How Sign Franchises Work

Rob Lancit

Date

May 29, 2019

We walk around and are surrounded by signs every day. And I don’t mean cosmic or spiritual signs, I mean literal signs. We are inundated with them. We see billboards by the highway, banners for new restaurants, work vehicles with company logos on them, exit signs, restroom signs, elevator signs, and many other types of signs every day. We might register the information on the signs, but we rarely stop to think about the signs themselves. Where did they come from? How did they get made? Who designed them? Where can I get a sign? And the answer to that last one is a sign franchise.

Sign Franchises

Sign franchises design, manufacture, and install signs. On the surface, it’s a simple business; and that’s a good thing. Sign franchises don’t have to explain much about how their business works to prospective customers. People know that when they need a sign, they should contact a sign franchise. But generic signage is not what makes sign franchises their money. They create unique, eye-catching, and vibrant signage for their clients, often for the purposes of advertising and promotion.

What Sign Franchises Can Do

What sign franchises do is, well, make signs, obviously. “How much demand for signs can there be?”, you might ask yourself. The answer is, “a lot”. This is because there are so many different types of signs out there that somebody always needs something. There are banners, real estate signs, trade show displays, wall murals, floor graphics, vehicle wraps, Americans with Disabilities Act compliant signage, lobby and office signage, and much, much more.

But sign franchises don’t just make these signs. They design them, sometimes with their own creative designs from scratch, and sometimes following the vision of the client. And they can also install the signs. Sign installation can be very tricky, especially for larger signs. Sign franchises can also inform clients about city ordinances and state laws that regulate the usage and size of signs.

Customers of Sign Franchises

Who are the customers of sign franchises? There must be a lot for sign franchises to be prosperous. And there are. There are tradesmen such as house painters, landscapers, plumbers, etc., who want vehicle wraps to advertise their business. And then there are companies with fleets, such as taxi companies or rental vans companies who want their entire fleet to have vehicle wraps. There are restaurants that want window signage, offices that want lobby signage, church and school fairs that want banners, and any number of businesses that want trade show displays.

Low Costs

Many signs are now made of vinyl and this has brought down the cost of production quite a bit. This has allowed sign franchises to do more business and to maximize profits on each sale. Sign franchises also don’t cost that much to buy and get started. In terms of investment, sign franchises are one of the lower cost franchises. This makes them quite appealing to prospective franchisees because the numbers aren’t as daunting as with some other types of franchises.