When you’re looking into buying a franchise in the sign industry, you want something that capitalizes on your previous business experience as well as your values, future direction and the vision that you want to bring to fruition. You want to continue to expand on what you do well, yet remain open to new career possibilities along your franchising journey.
This entails some serious soul-searching and intensive self-evaluation right off the bat. As a sign franchisee, you’ll be working with customers to breathe fresh life into their brands and suggesting new ways that they can increase brand awareness among their surprisingly eclectic customer bases. You’ll be helping businesses reach new customers and consolidate more loyal ones.
Local Businesses Need Signs. Be There to Help!
Whether a business is just starting out and wanting to increase their exposure and word-of-mouth referrals or beginning the journey of rebranding, you can be there to lend a helping hand.
A full 50 percent of new customers originally flocked to a business because of on-site signage. This means that if, say, a local coffee shop acquired 10,000 customers throughout the year, 5,000 of those new customers waltzed through the door by virtue of the new business sign with which you provided them. That’s powerful.
And attracting fresh local customers is even more important, given the fact that 85 percent of a business’ customers live within a five-mile radius of that particular business location. As a sign franchisee, you can learn the technical and customer service skills to give local businesses a competitive advantage.
The Sign Franchise Industry is Booming
Sign franchising has been estimated as a $55 billion industry, thanks to the real-world efficacy of business signs (read more about this figure below). While a lot of focus goes toward spotlighting the ways in which business signs help businesses, far less studied is the fact that the overarching sign franchise industry is also robust.
We’ll get into particular numbers in a minute, but for now let’s deal with the larger, big-picture issue: You’re looking to invest in a franchise that has, preferably, an inherent resistance to recessions and economic downturns.
The sign franchise is actually pretty close to a paragon of this concept, since businesses probably need signs more during recessions to make up for lost time and to generate more profits. Conversely, when things are going well for local businesses, signs can clue customers in to better deals and more ways that a particular business can help customers resolve their problems.
Back to the numbers, though. The International Sign Association actually found that the overarching U.S. sign industry had a total direct and indirect output of more than $37 billion and an induced output of $55 billion. While the real-world sign industry will no doubt continue to flourish, it will also play a complementary role to digital advertising and content marketing as well.
There Are Great Sign Franchises Out There
When you go with a franchise, you essentially go into business for yourself but never by yourself.
A background in marketing or communications isn’t essential … but a commitment to your clients’ brand and its expansion absolutely should be. Signs and other kinds of real-world branded marketing collateral really can make or break the businesses that you end up helping, or even saving!
From day one, you’ll be collaborating with area developers to find the best locations and access ongoing training and support so that you can constantly expand your professional tool kit and better serve your customers.
Signarama brings to the table more than 30 years of hands-on experience, as well as a best-in-class rating among sign franchises, according to Entrepreneur magazine. Ready to learn more?
