Let me clarify the one-stop shop concept. You see, a customer stops in your shop once. You convince him that you are his "go-to-guy," that you can certainly handle this job from concept to installation. He goes back to his life. Then you run around like a rabid squirrel trying to outsource, manage and figure out a bunch of things you're not good at.

Regardless of why, the decision to accept installation and complex fabrication should be done carefully and with forethought. You see, shear willpower and a desire to be handy without actual knowledge can lead to an interesting finished product. I dated a girl once who happened to be an architect and fancied herself a weekend fabricator.

This girl built the craziest fence I have ever seen. The monstrosity in her back yard looked like a huge centipede, with arms and angled supports all over the thing. Did I say supports?

But when your business depends on it, you either learn to do it the right way, you hire an installer, or you remove yourself from that part of the job. Some installations you feel compelled to do yourself, so you brave the waters. We were commissioned to create three accordion-style millenium murals made of individual six-inch vertical pyramid images, with slices of two different images on opposite slopes(the image shifted as you walked around it).

After three attempts we created a successful process for making structurally strong, yet fragile image pyramids - which, unfortunately, required a specialized and careful installation. We bid the murals and installation based on an estimated 16 pyramids per mural. The customer got approval and submitted the job with one small change: Instead of 16 tall pyramids we were asked to do a gloriously panoramic set of 40 shorter panels. Note, the square footage barely changed, but my installation time more than tripled - and the client's budget was locked.

This was one of my very best clients and this project was so cool that I really wanted to do it. The installation took eight of us from 9 p.m. on a Friday night until 4:30 a.m. Saturday. After that exhausting experience I was less enthusiastic about doing our own installations - but it gets even better.

It wasn't so bad, though. We were paid on a new budget to reinstall them at the museum - their final home - and my customer built some extra into that part of the job. That's why she is one of my favorite clients.

You must know by now that even the mere mention of installation makes me get little face twitches. We all learned a lot, but who's got time to learn the "ins" and "outs" of pricing and installations? Our real business is the making of digital graphics. We still do installation of cut vinyl lettering and some indoor signage, but before you accept an out-of-shop installation, remember: Labor costs begin the minute your employees leave the studio, and continue to mount until they return.

Traveling across town to do a $50 install doesn't make a lot of sense. We always out-source outdoor signage installs. Paying someone else to pull permits and deal with city zoning feels really good once you have done it yourself. It might seem really indulgent, like hiring a maid, or someone to clean your car. But go ahead - pamper yourself with an out-sourced installation. Sit home and relax. Perhaps you can catch that carpentry show on PBS.