President's Post - November
Well, we’re certainly into that time of year when customers who may have been sitting on some quotations—perhaps without the funding or urgency to move forward—hear the Christmas advertising jingle start to reverberate around the room. This sparks the realisation of an impending deadline, along with the fact that not much happens productively for the three weeks following December 25th. That does wonders for getting quotes converted into work or sales orders. After what has been an unusual year, it has been tough to keep margins where they need to be to ensure we have the confidence and ability to reinvest in our businesses and team members.
This is the time when good internal systems really help, or when wee bugs are found, right when we are working to the tightest deadlines. I have found this year to be a series of boom-and-bust months, from having some of the highest monthly turnovers that we have ever had, to several of our smallest ever monthly turnovers. It has been 11 months where we business owners have been forced to make changes, and where changes have been forced on us. Making sure that we have reliable machinery and suppliers has just been so important this year to get the jobs completed to a high standard when the work is there, and to manage the costs when the sales are not quite there. These are the times where having great relationships with our suppliers, our bank managers, and our teams are just so important.
Next year technology is going to really start having an impact on how we can manage our businesses as efficiently as possible. Large international companies are now back into developing machinery and starting to get it out onto the market after the Covid lockdowns of several years ago, including bigger and faster production machines. AI is going to start making more of an impact in so many facets of business, from getting better information, finding trends, and detailing plans from existing and old data, to how best to market ourselves and get the most out of existing plant. The opportunities are going to be very exciting, but there will be a lot of learning to do to keep up.
Next year will be a new starting point to invest in our industry’s future. To employ more new people to our industry, to encourage and support them to do a Signee course, to offer an apprenticeship, to be brave and take staff to our industry conference in Nelson next June, to attend our online webinars, and to really get involved in our new format Master Sign Maker. To read through our resources, including best industry practices and guides for pricing, and being reminded about the importance of getting the pricing right. You will be amazed at what you find out, new technologies, and that outside the square thinking like Taxi – being able to use your Provisional tax to help with cashflow.
With just so much to look into over the next few months, those three weeks after Christmas when our doors will be closed, we will be looking forward to going back to the office during the second half of January for a break.
Until next time
Kind regards,
Shae Goom
