Is there any value to Experience (and if there is, how can one bill for your experience)?
Becoming a more seasoned member of the signage industry – one with slightly over 25 years personal experience – I have begun to notice that there are certain things I SEE that are not always visible to others.
This is not clairvoyance but I do believe it comes from experience.
A simple example that showed this point happened recently. SignForce were asked to assist with the installation of a later large (6 x 3 meter) sign. When we went to the site inspection we noticed that the plan that the contractor was looking at was great, but flawed. The sign needed to be carried through three doors, however the third door had restricted access, so only half the sign could go through the door, and then – nothing.
I am pleased our client was not a blind believer, so he tried his method and then called me to tell me he had tried and it had failed.
Experience – defined by Google as “1. the fact or state of having been affected by or gained knowledge through direct observation or participation. 2. a. : practical knowledge, skill, or practice derived from direct observation of or participation in events or in a particular activity. ‘ is generally gained from the university of hard knocks. The hard lessons that come with doing something more than once, and failing often.
Experience is earned and while it can be passed on – which can be called advice, and, as a friend’s father kept saying. Advice comes from experience. When you receive the advice you have two choices, take heed or roll it up and shove it wherever it fits.
The value of experience tends to come from the little things. For example. When making a sign, how does one calculate the weight of the sign and the size of the fixings – bolts, nail in anchors, whatever – that will be necessary to make the sign stay in place once it is fixed to the wall?
This writer has inspected a sign which looks phenomenal. It creates a great impression and I am sure the client will be super impressed. As long as the sign works as intended, everyone will be happy And that will be perfect in maybe 95% of cases. In the remaining 5% when something goes wrong – say in the case of a light box when all or some of the lights stop working (which will happen, but it may, and hopefully will, take some time), or if a weld breaks (which is possible but low probability if they are done properly). When the 5% happens someone is going to have to spend time or money or both to make the sign good. This is where it can get complicated.
In the case of the sign mentioned above, the face of the sign has been fixed directly t the frame of the sign. This is a great way to keep costs down, however, if the lights inside stop working, or anything else inside goes wrong, there is an extremely high probability that the face of the sign will need to be removed, which means replacing the sign face. This can be a very costly exercise. The industry standard is normally to have an internal frame to hold the face. This allows for ease of maintenance without any additional costly spend, because the [maintenance] cost has been absorbed into the initial capital expense of the sign.
The difficulty with making the sign resilient, is it adds costs to the up front build which many businesses in South Africa are reluctant to do. They would rather take their chances on spending less upfront and then pray that their spend lasts as long as the higher investment (on invisible safety and possibly redundant features) that may save them money in the future.
At SignForce we call this the cost of peace of mind – like having an insurance policy you hope to never have to use.
When you are looking for signs that work, contact SignForce. We are happy to share what we do and why we do it as we believe in creating signs that work, signs that last and lasting relationships.
Contact SignForce now on info@signforce.co.za or call +27 (0)11 440 7525 or WhatsApp +27 (0)82 558 6413
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