President’s Post – November 2026

Wow, the end of the year is creeping up fast! We’re heading into that crazy busy stretch when everyone wants their jobs finished before Christmas, and amongst the day-to-day craziness, I have a printer that keeps throwing error codes and breaking down.

It’s not an old machine, but it needs parts and servicing far more often than it should. When it’s going, it makes us good money. And it’s paid for.

So I should just keep it going, right? Probably not.

The Cost of Putting It Off

“It owes me nothing” has become my justification for continuing to babysit it. But when everyone is under pressure, those interruptions are far from ideal.

A replacement is a big investment, and the upgrade I’m eyeing up will take more space than I really have.

What I haven’t properly added up though, is what keeping this one is really costing us.

That got me thinking about 3 areas where delayed decisions can quietly cost our sign businesses more than we realise: equipment, people and premises. I’m facing all three right now.

1. The Machine that “Owes us Nothing”

The repair bill is the obvious cost. We see it, we grumble about it and then we pay it. But that’s only part of the story.

There’s the time spent diagnosing problems, arranging technicians and getting production moving again. Jobs need reshuffling, other work gets interrupted, and staff morale takes a hit. It’s frustrating for your team coming to work unsure whether the equipment will let them do their job properly each day.

Then there’s the uncertainty. Can we confidently schedule work around it? How much breathing room do we leave, just in case? How much attention does it demand from people with other things to do?

When it’s running, I can see the money it earns. When it stops, I don’t receive an invoice listing every interruption, lost hour or bit of pressure it’s added to the team.

Those costs are still there.

A machine being paid off doesn’t automatically make it economical to keep. The purchase price is behind us, but the operating costs continue.

Is keeping it still the best decision for the business today?

2. The Person We Can’t Quite Afford

I remember wrestling with the decision to employ our first graphic designer.

Design was my background and something I love, so I kept doing it alongside sales, quoting, managing production and jumping on the tools when things got busy.

I could see exactly what another wage would cost – a commitment every week, busy or quiet. I put the decision off for a long time.

What I wasn’t measuring was the cost of covering all those roles myself.

Every hour spent designing was an hour I couldn’t spend doing those tasks that moved the needle – quoting, selling, improving systems, managing the business. Everything still needed doing, so I kept switching hats and trying to keep up.

When I finally employed a designer, the relief over the following months was huge. We became more efficient, and I wondered why I’d put it off for so long.

The wage was real, but so was the capacity that person brought into the business.

That doesn’t mean every busy patch needs another employee. Sometimes we need better processes, clearer responsibilities or better use of our existing team. But if everything depends on the owner finding another hour, what is that costing – in money, stress and home life?

I’ll often squeeze in one more task because I have a tendency to treat my own time as free. It isn’t.

3. The Cheap Building We’ve Outgrown

Our first commercial premises were part of the old Barrett Street Hospital complex. Moving out of my uncle’s basement into a commercial space was a big step.

We occupied the old emergency department. The rent was cheap, and it gave us somewhere to establish ourselves.

We made it work, removing walls and adapting spaces never designed for a sign shop. We dug out a garden beside an access ramp, concreted it, removed the handrail and replaced the front door with a roller door for workshop access.

It served a purpose, but it was run down and far from an efficient workshop.

Still, I kept telling myself the cheap rent was good for business. We were saving money.

Eventually, we moved into a proper 280 square metre commercial workshop with separate offices. Only then did I appreciate how much our old premises had been holding us back.

The new space allowed us to work more efficiently. Conversations with clients also revealed that the old building hadn’t been doing our reputation any favours. It wasn’t helping attract the kind of work I wanted us to be doing.

Over the following year, the business went through dramatic growth. The move gave us an opportunity to reinvent ourselves.

The rent saving had been easy to see. The limitations we’d accepted were harder to recognise until we left.

 

A five-day challenge

I’m careful about spending money (maybe not quite as careful as my wife would like!) And sometimes repairing, waiting or making do is absolutely the right decision.

But waiting deserves the same scrutiny as spending. We should understand the cost on both sides.

So, my challenge for you is this: For five days, notice every time you or your team work around a recurring problem. Jot down what happened, who was involved and roughly how much time it took.

Include the machine needing attention, the task waiting for you and the materials/jobs moved 2 or 3 times because there’s nowhere to put them.

At the end of the week, review the list. Which problems keep appearing? What are they taking from you? What would need to change to stop repeating them?

You may find a simple fix or uncover a bigger decision that needs investigation. Either way, you’ll have something more useful than “we’ve always managed”.

I haven’t made the decision about my printer yet, but I know that keeping it no longer stacks up.

What have you been putting off, and what is that delay really costing you?

 

Logan Sutton
NZSDA President