Donna Genie argues businesses should ban handwritten signs unless the owner approves them, with rare exceptions for emergencies like electrical hazards. All signs should be printed, spell-checked, laminated, and consistent to project a professional image instead of looking cluttered and disorganized.
All right, it's time for Donna's pet peeve of the week. I want you to set up a new rule in your business. And here it is. No handwritten signs. That may strike you as odd for a moment, but how many times have you seen a handwritten sign in the window or by the cash register or in a bathroom and you thought it's not spelled right? I'm a grammar Nazi too, so if you use the there and the there wrong, I'm going to notice it. And many people are just like me. So I would suggest that you put in a new policy that says there are not allowed to be any handwritten signs unless you as a business owner approve them. The only case where I think you ought to have handwritten sign as if there's some really weird thing like an electrical threat, like maybe an electrical box fell out of the wall and you can't have anybody near it or touch it or even the toilet break. You know, everybody's got like this toilet's out of order. Have a sign ready and prepare for that. All signs should be printed, they should be spell checked and they should be laminated so you can reuse them and they don't just look all crappy and curly. Then I'm going to give you a picture of. Picture of a business that I took that I was in. It had so many handwritten signs here, you'll see it and you'll change your mind and you're going to put it in the new policy. No handwritten signs. Use a printer. Print a sign if you have to. Make sure they're consistent. Don't just look like it, like it just came off of, like somebody who doesn't care's printer. Make a nice sign. If it's worth putting up a sign for, make sure it's good. If you've got to put something on your door, your hours, your phone number, it doesn't take much to go to the printer and have them do nice lettering. Don't look like it's all jacked up in an afterthought to put this notice up there. Make sure that your signage looks like the image you want to portray in public. Are you junked up and just thinking about things at the last minute or are you well thought up, organized and efficient? No more handwritten signs.
