February 2017 | Business View Magazine

118 119 “3M had another division called com- mercial graphics that manufactured a product called pressure-sensitive, vinyl film. It had been used, primarily, in fleet markings and military vehicle markings. They saw an opportunity to take that product to the end user, being a sign buyer. And it was a product that would replace the traditional, hand-painted signs that would crack and peel and chip and fade and flake over time. “So, combining 3M’s materials with some technology from a company called Gerber Scientific, we launched the first Speedy Signarama USA store in Farmingdale, New York, in 1986.We thought that would be a good test mar- ket for us. And the reason we thought the timing was right was because we found that customers were having to go to three, four, five different sign compa- nies to get all their sign needs met. They would go to one large company to get the lighted signs that were going to go on the side of the building, saying ‘here’s my restaurant,’ but then they’d have to go to a different company to get a ban- ner to put out front when it was time for the grand opening, and they’d have to go to a third company to get name badges for the waiters and waitresses that were going to work in the restaurant. “So, we thought it was a great oppor- tunity for us to say, ‘What if we created Signarama a one-stop sign shop so that a customer looking for any type of sign, large or small, paper sign, all the way to the out- door, lighted sign, could go to one place, and the Speedy Signarama USA store would be able to be their full-service sign center?’ “Roy Titus was the founder of Minute- man, and his son, Ray, who today is our CEO, was the first salesperson in the Farmingdale store, and I was the first production person. Ray sold the signs, I made the signs and that’s how we start- ed store number one.We opened a sec- ond company store in North Palm Beach, Florida to test a separate market at the end of 1987.We ran that store for a sig- nificant period of time and then decided we’d proven it in two different markets and it was time to begin franchising. “So, we moved into franchising mode. At that time, my role shifted and I be- came the training instructor for new franchisees coming into the business. Most of our franchisees don’t come from previous experience in signs, banners, graphics, and many of them had never run a small business, before, so when we created our training program, we took those two things into consideration. “So, the two-week training that we created was to teach franchise operators how to find customers, hire and train the right staff, understand the products and