arthur712 6 Posted July 1, 2009 Hi guy, I am very new! I have not even got the Cutter yet, but it is in the Mail. What I am going to do is sell some sticker on my websit. Here one sticker I am going to do for sure. TAKE A CARD .75 Hidth and 6" long How do I price things like that? Per letter? Size? Thnk you guys for helping me!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mars 45 Posted July 2, 2009 Artie There are as many ways to price as there are people doing the pricing. When I started I would figure how many inches of vinyl I would use cutting a sticker (or a group of stickers) and price it at $1 per inch of 15" vinyl I used. Quick and easy - and usually you will come out pretty good unless the graphic is hard to weed - some graphics you will ruin a few - build in the extra time and material to cover your expenses. For example with a comfortable spacing and weed border around each line of text I would probably get 14 copies of your "free take one" -- $6.00 divided by 14 would be aroound 43 cents each. Sometimes I see pricing at so much per square inch or square foot or square yard. You can use anything you are comfortable with - the thing to try for is some consistency based on materials used and time to make the graphic. I use a pricing program now - based on cutting 14 at a time I would be $1 each in oracal 651 - selling 1 or 2 at a time I would charge 50% more so $1.50 - might make a price break at 12 to $1 and again at 50 to something like 75 cents each at that price for 50 @ $37.50 my profit margin is 91% profit is $34.16. If you went with the 43 cents - my old quoting method gives you would get $21.50 for 50 stickers and make $ 18.16 profit 84% margin. You used to buy these from a sign shop? What did he charge? Starting out with simple pricing either for inches of vinyl used or by the square measure (inch - foot - yard) will get you started and keep you from giving away the store - just figure your cost of material and your time. Estimate it for a quote and measure it when you do the job to see how well you did so you can adjust in the future. Hope this makes sense and helps you. -Mike Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
john! 1 Posted July 3, 2009 What would you do if you had a lets say $10psf (running foot) pricing method and someone ordered 4 2x8" decals? Have a minimum of $10 for all or how? I get alot of smaller orders like that which makes it hard to figure a price up to make profit. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mars 45 Posted July 3, 2009 john! I am using that free pricing program - I like the fact that it lets me set up design and production minimum times - this gives me the effect that for few decals the price is higher. I have mine set to 0 minutes design and 10 minutes production to start. With my hourly rate this makes a quote starting out at $11.10 - before I select a substrate or a vinyl to use for the decal - it goes up by a small amount for tiny decals - and by a small amount for each additional decal but $11.10 is the minimum. For example the 2 x 8 decals you asked about would be priced at $11.69 for 1 and show 10 minutes production time and $13.45 for 4 with production time of 12 minutes. I think this is pretty much what it would take me to do (including the piddling around time I always encounter when starting a job ) If I think the times are too low do adjust for design time and production times that are greater than the minimums. So I would defintely use a minimum charge of $10 or $12.50 or $15 - something you know covers the time it takes to gather the materials - load the file to cut - load the vinyl on the cutter - cut - weed - mask - and trim for installation. -Mike Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SmokinZMan 2 Posted July 3, 2009 This is the program I use, They have a quick estimate that is free just wont let you save your quotes so I print and scan them in to attach to the customer in quicken. The program is very good and keeps your quotes consistant. It will let you do it by size or by the letter. http://www.estimatesoftware.com/ Bryan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
firemalt 10 Posted July 3, 2009 If you are planning on doing custom wording, you could charge per letter so the custom can figure out the pricing dirently from your website, rather than waiting to hear back from you... that would most likely cause a customer to go somewhere else(waiting for a reply). For pricing, I'd highly recommend SignCraft's pricing guide, or some type of pricing software. Good luck... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mars 45 Posted July 3, 2009 Bryan - that is the one I use too - just didn't want to seem like I was always doing commercial announcements for them. -Mike Whatever you use - I think consistency is important for you to come across as a serious business concern. If you price based on whatever strikes you at the moment you won't run into much problem as long as you don't get repeat customers and give them widely different prices for nearly the same work on different days. Your pricing strategy may seem to be wrong to somebody else who does it differently - but as long as it works for you and you can build a customer base that knows about what to expect from you as they come back for future work I think you will be fine. -Mike Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rodger 527 Posted July 3, 2009 I have compared what Mal-Mart etc charges per letter ( .50 for 3" ) when talking to custmers about prices . Makes my decals seem very cheap . I think the best way is to get an idea of what the competition near you charges . Does not mean you need to be lower , just in the ballpark IMO . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JoeBlow 5 Posted July 3, 2009 Atie, Here's a freebie Price Calculator: http://www.thesignexpert.com/Sign_Business_Free_Sign_Price_Calculators.html Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
arthur712 6 Posted July 3, 2009 Wow, Thanks guys!! I am not goimg get into alot of stuff just small wording. I will charge by letter and make it simple, You guys are great!!! Thanx! Artie www.mytakeacard.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ms_sign 5 Posted July 4, 2009 Here is another chart for your reading pleasure.... http://www.signsupply.com/Services/vinyllet.asp Have fun, Jon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
arthur712 6 Posted July 4, 2009 Jon, That looks like the best one for me to use, very easy. Thanx! Artie Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
