Business in the field of outdoor advertising. How to organize production? What is an office for? How to find a room for a workshop? What equipment and tools are needed? How to position yourself? How to attract customers? And a thousand other questions.
We will make signs, you decided, having identified this type of business as the most attractive for yourself and for a couple - three friends - like-minded people. What about? We have hands, we know how to work, we will cope with this business no worse than others, there would be a desire!
Well, as they say - the flag is in your hands. Just do not forget, in addition to the motto "desire", inscribe on the flag - "patience", "demand", "marketing". These are not empty words, believe me. In the future, it is they who will determine your business in terms of its content and expediency.
I had to spend a lot of time wandering the net to make sure that there was almost complete absence of information - where to start and how to develop advertising production correctly, how to avoid mistakes that, like a blueprint, are repeated by almost all newly formed companies.
Some enlightened businessmen, after reading the article, reproached me - why, they say, everything is so detailed, let them themselves learn to break through the walls with their foreheads - the skill in our life is very useful! I cannot disagree, but I think it would be more reasonable to go around some walls sometimes, guided by hints about their thickness. Therefore, this article is not for enlightened businessmen, but for you, my colleagues, who for the first time challenged the raging elements of the advertising business.
And now, in order. The type of activity you have chosen is called "Outdoor Advertising". I think this is understandable. This includes - signs, plaques, pillars, firewalls, visors, awnings, posters, panel-brackets, steles and a dozen or more structures installed outside. However, not only outside, but more on that later.
So, there is a decision to create an advertising and production company, positions have been distributed among like-minded friends, an accountant has been found. Now it's up to the legal side of the issue. Get ready, my friends, for numerous trips to all kinds of instances and stock up on a considerable amount of patience and nerves, and most importantly time. Unfortunately, in response to the government's sluggish attempts to simplify the registration procedure, the officials, in response, have come up with so many new things that my advice to you is to contact one of the many law firms and entrust all the registration issues to them. At the very least, save your nerves and time. The cost of this service is from 5500 rubles. in Moscow, on the periphery - from 2500 rubles. And by the way, prepare money for the authorized capital in the bank - at least 10,000 rubles.
I will not dwell on this stage any longer. In about a month, you will have all the necessary papers, in the volume of a plump stationery folder.
Advice - it is better to look for an accountant among pensioners or find a so-called - coming. The latter does not have to be formalized as an employee, since he will work part-time for you. This option is cheaper and at first it is quite justified. In the future, you will have the opportunity to make changes to the staffing table, at your own discretion.
Production area
Well, now, you say, now let's get down to business. The question is where? Where will the future masterpieces of outdoor advertising, made by your hands, be created? This is not an idle question. In fact, at first, some simple sign in the form of an application on a piece of plastic or even a light box can be made in your personal garage. You can buy a vinyl self-adhesive film and order plotter cutting in any company selling materials for "outdoor". Many do so at first. Some of my good friends made their first sign - a 4-meter light box - at home.
Not everyone was happy, at this stage, to have at their disposal a non-residential fund of at least 35-40 square meters. In any case, sooner or later you will have to face the problem of renting a production facility. I say - "a problem", because I know how much work will have to be done to find an honest and decent landlord, and, moreover, renting out a small area for your production.
Advice - do not meddle with large factories. Look for it in industrial zones, at car factories, in garage cooperatives, in former research institutes, which, as a rule, have small pilot production facilities, etc.
When choosing a room, one must not forget that the assembled advertising structure, be it a sign or an awning, will have to be taken out and loaded onto a car. This means that you need to make sure in advance that the doorway is wide enough and there is an entrance for freight transport to it. And yet, in many workshop rooms, especially in machine shops, so-called mezzanines can be offered to you. This is a fairly wide balcony, for the entire length of the workshop, with a width of about 6-8 m. Its rent, according to experience, is much lower than the area on the ground floor. A good option, but only on condition that there is a serviceable hoist for lifting and lowering materials and finished structures.
The production of advertising products is a priori mechanical production, so you should not look for a production area in woodworking enterprises, pulp and paper mills, worsted factories and, God forbid, in the basements of the housing stock.
