SharpSigns gets the word out

“I was working at a company that had some financial difficulties and started laying people off. When I saw that happen, I decided I wasn't going to work for anybody, I was going into business for myself,” he said.

Fugitt happened upon Scott Brady, who had started SharpSigns Inc. in Forsyth.

“Larry, my stepfather, mentioned Scott, so we went and talked with him, saw his operation, and we were really excited and sort of fell into it. We bought the name and the logo from him, he trained us a bit and we have been on our own ever since,” Fugitt said.

Brady markets the Forsyth and Branson areas while Fugitt has the rights to Greene, Christian and Webster counties. “We don't cross each other's territories,” said Fugitt, who owns SharpSigns of Springfield in a corporation with his mother, Nancy Melton, and stepfather, Larry Melton.

SharpSigns offers general and lighted signs, billboards, banners, vehicle wraps, screen printing, vinyl decals and labels.

Very early in his career, Fugitt focused on networking.

“I would get out of class at 11 and be at chamber meetings at noon. It was scary, but it was good,” he said.

Fugitt served as an ambassador for the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce and initiated an ambassador program with the Nixa Area Chamber of Commerce.

“I started growing in Nixa pretty rapidly,” he said. “We expanded into Ozark, and we did a lot in Republic. Probably about a year after we opened, we found this spot (at 234 E. Republic Road) in Springfield.”

Fugitt has managed his growth very carefully. He hired Springfield business consultant Bill West to help him construct a business plan. In addition, Fugitt has made strategic investments in his business. While the company still handcrafts its neon signs, sandblasted signs and many of its vinyl signs, Fugitt invested in two digital printers.

“I think that digital printing is going to be the wave of the future, because when you go into a large city, you see full-color everything,” he said.

Wholesale move

These highly specialized printers allowed Fugitt to begin subcontracting work on a national level, leading to a wholesale business that is changing the face of his company.

With about 625 wholesale clients on board, Fugitt is pushing for another transformation in the next five years.

“We are obviously a retail business and always have been. But I am switching gears a little bit and moving toward wholesale. So you will not find us in the Yellow Pages, you will not see us advertising a whole lot. I think we will be less of a sign shop and more of a digital printing facility - and we will not be at this location,” Fugitt said.

Fugitt hopes to move to a larger facility in 2006.

Moving to wholesale does not mean that he intends to abandon his current clientele, however. “We, of course, are not going to cut loose our retail customers,” he said. “We just won't be pursuing retail business as much.”

This is welcome news for Bryan Morris of American Detection Specialists Inc., one of Fugitt's retail customers. American Detection has been a customer for approximately four years.

“They make the signs that go on our company vans, as well as the signs that we post where we have installed a security or camera system,” said Morris, finance manager. “In our world, that is very important because a sign can mean the difference between whether somebody has a break-in or unpleasant event or not.”

Morris is pleased with SharpSigns' work.

“He really takes a personal interest in the work that he does and getting things done right. I can't think of a time when we were working on something and he didn't think of at least three things that I hadn't thought of,” Morris said.

Web presence

Fugitt's Web site, www.buysharpsigns.com, has provided another growth outlet on a national level. After six years on the Web, the site now attracts nearly 19,000 hits a month.

Fugitt attributes this to two factors. The first is placement.

“I have learned how to get to the top of the search engines and get traffic to my Web site,” he said.

SharpSigns has used tools such as Springfield.net to get into the top three unsponsored links generated by search engines.

The second factor is a user-friendly quote calculator.

“It allows our wholesale customers to get a quote online instantly. They input things like size, resolution, material, hemming and markup, and it will give them a quote,” Fugitt said.

Fugitt also has invested in software to streamline his operation.

“It keeps the customer informed by e-mailing them when their work is ready to be picked up or installed,” he said.

The sign business has nowhere to go but up, Fugitt said.

“Everybody needs signs. I have sold signs to everyone from a couple of teenagers who mow lawns to one of the largest real estate companies in the world. Any business can use signs,” he said.

SharpSigns of Springfield

Owner/CEO: John Fugitt

Founded: 1996

Address: 234 E. Republic Road, Springfield, MO 65807

Phone: (417) 882-7446

Fax: (417) 877-7523

Web site: www.buysharpsigns.com

Products/Services: Vinyl, sandblasted and neon signs and digitalprinting

2005 EstimatedRevenues: $750,000

Employees: 4

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