Boardwalk Signs' Joe Paffoon took a fruitful chance on a second career.
By Steve Aust
For five years, Joe Paffoon operated a successful Atlanta-based, commercial-flooring business. His subsequent move south to the greater Panama City, FL, area didn’t mean slowing down to play shuffleboard. He opened a woodworking shop, but, when many of his customers began requesting signage, he adroitly adapted his business.
As his shop’s business and facilities grew, so did his equipment and repertoire. The real-estate market and weather events have forced Florida’s business climate into fluctuation, but the Paffoons have persevered and successfully grown their business. Now, their venture into a novel market may unearth a future niche.
“You make signs?”
In January 1997, Joe closed Board Walk Wood Shop’s Atlanta office, and Sandy gave up corporate life as an executive assistant. In Lynn Haven, the company operated Board Walk Flooring and Boardwalk Signs & Graphics Inc. The company ordered two sets of business card that simply identified the company as “Boardwalk.”
Paffoon recalled, “Signage became a dominant part of the business. Eventually, we closed up the cabinetry and woodworking operations and retained only Boardwalk Signs & Graphics.”
With Boardwalk’s established new direction, Sandy began making sales calls to developers of the Sunshine State’s mushrooming residential properties. An initial major contract entailed monument signage and complementary ID markers for Seaside, an upscale resort community on the Gulf Coast between Panama City and Tampa (it’s best known as the backdrop for Jim Carrey’s hit, 1998 movie, The Truman Show). To meet the job’s demands, Joe followed a tip and purchased a Gerber Scientific Products Sabre CNC router, and further grew the company’s monument-sign business, which comprises PVC and HDU signfaces.
Gaining ground
From there, the company successfully nurtured relationships with other developers and real-estate agencies. As the market continued to boom through the late ’90s and into the 2000’s, large, regional realtors sought a competitive edge via enhanced signage and environmental graphics, and Boardwalk reaped the benefits.
After having launched their enter¬prise in a 10 x 10 room in their home, the Paffoons have grown Boardwalk into a 12,000-sq.-ft. facility with 16 employees. Paffoon attests to a hackneyed, but true, business maxim that helped the company succeed – just show up.
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