San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Changing technology, pandemic grim signs for small engraving shop
For Skip Landry, owner of Accolades Awards and Engraving, a small trophy and engraving shop on the North Side, the COVID-19 pandemic could be the knockout blow to his business.
Landry, a 69-year-old native of New Orleans, is a former research biologist and statistician who left low-paying jobs in academia in the late 1980s to purchase the business that would eventually become Accolades.
He applied his computer knowledge to Accolades immediately, and expanded the business from producing just nametags to also making signs, award plaques and even engraved items such as instrument panels for airplanes and equipment for industrial uses.
But even before 2020, touch screens and large digital signs were already squeezing Landry’s business. And when the pandemic struck, businesses no longer sought nametags, and companies weren’t ordering awards to give to their employees.
For Landry, who was looking to retire early this decade, the timing was especially bad.
Landry, of course, isn’t alone. In its most recent weekly survey of businesses around the nation, the Census Bureau found 41 percent of small employers in Texas reported a decrease in revenue, and 10 percent had to reduce their employee headcount.
Landry said he’s seen a slight rebound in business since the shutdown last spring. But if the current record-setting surge in COVID-19 cases continues, he said, he’ll likely have to close up
shop.
Landry spoke recently with the Express-News about the pandemic’s effect on his business. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
Q:
How did you come to own Accolades?
A: I bought it in 1988. At that time, the entire business was doing nametags for JROTC students at the high schools. We shipped all over the country. It was OK. Obviously, it had finite boundaries, and there was no growth potential to that business. But at that time, making nametags was kind of a niche thing,
and computerization was just in its infancy.
I’m a research biologist by training. But at the time, I just couldn’t make a living doing that. With two master’s degrees and about 10 years’ experience, I made $5,000 a year less than a starting schoolteacher. I had two kids, and I just couldn’t afford to do that.
Q:
Did you have any experience with engraving prior to buying the business?
A: No, but I was pretty heavy on computer skills. I reverse-engineered software, rewrote it. It was mostly statistical analysis.
I was actually a herpetologist and studied snakes and stuff like that. I studied Neotropical snakes.
Q:
So before you bought Accolades you were doing research on snakes, as well as statistical analyses and computer programming?
A: Well, that’s why I was doing the computer programming. The statistical stuff was a tool. I built models to test whether two different groups of animals were a species. It’s a multivariate statistical process. We did water snakes and also did the analysis for a bird project on chickadees, trying to determine whether you could identify two species of chickadees. It was hard to figure out which one was which, so we built a statistical model.
Q:
So you bought this business in 1988. What was that like at first?
A: Right away, I brought in computers. And I bought one of the early computer engraving machines.
Q:
After more than 30 years of owning Accolades, how have your operations changed?
A: Everything has changed. The nametags — that was the business, that’s all there was. And it was good for 10, 12 years. Then the Air Force started selling nametags themselves. But we had diversified at that point, and within the first year we got the first laser (engravers). Because of my science background, I was able to come in and start doing the engineering work. The first big client I got was making these airplane panels, around 1990. I started doing a lot of control panels.
But everything has changed, everything has evolved. The instrument panels — there’s not much of them anymore because everything is going to touch screen.
Q: You said you have three segments to your business: nametags and signs, awards and industrial work. What percentage of your business do each of those segments make up?
A: It’s about a third each. The sign business is going down because the sign business has really
changed.
Q: So how was Accolades doing as a business as you entered 2020, prior to the pandemic?
A: We were having a great year early on. We were up about 20 to 30 percent through March.
March was a great month for us. Then everything closed. We’re technically not an essential business, but we have several clients that are doing aircraft work, working on government contracts, and they all called me and said, “No, you’re staying open.” So when everything else was closed, I just came in here by myself and put stuff out. Business was up a little bit, but it wasn’t enough to sustain. A lot of (aircraft panels) have gone to touch screens.
Q:
In recent years, what would a big order look like for you?
A: It could be thousands of tags. We have awards orders that go out that are $30,000.
Q: How is the pandemic affecting your business now, nearly 10 months since the first stay-athome orders were issued?
A: There’s no big gatherings.
Why do you wear a nametag? Because you’re at a conference, you’re at networking events for your business. If you’re not in groups of people, you don’t need a nametag. So nametags went off. Awards are mostly given at big events for companies, and there’s no big events. Conferences don’t happen.
Q:
Were you concerned your business would be in for a tough year as you were seeing events canceled and offices close last year?
A: Yeah, sure. We had just bought a very expensive printer, part of staying up with the technology. My intention was to work for two to three more years, then quit. Well, now I’ve got this very expensive printer. But as soon as we were just getting it to where it was printing enough and it was beginning to pay for itself — (does thumbs-down) So we have a big bill, and an expensive printer
that needs to run every day, so that’s a big problem for us.
Q: Did you see any kind of rebound
in the second half of 2020?
A: Yes, when things started opening up. And business is kind of
always in spurts — that’s just the reality. But the highs never got to what you would get in a good time. Business came up to normal levels. But the valleys went deeper than any valleys I’ve ever seen.
Q: You mentioned you tried applying for one of the federal PPP loans early in the pandemic, but computer glitches kept you from successfully applying. Do you think the second stimulus package that Congress passed recently, which included more money for PPP loans, could help you?
A: Yeah, hopefully it will. Hopefully the fact that I didn’t get any the last time, I would hope that would make me a priority. But unfortunately with this, like everything else, the money tends to go to the top — to the biggest people.
Q:
Have you been concerned that you’ll go out of business before the pandemic subsides?
A: We’re pretty much going to have to close down. It just depends if we have the (COVID-19) numbers that are out there right now — if it gets any worse, we’re definitely looking at closing down. I’m at an age where I don’t feel like rebuilding.
Q:
Do you think the COVID-19 vaccine will be fix-all for the economy and small businesses like yours?
A: It’s going to take a while. I think the vaccines are great. I don’t know if there is a fix-all. There may be, but I’m not an infectious disease person.
Q:
Sitting here today, how do you reflect back on this last year and the impact it’s had on your business?
A: For me, it was just terrible timing. Two years ago, it wouldn’t have been so bad, and 10 years ago it wouldn’t have been so bad. I was younger then, and two years ago I wouldn’t have bought that printer and so I wouldn’t have that big bill hanging over me. If it wasn’t for that, the situation wouldn’t be as hard on us.