mforsman

Pricing Calculator for website

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Hey Guys,

I'm slowly building a site and I wanted a quick way for people to estimate their price for a RTA decal.

Hopefully this can help some of you. It's a form much like the sign expert's calculator: http://www.thesignexpert.com/TheSignExpert.com/Sign_Business_Free_RTA_Vinyl_Price_Calculator.html

First off is the code you'll drop in to the HTML of your site, this goes where you want the actual calc to show up.

<form name="autoSumForm">

<p>Width (inches)</p><input class="right" type=text name="firstBox" value="" onFocus="startCalc();" onBlur="stopCalc();">
<p>Height (inches)</p><input class="right" type=text name="secondBox" value="" onFocus="startCalc();" onBlur="stopCalc();">
<p>Each Piece ($)</p><input class="right" readonly="readonly" type=text name="thirdBox">
<p>Quantity</p><input class="right" type=text name="fourthBox" value="1" onFocus="startCalc();" onBlur="stopCalc();">
<p>Total ($)</p><input class="right" readonly="readonly" type=text name="fifthBox">

</form>

This needs to go in your header (between the <head> tags </head>)

<script src="js/autoSum.js" type="text/javascript"></script> 

Now you need to create the autoSum.js file. The path above needs to lead to where the file autoSum.js is. I store my javascript files in a folder called "js".

function startCalc(){
 interval = setInterval("calc()",1);
}
function calc(){
 one = document.autoSumForm.firstBox.value; /* this is the width box */
 two = document.autoSumForm.secondBox.value; /* this is the height box */
 num = (one * two) * (.07); /* this is where the width and height are multiplied, the .07 is the cost per square inch */
 document.autoSumForm.thirdBox.value = num.toFixed(2); /* this displays the total per piece, with the number only allowed to go to two decimal places */
 quantity = document.autoSumForm.fourthBox.value; /* just finding out how many they want */
 total = (quantity * document.autoSumForm.thirdBox.value); /* quantity multiplied by the price per piece */
 document.autoSumForm.fifthBox.value = total.toFixed(2); /* now we get to display the grand total limited to two decimal places */
}
function stopCalc(){
 clearInterval(interval);
}

Here's what the code looks like as given above http://www.qualitycutvinyl.com/estimate.html

I hope this helps someone!

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I appreciate your time and everything but this is not effective.

I put in 42x3" for a window banner and it says $8.82, There is no way your making hardly any money doing things this low. I would not have this on your website just for the fact of you looking like the cheapest guy/girl out there.

Don't worry about putting pricing on your website, EVERY order is custom so why?

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I am not putting it up to seem like the cheapest guy, that's for sure. Also, I've added a note above it saying that it's not official pricing and a quote must be submitted for final price. Also, for 42x3" the cost of vinyl + app tape is around 55-60

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Thanks for the idea and the code.  To guest -- he is using 7 cents per square inch -- look at the formula under

function calc(){

If you want charge more just change the .07 to whatever you wish to charge per square inch.

I agree most jobs are custom - there are factors besides the cost of material that will make determining a price more complicated - but for a quick figure tool it could come in handy - as long as you make it clear that the job is subject to upcharges for special requirements.

You could use the idea and add logic to make the price vary by size (I charge a little more for small decals than larger ones for instance) - and maybe have examples of several difficulty levels of decals for them to rate their design (again subject to your correction) and make the formula add cost for difficult weeding - high details multi colors.  It is simple to see how it works - you can build more complicated calculations if you want to.

Thanks again mforsman!

-Mike

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Exactly, I'm just using this to give the customer some sort of ball-park figure right away. They will always have to submit a quote. Honestly I'm not good enough with coding to add the features you mentioned, but this is just a starting foundation for anyone who wants to add on. I know that when I'm pricing something out I hate having to submit a quote and wait and wait and wait for a response without having any kind of clue what I'm expecting back.

This is just what I made for a temp site until I actually pay a programmer to make a more complex form.

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Also, what is your cost per sq inch? With low overhead since I'm working from my apartment I can afford to have a lower price, but I would rather have this estimate on the higher end.

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Just remember, just because your overhead is low since your working from home does not mean your product its not worth the same a someone that has a shop. You need to make money to pay for everything and to upgrade right? Would you like to have a shop someday? Charge what is right for the item not to break even. Think about your post that you talked about ( for 42x3" the cost of vinyl + app tape is around 55-60

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Just remember, just because your overhead is low since your working from home does not mean your product its not worth the same a someone that has a shop. You need to make money to pay for everything and to upgrade right? Would you like to have a shop someday? Charge what is right for the item not to break even. Think about your post that you talked about ( for 42x3" the cost of vinyl + app tape is around 55-60

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I have NO problem making more profit! I'll be sure to re-evaluate my prices before launch.

Thanks guys.

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This why I hate trying to compete for jobs, or having customers come in saying, well so and so is only charging this. You're hurting yourself in the long run and don't even know it yet. Not to mention hurting everyone in the industry (maybe not hurting "Everyone" but maybe others around you. Charge a fair and reasonable price if anything. If i were to print, cut a 42x3" design and only make $7.40, I would give up and quit. I'm glad you're taking the time to make a calculator but please do yourself a favor, make a profit.

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Everyone has told me what not to charge because its too low but no one will say what they would charge? At what point does the customer matter more than the profit that everyone wants more of. There's a hefty profit in the prices that I've quoted, and just because I can make more doesn't mean that I should be.

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What I would tell you to do  is not go by what someone on here would charge because most if not all are not in your area. I would act like a customer myself and call or go to sign shops around you and see what kinda quotes you get for it. Then you can see where you should be. Theres nothing wrong with beating a competitor but it is bad if your a 1/4 of what they are. then your just leaving to much profit. You HAVE TO treat it like a business.

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Over the past 4 months i've been calling vinyl shops and getting quotes.

One shop quoted me 4 different prices for 12x12", the exact same design and the difference wasn't minimal, after the second time I made sure that they were quoting the same material as well.

My goal isn't to leave profit behind, my goal is to have consistant pricing for consumers. I bought a cutter because I was tired of being ripped off by the local shops.

I want to make a square wage from any order, and that is what I'm going to do.

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Nice discussion here. 

Pricing schemes are as varied as the people who come up with them - but - the right price for a job boils down to satisfaction on the part of both seller and buyer that they did not get "ripped off".   

Newbies have a tendency to simplify and price based on material costs only and give no thought to how much time the job takes and what they should make per hour doing the job. 

There have been some very good replies in this discussion pointing out why that philosophy is flawed.

Here is an ebook (be warned - it's by a guy who sells a pricing program - which I use) it has some good information and ideas on coming up with a hourly rate for your shop -even if you are working at home and have no physical "shop".

http://www.estimatesoftware.com/rn.php?hook=ebook

Back when I started I used a 10 cents per square inch rate no matter how large or small the job.  It was too high on some things and too cheap on some things - but I made money.  Now I use the Estimate program based on the ebook above and am happy with the results.

Here is a chart I found that makes sense to me.

http://www.adventuresigns.com/graphicspricing.asp

If you put a calculator to his pricing you will see that the smallest single color is just over 27 cents per square inch with a 50 square inch minimum.  And the largest single color is just under 5 cents per square inch.

If you can make your calculator do something like this I think you will be onto something.  Not that his pricing should be your pricing - but that the price per square inch should vary based on the overall size of the job and how many colors are involved.

-Mike

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