Cities all over Northeast Ohio — and the United States — have found rejuvenation by revitalizing their business signage. Upgrading your business sign can offer several benefits, including enhanced community recognition and increased property value.

And in Sandusky, the time to upgrade your business signage is now. In an effort to support and grow local business, the City of Sandusky is providing incentives to rebuild facades and signs. This new program allows businesses to recoup some of the expenses that come with beautifying and improving their buildings.

Is your signage bolstering your business or is it causing you to miss out on customer acquisition and revenue generation opportunities? Do you truly know if your business signage is performing admirably? Do you need help coming up with new business signage ideas? In any case, you’ll want to take a closer look at this great incentive program.

The Details

Before your business can take advantage of this subsidized capital, you need to fully understand the requirements of the program.

The City of Sandusky describes the incentive clearly:

“The intent of this program is to aid downtown and other neighborhood commercial/retail districts in becoming more attractive, economically viable, and diverse places to visit and shop by assisting in the design and funding of signage and the rehabilitation of building facades and storefronts.”

To meet these goals, the City will provide a funding pool of $100,000 annually that businesses can get a piece of, if they meet certain criteria. The City will provide up to $3,500 per sign project — or 60 percent of the total cost of the project — so the time to upgrade your signage is now. The City is encouraging businesses to obtain plans from professional designers and contractors because it keeps expenses moving into more businesses as capital and provides a common reference for aesthetic and structural demands.

The Benefits

The benefits of this program are enormous for businesses. An enhanced appearance will only help encourage customers to patronize your business. By implementing new, creative business signage ideas, you can bolster business and amplify your brand.

On top of that, the program provides capital in the form of a grant — money that you do not have to pay back! — which means your business will have more options to consider when developing a growth strategy. Now you can turn your attention — and business dollars — towards expansion, introducing new goods or services, opening another location, and/or hiring more employees.

Other Things to Consider

The City of Sandusky does have preferences for which businesses they will approve applications. Many preferences favor restoring downtown buildings that have historical value, appealing architecture, or are in a Community Reinvestment Area. The City also prefers to restore vacant, foreclosed or underutilized real property. The City takes these preferences into consideration along with projections about performance.

You also need to consider other regulations about new construction and zoning. Businesses must have the appropriate permits for signs and construction projects. The application guidelines state that applicants “may be required to seek approval of enhancements and signage by other administrative bodies, including but not limited to, the Downtown Design Review Committee or the Planning Commission.” This is another reason as to why the City encourages businesses to work with professional designers and contractors.

At Brady Signs, we’re a third-generation family business that’s served as a premier provider of business signage solutions throughout the North Central Ohio region and beyond for nearly 50 years.

Want to learn how we can convert your brand into a statement using our eye-catching signage for business? We’re here to talk.