The Sign Depot’s Community Involvement – The Fans Have Spoken

 Opening the Door

Last week the question was asked our SIGN DEPOT BLOG VIEWERS what they would like to see covered on the blog.  We receive answers on both the Facebook Fan page as well as on Twitter.

The answer with the most votes was OPEN HOUSE INFO.

We are holding our next Open House on Friday Sept 9th from 6:30-9:30pm in conjuction with the

140 Characters Conference Meetup

The 140 Chartacters Conference is coming to Canada for the first time and the event is being held at The Tannery.  We’re very familiar with that building in regards to reception signage, window graphics and wayfinding signs.

To celebrate the arrival of the 140 Conference in Canada, there are meetups being held all over Ontario this summer.  The final meetup will be held here 51 Borden Ave S. Kitchener Ontario.  Once again we are partnering with Little Mushroom Catering and I’m sure a few other friends will be involved along the way.

If you are interested in meeting lots of people from different parts of the province, please plan to drop by!  Make sure you RSVP at this link  http://guestlistapp.com/events/64371 so we can ensure there are enough munchies for everyone!

If you’re interested in learning more about the 140 Characters Conference make sure to watch the video below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6BsMuduzzQ&feature=mh_lolz&list=HL1313012947

You can see more vids about it in the playlist found here

You can also learn more by following #140confONT hashtag or becoming a fan of their page on Facebook.

You can learn more about The Sign Depot’s community involvement by visiting out Sign Blog and searching community.  You will quickly see how involved we are in our community.  We pride ourselves on being helpful to both the business and not for profit community.

As for our part in the 140 Characters Conference we will be providing wayfinding signage for the Conference and a great meetup leading up to the Conference.  We hope you’ll join on here on Sept 9th

 

How The Sign Depot Prepares For The Pending Postal Strike In Our Community

Will The Canada Post Strike Affect The Sign Depot?

… Hopefully it won’t .

We’ve spent the better part of the last few weeks watching the headlines regarding the Canada Postal Workers Strike.  From the news earlier this week it seems almost unavoidable.  Being that many of our clients pay by company cheques, we needed to take precautions to make sure this strike didn’t cause cash flow problems.  These are the steps we’ve taken and in sharing them, we hope your are able to avoid some hurdles as well.

Where To Start

• Take a look at your accounts receivable.  See what is left outstanding.  Contact those clients and see if their payments have been sent.  If they said it’s been sent, ask for the cheque number.  This will give you an idea of what cheques you will have to track down in case of mail that is held back or lost during this ordeal.
• Check your accounts payable.  If you regularly pay by cheque you might find your payments will become overdue if you mail them out.  Look for alternate methods of payment (see below)
• How will your products end up in the hands of your clients?  If Canada Post is your main method of shipping you may want to look into setting up an account with a courier service.

Start Your Action Plan

• For your accounts receivable, how many of your clients are local?  Can you make payment pickup arrangements?  Every invoice I sent out this week had this message attached to it

• For your out of town customers, see if they are able to pay by credit card or through an online banking transfer.  If those methods are not available to them then suggest they make courier arrangements.
• Accounts payable should also make arrangements as well.  Many companies will accept credit and online payments, and depending on their methods for payment acceptance you may be able to take the bill to your bank and pay it by cheque through the teller.
• Inform your clients that frieght charges may change during this time period if you are changing your shipping methods.

Today the National Post asked if anyone would notice if there’s a strike.  We think so, and we’re taking some simple steps to avoid mail disruptions during the postal strike.  Find a way that works best in your community to avoid business interuptions and make sure your clients and customers know that they are still your top priority during a postal strike.  

Wholesale Wood Signs – Featured In SignMedia Canada

Sandblasted Signs To The Sign Trade

The Sign Depot was thrilled to featured in the January 2011 Edition of SignMedia Canada.  The article profiled the company starting from it’s humble beginnings and following how The Sign Depot evolved into a full service sign shop with a sandblasted wood sign wholesale department that wholesales to the sign trade.  This is want makes us unique to many other sign shops.  We are able to manufacture wholesale cedar signs here in our workshop.  Our wholesale wood signs have been shipped all over North America and our clients come back over and over. Hand-carved wood signs have lots of options so that sign retailers can customize the look they wish to achieve

The Five Steps To Wholesale Wood Signs

We always want to give our clients the best possible service and in order to adhere to the quick turnaround times required for our wholesale we ask that they follow these 5 steps.

1. Change all fonts to curves or line art
2. Send us vector file formats – .ai – .eps – .dxf – .cdl or .cdr
3.  Confirm overall dimensions
4.  Let us know if the wholesale sign is to be Single sided or double sided
5.  We will need to know if the sign is to be Finished or unfinished

By receiving the digital artwork design and following the guidelines for ordering with our wholesale sign department, the process is streamlined and your should receive your quote within one business day.  Please send the required info to sales@sign-depot.on.ca or visit our contact us page

*NOTE If you are a Designer and wish to learn more about The Sign Depot  request an invite to The Sign Depot Designers’ Demo Day happening Wednesday January 26th 2011 from 3-6pm.  We’ll be having live demos of how we manufacture signs here in our sign workshop and will be happy to answer any questions you have about out sign making processes.