COVID-19 Blog

For the first time in months, I sense optimism in our regular customers. It’s a beautiful thing, like a rainbow after a long, dark storm. Here’s hoping everyone continues to mitigate with masks, social distancing, and hand washing.

We completed some really cool “social distancing” stencils for the City of Tampa a few minutes ago. I am sure we will have pictures to share on the good guys signs Facebook page next week. Their artist really knocked it out of the park., using 6’ versions of iconic pirates, manatees, and gators.

I had a sleepless night last night, Wing Stop Wings were “no bueno”. Finally, at 2am, decided to come to the shop. As I pulled up to make a deposit at Bank of America, a Hillsborough County Sheriff was using the next lane of the drive up ATM. A curfew just went into effect 9pm to 5am, so I thought, “This could get interesting”. He left before me, then I wondered where he was hiding. It’s not that I wasn’t heading to work, an essential business that makes lots of regulatory signs, 6’ distancing floor decals, Hero’s Work Here Letters, and the like. I think the stress is “Am I gonna get pulled over.” Turns our, he wasn’t hiding- I was simply tired/delirious.

As Hillsborough County tightens down the clamps on larger groups, night travel and so forth, signs are emerging that social distancing is working to “bend the curve”. We are grateful that, knock on wood, we have had no cases in our employees or their immediate families. Most know someone affected by Covid-19, however. Here’s hoping people continue to practice the CDC/President’s guidelines through April. Who knows what May will bring. We do wish for a lower infection rate to continue.

Here’s hoping the country gets partially opened back up safely, slowly, effectively, starting in May. Even our supply chains are beginning to be disrupted. I realize some area’s will not be able to open, perhaps even in June.

Today on the good guys signs facebook page, we posted a story, “Remembering Dick Meredith”. It’s a bittersweet story of a good man. I invite people who appreciate the poignancy of laughter and tears simultaneously to read the story.

Though the death toll is rising, the mitigation efforts seem to be leveling off the new cases across the country, which is a good thing. I am not superstitious, but I hate to jinx that we have 26 healthy, seemingly happy people working hard for our customers. Ok, working at 75%, but we are grateful for the business.

We’re putting a fun post on our good guys signs facebook page. It’s busy today, was slow yesterday. Seems 75% of what we print is Covid related.

Rumor has it that Hillsborough County sheriffs will go door to door in the obviously non-essential businesses, getting them to close. Though we qualify under 4 of the categories, like any business owner, I worry about a confrontation with an overzealous county employee who doesn’t realize the impact of an arbitrary decision. I am sure reason will prevail.

It’s a strange day at Good Guys Signs. Death has finally touched us through a vendor’s step-dad, and she couldn’t be there as the hospital was pretty locked down. He was ill for years, and though this wasn’t a Covid case, Covid has altered the normal good-bye and grieving process. This lady came down to Florida to be supportive her mom and step-dad a couple years ago.

Who knows how it’s best to support someone in grief during these times? Meals, doing laundry, face-timing, check-ins, these all make sense to me. I offered a life-sized cheer up, not sure how she would take it. One of her, for her mom, or of the deceased, or anything she wanted. Turns out, step-dad was a life of the party, beer drinker and true giver, and she is up for surprising mom with one. I offered her one free of charge; she’s been good to us. She, of course, offered to pay. I won’t be allowing that. She made me laugh and smile with her email story of him, so, even in her grief, her step-dad made a difference. Thanks Paula.

The City of Tampa has a wonderful idea using stencils and spray on chalk to put up temporary messaging on walls. We were blessed with the opportunity to be of assistance. We will get some pics and video’s up on the goodguyssigns facebook page next week. Business is solid, all turn times are being hit.

I sense employee anxiety rising as the death toll rises. All I can do is keep them calm, safe, and feeling like the work they are doing is meaningful. It is impossible to say how many “We are Open” banners, Covid signs, and supportive messages we have printed, but its thousands and thousands. I will collage this next week for my people, to make sure they understand it does make a difference.

It’s April Fool’s day, yet practical jokes simply don’t feel appropriate. We are keeping it professional light here, trying to help the city with a complex stenciling job, printing a ton of Covid Signs, and keeping regular operations with social distancing a priority. All in all, spirits are good.

We made a fun life sized cheer-up for a grandpa for his grandkids. He ordered it yesterday afternoon, it’s being mailed to Wisconsin today. Grandpa as the Fonz- it’s perfectly silly and sweet. We’ll grab a pic and post on our Facebook page today or tomorrow, Another one we just did we cannot post- unless we create a “Good Guys Signs after Dark” page. Definitely PG-13(+). These seem to be reaching people as a fun way to be present when they are not face-timing or video conferencing.

Mondays are the worst stress days for business owners during this pandemic. You don’t want your employees panicked, but they have to be informed. Anyone over 30 knows the saying, “If it bleeds, it leads”. Here’s hoping everyone is calm and didn’t consume “sky is falling news” 24/7 over the weekend. I have been carefully coaching my leaders, making sure they are giving off the calm competence necessary for people to help customers. I feel they have done an amazing job so far. We still have a few months to go, it would appear.

