mac6986
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Posts posted by mac6986
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If you're looking to get started printing on vinyl, I have the perfect printer for you
http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php?/topic/45044-for-sale-roland-versastudio-bn-20/
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Bump - $5k and I'd be willing to crate it up, but you'd be responsible for shipping arrangements
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One thing I didn't read about the "customer sign". You said "Time to remove existing graphics & clean window - 60 min". Now I'm assuming the customer didn't remove the window and bring it to you.......Seriously though, travel expenses shouldn't be overlooked, even if it is "just across town".
That's a very valid point. I did leave that out in this example. I'll add it in above for the record.
My particular situation, I live in a very urban area, 90% of jobs I travel to are within 15 minutes. Each shop owner needs to decide what type of travel expenses they need to cover.
The way I do business, my travel expenses are accounted for in my shop rate. So when I have customers who come in and pick up, and when I ship items out, they are paying for my traveling to other jobs too. That way, theres no "travel charge" on the invoice, but believe me, I do get paid for my travel time and expenses.
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I was actually on the reverse end of this with a purchase I made on eBay. Seller just never shipped the item. So after giving him a week to give me an answer, (understanding the sellers side of things) I received a refund, which remind me that I wanted to leave neg feedback for the seller. Tried to and I got an error message saying that I had been refunded so the feedback feature was not accessible for that sale.
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50% deposit up front, remainder on delivery/ prior to installation on site & getting in writing.
Half up front weeds out the people who can't pay, and once you have half of the money for a sign, they definitely want to get their hands on it so they will produce the remainder on delivery. Or they simply don't get the sign.
We love our family and friends, but they are always the ones that will be the most trouble to work with.
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The best thing to do to protect your sellers status and your feedback rating is if you feel the customer is going to throw a fit and be a nuisance, just refund the purchase in eBay. Once they have been refunded, they can't leave feedback for the purchase so you're safe, and as dee stated, add them to your blocked list. I probably have over 100 buyers on my blocked list for that reason.
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Found a way to help this,,, During the last 75 or so seconds, I take out the mug, turn it around and keep on pressing. My cheap press won't press close to the handle on one end. CHeap Chinese Junk,Quick fix, my first mug press was a cheap chinese from the big auction site, same issue. bought a $20 infared temp sensor and found that the temp in the press was 40 degreese hotter than what it was saying on the control panel.
Along witht he cheap construction, you also have to contend with the un-even heating across the contact surface.
My suggestion, You can get a decent sized convection toaster oven, and 5-10 mug wraps for less than the price of a top of the line mug press, and be able to out produce the mug press with the same exact quality.
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I haven't checked the big auction site yet, good suggestion. Thanks. I really only looked at US Cutter and some of the sublimation supply companies and it seems like the economy presses max out at 399 degrees, will 1 degree really be a big deal?its not that 1 degree would be a big deal, its that the machine can only go to 399, and if you run it maxed out every time, it will decrease the life expectancy greatly (even though its a you-get-what-you-pay-for piece of equipment)
think about it, you dont run your car full throttle everywhere you go, dont run your equipment at full bore and it will last you a while.
the ROI on sublimation is very high. I reccomend saving for a good heat press and a seperate mug press. you can make your money back in no time. Remember, Customized items cary a premium becasue they are 1-off items.
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There are a lot of people here asking for insight on how to price particular jobs, so here is a fool-proof way to gauge what you should be charging for a job.
This is going to be long-winded, but there is a lot of information to consider.
You could ask 20 different members what they would charge for the same sign, and you will most likely get 20 different answers. The reason: OVERHEAD. Everyone has different needs, and they charge accordingly. You need to calculate what it really costs you to make the sign other than materials & time.
I was very guilty of this in the beginning. I knew what it cost to make the sign, so I would find out what comparable shops in the area would charge. I would drop my price to get the job, but I also did it because I felt guilty for charging so much, knowing what the materials cost. What I didn't know, is that I was leaving a lot of things out of consideration.
EVERY SHOP IS DIFFERENT. You need to figure out what you need to make, to cover expenses and make a profit on each job. Its nice to do things for free or at cost, but you are in business to make money, right?
So here we are. You have a customer that wants a nice, big 4' x 4' window graphic. Single color vinyl, and the old graphics need to be removed. Cake job right? These are my bread and butter jobs.
Customer says that he wants a proof and an estimate prior to signing off on the job. The proof, a no brainer. But how much am I going to charge?
