Saving on Outdoor Electrical Signage and Channel Letters | How-to Guides for running your business from Work.com

The Channel Letter Industry


	The channel letter industry is made up of a few different types of companies. Small Local Businesses The most numerous are the local sign companies that make custom channel letter signs. They are sometimes regional, but are usually small businesses. They make their signs by bending the metal by hand with the help of very manual bending tools. After printing out a diagram of the sign design, they bend each and every piece of metal until it matches the shape required. While this works, it is hardly efficient and requires a lot of time from a very skilled operator. These companies also lack the scale to get volume pricing from sub-component manufacturers. While good at what they do, this is a very expensive place to buy a sign. Large Sign Manufacturers There are just a few large scale electric sign manufacturers. They use the latest technology and extremely expensive capital equipment to produce high quality signs in high volume. Their size and volume afford them the ability to negotiate excellent prices for raw materials and components needed for their signs. These are great places to buy signs, but they will only deal direct with large retail chains, typically with 100 or more locations. Distributors of Large Manufacturers For most companies, this is the only place they can go to get a sign made by the large, efficient manufacturing companies. The manufacturers do make signs for the little guy, but only sell them through authorized distributors. For example, a great distributor for Everbrite can be found at http://www.channel-letters.com/ . While you might pay a little more than McDonald’s has to for their signs, you can still save around 50% off the price most small sign-makers charge. For some reason, these distributors are not usually focused on just this product type, but are scattered trying to sell any kind of sign they can find a customer for. So they are also hard to find, and typically do not do a good job of promoting the savings available to small business by using them. To find a distributor like NW Channel Letters you can go to the manufacturers sites and call them, or look for a “find distributor” link. Try Googling “channel letter manufacturers” to find the largest sources, but make sure they have large factories and photo’s on their site.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find a distributor for one of the Major Electrical Sign Manufacturers.

There are many large manufacturers like Everbrite and Sign Builders Inc. Search for their names along with "distributor" to find a reseller of their signs.

I recommend: We recommend NW Channel Letters

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Guide to Saving on Outdoor Electrical Signage and Channel Letters

How you can buy from large sign manufacturers and save up to 50% and why the local "Trusted Sign Company" may not be your best choice.

Find a distributor for one of the Major Electrical Sign Manufacturers.