(L-R) Vilnis Neilands, Betsy Perry, and Carin Gulstrand at E.R. Perry Signs & Engraving on 1st Avenue West in Grand Marais. Vilnis and Betsy have taken their business nationwide with the help of UPS and the Internet. Their signs can be found under the ocean, on the highways, and even in space, and their customers include the U.S. Air Force, FEMA, the CIA, American Airlines, and a space transportation company called SpaceX.
Optimize: To make the most of; develop or realize to the utmost extent… (Webster’s New World College Dictionary, fourth edition). Optimize is what Betsy Perry and Vilnis Neilands do well.
Betsy and Vilnis moved here from a small town in the Adirondacks of New York 15 years ago, but it “seems like forever,” according to Vilnis. That makes sense since, according to Vilnis, “if you live here through the winter, you get double credit, so I’ve been here for 30 years!”
They brought their skills with them, Betsy as a fine art and sign painter. “I painted my first sign when I was 18,” she said. “It was barn board, made of chestnut.” A friend needed a sign saying “vegetables” for a roadside stand. That was over 35 years ago. Betsy, who has an associate’s degree in engineering, has been in business ever since, with Internet sales their current staple. They moved here for a simpler life, a quiet life, and lower taxes, said Betsy, “and this business is making it all possible.”
“We ship out more packages in a year than any other Cook County business,” said Betsy – almost 1,500 packages in 2011.
Betsy and Vilnis, who spent many years as senior district sanitarian for three counties in New York, eventually met and married and continued Betsy’s sign business, E.R. Perry Signs & Engraving, when they moved to Cook County. They bought the Sande Building, formerly Doc Sande’s dental office, a decade ago, restoring it as a place of business. The local demand for signs wasn’t quite meeting their needs, so Betsy and Vilnis started a website in 2000, Plastic-Tags.com, where they sell a multitude of things such as engraved or printed door signs, ID tags, and brass plaques for personal, commercial, and industrial use indoors and out. The business took off and has been growing ever since. “In the tags field,” Betsy said, “we are a power house.”
At this point, however, their love of the work means more to them than the money they make. Betsy said she is “thrilled” every morning to look at her email to find out what customers need.
Big business
On their website, Betsy and Vilnis say, “…We take pride in being known for our quality products and dependable customer service. We rely on repeat orders from satisfied customers.”
Their customers include American Airlines, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency), the Army Corps of Engineers, and the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). Visitors to the U.S. Senate gallery wear E. R. Perry tags. They get orders from “all the major corporations,” according to Betsy, and have a steady base of customers who order a couple times a week.
One afternoon, while Betsy was mountain biking on Pincushion, she received a call from a person on a Coast Guard boat in the Indian Ocean wanting to re-label everything onboard. Betsy took the order, manufactured the products, and sent them to the Port of Kuwait. It’s exciting, said Betsy, “and we do it routinely.”
E.R. Perry’s tags can be found on highways, under the ocean, and out in space. SpaceX, a private space transportation company, orders tags repeatedly because they melt every time they launch.
Some of the signs they make are funny, like one this winter that said, “Okay to leave packages. Dog is friendly.”
Principles and passion
Betsy and Vilnis attribute their success to a very principled business philosophy and passionate vision, and they believe this kind of success is possible for other local businesses.
“The right mind for success in cottage industry is you have to think professional and you have to think big,” said Betsy.
“You have to believe in yourself,” added Vilnis. “…and you have to take yourself seriously.”
Savvy Internet marketing is key to being competitive, Vilnis said. For 10 years now, their site has been the first thing that pops up on a search for “engraved plastic tags,” and they have had people ranging from local residents to university specialists help them achieve this.
Their site is currently in the hands of an expert out east. “We’re changing it all the time,” said Vilnis, and the people whose sites pop up below theirs keep making changes accordingly. “We’re constantly editing and polishing to stay in the competition.”
Thinking big is vital, but it’s not the only factor. “Our dedication to customer satisfaction is everything,” said Vilnis. “We compete against all other engravers industry-wide…. To do so we have to absolutely optimize all aspects of what we do to provide the best quality, service, and competitive price. …“If your customers aren’t No. 1 to you, you’re going to fail.”
People who call from other places often assume E.R. Perry is a big manufacturing company, and they are often surprised to get a personal touch. “It’s kind of a balance between professionalism and the personal touch. …Everything we make is custom. If you can dream it, we can make it.”
Betsy and Vilnis are pleased to have so much business that they had to hire an employee. Carin Gulstrand is “just the right fit,” said Betsy, handling the local orders. Vilnis calls her “professional, articulate, capable, and pleasant.” He added, “She knows oodles of people I don’t know.”
Hope for Cook County
One thing Betsy and Vilnis don’t do is try to compete with the other local sign companies. They collaborate, said Vilnis, helping one other get jobs according to their specialties. Betsy and Vilnis believe any kind of specialized industry could work here—from guitarmaking shops to bicycle factories.
Vilnis said Grand Marais, on the fringe of the UPS hub, is a good place for both incoming and outgoing shipping. He often orders products one day and gets them the next. “If you can get your stuff on that truck by noon today,” he said, “you can get your stuff anywhere in the U.S. by tomorrow noon if your customer is willing to pay for it.”
If you see a business around here and it’s not doing well, said Vilnis, the reason is one of these three things: product, service, or price. He once saw a hot dog stand draw “hordes” of people 50 miles out in the woods of New York. The owner understood people and knew how to do business.
Betsy and Vilnis believe that local businesses could improve by making good use of the Internet, updating and sending frequent messages from their websites. In addition, while a pretty website is fine, it must also be easy to navigate and it must pop up in search engines.
According to Betsy and Vilnis, local government could help promote cottage industry by making less limiting zoning regulations that would outline only what cannot be done rather than only what can be done.
Vision and goals
What do Betsy and Vilnis want from the business in the future? “To maintain the quality of life Cook County offers,” said Betsy. “To make a comfortable living; to keep Carin employed.”
“I want to optimize it,” said Vilnis. “To see how far we can push it. To see what is the potential of a cottage industry.”
Vilnis’s wish goes for the other businesses of Cook County as well. “I think we have tremendous talent,” he said. “Opportunities: you wouldn’t think that they’re here, but they are!”
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