Tip - when planning the production area, do not forget that you will need welding work. The welding department must be equipped with an exhaust hood and comply with all fire safety standards. Be prepared for visits from the fire department.
In some cases, for example, if there is a large amount of welding work to be done or the welded structure is too large, you will have to agree to carry out these works on the side by ordering the structure at a nearby enterprise or car service. We will dwell on the issue of cooperation in more detail later. Alternatively, in the summer, welding can be done outdoors, somewhere on the territory, of course with the permission of the authorities.
In search engines, among the offers for the lease of production space, there are often unheated hangars, previously used for parking special equipment. These are usually concrete sections with huge gates and an area of 80-150 sq.m. In all respects, this option could be considered ideal, having closed your eyes to the layer of oiled earth under your feet and the unkillable smell of solarium, but … it is impossible to work in such a room in winter. My friends, having chosen this option, suffered a crushing defeat in the fight against the cold. Neither heat guns, nor insulation on the gates, nor sealing of cracks helped. A huge reinforced concrete monolith accumulated cold and in order to warm it up, according to the desperate head of the workshop, it was necessary to dump all the equipment and materials in a heap and make a big fire.
Conclusion - the shop should be relatively clean, warm in winter and, if possible, satisfy all the conditions mentioned earlier.
Tip - When planning work areas in the shop, set aside a clean area for so-called "art" work with film. It is advisable, for these purposes, to adapt a separate room, and if this is not possible, fence off the clean area with curtains made of transparent vinyl or banner fabric.
The production area (workshop) must have a place for storing materials. Iron - closer to the welding area, plastic - if possible in a less clean area. It is even desirable to come up with what to cover it with, because the plastic will statically attract all the dust in the workshop.
Tip - it is better to keep large sheets of cellular polycarbonate rolled into a roll of large diameter, so they will be more protected from puncture. Sheets and composites can be stored on racks.
And yet, having found a suitable room, immediately stipulate the main thing - the terms of payment with the landlord. Do not buy into phrases, such as - "Well, for now, place yourself, figure out what's what, and then we will finally clarify the cost." After that, as a rule, the rental price will be higher than originally agreed. The landlord has thousands of reasons for this, believe me.
The rental payment must be strictly stipulated by the terms of the Agreement and must be paid only by bank transfer, since these payments will go to your expenses. And no cash surcharges or kickbacks.
Office
Office space is not a luxury. It is necessary, first of all, for receiving customers, for the work of managers, operators-designers, suppliers, administration. In addition to workplaces and computers, the office should have samples of all kinds of outdoor advertising means, so that those who come would understand what and how it is arranged, what materials it is made of, how it looks, as they say - live.
That is, by and large, the office of an advertising company should be a showroom for advertising technologies.
The problem of finding an office is no less dramatic than finding production space. But, as they say - "Seeker, let him find!"
Advice - the office should be close to production. Otherwise, you will be wasting a lot of precious time traveling back and forth. And you, and especially the managers, will have to do them at least once a day.
Again, at first, customers can be received in production. This even has its own advantages - the client sees your potential, assesses the possibilities. I know several well-known companies where offices, as such, do not exist and were not there from the very beginning. Production and "control room" are located in the same room, separated by a partition or cabinets. And, personally, I see only advantages in this option, if you do not pay attention to the noise. However, you can ask managers to speak more quietly on the phone.
Recently, a system of joint office lease by several companies has begun to be practiced. for rent mainly large premises, not less than 100-250 sq.m. In a warehouse, such a "communal" option may suit you. It is only important that the activities of neighboring firms are in the same working style and do not interfere with each other.
In the future, of course, if things go well enough, you will acquire your own office, since the office is the face of the company. You can't argue with that.
Staff
The concept of personnel includes the previously listed managers, design operators, secretaries, suppliers, etc. Is it worth it to complete the full staff from the very beginning? At first glance, the question is rhetorical. However, options are possible here as well.
