eprcvinyls

Am I cutting myself short on my prices?

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Being totally new to this stuff I kinda guessed at what to make my prices at. I came up with a number for doing basic easy smaller stuff but lately trying to help a buddy do bigger stuff for his truck im really not sure what i should be charging.

I had a whole page wrote then deiced not to post numbers. So will ask this, how do you figure out prices for cutting stuff when the Customer supplied the vinyl?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Vinyl is actually the cheapest part of the whole thing and more often then not can all but be ignored when figuring price. Figure the time involved, how much you want to pay yourself per hour and go from there. For example,  if you pay yourself say $50 an hour and a design takes you 0.5 hours to design, cut, weed, and tape up then you'd charge $25.

Size doesn't really matter, If the design is 5"x5" and takes you 5 hours to design, cut, weed, and tape then you'd charge $250. However if you have a design that is 6'x6' and only takes you an hour to design, cut, weed and tape then it'd only be $50.

There is one minor problem with this logic though, and it is that the custom doesn't think in terms of time, only product and they're willing to pay more for a larger product even though in reality it's cheaper for you to make. So even though the math above says $50 for the 6' design, you could very likely get away with $100, or even more depending on the market and your customer.

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Most of the things i have done have been simple only took less then 30 mins to make on the program, cut ,weed tap. so most ive charged was like $15 that was for a bigger design. but sold to only friends and trying to make deals with them so they continue to use me and tell others about me maybe.

I have spent more time with this truck design then anything total about 6 hours so far

 

 

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Yeah, it's a tough call on because part of the issue is the fact that you're still learning how to do all this. So while it may have taken you 6 hours so far, in a years time you might be able to do all this in an hour.

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4 hours ago, darcshadow said:

Yeah, it's a tough call on because part of the issue is the fact that you're still learning how to do all this. So while it may have taken you 6 hours so far, in a years time you might be able to do all this in an hour.

Yeah, Well he knew i learning and he didn't know if i could do it at all, i told him I would try and i really at first didn't want to do it but we been friends 20 years and both helped each out over those years, The only shop that would do it told him $900 and no one else even would give a quote. he said he would buy a cutter and do it himself if he had to. im probably not charging him enough to be honest I'm sure i'm not. but it does give me more practice of doing stuff like this.

 

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Even though it's taking some serious amount of time to figure this project out for your friend, the knowledge that you're gaining will be priceless to you in the long run. Not going to lie - that's a big project you're undertaking, but it's also exciting. Your friend understands that you're just starting out, and that's the best kind of customer there is. You're getting paid to learn.

I'll be honest, sometimes I base my prices on size, sometimes on difficulty, and sometimes on difficulty of the customer. There have been times when the artwork is cut-ready, and other times where I feel like I'm spending forever to node edit it to death. What I do know, is my hard cost - the cost of the vinyl and app tape, and what I perceive as the wear and tear on all the rest of the equipment and accessories. Sometimes, I only charge then for the roll of the new color (because I didn't have it in my inventory already), and I get to keep whatever is left on the roll - which is usually the majority of it.

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5 hours ago, haumana said:

and sometimes on difficulty of the customer

:lol:

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Thanks for the feedback, yeah he said whatever is left over from the lime green and purple he is buying i could keep not sure how much be left he ordered 30 ft rolls anoher reason just not sure what to charge just for cutting it out

 

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My first job in a print shop, the owner gave me his pricing calculator. I've used it ever since. I should note, this is for cut decals from Oracal 631 and 651. Width of the vinyl roll + length of the cut (in inches) divided by 2. That's my base price. on a 24" roll, I keep my designs within 22", so say the design fits into a cut area is 22" x 50". I add 2" to the width and 2" to the length (for the rollers and extra length where it's cut). So that's 24+52=76/2=$38. This is already a decent profit. For me, I've gotten really fast at weeding my own designs, so I'll just round up a few bucks if it's a design that takes more than a few minutes to weed. For custom stuff, I'll round up a little more. Custom designs are charged at my $60 an hour freelance rate. Re-creating artwork in vector for me to cut is charged at $30 an hour rate. 

Using this pricing calculator on my 24" rolls of 631, every 5 yards of vinyl sold pays for a 50 yard roll. 45 yards of pure profit. Also gives you some wiggle room to offer decent discounts when people make large orders. 

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I do recall, before getting into cutting myself, a kiosk at a mall that was charging $1/inch (longs side). That was based on 651 and they were using a 15" roll.

