The sign location plan and message schedule
One of my core responsibilities as a designer and project coordinator at Sign Pros is to create, from takeoff to final billing, entire signage systems for buildings and complexes.
In order to manage these complicated projects, which are each unique in design and vast in scope, I created the Sign Location Plan and Message Schedule document system, which works in tandem with our design packet to sort, keep track of, and make changes to any sign within the system. In addition, it is easy to search and confirm fabrication and installation schedules for the client and our installers.
This organizational system revolutionized our job process and has saved our company thousands of dollars in wasted costs, unscheduled installation trips, and client headaches. To quote our Installation Manager:
“It used to be that we would have to make several return trips for these jobs to install all the signs that we missed on the old maps. We just couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Your system makes it so much easier to keep track of everything, and the guys can pick it up and learn it within fifteen minutes…you’ve easily saved us thousands of dollars on every one of these jobs.”
- Mike Mejia, Install Manager at Sign Pros, Inc
In calculating how much money I have saved us per job, take Compass Health for example (project finalized and fully installed in August 2025): The total contract work amounted to $37,000. Installation alone, was a total of 9 days on site (installing 400+ signs!), and took up 19% of the budget, approximately $7000. With a day rate of $775 for our installers, any unpaid trips back on site would have cost us 2% of our overall budget per day, and would have quickly eaten into our profits after just a few extra trips.
Through my system, we were actually done a day ahead of schedule, with no signs missed, and every sign installed correctly. I call that a pay day well earned.