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When I was getting started I had a couple friends do some undercover work with other local shops so I had a general idea what things were going for. Some things I was not interested in trying to compete with and others I could make a killing on. The print shop guys will always spank you on multi layer work because to them other than extra ink coverage it's all the same. I pushed the longevity of cut cast (751 or 951 etc...) that would get you 8-10 years on simple vehicle logo's where most of the printed work will show fading at the 5 year mark. New business people won't see this but those who have been buying logo's for years will get it. I charge more based on what they expect to pay than what it actually would add up to with cost plus margin. I don't do much regular vinyl anymore but one of my old regulars is a self installer and they buy a couple vehicles vinyl a year. I charge them $185 for two color graphics. They run a fairly sizable logo with other numbers and tag lines but my cost on the 951 is around $40 plus an hour shop labor so the profit margin is pretty high for me and no risk on the install. I typically charge $6 per SF per color layer for cast but when they get really large and easy cutting that can be lowered if I'm feeling generous. I measure the SF based on the roll not the actual design so for instance if the logo is over about 11 inches tall it will encroach into the second half of the 24" roll where my pinch rollers run so it costs $12 per running foot rather than $6 due to wasting the other half of the 24" roll. Some logo's only have a splash of second or third layer color and I determine that price off the cuff in large part whether they are picky and painful to work with or not. In actual build I most likely would stack the two sides and get both cut within that 24" roll but I still charge the other way. You will have enough trouble with messed up cuts or messed up taping off that you better plan to make enough that you can cover the occasional mistake because it WILL happen. Especially with a lower end cutter. The only job you will never lose money on is the one you turn down. Some people are too much drama to work for unless you are charging so much it makes you warm and fuzzy inside. It's called passive aggressive, I know, I have issues.

... and yet, there are times that I'm actually grateful that I have a local shop here, even though they charge through the roof. I go, I look, I buy.

Actually with Illustrator, unless they have changed something since going to cloud based there was no such thing as a student or home version. If you got a student discount you still got the whole program and all plug-ins are good to go. I know this because I had a daughter in school and used her academic discount when I bought stand alone CS5 AI which I still use with lots of sweet plug-ins from Astute Graphics. Some of the new plug-ins will not work on my older version but enough do that it makes life pretty speedy. To Blue Line, If you are technically challenged I don't think I would recommend Adobe Illustrator as it's a real challenge to learn and much like a reverse polish calculator, once you get used to it all the other stuff seems really messed up. AI however IS the tool of choice for design on a mac. In fact I think it runs much more smooth on a mac than on the windows platform. Should you decide to give it a go I highly recommend finding a home study course like Lynda.com. If you can find a good one and have a few months to practice (no I'm not even kidding) Illustrator is a great program. Once learned it's about the handiest thing since indoor plumbing and you can cut the designs from Sure Cuts A Lot. I use SignCut Pro 1 which is mac OR pc compatible as my interface with the cutter. I think the SCALP program has improved since the early days and many on here have luck with it but as a design tool I think it's lacking.

Um ... I'm down to 1 SUV, 1 Truck, 1 Motorcycle, and 1 moped. my latest motorized mode of transportation made it #30 since I was old enough to ride/drive/own. i like driving and riding different stuff

people have done it - sometimes with multiple passes - personally I would never put something that thick thru my main plotter. we did have a guy a few years back that kept an old MH just for stuff like this so he didn't abuse his graphtec

http://www.iifuture.net/faq/index.php?action=artikel&cat=44&id=155&artlang=en make sure you have your license number handy and download the exact same version as you have now - know if it is a uscutter version or a future corp verson if you got it from uscutter here is the downloads: https://support.uscutter.com/support/solutions/articles/14000030706-vinylmaster-software-download

That's not just any bus... that's a Bluebird bus! Made in Fort Valley, Georgia - county seat of Peach County. Just to toot our horn a bit is all Merry Christmas everyone!

Wow. Amazing that your avatar still has a smile on your face.

for years I had people I could contact in situations like this and they would make sure someone responded - with the latest crew - they made a system that when I send a message it just creates a ticket and confidence level has dropped drastically in my personal opinion. I managed stores, was a supervisor at the prison and have never had so little confidence in getting something done