Option one. You rent a room, arrange tables with office equipment, advertise the recruitment of trainee managers and, after a short interview, select, say, 8-10 people. Conduct instructions with them, explain how to talk with customers, teach them how to use price lists. Now - on what terms. It's very simple - place an order - get a premium. I think 15% -17% of the total order. By experience, he is a good candidate for a manager's position in a large city; he can place up to five orders per day. Naturally, settlement with the trainee is made after the client pays for the order.
This system was widely practiced in the 90s, when, against the general background of unemployment, people flooded into newly organized firms. Much has changed in twenty years, but the option is interesting. Its only drawback is the rather significant costs for equipment and telephony. On the other hand, sooner or later, you still have to do them.
Advice - when you have already formed a team of managers, take this remuneration algorithm as a basis. Working according to the "found - received" system, together with some increasing coefficients (for example, a regular customer, a large order, etc.), managers will always have an incentive, and you will have the opportunity to accurately assess their activities.
Option two. Distribute not only positions, but also responsibilities among like-minded friends on the staffing table. For example, everyone can be the managers taking and placing orders, including the CEO. The duties of the supplier, at first, can be performed by the head of production (head of the shop). The operator-designer, again, can be any employee who has undergone simple training in the graphics program Corel Draw. The duties of the secretary, at the initial stage, can be neglected.
A little about salaries and bonuses. Putting managers on a fixed salary with a differentiated bonus system, as they do in some organizations, is difficult and, in the literal sense, ungrateful. Experience has shown that the absence of stimulating factors causes a decline in the activity of the team, and non-payment, even for quite obvious reasons, the bonus is regarded as a punishment. My advice to you is to forget about paying any bonuses altogether, and borrow the payment system from the previous advice.
A special theme is the layout kit. This is the name of the workers in advertising firms. If you do not have a ready-made team with work experience, you need to announce the set in periodicals or on the Internet. Seeking help from recruiting agencies, in this case, is inappropriate. You are not looking for a collider specialist.
The turnover of layout workers among advertising firms is very high. People wander from firm to firm, looking for better working conditions, higher wages, proximity to home, and a host of other reasons. When conducting an interview, it is imperative to take into account the length of service in advertising, professional skills, the absence of bad habits, the reason for the change of place of work. Often you come across people with less than a year's work experience, but already positioning themselves as great specialists.
Advice - all layout workers must work for some time (a month, two) on a trial period. Only after making sure that this person is right for you, register him in the state. As a rule, a drunkard, a truant, and a quitter will come to light within two months.
You must clearly define for yourself the number of layouts hired. It's bad if, after completing two or three orders, there is a pause in the work of the shop and the designers are forced to sit idle. No job - no salary. So much for the turnover in your own production. It is better to do with small forces at first, but with a full load. If the number of orders has increased dramatically, you will always have time to recruit several additional people, or, in extreme cases, connect yourself.
Advice - since the layout designers are also installers, because they will have to hang signs and other advertising structures, choose people, if possible, not old and strong.
Now about the head of production (shop). Ideally, if it will be one of your team, a person with experience in outdoor advertising. In fact, this is the right hand of the head of the company, since the timing of work execution, and their quality, training and control depend on him. Moreover, in the initial period, he will have to perform the functions of a supplier, as well as a layout designer and installer.
If there is no such person in your team, announce a competition to fill the vacant position or identify a leader among the people you recruit.
In large cities, in order to obtain permission to install a sign or outdoor advertising, you need to go through a lot of authorities, while you must be able to correctly draw up all the necessary documents. In small regional towns, of course, everything is much simpler. The customer is engaged in obtaining such a permit himself or entrusts this work to a specialist, the so-called registrar. A professional registrar can, in a shorter time, go through all the necessary instances and break through even the most daring project, since he knows more than one way out of the complex labyrinth of the bureaucratic jungle.
In time immemorial, the registration of signs was done by the managers themselves. Later, when the requirements for advertising became stricter, and the registration queues, respectively, lengthened, registrars, at firms, were allocated to a special group. They began to engage only in this highly specialized activity. It is now rare to find registrars on the staff of an advertising firm. They work independently in close collaboration with firms and customers.
