Building a Billboard Business That Lasts | Hal & Diana Stevenson copertina

Building a Billboard Business That Lasts | Hal & Diana Stevenson

Building a Billboard Business That Lasts | Hal & Diana Stevenson

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How do you build an independent billboard company that can grow without depending on one person to run everything? Diana Stevenson (CEO) and Hal Stevenson (Chief Development Officer) of Grace Outdoor Advertising join Neil Bell to share the lessons behind building, operating, and preparing their outdoor advertising business for the next generation.Hal and Diana trace their path through billboard leasing and development in Oklahoma, Texas, and Southern California, an early and costly bet on digital billboards years before the ad industry was ready for them, and the recession that brought them back to South Carolina to rebuild Grace Outdoor from the ground up. Diana explains how she came back to run the company on one condition — she'd be in charge — and then rebuilt its systems, its team, and its client base from scratch.They also dig into some of the biggest challenges facing independent OOH operators today: multi-year permitting fights, managing thousands of digital-billboard contracts a year, servicing national advertisers, and training the next generation to run the business without them.For independent billboard owners and outdoor advertising professionals, this is a firsthand look at what it takes to turn decades of industry knowledge into a company that can run beyond its founders.LINKSGrace Outdoor Advertising: https://graceoutdoor.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/graceoutdooradvertising/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Grace-Outdoor/109527645755004Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/graceoutdooradvertising/KEY TAKEAWAYS• Grace Outdoor Advertising manages billboard inventory for roughly 30 different entities — family LLCs, longtime partners, and small companies whose owners live nowhere near the signs• Diana Stevenson came back to run the company on one condition — that she'd be in charge — then rebuilt its systems from scratch, starting by learning who their clients were and how they paid• A single digital billboard face can generate thousands of contracts a year, versus about 24 for a static sign — software like Apparatix, integrated with their accounting system, is what makes that volume manageable• National advertisers make up an estimated 25-35% of Grace Outdoor's business; they pay reliably but slowly (often around four months), which rewards operators with strong back-office systems• One billboard permit took 3.5 years and only came through after Grace Outdoor won an appeal to the Board of Zoning Appeals 4-1, after planning staff had recommended denial with no clear legal reason• Hal's approach to difficult zoning fights is persistence over litigation — suing a municipality tends to end the relationship for every permit after it• Every excavation carries real risk: Grace Outdoor has hit a pressurized sewer line and a 36-inch water main on separate builds, with the water-main repair costing roughly half that project's profit• Grace Outdoor grows only at the edges of its existing South Carolina/North Carolina footprint, since a single sign in a distant market is hard to sell without a local presence• The company's name, "Grace," came from Hal's brother Danny, half-jokingly, after a territorial conflict with Lamar Advertising split their earlier business ventureSUMMARYHal and Diana Stevenson met while he was a fill-in bank branch manager and she was a part-time teller in Columbia, South Carolina. Hal's billboard career started through a mentor's company, Omni Outdoor Advertising, and took the couple through leasing and permitting jobs in Oklahoma City, San Antonio, and Southern California — including an early, expensive bet on digital billboards on LA's 405 freeway (roughly $800,000 for one face) that the advertising industry wasn't yet equipped to buy into. When the recession hit and the bank pressure on the business mounted, Hal asked Diana to come back and run things. She agreed, on one condition: she'd be in charge.From there, Diana rebuilt the company from the ground up — literally starting by getting the mail and learning how every client paid — and used that ground-level knowledge to redesign the company's systems, team, and client relationships. The company took the name "Grace" at the suggestion of Hal's brother Danny, after a territorial dispute with Lamar Advertising split an earlier venture the brothers were both involved in. Today, Grace Outdoor manages billboard inventory for around 30 different entities, from family LLCs to small companies whose owners have no local presence, and does an estimated 25-35% of its business with national advertisers — relationships that pay reliably but slowly, and that reward operators with strong back-office systems like Apparatix, integrated with their accounting software, to keep thousands of digital-billboard contracts a year organized.The conversation also covers the operational realities of running an independent OOH company: permitting and zoning fights that can take years and ...
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