"When a business partnership goes bad, whom do you team up with? Rick Garr chose his 19-year-old son. Big Rick and Rick, Jr., make signs. Neon signs, face-lit signs, electrical and vinyl. The Garrs build the signs by hand at their workshop in Nicholasville. Neon is Big Rick's specialty. He works with the inert gas (atomic number 10 on the periodic table of elements) in a four-foot glass tube and hooks it to machines so it's never exposed to the air. Then he heats and molds it into letters for a sign. Script writing is harder to work with than block letters. "I work upside down and backward," he said. "It fits my head well."
The elder Garr was a fabricator for 21 years, working on cars and bikes, and installing and servicing signs. He was a lumberjack for a handful of years in Spokane, Wash., right before he moved to Lexington in 1982. When a friend wanted to sell a neon company, Garr bought it from him in July 2002. The name of the company was Neon. "I thought it was worthwhile to go into business for myself," Garr said. Until earlier this year, the bulk of his work was on a wholesale basis.
In December 2006, Garr's son started Advent Signs, working mostly with computer graphics. His first thought was to go into graphic design in an advertising agency, but he discovered he enjoyed the signage business — and working with his dad. The two recently merged their independent businesses under the name Advent Signs. "I'm pounding the pavement, trying to sell," said the younger Garr. He started out door-to-door, visiting businesses that didn't have signs.
In addition to neon, the Garrs have tapped into the big market of vinyl. The material comes in various colors and sizes and is used for signage on store windows and vehicles. "There are different grades of vinyl," Big Rick said, "from cheap to premium." A good quality vinyl is guaranteed for seven to 10 years against fading or shrinking.
Requests for face-lit signs are keeping them as busy as vinyl signage orders these days. Making three-dimensional characters, called channel letters, for these lighted signs is time consuming. They use neon to light up the channel letters. For the skinny stroke of serif letters, when the neon tubing won't fit, they use light emitting diodes (LED). "People have no idea how much time it takes," the elder Garr said. "Metal fabrication is a tedious task. It's handmade."
It takes about three weeks to make an electrical sign. "We tell them three weeks and sometimes call them after two weeks," said Big Rick. "It makes you look good to the customers." Other companies, particularly those online, will quote six to eight weeks, and then it's still not ready. "We make the customer happy even if we have to sacrifice our time," said Rick, Jr. His dad added, "When we got in business, it was to do the right thing and give the customers what they paid for."
The Garrs charge by the upright inch, times the number of letters. Customers pay 50 percent down and the remaining half when the sign is ready. "We have a 'no credit' sign posted," said Big Rick. "We can't afford to do that."
Rick, Jr. says 'sticker shock' can be a factor for new customers. "Our signs are custom-made. We put our sweat into these signs." The Garrs use quality materials, not the cheap stuff. When customers go online to save money on a sign, the Garrs sometimes wind up fixing the product. "They pay for the 'A' sign but get the 'B' sign, material wise," said Big Rick. "I make money off that."
Theirs is a mutually respectful relationship, even though they have different opinions on the future of their business. Rick, Jr., wants to expand and eventually hire employees. His dad is pretty comfortable with the setup now. "I'm not much of a businessman," said Big Rick. "I know how to work." His wife and daughter take care of the books for the business. He has joined the National Federation of Independent Business, NFIB. "They're fighting in Frankfort for the little guy," he said.
About that former partnership? Big Rick wishes he had gone to a lawyer to set up the association legally. "We did it on a handshake," he said. Even though he got burned, he still believes in handshakes. "That means something to me," he said. He says he wouldn't consider taking on another partner. "But my son's a different story."
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