Technical equipment
The production of promotional items requires appropriate equipment, tools and materials. From hand tools - this is a complete set of locksmith tools. Power tools - drills, circular saws, grinders, jigsaws. Special equipment - pipe bending machine, welding machine, neon plant, etc. All this will be with you, but not immediately. And in the beginning, it is enough to buy a plotter for cutting from vinyl film, a couple of computers for the office, and bribe tools for the workshop as needed. Plotters are now much cheaper than they used to be. Fifteen years ago, I remember, there were only Japanese Rolands and they cost about $ 4500. Now there are Chinese, Korean, which cost three times cheaper. And the used ones are even less. But, my advice to you - let the plotter be Chinese, but it must be new and with a guarantee. Do not be stingy in this case. Miser pays twice.
Do you need a plotter for full color printing? Decide for yourself. My opinion is that it is needed in two cases. First, if there is no printing plotter in your city. And the second - if you have orders for full-color printing, at least five years ahead. In all other cases, contact the subcontractors and order a "full color" from them as soon as such orders are received.
A few years ago, many advertising firms, driven by the sudden increase in demand for large firewalls, rushed to buy printing plotters. However, now the main occupation of the managers of these companies is to call other advertisers, offering this service.
Now, about the neon factory. In fact, this is not a factory, but a neon master's workplace, including a cutting table, a rack with fixtures, a place for gas cylinders and a cloud of all kinds of tools for bending and filling with gas neon tubes. From these pipes, according to templates, the neon man bends letters, from which, in fact, neon advertising is assembled. A well-promoted company can buy such a plant. And since the demand for neon only increases every year, leave the thought of buying it for the time being.
Happy owners of lasers - laboratories of educational and research institutes and some manufacturing enterprises willingly accept orders for cutting letters and other complex elements from steel, plywood, plexiglass and composites. If it is more expedient for you to give, say, the clipping of letters from plexiglass to them, rather than to suffer yourself with a jigsaw, use the opportunity of cooperation, since all these organizations have the status of a legal entity and work with them can be arranged under a contract and paid by bank transfer.
The plate bending machine used to be the most coveted attribute of the workshop interior. With its help, elements of light boxes (side panels), with shells, for glass were made. I'll make a reservation right away that advertisers still call the front panels of light boxes glasses, regardless of what they are made of - plexiglass, polycarbonate or a banner. Well, so, now this artifact can still sometimes be found in the workshop of some reputable company, covered with noble dust. Recently, a colleague of mine argued with me about this, assuring me that she was still stamping galvanized boxes on a sheet bending machine. It is supposedly cheap and cheerful.
May be. But the box assembled from the profile looks much neater and more beautiful.
So, if you do not have a "listogib" - do not be sad, but if you still got it, for example, by inheritance, you can work on it. To your health.
Workplaces. It is possible, for example, to build hardly a few locksmith's tables, each of which will have a certain layout designer. In case any large-scale structure is being assembled, the tables can be easily moved into one large or long one. Moreover, it is advisable to have several tables in stock, just in case.
Another variant. The frame is welded and several sheets of plywood, at least 20 mm thick, are placed on top. Layouts work on it from both sides. The length of such a editing table is not limited, but the width should be such that it is easy to reach the middle from both sides. Ideally, if in addition, again, on the sidelines, there are several spare locksmith tables.
If there are no windows in the workshop, it is better to make lighting with fluorescent lamps of the yellow spectrum. It makes the eyes less tired, while the illumination intensity is higher than that of similar lamps of the white spectrum. Illumination of workplaces can be local or, in the case of a single editing table, in the form of several lamps, located scarcely, along the entire length of the table.
Regarding vehicles. In time immemorial, when the author of this article started his advertising business, he had only a twenty-year-old Zhigulenka at his personal disposal. It delivered metal and galvanized steel, plastic sheets and finished welded elements to the workshop. And when going to the installation - folding scaffolding, a sign and, in fact, the assembly team itself.
Conclusion - a car in a company is a necessary thing. The best option is "Gazelle" with a welded frame for ease of installation. And it is very good if the driver also takes part in the installation work. Young people are happy to go for this part-time job, because, in this case, they have an additional extra earning.
