Overlooked Ideas to Improve Your In-plant: A New Banner Stand Model

Steve Priesman shows off one of the banner stands his in-plant provides.

Making life more convenient for customers has proven to be a very effective business model for Steve Priesman, Printing & Publications Services administrator at Omaha (Nebraska) Public Schools. So when customers order event signage from his in-plant, he doesn’t just hand them a banner; he provides a roll-up banner stand, free of charge.

His operation has printed wide-format banners and signage for many years. One popular format is a vertical sign ranging from 80"-90" tall.

“While those can certainly be mounted on a surface with tape or grommets, a roll-up stand is an ideal solution,” says Priesman, who is retiring on Oct. 1 after nearly 33 years overseeing the school district's in-plant. (Read a profile of his career here.)

Priesman points out that while he could sell the banner stands — and will sell them if a customer is ordering a lot of signage and wants to own one — he has found that buying the stands himself and loaning them out as needed, only charging for the banner itself, is a much better business model.

“We purchased a dozen stands and will loan them to our customers for up to 30 days,” he notes. “That’s perfect for a one-time event. We simply create the banner, mount it on the stand, and provide it to the customer. They return it within 30 days, and we will carefully remove the banner and give it back to the customer if they desire. We keep the stand for the next use. We only charge our customer for the banner; nothing for the loan of the stand.”

He started the service in 2019, and while Priesman can’t prove it has increased his in-plant’s business, many of the comments he has received lead him to believe it has been a success.

“I’m aware of a couple of projects where the customer wasn’t even considering a wide-format banner until the idea of a roll-up stand was explained. It probably does save money since our customer doesn’t have to purchase a stand for what might be a short-term need, and we’ve found this concept very helpful when portability is needed,” he says. “We did some for use at health fairs held at various schools, where rather than staff having to find a way to mount a banner at a school and then move it to the next site, they simply unroll the banner to display then roll it back up and move the unit to the next site. Very easy.”

If your in-plant does any kind of banners or signage for short-term events, this could be an intriguing way to help bring work back into the in-plant. Whether it is for temporary wayfinding banners for an open house, banners promoting a festival or event, even internal communications ensuring up-to-date information is being conveyed to those moving through the space, loaning the stands and only charging for the banners themselves can make for an attractive new service your in-plant might be overlooking today.