State of the business

[Keith Outten]

Kev, I can't imagine how you can keep up with so many clients and such a variety of work.

This week I have been receiving at least two requests for quotes per day for signs for large commercial buildings. I wish I was young enough to bid some of the larger projects.

[John Lifer]

I had just shipped out a good initial order for an oil equipment supplier when the oil prices tanked. So that business is pretty dead, but I've picked up several really good orders from my other customers. I'm still quite small, and tend to take the one off retail items most of the time to fill in my time. Those died in March, and I've only just seen a relatively decent quantity of inquires start back up in July. I did get a decent for me initial order ($400) for some industrial outlet plate numbering from an electrical supplier near me. Hopefully this will start a repeat business for that sort of work.

Overall, I was way up in the first quarter from last year, but about even in second quarter. July has been good, we'll see what the rest of the year brings.

[Toby Fletcher]

I've been lurking here for a long time without contributing anything.
Since the start of lockdown in the UK we're up by 100% compared to a year ago. As most of our sales are online we picked up the footfall trade from physical stores as they all closed for 3 months and like other similar businesses we were encouraged to stay open by the govt. Bittersweet really considering the hardship faced by other companies, but we had to recruit more staff to keep up.
Starting to tail off now a bit with everywhere reopening but still busy.