Tim McCloskey, president of Display Solutions Group in Chandler, welcomes challenges with a positive attitude and ambitious spirit, including the Great Recession.
Display Solutions Group specializes in the design and production of illuminated corporate signage, wall signs, large format graphics printing, fleet graphics, hanging banners and more for customers in Chandler, Mesa, Gilbert, Tempe, Phoenix and Tucson.
Since starting the design and manufacturing company in 2006, McCloskey successfully navigated his company though the best and worst of times before, during and after the financial downturn.
Describing himself as “challenge oriented,” the sign maker survived the downturn despite the majority of his clients going out of business, which mainly consisted of small, local startup companies.
McCloskey says business was booming until 2009 when he was admittedly faced with his biggest challenge to date, which required him to transition the business from a locally focused business to corporation driven business.
“We had to change gears,” he explains. “We had to change the business model from something that was very interactive to something that was more assistance oriented.”
Despite treading water for several months while waiting for the new business plan to gain traction, McCloskey’s model has been working. In fact, overall revenue and employment have more than doubled since 2009.
The new model allows the company to serve the needs of the market in good and bad times.
Today, the firm does everything from designing and manufacturing new monument signs for corporate centers like the 3300 Tower in Midtown Phoenix to for lease signs, which help secure tenants in those corporate centers.
“The leasing business acts in a contrarian fashion,” explains McCloskey. “When business gets bad or the economy gets bad, people vacate their suites because they can’t pay their rent and owners and real estate corporations have to get new tenants in there. Therefore, they have to buy these ‘for lease’ signs.”
Looking ahead, McCloskey understands the importance of quality work to maintain and grow Display Solutions’ customer base and looks forward to leading his company through any and all potential challenges that may loom ahead.
(sidebar) Business advice: “If you do a good job you’re going to be one of the crowd. If you do an exceptional job, people may remember you. Of course, if you do a bad job, they’ll never forget you and that’s a really bad thing.”
Business advice from Tim McCloskey: “If you do a good job, you’re going to be one of the crowd. If you do an exceptional job, people may remember you. Of course, if you do a bad job, they’ll never forget you and that’s a really bad thing.”
