{"id":14308,"date":"2020-11-05T07:04:56","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T18:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/?p=14308"},"modified":"2020-11-05T07:04:56","modified_gmt":"2020-11-04T18:04:56","slug":"industry-exposed-geraldine-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/2020\/11\/05\/industry-exposed-geraldine-signs\/","title":{"rendered":"Industry Exposed | Geraldine Signs"},"content":{"rendered":"

With 2020 being a tough year for business, most realising how vulnerable they are when something like<\/em>
\nCovid hits,\u00a0it\u2019s exciting to hear when businesses have adapted to the changes forced upon them, with successful
\n<\/em>outcomes. We caught up with Sean from Geraldine Signs as we learnt that even through these tough times,
\n<\/em>they have expanded! <\/em><\/p>\n

Introduce yourself and your business.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My name is Sean Davidson from Geraldine Signs. I live in the thriving picturesque rural town
\nof Geraldine South Canterbury with my wife Geneva and my three young boys. This small town is not only
\nan ideal place for my wife and I to bring up our children, but is also a town that is growing, offering many
\nopportunities to do business and expand due to its central location.<\/p>\n

Tell us how you got into the sign industry?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I actually was looking to be an accountant. I was 17 and my girlfriend’s (now my wife\u2019s) father who
\nworked at a local sign shop in Timaru thought I\u2019d be good at it and talked me into going in and
\nhaving a chat with his boss. I started the next day, loved it and never looked back, got an
\napprenticeship a year later and was lucky to work with an awesome team of people with huge
\ntalent across most sections of the industry so was a very lucky spur of the moment decision to
\nwalk in there!<\/p>\n

We have recently learnt that over lockdown, you made a decision to expand Geraldine Signs!? Tell<\/strong>
\nus a bit more about that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think lockdown has been a wake up call for many businesses, and has shown just how vulnerable
\nwe all are. The traditional way of conducting business has changed and could change again. We
\nrecognized we needed to diversify to protect our core business to not only survive but thrive.
\nI am incredibly lucky to have a team that have a diverse range of skills that are beyond their
\ncurrent roles. My team are keen to grow our business and this has supported me in entertaining
\nthe idea that Geraldine Signs could offer new products and deliver on a professional level.<\/p>\n

The expansion is very inspiring, especially right now with the difficult year we have all faced. What<\/strong>
\nmade you realise that there was an opportunity there?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Being an owner operator I have built strong connections with my clients. As we have provided our \"\"<\/a>
\nclients with quality work in the past, they trust us. I saw a gap in the local market that we were
\ncapable of filling and that was website design now branching into SEO, social media and
\nmarketing. I could see that these elements can all be connected with one service provider and
\nwhy couldn\u2019t that be us? We went ahead and created a new business from our existing one and
\ncalled it \u201cBranded Kiwi<\/a>\u201d.
\nDue to Covid 19 we created another facet of our business \u2013 Safe Tradie. There was a new need for
\nsafety signage and safety screens nationwide. This in an internet based business and sits nicely
\nalongside Geraldine Signs. Clients also have access to uniforms, corporate wear and branded
\nmerchandise through our apparel portal on the website\u00a0www.safetradie.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\n

What motivates you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Firstly growing my business and providing quality employment in our local district. Turning out
\nquality work for our client is also a buzz and the returning business from these clients makes me
\nthink we are doing something right.<\/p>\n

What is the best thing about your job?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Being able to create and work with clients and be part of growing their own brand. Seeing our
\nwork standing proudly in the community is pretty special too.
\nNo one can deny in our industry though the chance to play and embrace new tech and push some
\nboundaries has to be the prize part, one of our team is into 3d modelling neither of us now how
\nwe are going to manufacture this stuff yet but will be fun trying as we have a few projects in the
\npipeline that we are hoping to make for ourselves and some clients, can’t beat turning up to work
\nwith stuff like that to keep us going!<\/p>\n

If you weren\u2019t a sign writer, what would you be?<\/strong>
\nI thought an accountant, I definitely can\u2019t see that now.<\/p>\n

What is the most clever or funniest use of advertising you\u2019ve seen?
\n<\/strong>
\nThis is a job I thought I best not get involved in, looking at the outcome though I think it was the
\nbest thing he could\u2019ve done to open a brand new shop you couldn\u2019t pay for the exposure he got
\nfor a month or so. Local guy started a kebab shop and wanted his logo to be the Mcdonald’s
\ngolden arches upside down as his logo all in red\/yellow.
\nHe found someone to make them, hadn\u2019t even opened the store before he got the letter from
\nMcdonalds ordering removal. The story went all over the world and NZ including the 6pm news we
\nare on the main tourist route to the lakes I am sure the outcome of that stunt was well worth it.<\/p>\n

What is the best event you\u2019ve attended?
\n<\/strong>
\nThe first sign expo after I went into business, trying to work out what gear to invest in is much
\neasier after getting to be hands on with it. Looking forward to these being held again.<\/p>\n

Any final words of wisdom?<\/strong>
\nTake a chance! The ever increasing greys might be worth it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With 2020 being a tough year for business, most realising how vulnerable they are when something like Covid hits,\u00a0it\u2019s exciting to hear when businesses have adapted to the changes forced upon them, with successful outcomes. We caught up with Sean from Geraldine Signs as we learnt that even through these tough times, they have expanded! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sign-shop-exposed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}