Après le déluge
Jodie Parnell operates his 306-m2 (3300-sf) stand-alone sign shop with help from just two full-time employees.
At this point, requests for cannabis smoking prohibition signs have tapered off. Parnell believes they may have reached market saturation in the surrounding area.
“(Even so) it took us running all four printers for about a week, non-stop, to clear the backlog from our December ‘no cannabis smoking’ signmaking adventure,” says Parnell, who used the relatively quiet period that followed to update his showroom and prepare for the next big order to come in.
Over the past few years, Parnell has been focusing his efforts on ensuring his shop can quickly service the ever-growing list of signage needs from its clients.
“As a shop owner whose closest printing equipment dealer is half a workday away, I never want to be in a position where I have to say to a customer: I’m sorry we missed your deadline… my printer is broken. Our printers have kept my company in business,” says Parnell.
These days, Parnell says if they encounter a production lag, it is typically because they are waiting for a supplier to deliver items needed for the job.
“I tend to work only with suppliers who can deliver quickly. All of our suppliers are located more than a four-hour drive away, so we can’t just go and pick up a load of supplies,” he says.
That said, 1 Hour Signs & More’s clients are always impressed with the company’s ability to turn around projects quickly. Parnell credits maintaining a production floor with multiple printers for the reason his shop is able to rapidly produce a wide variety of signage, and for providing the capacity to handle large jobs quickly.
“In this business, you never know who’s going to walk in the door and what they’re going to need. Having versatile, reliable equipment is the foundation 1 Hour Signs & More is built on. We add in the best customer service we can deliver, but I depend heavily on our printers to get the job done. And they always do,” says Parnell.
