What should you do if you want to own your own out of home advertising firm?  Work for an out of home advertising company or a sign company.  Insider tabulated the results from 50 Company of The Day articles.

How People Entered The Out of Home Advertising Business

• Almost 30% of out of home advertising companies came from someone leaving an existing out of home firm to found a new business.  Charley McIntyre was a 3M exec, Jim Matalone and Charlie Ghione are NextMedia guys, Doug Barthel was at Clear Channel Outdoor.  Listen to Matt Rogers talk about the benefits of working at an out of home company:  “I got into the business answering an ad in the newspaper for a lease man in my early 20’s. I was lucky that Dan Schnitzer, who was starting Sun Outdoor in Tacoma, Washington, was willing to take a chance on a high school teacher with no real estate or sales experience. I think you are especially lucky in life when you meet your mentor early and they are willing to put time and effort into belong you learn your craft. I was very lucky, I made lots of mistakes, learned, and got hooked for life on a business I absolutely love.”

• 25% of out of home advertising companies were formed by sign business.  It’s easy to go from making signs for other people to owning them after you make them.  This includes some of the storied, family owned businesses like Barnes, Stein and Carlson.  Yesco would fit here too except that it wasn’t part of Insider’s sample.

• 16% of all out of home advertising firms were formed by people who advertised on a billboard.   Listen to Robert Kennerson:   “About 15 years back while living in Hollywood, I saw a long-vacant 30-sheet sign on Sunset Blvd which I was interested to rent. I called the owner and and he wanted $5000/month. I don’t think he ever got it, but from that conversation I realized the billboard business must have very different economics than businesses I was familiar with.”

• 14% of all new out of home businesses were formed by people who have worked for a competing form of media.  Ben Buckland and John Arnold were radio guys.  Harmony is in the newspaper business.

• 8% of out of home businesses were formed by people who learned about out of home while doing real estate deals.    Listen to Grant Leschin of Marin Ventures:  “We developed a large shopping center years ago. It opened to moderate success. There was an available billboard located on the freeway at the exit to the shopping center. We decided to take a flyer and take the board for a year to advertise the shopping center. Three months later, the traffic and sales at the shopping center had dramatically improved! We ended up purchasing that display, along with several others and never looked back. Today our main focus is the outdoor advertising business.”

• 8% of out of home businesses were formed by people who realized out of home was a great business after studying multiple investments.  Out of home, for example is one of the target sectors which Boston Omaha has decided to invest in along with insurance.

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