This Ties That Bind Us is sponsored by Matt The Carpet Guy.
OCEAN CITY, Md. - What started as a side hustle making custom signs has grown into Plak That, a company now creating signs for businesses and a batch for the Ocean City Boardwalk.
Before a sign tells someone where to go or becomes part of a favorite memory, it starts with an idea.
At Plak That, an ordinary piece of sheet metal has become something much more recognizable as the company creates custom signs for businesses, a town, and individual customers.
Plak That owner Wyatt Harrison says the company originated as a side hustle filling custom orders for friends and family before growing into a larger operation.
“I would collect up orders from friends and family, and then launched a website, and then it just kind of snowballed,” Harrison says. “Then had good timing from like 2012 to 2018 and then some of the really big companies like Shutterfly and stuff like that all jumped in.”
After years of building the company, Plak That received an opportunity from the town of Ocean City that was anything but typical: a bid for a contract to create new signs for the Boardwalk.
“We submitted a bid, and ended up being the lowest bidder, and then went on to be the successful vendor that the town chose,” Harrison tells CoastTV. “They didn't have to go with the lowest, but they did, and we were that person.”
Replacing the signs created another question: What would happen to the old ones?
Harrison says Public Works typically throws them away. But when people began asking whether they could purchase the old signs while they were being removed from the Boardwalk, an idea formed.
“So many people were asking me for the old ones,” Harrison says. “Like they wanted to buy them from me like right on the boardwalk like we're taking it down and they were like how much for that?”
The unusual demand gave Plak That a drive. Rather than allow the old signs to collect dust, the company put hundreds of them up for auction.
The auction, the company says, could have raised more than $10,000 for a foundation supporting critically ill children.
Harrison says becoming a parent gave him a new appreciation for the work the organization does for children and their families.
“I have a three-year-old with another one on the way, and to even just think about what these families are going through has given me a newfound appreciation for everything that organization does and everything those families are going through,” Harrison says. “So that, that was an easy pick for me.”
What started as a sheet metal side hustle ultimately became more than a business story, offering a reminder that sometimes what a company makes matters less than what it gives back.
