What Should You Invest Your Profits?
At shopVOX, we’ve built up relationships with a lot of different companies over the years through our innovative print shop software. One question we sometimes ask sign shop business owners is “If you were given $5,000 or $10,000, how would you utilize it?”
Of course, the answers are different all across the board. Some business owners say they would save it, or use it to buy a new car, or use it to take their employees out for dinner. There are a lot of good potential applications for a sudden influx of extra funds. But what about investing it back into your business.
One of the most important things to all of us here at shopVOX is helping out clients however we can, whether that means helping them learn more about shopVOX itself or providing helpful advice and resources to support them as they grow their business. That’s why we’ve put together this helpful guide to making the most of your profits.
Why It’s Worth It to Reinvest
Let’s take a step back. Instead of asking “What would you do with $5,000?” let’s think smaller. What would you do if someone gave you $200? One of the best answers we’ve heard from a sign shop client here at shopVOX was “I would buy a roll of vinyl.” Why? Because that roll of vinyl will turn a $200 investment into likely thousands of dollars worth of revenue.
If you were given $5,000, obviously there’s nothing wrong with putting in a savings account or an investment account. That’s one way to watch that money grow. But in the sign business, there are things you can do with your profits that can help you attract more customers, sales, and revenue in the future. That in turn multiplies your profits exponentially.
How Should You Reinvest?
There are many different ways to reinvest profits back into your sign shop business. Here are three that we think are the most important:
1. Employees
No, we’re not talking about bonuses, although those can be great ways of rewarding your current employees for their hard work and motivating them to continue giving their all. But arguably an even better way of reinvesting into your business is to use your profits to bring in new employees.
The more team members you have, the more installers or graphic designers or service technicians you employ, the more quickly and efficiently you can complete jobs, which means you can take on more jobs over time. Or, there are types of employees you don’t yet have but could benefit from, such as an outside sales representative. In this way, hiring new employees can help you increase your output and even find whole new customers.
2. Equipment
Technology in the sign shop industry is always advancing, so much so that it can be hard to keep up with all the latest models. Investing a little of your profits into doing that, though, can be a big help. It allows you to maintain or even improve the quality of your products, while often boosting productivity and refining accessibility.
That doesn’t mean that new tech is all you should be investing in, however. Ask yourself this: what kind of equipment can I buy that will allow me to get into new markets? CNC routers, laser engravers, channel letter bending machines; these are all things that will let you produce more internally and serve a wider cross-section of customers. Long-term planning is critical to ensuring success for the next five, ten, or twenty years.
3. Inventory
As alluded to earlier with the example of using $200 in profit to buy a roll of vinyl, one of the very best ways to invest in your business is to buy more inventory. The reason is simple: the more you have, the more you can sell. Even a relatively small increase in inventory is going to affect your cash flow significantly over time.
Having more inventory also means reducing the amount of downtime you have by decreasing the likelihood of you running out of materials when you need them most. What’s more, buying supplies like substrates, wrap kits, laminates, and inks in larger bulk quantities can allow you to take advantage of discounts. In turn, an initial $5,000 investment can end up blossoming into $25,000, $35,000 or $45,0000 in revenue.
shopVOX is an Investment That Always Pays Off
Every penny of profit your business generates has the potential to multiply many times over if used correctly. The bottom line is that you always want to make choices that will propel your business forward, that will help it grow and thrive and diversify. The more you do that, though, the harder you have to work to keep things running smoothly.
Lucky for you, shopVOX comes with a suite of features designed to make managing your business easier than ever. From workflow monitoring to customer databases to internal communication to pipeline creation, shopVOX sign software puts every aspect of your business into a single, easy-to-use program that can be accessed from anywhere at any time.
Don’t take our word for it. Try shopVOX today!