Without a car, you will have to use logistics services. But very soon you will realize that this pleasure eats up a large share of the profit.
For high-altitude work, rent an aerial platform or hire industrial climbers.
Often the use of an aerial platform is impossible for various objective reasons - the passage is closed or there is not enough space for deploying the boom. In these cases, bringing in industrial climbers is the only and win-win option.
As a rule, climbers are literate and experienced people. They have to deal with the installation of outdoor advertising quite often. It is necessary to make an appointment in advance, go to the place with them in order to assess the cost and features of the upcoming installation, and they will take care of the rest.
Advice - when working with industrial climbers, be sure to conclude a work contract with them, where their functions and responsibilities will be precisely defined. Otherwise, if, God forbid, some kind of accident happens (and they sometimes happen to climbers), you will not have to take full responsibility for yourself.
For complex installation work, for example - roof installations, at first, negotiate with special installation firms. They have all the necessary equipment and machinery. Be on the hook yourself. So you will gain the necessary experience for the future, master the specifics of such works. However, there is one significant nuance here - the company must have a license to carry out complex installation work. Whether you need it or not, again, decide for yourself.
Speaking about cooperation, I smoothly led you to a very interesting question -
Do you need, in general, production?
If all the work can be ordered on the side, why fence the garden? Problems with rent, salary, tool and equipment costs disappear immediately.
My answer is that you can do outdoor advertising without having your own production. True, then the status of the company will be different, namely, an advertising agency.
An advertising agency is an intermediary between a customer and a manufacturer.
I will not dispute the fact that by contacting an agency, and not directly to an advertising and production or printing company, the customer not only loses, but often wins in money. This actually happens, because for advertising agencies there are decent discounts from manufacturers (20 - 30%). As a result, if the agency approaches the issues of its own profit wisely and does not raise prices, the customer will turn to the agency for the second and third time.
You can compare the advantages of one form of advertising activity over another for a long time, but this is a topic for another article. I'll save it for my book.
Several years ago, an acquaintance of mine, the director of an advertising and production company, found himself in a position where he could no longer maintain a production that devoured the lion's share of income. The question was a matter of principle - either to abandon production, or to abandon everything altogether, to hell. Why did it happen? It is difficult to answer unequivocally. Although his main mistake, I believe, was the relationship with the landlord. The contract was drawn up extremely sloppy, payment was made in cash. And the landlord, a man clearly unscrupulous, untied his hands and, without a twinge of conscience, every month he raised the cost of rent. As a result, they left the workshop, dismissed the layout designers, and the equipment was urgently sold. For a month they licked their mental wounds.
So we decided. Let everything remain - as it is - we will accept orders, only we will place them in different places, with colleagues. We talked with several advertising and production firms, negotiated good discounts and began to work as before. Naturally, no one spoke to customers about the lack of their own production. There was no need to change the price lists. The absence of costs for materials and manufacturing compensated for the payment to subcontractors.
To avoid problems with the tax authorities, a year later they decided to rename the agency. In addition to outdoor advertising, they began to engage in interior design, as well as the development of design projects and corporate identity, and PR-actions. Now it is a fairly well-known and thriving full-cycle advertising agency. As they say - there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped.
There are other examples, just the opposite. In a small printing house dealing exclusively with printing, it was decided to allocate areas free from decommissioned equipment for an outdoor advertising workshop, so to speak - in terms of diversification. The fact is that they quite often received calls about the production of signs, confusing the profile of the enterprise, which they certainly did not take advantage of. And they did not lose. Within two years, outdoor advertising became their main activity.
I would like to give an example when an advertising agency suddenly became an advertising and production company. But, unfortunately, I have no such information.
Nevertheless, my friends and colleagues, I will tell you honestly - in order to work creatively, mastering and developing new technologies, improving in various aspects of professional skill, you need to do everything with your own hands!
This is how authority and name are earned. The status of an advertising and production company is much higher than that of an agency.
Advertising agencies, however, are no less than advertising and production firms. However, I have not met a single agency that would only deal with outdoor advertising. As a rule, in the arsenal of their activities and sale of materials for "outdoor" and something else in this sense.
