hello,
I just joined this forum and have only been interested in billboards for a few weeks now. I have done a lot of research but I have to ask, is their room for growth in this industry? Is this an industry that can welcome healthy competition or is their any signs of saturation in this niche industry?
Thank you for your response,
Farmer
There is room for growth, but only if you’re an expert in what you’re doing. You have to have a strategy and follow it to the letter. The outdoor business is very broad, you need a specialty within that specialty. For example, some people focus just on smaller wooden signs in medium and small towns. Others focus just on wallscapes. There are probably at least 10 subsets to the billboard business, and you have to pick the one that’s right for you and become an expert at it. Remember that the largest outdoor companies – CBS, Lamar, Clear Channel, etc. – are nothing but a collection of people. Many of those people, despite neat offices and business cards, are not that skilled. Many small operators beat these large companies on a daily basis. If there is any saturation, it’s in the highest level of the industry, where you have too many signs competing for too few large national advertisers. For example, if you have a wallscape in Chicago that rents for $20,000 per month, you are probably having trouble renting it as there are 10 identical ones calling on the tiny group of companies that can afford to buy a $20,000 walllscape in Chicago. However, in the other subsets, that is not the case.