Signs
Franchises that offer print, signage, graphics and marketing materials for other businesses.
Types of Sign Businesses
I would say there are two types of businesses in this category – sign companies that stick to more traditional marketing and companies that go into the digital realm. The traditional ones focus more on designing and manufacturing physical signage, handouts, flyers, etc while some venture into doing online marketing such as social media, websites and anything digital along with doing the traditional marketing as well.
Initial Investment
The average is anywhere between $150K - $350K. You will need a physical location for this business. It does not need to be customer facing as the only time a customer would come would likely be to just pick something up. It needs to be an open space where you’ll have enough room to house your equipment and signage that you are creating. You’ll need to purchase different types of machinery in order to make the various types of signs.
Day In The Life
This is a B2B business where you will be talking to and selling small/medium size business owners on using your company for their marketing needs. There will be significant networking involved. They say that 80% of your business will come from about 20-30 customers. They will be repeat customers, oftentimes having multiple projects all year long. You’ll also do smaller jobs as well. You’ll need to hire a small staff that creates the signs and many times you are hiring at least one person who already has many years of experience doing this. You do not need to be the sign maker, but instead manage the projects and provide great customer service.
Ideal Candidate
Someone comfortable speaking to business owners. A lot of the owners have sales experience and project management experience and are previous CEOs/CFO/COOs. You should be good at managing people and have great customer service skills. No experience in sign making is required since you will be hiring people to do that part of the business.
Why We Like This Industry
This is something that will always be needed by businesses. Every business that has a physical location needs a sign for their location as well as all kinds of signage inside. There are a lot of different industries you can serve such as retails, education, entertainment, healthcare, etc. There are many different revenue streams and you can continually serve the same customers year over year. The hours are 8-5, year-round with no seasonality and low employee count.