When you think of advertising, you must remember that signage matters. It is part of the promotion of your business, and it makes a big difference.

We helped a fitness facility/spa increase business on its spa side. The business offered all kinds of physical fitness and beauty treatments, such as facials, manicures and massage. More than 200 people came in each day for physical training, but the spa was barely breaking even.

Though customers had to walk right by the spa to get to the fitness center, not a single one seemed to notice. The signs for the spa services were originally hung parallel with the walkway, and we encouraged the entrepreneur to hang them perpendicular to the walkway instead. This way, potential customers would not have to turn their heads to see the offerings.

Now, within a month of adjusting the signs, the spa is making a nice profit, and the owner is pleased with both the business income and the improved morale among spa employees.

In this case, just changing the angle of the signs should improve profits by more than $100,000 each year. Physically, this was an easy fix, but it was a difficult change to make because the owners did not see the problem. They never looked at how the signs appeared to customers.

An artist lamented to me that while his art sales were great, his art classes were not. His studio was in the middle of a round-about in a major city, so there was no shortage of traffic. Many cars passed his studio every day, but he had no signs advertising his art classes on his building. Once he put signs out, enrollment in his classes shot straight up.

Obviously, if your firm is not in a location that is visible to your customers, investing in signs makes no sense. However, if you have a great location, you must take advantage of this opportunity to promote your business, subject to the limits of local sign ordinances.