Global Signs Owner Ready to Paint

Owner: Mike Suter

Address: 1803 S. Eighth St., Suite 4, Rogers 72756

Phone/fax: 501-633-0151/633-0151

Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday

Start-up date: Jan. 1

E-mail address: [email protected]

A craftsman at heart, Mike Suter enjoys making signs. For five years, Suter operated his own sign shop called Benton County Signs in Siloam Springs. Business was good — the one-man shop grossed about $70,000 annually — but he wanted try something different.

He closed the business and opened Arkansas Sign Supply Inc. as a distributing company. Suter could no longer make signs himself, he said, because wholesalers won’t supply distributors that double as production studios.

Selling sign-making materials such as rolls of vinyl and buckets of paint, Suter equipped former competitors with their supplies.

But, local interest lagged, and Arkansas Sign Supply barely broke even.

After one year of business, Suter dropped the distribution venture and picked up his paintbrush to open Global Signs in Rogers.

Because he kept most of his sign-making tools and equipment in storage, Suter spent about $20,000 to open the shop.

Upon his return to the craft, truck lettering for clients such as Simmons Foods Inc. of Siloam Springs and Rockwell Transportation of Gentry has become Suter’s “bread and butter.”

With him and another person on staff full-time, Suter hopes to make $30,000 in sales this year, and he said his goal is to double sales every year.