All the information you need to Start A Dog Daycare

 Effective Signage for a Dog Daycare

Signage to Promote Your Location

This one is fairly straight forward. You need a sign outside so people can find you. If you choose a location near a major commuter route, you have the ability to pick up  business from people that see your sign while driving by. It needs to be visible, simple, and explain exactly what you do. A bad sign would read something like “Sarah’s Dog Fun Zone, or Anna’s Dog Heaven”. Even though both of these may sound cute or entertaining they fail to describe a service and will just blend into the rest of the roadside clutter as people drive by. A good sign would read “Anna’s Dog Daycare” or “Sarah’s Dog Grooming”. Both of these signs, even though not as cute, are many times more effective because they describe a service. Your potential customers will know exactly what it is that you do, and if in need of that service will stop in. Some of the other things that you need to consider when making decisions about your exterior signage include:

Visibility

Viewing distance is the primary factor in determining if an exterior sign will efficiently promote your business. Items such as passing traffic, trees, foliage, power lines, and street signs can limit the visibility of your sign, thus limiting the amount of walk in Dog Owning Customers you pull in. You must insure that the sign and the message it conveys are readily distinguishable from the surroundings. The easiest way to accomplish this is to put yourself in the place of your potential customers and look at the proposed location from different angles, get in your car and do some drive by’s on the location to check its visibility and placement.

The location needs to be conspicuous so that it can be easily distinguished from the surrounding urban clutter. Other ways to make your sign distinguish itself from busy surroundings include choosing the right color, typeface, and lighting . When you don't have room for lettering as large as you would like, try using light-colored letters on a dark background. The contrast will make the lettering appear larger and viewers will find it easier to read. You only have a precious few seconds to grab the attention of people driving by and even large signs will be missed if they are not designed and placed well.

Readability and Legibility

The reader's ability to correctly read your message depends on many things, including the size of letters, the amount of white space, among other factors. You can maximize the impact and visibility of your sign by choosing a design that enhances individual letter distinction. The most recognizable of these is black letters on a yellow background or yellow letters on a black background as these are the easiest color combinations to read, especially at a distance. Perhaps this goes back to our instinctive fear of bees, I have no idea but numerous studies have proven this particular color combination is by far the most effective.

You may want to include a lot of different information on your sign, like slogans, additional services, complicated graphics etc. However your sign will be many times more effective if you keep the message simple. During the birth of your Dog Daycare when you are trying to build a solid customer base you need to prominently display the service that you provide, be it Dog Daycare, Dog Daycare & Grooming, Or Dog Daycare, Grooming and Boarding. Don’t worry so much about name or logo recognition until you start your national advertising campaign. You need customers quickly so make sure your sign tells them what you do.

The following table shows you the distance required as well as the suggested letter height for customers to be able to read your sign at a given speed.

Example

Your Dog Daycare is located along a major commuter route with a speed limit of 55 mph, by utilizing the above chart you know you would need letters 16.5 inches high, and that a potential customer needs to be able to view the sign from 440 feet (5.5 seconds) away in order to have time to read it. To provide a better understanding of the exact time required to read your sign at a given speed you can use the following formula.

Time Needed Formula

Mph x 60 = Feet Per Hour       

Feet Per Hour / 60 = Feet Per Minute

Feet Per Minute / 60 = Feet Per Second

Distance Required for Readability / Feet Per Second = Time Needed to Read Sign at Given Speed

Angle Relationship of your sign to the road

While driving a motorist has on average a 20 degree cone of vision, if your sign for your Dog Daycare  lies outside of this, then it will more than likely be missed. The angle of your sign in relationship to the road determines how much time a potential customers needs to react and process the information on it. A sign that is parallel to the road (like railroad tracks) is difficult to for drivers to read and or find, while a sign that is perpendicular (at a right angle) to the road  would be much easier for a potential client to read. The following table provides you with the recommended square footage that your sign should be, dependent upon its angle in relation to the road as well as the speed of traffic passing it.

Example

Your Dog Daycare is located along a two lane commuter route with a speed limit of 55 mph, with the exterior signage parallel to the road, by utilizing the above chart you know you would need a sign that is 250 sq/ft or 16' x 16' for customers to read and process the information on it.

However, if the sign lies perpendicular (at a right angle) to the road you would need a sign 150 Sq/ft or roughly or 12' x 12', for customers to read and process the information on it.  A 100 sq/ft less, which may not sound like a lot until you factor in that the average cost for a flat panel style non graphically intense commercial sign starts at around $4.50 per sq/ft.

Graphics and Text

• Choose an easily readable fonts like San Serif or Verdana and keep the message clear and simple.

• Adding a border around the readable area is a surre fire way to dramatically improve your sign's visibility and readability. Studies show that motorists can read and understand a signs with a border around the message 26% faster those that do not have one.

• Keep signs clutter free with an adequate amount of white space, Ideally 30%-40% of the sign area should be blank space.

• Remember potential customers driving by have just a few seconds to read your sign, so keep text three to five words in length and arranged horizontally rather than vertically.

• Another fact is that 8% of U.S. males are color-blind. So use color combinations that can be viewed by people that are color blind. Yellow and blue or yellow and black would be good combinations; colors like blue-green on white or gray would be difficult for a color blind person to read.

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