{"id":70394,"date":"2023-05-09T19:28:45","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T01:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=70394"},"modified":"2023-05-09T19:28:45","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T01:28:45","slug":"calgary-man-sees-bright-future-bright-in-custom-neon-sign-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2023\/05\/09\/calgary-man-sees-bright-future-bright-in-custom-neon-sign-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary man sees bright future bright in custom neon sign business"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Hassan Younas<\/strong>, owner of Neon.YYC, adjusts a neon sign he made at the SAIT library on April 20, 2023. Younas is a finance major and has been making custom neon signs for over a year. (Photo by Iaman Nawaz\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

H<\/span>assan Younas stared at his phone screen with wide eyes. His eyebrows furrowed and his lips in a frown. How did he let it get this bad he thought to himself.<\/p>\n

U<\/span>nlike his friends, Younas didn’t have a job and the few dollars that were in his bank account were rapidly dwindling. The boy was sad, hopeless and worried about his future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had nothing that summer, I think I maybe had $20 in my bank account and I remember taking a screenshot of my balance and promising myself that I would never let it get this bad,\u201d said Younas.<\/p>\n

New beginnings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wanting to get himself out of this penniless situation, the 18-year-old had a burst of motivation and decided to pursue his own business.<\/p>\n

Younas says he always hated working a regular job and despised the idea of waking up each morning to commute to an office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always been someone who finds ways to make money from flipping things or other side hustles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

During this time, Younas was planning on redecorating his room and in doing so, he stumbled upon a neon sign on Amazon. It was only $100 and in that moment something in Younas\u2019 brain clicked.<\/p>\n

He was going to flip the sign. He had an idea with lots of potential, and that’s when he founded his company Neon.YYC.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I got my first neon sign, I listed it on Facebook Marketplace for $200 and after 6 hours, I already got seven inquiries,\u201d said Younas.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater that day I sold it for $185, so I made $85 during that day, really with no risk and during that time, it really felt good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Younas continued doing this for the entire summer and had made more than $1,000 in profit.<\/p>\n

Once the summer was over, Younas began studying business, majoring in finance, while also trying to keep up with his brand.<\/p>\n

Custom signs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since signs from Amazon were pre-made, they couldn\u2019t be customized. However, that didn\u2019t stop customers from making customization requests, but Younas says he would just brush them off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the sales from the Amazon signs started to die off, I began to think. I needed to think of something else and work harder,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Seeing the need, Younas decided to start taking requests for custom work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started this on Instagram and for the first month, I didn\u2019t get any inquiries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Booming business<\/strong><\/p>\n

After a long month of waiting, Younas finally got a big break \u2014 his first sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt so amazing, this first sale validated the business model so much for me and all I did after that was continue to find more clients,” he said.<\/p>\n

Younas\u2019 second client was a lot bigger than his first \u2014 the owner of a club in downtown Calgary. He was opening a new location and wanted a couple of neon signs.<\/p>\n

This was a huge deal for Younas as he had only been in business for a couple months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met up with him, and that was my first ever business meeting, and we discussed what he was looking to get made,\u201d said Younas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an amazing experience. As much as I love the money part of things, I really enjoy meeting new people and creating new experiences like these.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeing a sign<\/strong><\/p>\n

Younas has created several signs since then, some great, others not so much.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was this one time, I got asked to do a sign for a club here in Calgary, and it was supposed to say, \u2018horny angel,\u2019 and I thought it was the weirdest thing ever, funny, but weird,\u201d said Younas in a previous interview.<\/p>\n

Younas\u2019 favourite sign is \u2018The Moon,\u2019 which is a soft neon sign with yellow and gold. The business that requested it is The Moon Tea House, a bubble tea cafe near Victoria Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love bubble tea and I always go to that cafe to get a drink and when they reached out to me for a sign, I was really happy to help out as I love going there,\u201d said Younas.<\/p>\n

Tooba Javed is a customer of Neon.YYC.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brothers love this anime called Naruto and I was looking for a gift for them and that’s when I accidentally stumbled upon Neon.YYC,\u201d Javed said in a previous interview.<\/p>\n

At the time, Javed’s brothers’ birthdays were approaching, and she had decided to get them a custom sign related to the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brothers loved the sign, it’s their favourite thing ever. They have it up in the basement and it’s literally always on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Future plans<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having just turned 19-years-old, Younas says it felt \u201cso nice\u201d to run his own business after having nothing for so long.<\/p>\n

Younas is now receiving business from all over Canada, including cities like Edmonton and Vancouver.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s crazy how this idea was started due to me finding something for my room,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m still not even close to where I want to be. I have so many more ideas that I want to pursue for Neon.YYC.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neon signs have become the next \u2018go to\u2019 signs for businesses. Many people are starting to transition from old LED signs to neon signs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an amazing experience. As much as I love the money part of things, I really enjoy meeting new people and creating new experiences like these.\u201d – Hassan Younas<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cEveryone has a use for it and it gives life to a room,\u201d said Younas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe things might change over the years and that I would need to adapt to those changes to be one step ahead of my competitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Younas says it is his goal to make a sustainable living off of his signs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this feature, readers will read about the journey of Hassan Younas and how he began his own neon signs business. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":827,"featured_media":70395,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S5 Neon YYC","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-70394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/827"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70394"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70459,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70394\/revisions\/70459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}