The Importance of Sign Permitting and How You Can Avoid the Pitfalls
Starting your own business is often the dream of many in our country, a chance to not only work for yourself but provide the community with a tangible benefit such as a service or product. If you’re reading this you’ve most likely established your company’s location, work permits and everything in between; now it’s time to finish it off by placing a big beautiful sign on top of your establishment that screams “Open for Business.” However, this is not as easy as it seems. The fact is that erecting a sign for your business requires sign permitting. What exactly is sign permitting? These are a variety of permits, and yes we said variety as in multiple permits that are required a business owner to have before any design, installation, resizing, refacing and or replacing is done.
You might be thinking to yourself; maybe I don’t really need a sign if it’s going to be that much of a hassle. Not so fast, data actually shows that businesses who have a professional sign above their location are more likely to be trusted by customers. Business signs improve brand image and legitimacy, and if you are located in a heavy pedestrian area, then it is a must. Depending on your city or town a business sign will carry different ordinance requirements that a business owner must comply with; however, the strategies to overcome the obstacles are almost universal as you will see in the rest of this article. The following are our top five ways to help you successfully navigate the various challenges and obstacles that you will face when going through the requirement of sign permitting.
#1 Do Your Research Ahead of Installation
One of the first mistakes often made by business owners is the lack of research done before their installation. Often passionate young entrepreneurs will begin to sketch out the perfect sign before evening knowing what they are even allowed to place within their location. The last thing we want for you is to find out that your sign has no chance of being approved by the city. This lack of preparedness will often cost the owner unnecessary time and money. For example, depending on your area, most city governments will allow you to alter an existing sign. This will not only save you time but money as well as you will know for certain that the location where your sign will be located follows all the city ordinances put in place.
#2 Go All-Out On The Description of Your Sign
What do we mean all out? City governments often require various amounts of paperwork that detail the type of sign that you’re looking to put up. Therefore, it is crucial to not only provide images of your sign to be but go above and beyond with details. This means measurements, materials used, potential locations, etc. The gathering of all this information will provide you with a smoother paperwork process as well as an increase in the probability that your sign with be approved. In addition to these suggestions, we also highly recommend going through the process of a site survey. A site survey will allow you to answer lingering questions before the city halts your process to ask them themselves. This can include but is not limited to the size of the sign, size of the location, and the practicality of the project.
#3 Don’t Go At It Alone, Hire A Professional
Believe it or not, there are plenty of professionals in the industry that are experts in this process; they are called Signage Solutions Partner. Furthermore, signage solutions partners will often already have a strong relationship with government entities, therefore, providing you with an advantage and an increased likelihood of rapid approval. Although it’s an added expense, hiring a professional to deal with all the complicated bureaucracy red tape can save you money and time in the long run. In addition, your sign permitting process with no doubt, go a lot smoother.
#4 Always Practice Patience Throughout the Process
The process of sign permitting is no doubt a stressful one; however, unchecked decisions and reckless outbursts of frustration will not help speed up the process. Often business owners will not be aware of this ordinance on business signs and might face a deadline such as the grand opening of their business. Taking on yourself to place the sign anyways because the paperwork is going through the process can not only cost you thousands in fines but may even prolong the process. A great solution to this are large banners. Banners are more often than not allowed to be displayed by the city if they meet all of the ordinances.
#5 Obtaining your Sign Permit is Worth it!
Obtaining your sign permit is no doubt a hassle to most business owners: the long process, the fees required to file within your particular city government and much more. The amount incurred by the process is often in the high hundreds or even low thousands, but even with all these obstacles, we still highly recommend a business erect a business sign within or on their property. After all, a business sign is an investment. This means that it has a practical use for it, often translating to almost half of your customer acquisition. The added legitimacy, exposure, and confidence will dramatically increase your chances of seeing a return on your investment for years to come.
In conclusion, there is no doubt by now that you understand the importance of obtaining a sign permit. The obstacles in front of you can be daunting and a bit challenging, but the rewards can be exponentially larger. Therefore it is paramount that you follow the recommendations stated above to make the process that much smoother for yourself and the future of your business. As an added bonus to this article, those seeking to erect an electric sign composed of LEDs should take into consideration the wait time for electrical connection to a new structure.