Billboard Business: What I’ve Learned Over the Years

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By Frank Rolfe

Many people ask me how I started my own outdoor billboard business. Truth be told, it all started as a resume builder for graduate school applications. Fourteen years later I sold my billboard empire to a public company. Along the way, I learned many things about what works and what doesn’t work in successful billboard deals.

When I got into this business, I thought it would all be about building cookie-cutter signs on the freeways, and then leasing the space. I had no idea how competitive it was. There were sixty billboard companies in my market! The competition was so crazy that you had to have a gimmick in order to survive.

I can’t tell you how many times I hear people ask me if there are still opportunities left. Absolutely! On average, I was able to pull of a deal each month for fifteen straight years in a competitive market. My secret was thinking “outside the box” and coming up with creative game plans.

This is also why I wrote my book, “Big Bucks from Big Signs”. In the book, I will show you the wide range of deals I completed as well as the lessons learned from each deal.

I’m a big history buff; I read mostly biographies and books on warfare. What makes it fun to read these things is to gather the lessons learned by many famous and successful people. By doing so, one can overly what worked for them and apply it to your own life plan.

After you’ve read a lot of these books, you start to see certain patterns emerge that seem to show signs that an idea or action is going to be successful. SImilarly, you’ll see what actions do not appear to be good ideas if you want to win.

I wrote my book to give real-life examples of what seems to be the pattern for success in building a billboard company. All of the case studies are true stories; all of the lessons learned happened to me. I know I’m not the only guy who has made money in this business. However, I know I’m the only one who seems to want to write about it and share this knowledge openly!

My formula will give you a much greater chance for success than any other avenue. I believe that if you study the deals in my book carefully, you may identify a deal in your market that meets the same criteria.

About Frank Rolfe
Frank Rolfe became the one of the largest private billboard operators in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He eventually sold his billboard empire to a public company 14 years later. Rolfe is sharing his expertise to anyone interested in getting involved with outdoor billboards. He is the author of the book, “Big Bucks from Big Signs”, which contains everything you need to know in order to get started.