Mark up on cost?

[Primal Decals 621]

Thank you Jaybird.. Glad to see your input.. Im happy for what i charge then ..

[jaybyrd 3,770]

Unfortunately it gets harder every year to pay the bills with vinyl because of all the fly by night outfits around here. Wish I could get more but that's my market.

[Wildgoose 4,200]

I would be about the $20 too. I do a lot of ninja scoping on the local competition so I can keep my rates up near theirs getting the most I can but still making them look bad. I have a local shirt shop that was wanting to charge a guy $80 set-up and then $20 each for a very simple two color t-shirt of which he only wanted 2 or 3. I quoted him around $12 ea. no set-up and he's my new best friend. I'm going to sell him a $1.75 shirt ($2.50 to him) and at most about $4 worth of vinyl. I'm not going to make a whole bunch on my time spent on 2-3 shirts but I will establish a new customer. 

[knucklehead 530]

All 40 inch decals, are not created equal. 40 inches of block letters, weed a whole lot quicker, and easier, than 40 inches of script. +$

[GraphxNMore 282]

I worked for an industrial repair service company. When I went on a service call and use , say a can of WD40, if I squirted one small bolt, the customer got charged for a full can. Needless to say a single can got billed as many as 40 times. Talk about return on investment!! LOL

[express2100 154]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Eazy" data-cid="385349" data-time="1423793581"><p>

I worked for an industrial repair service company. When I went on a service call and use , say a can of WD40, if I squirted one small bolt, the customer got charged for a full can. Needless to say a single can got billed as many as 40 times. Talk about return on investment!! LOL</p></blockquote>

That's the problem with today's world. Honest service and business are fading.

[jaybyrd 3,770]

Yes and no. They invested in stocking the supplies and having there when needed so why shouldn't they charge. How much would it have cost for a billable hour to send a worker to go get a can and bring it back? Can you tell I'm in retail lol every thing has a markup or I don't make money.

[Wildgoose 4,200]

Caterpillar charged us $500 for sundry shop supplies on a repair we had them do. We asked what it was for and they said shop rags and misc cleaners etc. $500 in shop rags and brake cleaner?!!!!  Really? I think there is an upper limit somewhere. 

[jaybyrd 3,770]

The upper limit is when customers stop doing business with them and go elsewhere. Until then they charge as they see fit although highway robbery comes to mind in that case.

[GraphxNMore 282]

Caterpillar charged us $500 for sundry shop supplies on a repair we had them do. We asked what it was for and they said shop rags and misc cleaners etc. $500 in shop rags and brake cleaner?!!!!  Really? I think there is an upper limit somewhere. 

Was there an additional N&B charge??

 

(nuts and bolts) The Cat dealer in our area charged every ticket N&B, $13.85, even if nothing was done.

[Wildgoose 4,200]

Was there an additional N&B charge??

 

(nuts and bolts) The Cat dealer in our area charged every ticket N&B, $13.85, even if nothing was done.

Probably, I don't remember but i do vividly remember the owner who I work for being pretty upset about the whole affair. Like Jaybird responded to my upper limit comment this particular repair helped propel us to hire a more experienced mechanic and now we do all but the very most technical work in OUR shop, effectively taking our business elsewhere. Cat has a pretty tight monopoly on things and they build about the best stuff in the world in most cases so you're sort of stuck to a point. Some things for example, turning the pins in the tracks on a D8, are not feasible because you need a huge horizontal pin press etc...but a lot of the other stuff we just started doing ourselves. It gets done a little faster that way too. 

[jaybyrd 3,770]

I've read about what sign shops were getting for vinyl when cutters were a rarity but as time went on and equipment cost lowered those shops lowered their prices or closed.cat wnd many other companies like them will face that point eventually but until then be ready to pucker up when you get the bill.

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

I've read about what sign shops were getting for vinyl when cutters were a rarity but as time went on and equipment cost lowered those shops lowered their prices or closed.cat wnd many other companies like them will face that point eventually but until then be ready to pucker up when you get the bill.

now take that one step further and buy a 10 k printer and compete at today's prices with the hundreds out there that buy used and don't invest in proper maint. They buy them for 4 k or so and use heads with missing nozzles, deflections etc after buying them with their tax refunds and don't count in the total cost selling just over materials. Some of the work where I had surgery done last year for wall prints I wouldn't give away with a clear conscious but I bet they paid for them. The faces had more lines in them than old day prison uniforms

[jaybyrd 3,770]

Look at all the people opening shops with mh cutters and doing the exact same pricing structure. That's why I'm focusing more on other aspects of the business where there is still a reasonable wage to be made.