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On 3/8/2018 at 8:49 PM, pmvinyls said:

My first job in a print shop, the owner gave me his pricing calculator. I've used it ever since. I should note, this is for cut decals from Oracal 631 and 651. Width of the vinyl roll + length of the cut (in inches) divided by 2. That's my base price. on a 24" roll, I keep my designs within 22", so say the design fits into a cut area is 22" x 50". I add 2" to the width and 2" to the length (for the rollers and extra length where it's cut). So that's 24+52=76/2=$38. This is already a decent profit. For me, I've gotten really fast at weeding my own designs, so I'll just round up a few bucks if it's a design that takes more than a few minutes to weed. For custom stuff, I'll round up a little more. Custom designs are charged at my $60 an hour freelance rate. Re-creating artwork in vector for me to cut is charged at $30 an hour rate. 

Using this pricing calculator on my 24" rolls of 631, every 5 yards of vinyl sold pays for a 50 yard roll. 45 yards of pure profit. Also gives you some wiggle room to offer decent discounts when people make large orders. 

 

On 3/8/2018 at 10:22 PM, haumana said:

I do recall, before getting into cutting myself, a kiosk at a mall that was charging $1/inch (longs side). That was based on 651 and they were using a 15" roll.

Thanks everyone. My buddy got heck a deal from me,  i cut his own vinyl it was two  80 inches long by 23 inches wide and only charged him $20 for it. but he did let me have what was left over. Got to cut the tail gate one still when he gets me the size. 

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On 3/8/2018 at 10:49 PM, pmvinyls said:

..... For custom stuff, I'll round up a little more. Custom designs are charged at my $60 an hour freelance rate. Re-creating artwork in vector for me to cut is charged at $30 an hour rate. 

Using this pricing calculator on my 24" rolls of 631, every 5 yards of vinyl sold pays for a 50 yard roll. 45 yards of pure profit. Also gives you some wiggle room to offer decent discounts when people make large orders. 

When you charge $60 an hour do you then tack on the cost of the vinyl like you said the L+W/2?? or is it just the $60 an hour at that point. 

Also, how do you figure out pricing for specialty vinyl like reflective or etch vinyl?

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1 hour ago, VinylM said:

When you charge $60 an hour do you then tack on the cost of the vinyl like you said the L+W/2?? or is it just the $60 an hour at that point. 

Also, how do you figure out pricing for specialty vinyl like reflective or etch vinyl?

I generally take a peek at where I plan to buy said vinyl, decide my minimum order and shipping and then know my actual cost. I divide that up into a unit rate. More times than not I charge for the whole piece whether it is a yard or 5 or whatever and any left over stuff I sell off later for pure profit. If it's etch vinyl for instance I consider it a specialty vinyl order and list it that way on the invoice. 

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I just take the job and decide what it's worth to me. So for instance say someone wanted 10 small decals that were 4 inches square but in a color or product that I don't stock. Say I spent $10 on a yard some premium vinyl so it would cut nice. and another $10 for shipping then I know the minimum material COST is going to be $2 each even though the 10 decals will only take up a third of the yard at most. Then I decide how much my time and equipment is worth. Say we be conservative and say $50 per hour shop rate and the job should take a half hour. So there is another $2.50 per each bringing the cost total to $4.50 plus 20% margin puts them at $5.40 per each plus sales tax depending on your locale. $54 plus tax and probably not worth the time it takes to do it. I didn't even add in for app tape and the half hour to do it is a nice thought but that kind of stuff can take twice that long real fast. Now you can see why me and some of the others on the forum just shake our heads at the idiots on pinterest that think they're gong to make their millions on stuff like that for $0.50 or a dollar each. Different story if you are doing 300 pieces. Then you can both cut your costs down and the price per each down and actually make a buck. 

The best part of this kind of job is when you suffer through it because you are trying to build clients and then they come back and want more. How many? they say 30 this time. You say ok. They don't ask for a new price so you bust out 30 out of the extra vinyl you bought and all in almost the same time you did the 10 and you get full price with no costs. That happens too so don't get discouraged. But the ones that say "so and so is selling them for half that" then I just shrug and say I have no idea how they can afford to, have a nice day. About half the time they still have me do them. Actually I have all but quit regular adhesive vinyl because the market is too tight and there are too many soccer moms with cricut cutters doing them for nothing. I mostly do t-shirts. Everyone wants a t-shirt and you get to make a little off the shirt AND the vinyl. 

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