In the current normal our business is now a part of, we are keeping some sense of levity here. Today, we are having a High School Daze/Prom Photo Contest. Each staff member is bringing in a photo from when they were in high school and we can see how much they have changed. Our facility is a mix of diverse cultures and skill sets. From designers to service, programmers to production, we each bring that special piece to the team puzzle. Now, with uncertainty being commonplace outside the workplace, it is times like these that we want to strengthen the team within it. We want as much camaraderie and normalcy as possible. We hope you can have some silliness in your life, to balance the seriousness of the situation.

The Senate did it! Though a few knuckleheads tried to stop the train, it looks like wisdom prevailed. Who wants to see the suicide rate, the divorce rate, and the crime rate skyrocket, when it is in congress’s power to give people some desperately needed calm. We have been busy at Good Guys Signs, and now I am much less worried about taking good care of my folks.

We print a lot of labels. I found it amusing, and good for my people, that medical marijuana dispensaries are deemed “essential”. We’ve easily printed a couple hundred thousand product labels for dispensaries alone in the past 6 weeks. CBD is another, though they spend more per unit, often as vinyl decals. The cigar industry is strong this month, but our restaurant friends are struggling. We print for IHEART media, but there’s no concerts going on, or events. Big City Events, which does events all over, is suffering, Ferdian is such a good, generous man who never fails to treat our people so well. He often rushes orders, but he does it with grace, humility, and kindness. I do hope his business survives this next couple of months.

We’re open for the foreseeable future, as an essential business for hundreds of companies who are open that we make labels, stickers and more for. Locking the doors for walk-in guests is strange, but safer for my team. People are arriving, calling the local line, and we bring out their items to them. Employees feel safer, and there is less touching and shared space this way. We stopped some training, as it was shoulder to shoulder. My new people are happy to have a job, doing simple table work and pitching in where they can. It’s the new, temporary normal.

Yes, we are open! I am considering the idea of a life-sized cheer up. It’s a cutout of your loved one, someone you can’t be with due to isolation policies. We’d sell them at our cost only. We can help people have a silly, sweet cutout, and keep our own people employed, thus everyone wins. This keeps 5 designers, 2 printers, a CNC operator or 2, and a shipping department busy. Nick is a star designer, and the work he did transplanting the heads from a large corporate staff onto athlete’s bodies was both fun and super well received. Why not turn our people loose on making people smile. We’d sell the desktop version for $37, and the life sized version for $53, including shipping. We’d lose a $5 or $6 bucks shipping to the West Coast, possibly break even closer. If design times get too expensive, we can raise the price a buck or two to cover it. I can pretend the credit card fees don’t exist, and see if we can create a few hundred or even a few thousand smiles.

If anyone out there has an even better idea, please email. We want to do our part. The only constraint we have is we have to keep the package size to around 48” x 29”. Cutouts fold up, so that helps, but it costs more than $30 to ship something 48” x 30 to 36””. We wouldn’t be able to keep the price low if the cutout gets too big.

I just bought another $12,000 of digital ink – and another truck of coroplast. I can’t feed our team if we don’t have raw materials to make signs with.  Business is solid. Here’s hoping the gov’t doesn’t shut us down. We had to call one customer with a 2000 sign order and tell them it was gonna take us 1 day extra. The customer was excellent about it. Our silk screen ink supplier was 1 day late- sick kid, and sometimes things happen. Landlords at both facilities are letting us pass on rent for 3 months- makes me confident I can take care of my people. Charlie Kettner and Jennifer Kori are amazing people- I had tears in my eyes when talking to them. They know I will pay them back. They have the true “we’re in this together” attitude.

Another busy day.  Silk screen signs, particularly for political candidates, is heavy. I visited the silk screen plant, where spirits are solid. Reynaldo has a tooth infection, so he’s out, and he is a true beast of a worker- everyone’s picking up the slack the best they can.  We won’t miss any turn times. Morale is good. T-shirt boxes are coming in faster than ever- but the team is handling it. Our employees know we will make sure they are getting paid over the next 90 days, even if the gov’t forces a shutdown.  So far, most have turned in their direct deposit forms, just a few to go.

It’s business as usual at Good Guys Signs, well, as usual as the times allow. We are hitting all of our turn times. The healthy are working hard, anyone even sniffling has been to the doctor. I am glad we added health care 2 years ago, and the teledoc is a godsend for sniffles and little stuff. Florida Blue is rock solid. Our contribution  for paying health costs is a touch stressful at 80%, but maybe there will be relief soon for small businesses. I know some of my wholesale customers are worried.

If a past customer reads this, you know who we are. Honest, hard working, own our mistakes, driven to hit turn times. We know you count on us, and we will come through as always.

If a new potential customer reads this, understand that we work hard to exceed what you expect. Our motto is “Give more than you take”. If someone spends $200 with us, we want to give them $240 in speed, design, advice, and quality product. It’s served us well in the last 10 years, and will continue to long into the future.

As always, customers can contact us directly if they have any concerns, issues, or for any service need.