Opening a storefront is a long list of things happening at once, and signage tends to get attention about two weeks before the doors open, which is roughly the point at which the permanent sign becomes impossible. Here is the order to do it in.
Three months out: start the permanent sign
This is the one that has a permit attached to it, and permits are the reason grand openings happen under a banner. Permanent building, monument and pole signs typically require approval from the city or county, and the timeline is theirs, not ours.
Two things to check before you design anything:
Your lease. Most commercial leases and nearly all shopping centers have sign criteria. Permitted sizes, materials, illumination, sometimes even colors. Read them or ask the landlord for them in writing. Designing a sign that violates the criteria is a wasted round.
Your jurisdiction. The City of Sacramento, the county, and every neighboring city have their own sign ordinances. Find out what applies to your address before you commit to a size.
We’ll build and install to whatever the permit and the criteria call for, including boom-lift installation on building and pole signs. Pulling the permit itself sits with you, your landlord, or your contractor.
Six weeks out: the banner that carries you
Assume the permanent sign will not be up on opening day. It very often isn’t, and a business with no sign is a business nobody can find.
A banner solves this for very little money. At $6 per square foot, a 3×8 is $144 and can be read from the road. Put your name on it, what you sell, and “NOW OPEN”, and nothing else. This banner has one job.
Keep it simple enough that it stays useful after opening week, because it will likely be up longer than you plan. Check your city’s rules on how long temporary banners may stay up; most jurisdictions have a limit.
Four weeks out: the window
Window graphics do more work than any other signage a small storefront buys, because they’re at eye level and they’re free real estate you’re already paying rent on. Vinyl print and lettering is posted at $7 per square foot.
The essentials, in priority order: business name on the glass, hours on or beside the door, phone number, and a short line saying what you actually do if the name doesn’t make it obvious. “Open” on the door itself. Everything else is optional.
Frosted or perforated vinyl gives you privacy and a professional look while still letting light through and letting you see out. Worth asking about if the space feels exposed.
Three weeks out: paper and doors
Business cards at 500 for $58. If you take appointments or reservations, a stack of cards by the register is still the cheapest reminder there is. Flyers if you’re dropping the neighborhood. 500 glossy for $165. Menus or a price board if you’re food or service.
Interior signage is easy to forget and noticed immediately when it’s missing: restroom, hours, payment methods, any policy people will ask about twelve times a day.
Two weeks out: the opening-day layer
A-frame or sidewalk sign for the doorway: the sign that catches people already walking past. Yard signs or directionals if you’re set back from the street or hard to find. Shirts for whoever’s working the opening, from $15, which cost almost nothing and make a four-person operation read as a real business.
The week of: don’t rely on the last week
The 10:00 AM cutoff means same-day is available all the way to the end, and people do use it. But opening week is the week everything else goes wrong, and signage is the part you can have finished early.
The one deadline to write down: we’re closed weekends. If you’re opening on a Saturday, your last possible order is Friday at 10:00 AM.
The realistic budget
Excluding the permanent sign, which varies enormously with size, material and installation: a 3×8 banner at $144, window lettering in the low hundreds depending on glass, 500 cards at $58, and a handful of shirts. That’s a storefront that reads as open and findable from the street for a number most opening budgets can absorb.
Bring us the address, the lease criteria and a photo of the storefront, and we’ll tell you what it needs. Start here, or call (916) 944-7195.