We were lucky to catch up with Mark Morris recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Mark thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

Starting a business is exciting and frightening for any entrepreneur but the support, encouragement, and counseling from friends and family that have done it themselves can ease the transition. I had spoken many times with my friend Lloyd, President of CounterCraft, about his manufacturing business and how their processes evolved to streamline the workflow and better serve their clients. His implementation of lean manufacturing processes, inventory tracking, and team building was interesting and provided valuable insights for when we formed Texas Sign Craft. Although our products are quite different, we both manufacture custom products, and I was able to see how his proven methods would also work at Sign Craft.

When my wife Lisa and I first considered opening a sign manufacturing business, Lloyd was our biggest supporter, cheerleader, and friend. Lloyd not only provided moral support but also provided some equipment and furniture to help outfit our studio. Once we had our manufacturing space, our office furniture, some tools, and equipment, we were ready to start fabricating signs. Of course, Lloyd knew where we were in the opening process and wanted to further support us as our first customer. Our first signs are still hanging outside the CounterCraft facilities directing suppliers and shippers to their shipping and receiving bays. Thanks to Lloyd and CounterCraft, Texas Sign Craft was in business and making signs.

In the four years since making those first signs for CounterCraft, they have continued to be a valued client. Sign Craft has created many types and sizes of signs, banners, window graphics, wraps, and more that CounterCraft has used for training their sales team, displays at trade shows, branding, recognition, and privacy screening in their offices. I certainly appreciate all the support and encouragement from Lloyd and his team at CounterCraft as well as our long friendship.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Mark Morris and along with my wife, Lisa, we own a custom commercial sign manufacturing company, Texas Sign Craft. I am an electrical engineer and spent the first 28 years of my professional life providing engineering solutions for large industrial facilities such as refineries, chemical plants, and power generation units. When I felt the need to start my own business, I researched ways to start a business and discovered Signworld – a business owners alliance. Through Signworld, we purchased a package including initial and ongoing training, equipment, and access to a vast network of independent sign company owners and suppliers.

Every organization including corporations, non-profits, houses of worship, schools, and government entities has a need to communicate its message. Messages for marketing, motivation, inspiration, direction, warning, and inclusion. At Sign Craft, we strive to first listen and understand the needs of your organization, the audience you wish to reach, and the message you wish to convey so we can provide solutions that meet your communication needs. Sign Craft is your visual communications expert. We use graphic tools of balance, font, color theory, hierarchy, negative space, and more to give your message its voice. A voice that can influence your audience to act, to respond to your message.

At Sign Craft, we truly value our relationships with our clients as well as with our suppliers, and our local community. Our mission is not just to sell you a sign made of metal, plastic, and wood; we take pride in helping you find solutions that deliver your unique message in the most effective manner. Only after we have worked with you to determine your audience and your message, we design, fabricate, and install your custom interior sign, exterior sign, or vehicle wrap.

Some types of signs we provide are:
Wayfinding signs, lobby signs, monument signs, channel letters, LED signs, office/room identification (with Braille if required), window graphics, environmental signs, vehicle branding wraps, temporary signs, commercial real estate signs, recognition walls, dimensional signs, acrylic signs, value walls, wall signs, pylon signs, step and repeat backdrops.

We’d really appreciate it if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

When we started the company, we had a very steep learning curve for making signs. Training, both initial training for two weeks and ongoing training as long as we own the company, is part of purchasing the sign company package from Signworld. We were taught how to use the equipment to print and cut vinyl to make the sign graphics; however, learning how to fabricate many parts of the signs we produce has come via webinars, conventions, team members, suppliers, and other partners.

Although we manufacture many types of signs, there are others that we do not make in-house. In order to provide these other types of signs to our clients, we have partnered with local and national sign manufacturers who produce the signs that we do not. There are many partners through our Signworld network who provide both advice and sign products. In some cases, we purchase completed signs that are shipped to Sign Craft ready to install or we may purchase sign parts that are part of a larger sign assembly. For example, routed text and logos for dimensional signs are made from acrylic, wood, and metal. We do not have our own router so we rely on partners who will cut these parts with their CNC routing equipment and provide the parts to us. We will either install these parts directly at the client’s location or incorporate these parts into a larger sign we assemble and install.

We also have local partners for Sign Craft. One example is Gulf Coast Wraps, a valued partner of ours. Gulf Coast Wraps are excellent vehicle wrap artists; skills we do not have in-house. But what makes this a true partnership is that Sign Craft has the printing and laminating capabilities that GCW does not. So, when a client contacts Sign Craft or Gulf Coast Wrap, both companies will contribute to completing the project.

As Sign Craft grows in our capabilities, we add new equipment and team members to perform the work in-house and new partners who can provide a part, product, or service that contributes to the finished sign. One of our core values is to continue to grow personally and professionally, encouraging our team to learn new skills to make or install different signs.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The backstory – I am an engineer. One characteristic of engineers is attention to detail. The details of an engineered product are very important to make sure all the parts work together and the final assembly functions as it is intended. However, engineers, me included, sometimes can get lost in the details, buried in the minutia during preliminary design or even estimating. I found myself trying to completely design every detail of a project before the project was awarded to us. This is the lesson I needed to unlearn.

Sign Craft now has some great tools and processes to aid in estimating that help me to keep on track at the early stage of the project. We use templates and standard products for estimating our projects and perform just enough design work to ensure the product meets our clients’ needs. This process helps Sign Craft to remain competitive since we are not spending valuable hours working on the product details that may never be fabricated. Rest assured; however, when our clients put their trust in us, we put our engineering hats back on and dive into the details.

Contact Info:

• Website: SignCraftTexas.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/signcrafttexas/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SignCraftTexas
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/signcrafttexas/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SignCraftTexas