Women in the Sign Business
Nancy Beaudette, Sign It
Signals, June / July 1995
This is our thirteenth year in the sign business. It's difficult
to generalize our experiences with other shops because we
all have such unique stories to share. We come from a variety
of experiences & lifestyles, and our goals differ
from one another. Our story is unique as well, as women in the sign industry.
Thirteen years ago it was odd to see a woman making signs but today it is much
more common place. The small commercial sign shop is well suited to women. Why?
Perhaps because the industry has evolved in many ways, becoming more refined,
and more technologically advanced. Maybe it's because the last couple of decades
have presented women with many exciting career options, so why not the sign business.
Noella and I began our business out of necessity. We are both artists who
realized very early on that no one was going to 'hand us a living'; we are
responsible for our own destiny. Both of us had the blend of skills needed
to get started; basic woodworking, fine and graphic arts including sign lettering
experience, and an ability to communicate effectively. We drew on the skills
our father's taught us, like using power tools and swinging a hammer. I don't
know how many women are able to have that experience, and we feel fortunate
to have had father's who took the time to teach us stuff when we showed an
interest. We became as self reliant as possible in our business, doing most
of the work ourselves. Whether it meant installing signs or climbing a 100-foot
tower to paint someone's logo, we were gutsy enough to do it, and excited about
learning something new. That's not to say it wasn't nerve racking, and that
sometimes even now we get scared, but we truly believe and live by this code:
we must be willing to risk something to move forward.
Like most small businesses, our beginnings were humble, yet exciting. Noella
and I have a wonderful partnership. We've heard many partnership horror stories,
and count ourselves among the lucky few who've found the right balance. Our
skills compliment each other, as do our natural likes and dislikes. We all
wear many hats to run a small business. Over the years, we've honed our artistic
abilities, and worked hard to gain understanding in areas where we were weak,
like reading financial reports and doing cost accounting.
Today we operate in a two thousand square foot shop
in Cornwall, and from our woodworking shop in the country. We employ three
full time people, one part time, and ourselves. Our specialty is the design
and manufacture of dimensional wood signs, plus we offer a full range of
commercial sign products. We write a marketing plan that includes many long
and short-term goals for us to work on over the year, including things like
public education, the refining of our craft, and broadening our market base.
We follow through on these plans by speaking to community groups, reading
about and experimenting with new materials & techniques,
advertising to specific industries, plus a variety of other actions that will
help us fulfil specific goals.
We've made a real effort to be accessible to our clientele
through public exposure, like trade shows. It's in that forum that we hear
this statement most often, "Oh, it's two women who own this company!" Surprise
and amazement seem to follow as people ooh and awe at our work. (I've often
wondered if a male partnership draws that same reaction.) Noella and I have
never made the fact that we're women an issue in our business though I'm
sure our personalities affect our approach in ways that are different from
men. Our emphasis has been to concentrate on creating a vision for our company
that will set us apart and help us live out our dreams.
Faith is an important element in our lives; it not only gives us comfort,
it gives us direction. It's neat to see how our spiritual lives overlap with
our business goals. Believing in a greater purpose has enabled us to open new
doors and try new things. For instance, we've spent a pile of time and money
taking courses, on everything from sign design, to customer service, from decoy
carving to financial management. You need to have faith that spending a thousand
dollars on a marketing course will effect positive results and bring new light
to our business over the short and long term. Our efforts are recorded in a
journal so our progress can be measured and updated. We know that the more
we read, write and teach, the more we will risk, learn and grow.
Access to information has also been an invaluable source
of growth for us. Sign magazines, workshops, & Letterheads meets, change
our approach to business on an ongoing basis. Technological advances have
also played an important factor in our growth. We operate with Gerber computers
and have a router system, which allow us to increase production and remain
competitive. Keeping abreast of new equipment and things like internet are
exciting and advantageous to small businesses. I think that's what's really
neat about running our own shop; we're always on the move, always changing
and evolving.
If the truth be known, Noella and I would have to admit we have placed extremely
high expectations on ourselves. It could be because we're trying to proof ourselves
as women in a competitive industry, or it may be the cursed artistic sense
of insecurity, or may simply be that we're over achievers. Our motivations
are as varied as our dreams. In our business, we are driven by the shear enjoyment
of making signs, and the will to accomplish what we set out to do.
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