Robert Moore has built almost 500 billboards in the course of a 30 year career.  He recently sold Riley Outdoor to Adams Outdoor.  Moore has written about his less is more development strategy and why digital billboards are the future and selling local.  Today he talks about building signs and gives advice to someone who wants to enter the out of home business.

What’s your approach to building signs?

A lot of my structures were built by Selective Structures.  Jim Kuhn and Matt Schultz.  Those guys have built a lot of my structures, but probably 10 years ago we changed approaches.  We brought fabricating more in-house to control cost.  For the past 10 or 12 years we have fabricated everything ourselves and we have built everything ourselves.   We’ve sourced steel, sourced everything and fabricated in a shop and build them in the field.

Building 10.6 by 36 versus 14 by 48

 We primarily build 10.6 by 36 bulletins.  It’s a standardized size.  We like the look of it.  There’s not many 14 by 48’s in eastern North Carolina so we felt like that size would not necessarily fit in.

What would you tell someone just just out of college who wants to get in the out of home business?

I would say go to work with someone else.  Learn the business.  Learn as much as you can. Soak up as much as you can. All parts of it –  operations, sales, accounting, permitting and leasing.  You also need to think deeply about going in this business by yourself.  It’s not easy.  You’re sort of a like a farmer, particularly if you’re developing your signs yourself.   You’re not pulling out a big payday.   You’re reinvesting your cash. I grew up on my dad’s farm so I know all about that. I’ve had this conversation many times with other guys that sit in the same seat that I do.  When you own your own outdoor company everybody thinks all you do is go to the mailbox and pick up a check.  It’s not like that.   It is a tough business.  You get told no a hell of a lot.  You just keep grinding, but I wouldn’t have done anything any different than what I’ve done.  Yeah not one single thing.  It’s been a good run

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