You need to know your shop rate first. How much is my time worth? What bills do I need to cover? Am I paying myself? Am I paying employees? These are all important things to know before you ever give a number to a customer.
First off, find out all of your monthly expenses pertaining to your business, MINUS MATERIAL, this is charged seperate. (spreadsheet attached at the bottom)
**Home Businesses** - the best way to figure out how much of your home expenses to include in your business expenses, divide the square footage of area in your home devoted to your business, and divide that by the square footage of your home. that will give you a percentage, i.e: 250 sq ft / 1000 sq ft = .25 or 25%. This is not exact when it comes to things like electric and water, but it will get you in the right ballpark.
Monthly Overhead:
These items should include Rent, utilities, equipment loans, services (accountant, courier, cleaning etc.) Subcontractors, licenses, association dues, equipment servicing, software purchases/subscriptions, vehicle expenses/gas, taxes, insurance, & payroll. Now this is just a short list of major expenses incurred, that most might forget about that aren’t doing this every day to make a living.
As an example, mine comes out to $2,415.00
Monthly Gross Wages:
If you’re paying yourself too, (which you should) decide an amount you'd like to make per week, add 30% to cover taxes, and multiply that by 4.34 (the average number of weeks per month: 52 divided by 12) and you have your average monthly salary plus taxes.
So, I pay myself (relatively cheaply) $500 per week + 30% = $650 x 4.34 = $2821.00
Add that all up, and that is your monthly "nut" that needs to be covered before you ever make a profitable cent. I know I haven’t covered material, but that comes into play later.
So I need to cover $2,415 + $2,821 = $5,236 every month before I am profitable.
Calculating Your Shop Rate:
So now we have a good idea of what I actually have in the way of expenses, and I really need to make more signs to cover all that!
Speaking of making signs, how many hours a week would you say you actually devote to actual sign production? These are your actual Billable Hours. this is a vital piece of information in calculating what your shop rate is. With a little bit of time, you can figure out how much time you are actually spending making signs. This isn’t difficult, it just takes a little discipline to jot down the actual time you start and stop while working on signs for a typical week. its not uncommon for a smaller shop (like myself) to have one person doing everything and only spend 15-20 hours a week actually producing signage. Most of us are not as productive as we would like to think we are, especially if you have a home business, all sorts of distractions get in the way. That’s part of life. But be diligent with your time tracking to find out how much time you actually spend producing products.
On any given week, I spend 18-22 hours making signage. So we'll use 20 hours as the benchmark.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I like my time off with family and friends. That needs to be accounted for. I take about 3 weeks off combined thorough the year for holidays, birthdays, and vacations. That Gives me 49 production weeks per year.
20 x 49 = 980 Annual Billable Hours.
We're almost there! Its all a "simple" math equation now!
Monthly overhead: $5,236.00 x 12 months = Annual Overhead $62,832.00
Divide your Annual Overhead: $62,832.00 / by your Annual Billable hours: 980 = Hourly Rate Before Profit $64.11
Add your profit percentage: 25% (you decide what you should add on) to your hourly rate: $64.11 = $80.14 - Hourly Shop Rate
Now you know what each hour you are making signs should cost. Don’t sell yourself short, this is a service you are providing, and most of your price is going to be time, not materials.
Back to the Customer Sign:
Time:
So, 4' x 4' single color vinyl sign with removal of existing and new installation.
Simple logo and text design, time - 30 min
No revisions, customer gives ok
Set up cutter & time to complete cut - 20 min
Weed & Mask - 20 min
Travel to & from worksite - 15 minutes to, 15 minutes from
Time to remove existing graphics & clean window - 60 min
Set up and install new graphic - 30 min
So The total time on this sign is 3 hours and 10 minutes x Shop Rate of $80.14 = $253.78 in labor
Materials:
ORACAL 951 - $1.27 Per Sq Ft x 16 Sq Ft = $20.32 in vinyl
RTape ApliTape 4075 - $0.12 per Sq Ft x 16 = $1.92 in transfer tape
Total material cost - $22.24
Just about done! Now you don’t want to just move material through your shop, and break even. You have to account for waste, so you mark up the material. I normally markup higher on small jobs and less on larger jobs. This one I'll do 3x material cost
$22.24 x 3 = $66.72 Material cost to customer
Add your time and materials
$66.72 + $253.78 = $320.50
You now have an accurate price that takes into account all of your expenses, the time it took to make it, and the time it took to install it.
When I first started I would look at this and say to myself "How can I justify over $300 when I know that it only cost me $20 in materials?" That was the un-educated, younger version of myself. There's more than just material in the price of the sign.
