interestingly, 28% of the companies surveyed reported strong sales results with increases of over 10%, while only 20% reported declines in excess of 10%. Overall 46% of the companies reported no change to sales growth and 40% experienced lower sales results than the prior year. The remaining 14% were newer companies without comparable data. Apply these statistics to your region for companies in this classification. How do you compare? What percentage of accounts have maintained or increased in activity in excess of 10%?

Looking forward, the survey indicated that these business owners anticipate economic improvement in their business in 2009 and look with even greater optimism toward 2010. A full 50.9% of respondents report that they expect “somewhat likely” or “very likely” economic improvement in their business in 2009. Only 26.3% are bracing for economic decline in their business next year. In projecting out to 2010, the view becomes more bullish with 66% anticipating gains while ONLY 1.8% anticipating declines. In summary, the outlook from these small business owners in one of our little sectors in the world serves as a stark contrast to the DOW, banking industry, automotive industry, and other components of our economy that dominate the news cycle.
Our customers get their business from retailers (i.e. small businesses), property managers, architects and the construction industry, schools and universities, governmental entities, fleets and transit vehicles, and many other groups in addition to big corporate entities. Often our economic news focuses on big corporate issues and tends to focus on the negative, overlooking the opportunities that exist in an economy as diverse as ours. Fortunately, our best customers don’t listen.

Look around you, are graphics on the decline? Quite the opposite, new materials have opened more graphic opportunities than ever before. Our job continues to center on educating and assisting our customers on capturing those opportunities. Regardless of how long the “recession” or downturn is publicized, the task remains to grow our market share. We do that one customer at a time; bringing value to every interaction, a fair price, and consistently delivering excellent service.

Our directive of creating and retaining #1 customers for life has not changed. Our theme for the 2009 is a renewed focus on our customers, improved communications and marketing, and eliminating cost that isn’t critical to our customer experience. In January, you’ll hear much, much more on just how, together, were going get this done. Special thanks to DencoSales for validating the stats presented here.