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For a business to reach potential customers within the community, they need a sleek, bright sign to catch their attention, especially as they are driving down the street. Whether in a big city like Oklahoma City or a smaller community like Ponca City, one doesn’t have to go far to find creative signs begging for a driver’s, and customer’s, attention. Justin Schacknies is helping local businesses find that creative sign with his company, MakeKings Signs, and has taken that creativity across the region to help businesses promote themselves to potential customers.
Located only a few blocks from Grand Avenue on South First Street, for the past six years, they have occupied a building once filled by Southwest Business Products, a facility where they design and manufacture signs that will one day promote an area community’s businesses, from Ponca City up into Kansas.
“We make signs big and small, from banners all the way up to metal signs, where we have to go out and weld, dig, and pour concrete,” he said.
His signs have been seen across the community. One of the most recent is Nifty Car Rental and Spiffy’s Car Spa, for Heather Cannon Honda. They also recently replaced a sign for J.W. Cobb’s Family Restaurant. Other signs they have installed include Pretty Paws/Muddy Paws as well as Auto Intentions, both on Hartford Ave., as well as Klingers Collision Center, on Monument Road off 14th Street.
Ponca City is not the only community where they help businesses promote themselves. One morning, Oct. 27, they were creating a new sign for Home Town Sales & Lease in Winfield, Kansas.
“We have about a 100-mile radius. We’re currently working on a sign for Winfield, Kansas,” he said.
They have also helped Ponca City businesses expand into other communities, including Enid.
“Los Portales Restaurant here in town –they have another restaurant that they are opening up in Enid, Catrina’s Mexican Restaurant,” Schacknies said.
Helping businesses reach a new audience and customer base is but one of the things they offer. They also help service signs, replacing lights as needed to keep the business visible long after the sun goes down, or in some cases, early in the morning before the sun even rises.
“Recently, we replaced lights with LED lights. It is a more common thing we are looking to do,” he said. “This is the way technology is going.”
They also work with other groups to locally install signs that were manufactured in other states, companies that may not be able to travel to Ponca City.
“Ziggi’s Coffee, here in town, a company in Colorado made the signs, and they sent them to us in Ponca City,” Schacknies said. “That was the same for the Sonics in town that changed over to the blue signs. A company in Tennessee made them.”
Six years in business as MakeKings stemmed from a chance encounter on eBay, where Schacknies found a machine for making promotional materials for local businesses.
“When I was 18, I found a vinyl sticker cutter and I thought it’d be a great way to do business. I always wanted to go into business for myself. The first job paid for the machine,” he said.
He would follow that with a larger machine, with equal results.
“I bought a bigger machine, and the second job I had paid for that machine,” he said.
He would put the idea of signage and advertising on the back burner, as he would later find work in other places, including the ConocoPhillips refinery.
It wouldn’t leave his mind, however, and he would later take the plunge into sign making.
“I left it as a hobby, and let it go dormant. I’d still do it on the side, but I wasn’t full-force about it,” Schacknies said. “When I was 32, I was working on a little fun project, and I thought, ‘Why don’t I throw in my free time, try it and expand my abilities.’”
He asked that question about himself and ran with it.
“Within three to four years, I was able to open up the shop,” he said.
“When the first week of COVID-19 came out we had no calls. Then, I realized that I had broken my routine of praying with my family every morning for the business, I got back into the routine and immediately and everything picked back up, and we haven’t slowed down, learning things along the way,” Schacknies said.
One of the ways they remain successful is a showroom, where he shows potential customers their equipment, and what they can do for their shop.
“We always encourage people to come in the showroom and visit,” he said. “It is really beneficial from a face-to-face meeting, and shows the different materials, different options.”
While the jobs take a lot of work and creativity to get that special message out to the public, the best part is meeting a business’ needs, creating a sign they will be proud to display in front of their office.
“I think it is fun to take somebody’s existing logo and make it dimensional, and model it and bring it to life on the computer screen,” Schacknies said. “I enjoy having something to look at, and know I did that. I drive around town and I see my work. That brings a lot of joy to me.”
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