Sunny Outdoor Signage with a Zest of Lemon
Aug0
Remember the simple life? When school let out for the summer, you spent your days catching grasshoppers and trying to build a bridge across the creek out back. And then you realized that your bridge would be much more structurally sound, and most certainly the talk of all your friends, if only you had the appropriate building materials instead of settling for your Dad’s rusty old nail collection and the brittle twigs you found in your yard. Hmmm, you’re going to need some money. Drat.
Then one morning you awaken with a plan so genious that it shines brighter than the AM sun shimmering off the glistening dew drops. Okay, that may be a bit much, but at least your plan shone as brightly as the dim glow from that poor little firefly in the jar on your nightstand. Yes, you need to make some money so you decide to SELL something. Oh, joy! You are a genius, now what can you sell? Hmmm, your little sister? No, that would probably upset Mom. Hmm, your comic books? What!? Not on your life. Finally I came up with a solution. I, like every other budding young entrepreneur, opened up my very own lemonade stand.
So, after evaluating my resources (Lemonade? Check. Table? Check. Custom Signage? Check.), and doing some research (or at least reading the Peanuts comic strip to see just how Lucy did it), I put my dream into action. I’ll admit that finding the capital for my initial start-up was one of the greatest challenges, as my dad’s frugality easily makes Ebeneezer Scrooge look philanthropic. But Mom turned out to be good at “resource development” and was able to convince Dad to float me a loan with a good interest rate.
Then, with my pockets overflowing with ambition and borrowed money, I headed towards the store and bought the goods needed to get my start-up started up. I used the powdered lemonade mix because it was very cheap and then I added a little “sha-zam” with 1 slice of lemon on the side of each cup to make it look like the real deal. (At this point I have to wonder whether that involved questionable business ethics or simply good marketing strategy…)
Eager to begin business the next morning, I arranged cups in perfect rows in my mind while visions of paying customers danced through my head. And, at the crack of 7 am, I bounced out of my bed and put the finishing touches on my masterpiece. Our rickety old card table never looked so grand as it did that morning, covered by a soft blue gingham tablecloth and boasting those perfectly lined cups I had envisioned. A bowl of bright yellow lemons to display and of course, my huge “Lemonade 25 cents” outdoor sign completed this delightful glimpse of nostalgic capitalism. And then I waited.
And I waited.
Several cars drove by, and my neighbors smiled and waved. A few bought “pity” cups of refreshing ice-cold lemonade, but clearly, this was not the instantly gratifying cash cow I had predicted. I needed more traffic, I needed a way to get people to see my lovely refreshment stand in all its glory…I needed to pay my dad back. More determined than ever, I looked over my previous research (read the funnies again) and concluded that Lucy’s outdoor signs were much better than mine. She had interchangeable sign parts for adjusting prices to reflect the highly delicate balance of supply and demand. And she had moveable parts for announcing the open and close of business (I gathered this from the “the doctor is in/out” signs from her secondary psychiatry business). I knew what I had to do so I got busy right away, measuring and snipping away with Mom’s best sewing shears (I didn’t know they were only for fabric…) until I had transformed that boring old tablecloth into four stunning achievements of advertising wizardry. Each beautiful sign became a replica of my lemonade stand - the bright white upper half of my outdoor signage still boldly announced “lemonade 25 cents” as the bottom half was dressed in the flowing tablecloth to recreate the shape of my table. Two carefully placed metal rods became the table legs as well as the stakes for sticking my signs into the ground on strategic high-traffic intersections of suburbia. I cut slits in the bottom of my bright red plastic cups so I could attach them to the top of my custom outdoor signs to look like the inviting drink was sitting right on top of my table/sign. This 3D component of my sign also featured a huge arrow that steered viewers right to my refreshing lemonade stand.
And just as they always say, “the rest is history.” I was able to pay my dad back in no time and even bought Mom a sharp new pair of sewing shears. The creek, however, never was successfully spanned in a way that could support the weight of anyone heavier than a pitcher of ice-cold lemonade. (I guess it’s a good thing that I stuck with marketing and advertising instead of engineering.)
Business trends come and go, but there are some “signs” of success that can always be counted on: creativity, innovation, ambition, and ingenuity. At TheSignChef.com, we exemplify these ideals and have been creating recipes for success for our loyal clients for 22 years. Come check us out and see what innovative ideas we are cooking up now!