Where to Find New Employees, Why to Oversize Window Panels, Plus More March-April Tips for Wide-Format Pros

HIRING

Kitchen Confidence

Can’t find experienced wide-format production staff? Look at restaurant kitchens. Linda Fong of Fastsigns says two of her newest team members came from kitchen prep backgrounds. “They are good with their hands, clean and tidy, and have the capacity to understand timing and the importance of preparing their product,” she says. The skills transfer surprisingly well to print production.

INSTALLATION

Oversize Your Window Panels

Pre-cutting window graphics to exact dimensions sounds efficient. It’s often a mistake. “No window ever has a perfectly straight weatherproofing gasket around the edges, and you want to avoid light leak or gaps that may distract from the final product,” says Wade Neff of Strategic Factory in Owings Mills, MD. His advice: oversize the graphic a bit and trim it into the window in the field. The extra material costs almost nothing. The callback from a visible gap costs a lot more.

OPERATIONS

Hold a Morning Meeting — Every Morning

A daily all-hands standup is the single highest-leverage habit a shop can build. Use it to teach Lean concepts, review the eight wastes, celebrate staff improvements publicly, and coach your team to spot inefficiency. Nothing motivates like public praise, and nothing trains like daily repetition. “This is the most important thing for any company to move forward,” writes Lukas Holland of FastCap. It doesn’t need to be long — just consistent.

OUTSOURCING

Start Small With New Subs

Don’t hand a new subcontractor a $20,000 install and cross your fingers. Ann Durso, president of Express Sign & Graphics in Chelmsford, MA, says the smart move is to test-drive with a small project first. Check their quality. Watch their communication. Then scale up. “Definitely get references. Make sure your installers are insured.”

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Don’t Start Cheap

The first rule of launching a business is not to undervalue yourself or your products. “The biggest mistake new businesses make is trying to win work by being cheap,” says Derek Michalanney of SignageWorld. If you start cheap, cheap is all people will know you for. But if you lead with great customer service, price stops being the issue. Your reputation is set early — set it high.

Don’t look to YouTube for the secret to success as a wide-format professional.

TRAINING

YouTube Isn’t Wrap School

Home videos and internet tutorials are teaching installers bad habits that cost real money in damages on future jobs. “These sources, like YouTube, aren’t the best forms of education,” says Kristin Lanzarone of WrapStar Pro. Instead, seek training from manufacturers like 3M, Arlon, Orafol, and Avery Dennison, or from certified training facilities. As Julius Caesar said: “Without training, they lacked knowledge. Without knowledge, they lacked confidence. Without confidence, they lacked victory.”

MOTIVATION

Give Them Skin in the Game

People resist change they feel has been forced on them. Alison Reynolds and David Lewis, authors of “What Philosophy Can Teach You About Being a Better Leader”, argue that buy-in comes when staff see their fingerprints on the plan. Tell employees when their input changed your mind. Suddenly it’s not “the boss’s scheme,” it’s our scheme. That little shift turns reluctant compliance into genuine commitment. And frankly, nobody fights against their own idea.

PRODUCTION

Not Everything Has to Be Printed

Give your printers a break. Mandel Graphic Solutions wrapped a 44 x 28-foot modular dance floor for a wedding at Road America racetrack using Oracal gold mirror chrome vinyl — cut, not printed — assembled on-site with geometry and a Mimaki plotter. Sometimes your in-house tools and showstopping specialty media create a bigger impact than a full-color print. Think beyond the inkjet.