Here is the answer to the question posed in the title.
The most important thing
I put this section on purpose at the end of the article. Because we will talk about what, as they say, the cart will not budge.
At the beginning of the article, I advised to write "Patience", "Demand", "Marketing" as a motto on the standard of your determination.
With "patience" sorted out. It seems that after going through the initial stages of formation without significant loss of mental health and money, you have the right to consider yourself patient people.
Demand. Without which, all your activity, to put it mildly, is reduced to zero. As you know, demand creates supply.
In our case, demand, or rather, its criteria, is the number of visits to your website or phone calls. Therefore, let's immediately talk about the means and methods of attracting potential customers.
First, you need to make your website, which will reflect your activities, with all the necessary attributes, such as price lists, product samples, photos, comments, etc. With a minimum of skills in working with any modern graphics program, you can create a completely acceptable site. If you have never engaged in such activities, it is better to entrust the promotion of your site to professionals. Now only the lazy is not engaged in site promotion. Moreover, many companies, in addition to promotion, as a lure, also offer free website development. It is clear that the site, in this case, will be boilerplate and the most primitive. Maybe this will suit someone, but …
Tip - Don't skimp on creating a good professional website. What the site will be like - this will be the attitude towards you. People are greeted by their clothes, and a company is greeted by their website.
For obvious reasons, I will not consider the options for your advertising on TV or billboards.
Second, if your office has only one telephone line, it makes sense to branch it using a portable telephone exchange for the number of people taking orders. And, if possible, leave at least one number free for numerous outgoing calls. It is highly undesirable to indicate employees' mobile phone numbers in advertisements. Firstly, "crooked" numbers cause a biased and suspicious attitude towards them, and secondly, this practice leads, at times, to unpleasant consequences. I will not develop this topic, I will confine myself to a warning.
The third is site support. By placing your site on keywords such as "signage", "outdoor advertising", etc. you can come across information about yourself, say at 938th place. It is unlikely that a potential customer will have the strength and desire to scroll through more than 90 pages. As a result, your ad simply won't find its customer. Hence the conclusion - it is necessary to be in the top ten competing firms. And this is very, very expensive. Expect about 30-50 thousand rubles a month to support the site.
There was a time when advertisements about services were given in weeklies such as Extra-M, thick reference books, Yellow Pages, and the like. The prices were quite reasonable. With the Internet - a different matter, here the prices are much higher. What can you do - neither weekly nor thick reference books, if they still exist, are no longer read. Therefore, to support the site, you must have a "stash" for at least six months in advance. And how long it will take to "recoup" these costs depends on you and marketing.
Advice - do not use the dissemination of information about your activities in the form of postal leaflets or, moreover, stickers. First, the probability that your leaflet will find an interested addressee here is negligible. Secondly, you know perfectly well how the tenants relate to this waste paper in their boxes - they throw it away without looking. And even more so, there is nothing to expect a serious attitude to the piece of paper on the post.
Marketing - “… it is the art and science of choosing the right target market, attracting, retaining and increasing the number of consumers by creating confidence in the buyer that it represents the highest value for the company”, as well as “an orderly and purposeful process, awareness of consumer problems and market regulation. activities.
And further. "The purpose of marketing is to create conditions for the adaptation of production to public demand, market requirements …"
In my opinion, everything is clear enough. In other words, for the successful work of the company, it is necessary to do everything so that the customer, having come to you once, order a sign, all subsequent years give preference only to you. How can this be achieved?
From the point of view of the customer, the order must be inexpensive, made with high quality and on time. From the point of view of the director of the company, the order should be expensive, made using simple technology, from cheap materials and in a free time frame. Well, and how, if not art, can you call the work of a manager who, figuratively speaking, knows how to feed the wolves and keep the sheep, and by evaluating his activities to deduce the image of a satisfied customer.
Management, as a component of marketing, is a largely imperial science. Therefore, assuming that the staff of your company is unlikely to consist of scientists from the Institute of Management, it is necessary to devote at least some time to training managers in the basics of management. Further, experience will already appear, and with it professionalism.