Find your shop rate and don't be afraid to price accordingly. Your time is valuable. If a customer can't appreciate that, move on to the next customer. DON'T SELL YOURSELF SHORT!
Dont forget to get the spreadsheet below
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For Sale:
2-year old Roland VersaStudio BN-20 Printer/Cutter with metallic ink option.
Used daily, printed thousands of decals, Great for someone jumping from cut vinyl to solvent printing.
Regularly serviced, Runs self cleaning cycles while pluged in, manually cleaned weekly.
Test prints available upon request, head check is super clean, like new!
Comes with all cords, drivers, and Versaworks RIP program. Also a few rolls 8" x 50 yd roll oracal 3651. ( you can use them to test stuff out. have no use for them, part of the sale, lol)
$6000
Sorry, the wooden stand is not part of the sale, I know its super nice, but your just going to have live without it, lol
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Ok, i have a job for a local fire dept. that wants property ID stickers for their equipment. No problem. They need 2000 of them, no problem. They need to be numbered sequentially starting with 0001 all the way to 2000. PROBLEM!
How can i auto generate the numbers with text in sequential order without sitting at my computer for days typing out every number from 1 to 2000?
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looking for this font, what the font was no help at all. anyhting you guys could suggest would help.
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just what i was looking for, thanks rod
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hey guys, im looking for a 2002 ford expedition vehicle template, anybody have one they are willing to share?
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its a step up from my cutter pros cr630. and the printing works great too. i am aware of the steep cost to replace the heads when they go, and the ribbons run about $8 a sq. ft. to operate, but its moving my little operation up to the next level. so for $350 plus shipping, with a bunch of extras, im not complaning in the least
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well i ended up purchasing for $350. regardless of the print feature being outdated and in-efficient, i still think it was worth it for the cutter.
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anybody have any experience with this model? i need to replace my 24" cutter, and having the option to print if i so choose later is an added bonus. would it be worth $300-$400
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thanks for the info guys, didnt know they were THAT expensive. looks like ill be outsourcing my print graphics for a little while longer. i remember seeing somewhere that solvent is preferred over thermal. whats the difference? and asside from the cost of the machine itself, whats the operating cost of these machines, i.e. whats ink for these things go for?
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ok its getting to the point where im turning away more work than id like to because i dont have print capabilities. now im looking around and im finding thermal ink vs. solovent and i have no idea what that means. i was looking at some smaller WFP that have the ability to be roll fed, and can handle the thickness of the vinyl, but is the ink going to bond to the material?
i was looking at a used Epson Stylus Pro 4000. am i in the right ball park? my budget for a printer is $1000 max. not trying to sound needy, but theres alot of crap to weed through and im not 100% confident that i know what im looking for.
any help is appreciated
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ok guys, its been a while, last time i was on here telling you how to fix the write port error, and now im having a completley different issue and i could really use someones help.
ok im running windows vista with flexi starter, cutting with a Cutterpros CR630 24" cutter.
i load my file, load the project manager, (which with flexi starter takes forever and a day to load), can cut the first image, no problem. go to cut the second color, and the project manager will show the job, and it will say "cutting...0%" and just sit there. the computers not frozen, the cutters not frozen. i dont understand. and once it gets to that point, the only way to remedy the situation is to restart the computer and cutter.
i need some help guys, im pulling my hair out here
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not sure where to put this question, so ill stick it here. ok, got a guy, bought a boat, wants the old name taken off and new vinyl name put on. its paint of some sort, not sure if its automotive grade or what, but is on a fiberglass door and its fairly faded and weathered. question is whats the best way to remove the paint without damaging the fiberglass under it?
also what vinyl do you think would stand up the best to direct sunlight all day and salt water?
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anybody got one? either a mask or a little person with a mask for a face
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any help would be appreciated
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im looking for some metalic copper and wood grain pattern. i dont need much mabey a yard by 15" on the copper, and 1' x 5" of the wood grain. anyone have some they would mind parting with or know where i can get some? i dont want to buy a whole roll for almost $100 each when im never gonna use it. i would pay if anyone has some. much appreciated
eBay issues??
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I go through this all the time. You have to keep track of your averages per month to get an accurate picture. My high selling days are Saturday and Sunday, late at night. Lately, I've had Mondays and Tuesdays where I don't have a single sale, but tracking my sales monthly, I'm actually doing better than last month. Don't pull your hair out just yet, lol.