Lots of small town small businesses rely on good signs. Tourist-focused business, for example, depend on clear and effective signs. But look around your small town and you’ll see lots of really bad signs!
That brings up lots of questions for us. How do you design a good sign? How big should the typeface be? What color combinations are most readable?
The New York State Small Business Development Center worked with the International Sign Association (ISA) to create a free online resource on signs. It’s called What’s Your Signage?
Besides answering those questions about design, the site also shows examples of common small business signs and labels them with the industry names. That way you know whether you want to talk about channel letters or a pylon.
Darrin Conroy, with the SBDC, said:
If you owned a business, would you want something that:
- worked day and night as an instrumental marketing tool, including weekends and holidays, for less than $20 a day?
- can help boost your sales in the first year by 10% to 100%?
- could attract new customers, brand your business identity, and create impulse shoppers in your community?
Of course you would. That’s what the right sign can do for your clients.
For additional information on “What’s Your Signage?” (the book or the website) contact Darrin Conroy.
And thanks to Jeanne (OkieJ) for contributing this item. She can’t type much right now, so I posted this for her.
[Photo by Becky: The sign for Sage and Saddle Bed and Breakfast, Freedom, Oklahoma.]
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
Directional signs are also important. People who live in an area sometimes forget that. “how to get to xyz? Just go down to the place where the Kmart used to be, turn left at the Smith’s house…” LOL. We went out to a camp out in the country this weekend and I was so glad that they had signs at each turn.
Sandra, you are exactly right! It’s hard to look at your route with “new eyes” and see each place you need a sign. It’s also tough to make sure your signs are visible. The B&B by Freedom has a great sign at the business, but their highway sign is tough to notice. It’s big, but the colors blend into the rural scenery!
I think more rural businesses could start advertising their GPS coordinates, also. Many of your tourists and visitors will have a GPS unit.