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Sign shop owner Cheryl King has been watching the migration of businesses into the Whitehaven area with a keen eye toward growing her own client base.
So King came up with the idea of creating a Whitehaven newsletter that would highlight what’s happening in the community. In the inaugural issue, King introduced the community to her business, Signs Today, formerly Signs Plus.
“During the last 10 months, we have researched and studied how advertising in our community could be improved,” she wrote in the newsletter that published earlier this year. “Our study definitely showed that if proper advertising
such as signs, banners and business cards were available and adequately displayed, more Whitehaven businesses would prosper.”
And marketing their businesses is what King said she helps her clients do. At her Whitehaven sign shop, she designs a variety of signs for businesses from digital prints to fabricated letters.
Her customers range from small-business owners to large companies such as AutoZone and Walgreens, with the typical request ranging from designing a small sign for a window to repairing the lighting in an existing sign or replacing the sign itself.
Thanks to the list
The LeMoyne-Owen College alumna didn’t plan to become an entrepreneur. In fact, she was planning to pursue a career as a physical education teacher, but one of her professors told her to go home and write down a list of all the things she enjoyed doing and whittle it down to her favorite. When she was done, she only had music and art.
“Well, I wasn’t going to be able to do music,” she said. “So I decided on art.”
And then there was a chance encounter with a visiting professor who, after viewing some of King’s work, told her she was leaning toward being a print artist.
The realization that the professor was talking about commercial art came a bit later, King said.
In the beginning, King’s sign career was just something she did on the side. Back then, she said, she would have to cut out letters by hand because she couldn’t afford the equipment she needed.
“Also during that time, if I wasn’t cutting letters out by hand, I would have to visit another establishment to get my letters and stuff cut out,” King said. “But I promised myself that, one day, if God say the same, that I would be able to afford the equipment. And years later, He did bless me and I was able to buy all the equipment I needed.”
That equipment now includes computers, a digital printer, copiers and bucket trucks for working on tall signs.
Converting skeptics
Being a woman in the business, King said she has faced some subtle challenges, such as people expecting to deal with a man when she shows up for appointments to offer a job quote.
“They may not think that I can wear the shoes; they’re used to a male doing it,” King said. “But once they find out how knowledgeable I am and how long I’ve been in this business … then once I produce the sign, I end up with a customer who’ll continue to come back.”
Repeat customers and word-of-mouth referrals is how King said she gets most of her business. She also sets up booths at expos such as the Black Business Expo that was held earlier this year and the Juneteenth Freedom & Heritage Festival that will take place later this month.
“We’ll probably have something like (Democratic presidential candidate Barack) Obama T-shirts or something else to sell,” King said.
The festival will take place June 13-15 at Douglass Park on Ash Street north of Chelsea Avenue and celebrates the “official” end of slavery – June 19, 1865.
During the 11 years she’s been in business, King said, she has watched technology change the sign industry significantly. She pointed to the presence of electronic billboards and signs with running messages to show how varied the products have become.
It’s something with which she will continue to evolve, she said, paying attention to the latest trends in the industry so she can continue to serve her existing customers along with new ones she picks up along the way.
