Today we’d like to introduce you to Nina Pankiewicz.
Hi Nina, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I moved from Detroit to Atlanta in 2016. My husband, Peter, has a sign business, Pinnacle 33 Signage Solutions, that he started in 2010. After I moved and was between jobs, he asked if I could help him with a few things. I worked as a Project Manager for Blue Cross Blue Shield in Detroit and also had experience in enterprise strategy and process improvement. So, I was able to help create processes that enabled the business to grow. In 2018, at the International Sign Show, Peter met someone with YESCO (Young Electric Sign Co), the largest sign company in the country, established in 1920. YESCO is headquartered in Utah and has a strong presence in the western states. They started franchising in midwestern, eastern and southern states around 2010 and were looking for a presence in Atlanta. Since it is a family-owned business, they were pretty selective about who they chose to represent the brand. They were attracted to Peter because of his sign experience. But they liked that I had a corporate background. We were attracted to their integrity and a strong sense of serving businesses and customers. It was a good match.
We purchased the YESCO Sign and Lighting Atlanta franchise with me as majority owner and Peter as co-owner at the end of 2018 with just one truck and three employees. We developed the Atlanta market with one night patrol, one phone call and one service at a time.
Today, we have three service trucks and ten employees for YESCO and almost 30 employees total, including Pinnacle 33. We have had the privilege of serving large customers such as Emory, Enterprise, Mercedes Benz stadium, State Farm Arena, Krispy Kreme and several other businesses that play a major role to the metro Atlanta communities. We’ve learned several lessons along the way. The biggest being that employees are our most valuable resource. So over the last few years, I’m very proud to have come up with ways to make the employer/employee relationship mutually beneficial by adding on healthcare benefits and really collaborating at our best.
I really find joy in being able to help the Atlanta business community present their best selves by maintaining their signs and lighting. Simultaneously, I really enjoy creating and sustaining a space for people to do what they love and help and encourage them to reach their best level. We have a unique team of talented individuals who have moved to GA and couldn’t find work, been given a second chance and/or even stepped out into the workforce after being a stay-at-home mom for several years. I’m proud to bring on minorities and underdogs and let everyone watch us win. It’s my passion to be successful in what we do and help elevate everyone around us.
Did I mention that I’m a mom of three – the youngest are 3 and 9 months. So I was growing the business while expanding our family. It wasn’t and still isn’t easy. But it’s rewarding.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
People – that’s been our biggest struggle and biggest reward. It’s hard to find and keep good people. We have a good product – with all the movement and development in Atlanta, there will always be demand for maintaining sign and lighting. We also have a good model and support from YESCO Corporation – they’re a huge resource to us. But as we grow, it’s increasingly more difficult to find experienced Service Technicians. The sign industry is a niche industry. Most people see signs every day but don’t think of how it was manufactured, installed or maintained. Many people aren’t aware of it as an option for a career. Most, if not all, of our experienced trade employees grew up around it and that’s how they learned and became experienced. Most of the time, we have to recruit from out of state to find experienced people.
It was also challenging for me operating in large corporate environments to a small industrial environment. I had to learn what motivates people and how to communicate differently.
Time and balance have also been challenging. Having to be efficient as I can with my time during the day, to be as productive as I can to move us forward, address any issues, try to prevent issues, all those things. Every day, we have a team of people showing up, being great, doing what it takes to represent what we do. I have to be behind the scenes, supporting them, setting them up for success, cheering them on. And in the evenings, I have to be completely present and engage with my kids. I really enjoy participating in their schools on the PTA. No surprise that I’m on the DEI committee at my oldest son’s school.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
YESCO Sign and Lighting Atlanta is a franchise of YESCO, LLC, headquartered in Utah. YESCO is a family-owned business that was established over 100 years ago and is currently being run by the fourth generation family members. YESCO is the largest Sign and Lighting company in the United States. They’re most known for the infamous Welcome to Las Vegas sign as well as several other signs and lighting in Las Vegas. What we do specifically is service and repair building and property signs and lighting. 8 or 9 times out of 10 if a business sign needs repairing, it’s the lighting. We repair and maintain lighting in signs as well as parking lot lighting, neon lighting, monument sign lighting, road sign lighting, wall packs, spotlights, everything sign and lighting. We have trucks that can reach up to 100ft for businesses. We also repair interior lighting. One thing that may or may not surprise you is that there are actually several signs that are hit by cars that we take back to our shop to repair.
There are several things that set YESCO apart from other sign and / or lighting companies. The first is our people. We have a team of people that genuinely love what they do – it’s their craft, it’s their legacy – and they’re really good at it. This expertise helps us to quickly diagnose and resolve issues to help businesses focus on their core business and let us maintain their signs and lighting. The second is the fact that we are proactive in maintaining signs and lighting. We do night patrols for our customer’s businesses, letting them know of outages, sometimes before they are aware. And the last that I’ll mention (but there are many more) and this certainly is not the least, is our integrity. We’re business owners, we’re parents, we’re part of the community that we serve, and that’s in front of, around, and behind everything we do. This is what I’m most proud of.
In addition to everything I already mentioned, I would like readers to know we’re minority-owned. I’m a black woman and the only black woman owner in the YESCO franchise network. The sign business is a white male-dominated business. I’m trying to determine ways to bring awareness to minorities to this industry and trying to determine leadership paths. In the meantime, if there are people and businesses out there that want to be intentional about supporting minority-owned businesses, we would love to serve them.
What were you like growing up?
I love learning and did well in school. That was the expectation and requirement. My parents challenged us to get all As in school by offering us incentives. Once they saw that we could do it, they required it. This requirement drove me to do my best at everything, at school and at home. I valued my parent’s approval and trust. I recognized how hard they worked and the obstacles they overcame to provide for me and pour into me, and I appreciated that. My parents, teachers, and the village that supported me told me I could do anything, and I believed them. So much so that I even thought that I could be superman and fly – I attempted and failed (of course). That’s a funny/not so funny story.
So, this drive that I have, I often wonder if it’s nature or nurture. As long as I can remember, I have been organizing teams (sisters, cousins, friends, classmates), creating strategies and problem-solving. This was and still is fun for me. I remember summers when my sisters and I played “school” for the whole day.
As I’m writing this, I’m thinking maybe I was a nerd and didn’t know it. But I must’ve been a fun nerd. It was also easy for me to make friends and talk to people. My dad would say, “Nina, don’t meet strangers”. He also said I had the “gift of gab”. I was constantly creating a case for why I should get what I wanted, trying to convince them to turn a no into a yes.
As you can tell, I was a pretty serious and responsible kid. Although, what I didn’t really mention, is that I’m really silly. The smallest things tickle me and I can have terrible laughing spells where I can’t stop laughing. I love to laugh but I feel like I don’t get to laugh as much as I would like. I’m working on that.
My mom died when I was 16 and that changed everything. I pretty much went from teenager to full adult, helping my dad with my 4 and 6 years old siblings. And by the way, the dad I keep talking about is not my birth dad, but he’s the one that raised me. I thought that should be noted just to illustrate how amazing he was. He died 12 years later, which was very hard for me. I don’t have a relationship with my birth dad.
Both my parents were just truly amazing people. At my mom’s funeral, there were several people that said she was their best friend. She was a no-nonsense type of person but a person that people just absolutely loved. I often wonder how she was able to do everything she did.
Pricing:
- Our hourly rate ranges from $175 – $250/hour, depending on the size of the truck needed to reach the sign.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.yesco.com/atlantacentral
- Instagram: @yescosignsandlightingatlanta
- Facebook: @yescosignandlightingatlanta
Image Credits
Ty Myrick
