Neon signs are basically a glowing glass tube filled with the gas neon, made it into various shapes, letters and signs. Its origin dates back to 1910, when the neon signs were first introduced by an industrial chemist named Georges Claude in the Paris Motor Show. It soon made its way into almost all industrial countries as businesses in all forms started to use it for promotional purposes and to make boards displaying the shop/business name. In its earlier form, neon signs were only available in hues of read. But, with the advances in chemistry, it was discovered that the color can be influenced by varying the gas mixtures filling the glass tubes. These days, apart from neon, other inert gases such as argon, krypton, xenon, and phosphor and helium are used to produce different colors.
Why neon signs became a hit in a very short span of time worldwide because of the fact that business wanted it badly to promote their purposes, mostly after dark hours, and it was quite cost effective as well unlike the electrically lit lights illuminating the boards. No wonder, businesses, selling fancy cars to beers to electronics goods these days uses neon signs, especially customized ones, to promote or advertise their products and shops.
But, despite the huge popularity and demand for neon signs all over the globe, the most interesting aspect relating to its making is that it is still a hand made vocation. In other words, neon signs are not made using any mechanical or automated means even today. Instead, it is still sort of handicraft, and the only mechanical device used in its making is a vacuum pump, that is used to suck out oxygen and fill it with the respective inert gases to give the desired color. Neon signs, these days, are available in over 150 colors.
There are many makers out there making and selling neon signs – customized and otherwise – at different rates. Customization involves making specific designs plus designing the electric circuitry as well that eventually lights it up. Neon signs are usually designed to flicker systematically or to go on and off in parts in order to catch the human eye. Detailed info on neon sign makers is available in the web. The same also could be fetched from yellow pages ad columns and news paper classifieds on weekends.
Regarding prices, it may vary from maker to maker and also according to the size and shape of the neon sign and the complexity of the electric circuitry design. But comparing the quotes from few players could help one to strike the best deal from the lot. Also, it is advisable to check if the maker offers warranty or extended warranty to the products. If there is any loose end in the electric connections or some issue with the circuit elements, a neon sign may well fail to turn on. So, service warranty is inevitable for neon signs.
Watch the video related to neon sign
This famous piece of neon was designed by Betty Willis for the Young Electric Sign Company in 1959. Ms Willis is still very much around and fond of her creation. Article here news.scotsman.com
Help answer the question about neon sign
If the sign contains neon at a pressure of 1.78 torr at 38C, how many grams of neon are in the sign?A neon sign is made of glass tubing whose inside diameter is 2.5cm and whose length is 5.5m.
About Author
Brady Freeman is a regular contributor at Tiffany Lighting. A consumer based site that offers Neon Signs, and Water Features
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cool vid, very interesting!
yes check online
yes. this is a good starting point. inform yourself about the prices of your materials to have some general idea how much it will cost you to produce one sign.
the second step, which is the important one, is to find customers – you can just approach small business owners and offer them your services; the way i imagine it is to walk in the store with a piece of paper and a sketch of what you propose. even better will be if you take a digital shot of the storefront and do some collage – just to show the owner how it will look like.
Be ready with the price – something like what it will cost you to product this sign plus whatever profit margin you want. In order to know the market prices of this type of service check for price lists the websites of some of your local advertising agencies. Good luck with your business.
call your city about permit and/or licenses required. Also, call your state too. Sit down and write down what tools and equipment you will need for this business and what they will cost to buy, you will need insurance, car, business licenses and/or permits, corporation or llc formation, and advertising costs.
Print up some professional business cards and flyers (you can get them done at office depot) and hand them out to local businesses, First I would start out with mom and pop businesses and then expand to others businesses. Also, you can join the local chambers of commerce.
Goto barned and nobel bookstore and read up on some good starting a business books. They are a very good source of info.
For "OPEN" Plenty of places…Costco has a very reasonable one.
Then the Office Supply Stores would too…Office Max, Office Depot, Staples….
What you want for REGULAR Signs will depend on what you want.
I know little about them but there is a franchise called FASTSIGN with multiple locations in South Florida
You need to contact a wholesaler that supplies to signmaking companies. But, if you want a sign that is made of neon light tubes that are molded into your name or logo etc. I would leave it to the pros. That is impossible to do without training and machinery. If you want a retail type sign, a box type sign that is lit from behind by a neon light, than you can do that yourself. What you need to do is find a vinyl dealer and acrylic dealer. I don't know which province you are in – email me and I can give you a list of some of my suppliers or contacts in your area.
Try your alcohol distributors…they often have them that advertise their products of course but does it matter? It get's your message out also….
Three business models for you:
1) Work it out with an on-line giant like Amazon.com etc. to put your products on their product range. They will take care of creating web-presence for their products.
2) Become an independent seller on on-line auction portals like EBay etc. You get basic tools for creating information about your product. EBay runs your product's code and handles payment.
3) Create and host your own.
In model 3, you can either choose the free route. For this, get some free web-space from MSN/Google/110MB/Tripod/Geo-cities etc. On this free disc-space, create the required pages about your products. Most of these services also come with a site generator that makes it absolutely easy for a computer novice to create on-line presence in no time.
The other option in model 3 is the paid route. I recommend that you use Go-Daddy.com for this. Purchase a economy hosting account with them (5GB disk, 250GB traffic/mo, 500 emails, MySQL database = USD 43). Upon purchase of the hosting a/c, they will offer you the choice to buy a domain name (.COM/ORG/NET/INFO/US/BIZ…) for only USD 1.99 (actually around USD 2.24, price of first year only, regular price 8.99/yr).
This way for under $50, you could have your domain, web-space, email, site-builder etc. To enable e-Commerce, Go-Daddy charges you etc. If you choose to create your own e-Commerce code and tie up with the banks, you are welcome. GD wont interfere.
You need to know what the market for neon signs is like in your area and who your competitors are. If your friend is in the business, you may already know this. If the market is already saturated with suppliers, you will face an uphill battle.
Also, the $35K to $55K sounds low to me unless you are bringing other assets into the business as well. I am assuming that you will need a company truck, inventory, tools, shop space, insurance, and an advertising budget.
It may take a year or longer before the business starts to show a profit and you need to be able to pay all the bills during that time. If this will be a home based business, you can cut your costs a little, but you still need money to operate until the money starts rolling in.
Also, how will you pay your living expenses during this time? You can't expect to be able to pay yourself a salary out of the relatively modest initial capital that you have.
If you are going after an SBA loan, I assume that you have already put together a business plan with cash flow projections for the first couple of years. If you haven't done this already, it should be your next step before you go any further.
It is around that price but i think that you should look around. Believe me there is always a better price for everything and in these economic times people are making the labor cheaper.