mac6986

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mac6986 last won the day on May 29 2014

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About mac6986

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  • Birthday 06/09/1986

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  1. mac6986

    is this price-able?

    Seems pretty cut and dry. Don't price what the customer "expects", Figure a price that you can do it for at your current capacity. You're not gouging the customer, its a fair number that accounts for your time, overhead, and materials. Quote the job what its worth to you. If you get it, you'll have a nice paycheck coming your way. If they don't like the price, there's no use slashing prices because you're only taking money out of your own pocket. The materials will cost the same, its still going to take the same amount of time to do it. They don't like it, they can shop elsewhere and you can take the next job that comes in. No use stressing over a job that you haven't been awarded yet.
  2. mac6986

    price quote?

    I would be about $600 a truck, but the cleaning I would charge hourly. it looks simple and straight forward, but sometimes that old glue is tough to remove and you might have to go over it a couple times to get it all off. +1 on WD40 Rapid Remover & a Scraprite works wonders too.
  3. mac6986

    ATV plastics...

    Those small accents, I would mask it off and use plasti-dip. adheres well to low-energy plastics and it's removable. Think of it almost as a type of "spray-on vinyl"
  4. mac6986

    Stamps.com

    Yea, I get their postcard in the mail once a month, I tried their free trial, its pretty much the same car, different color. Shipworks does intergrate across almost all major ecommerce platforms, and the major auction sites. I have it running my Shopify, eBay, Amazon, and Etsy stores. the last time I used the on-website shipping platforms for ebay or amazon, they were charging me about 2.25 for a 3 oz first class package with tracking. I get the same thing through stamps for 1.93. It doesn't sound like much but compounded over thousands of orders all year, it adds up fast. just like you said, it works out better different ways for each business. I just find myself doing less steps and getting the same tasks done in less time, than the way I used to on each site and paypal.
  5. mac6986

    Stamps.com

    it comes down to convenience and streamlining. If you have a significant volume of items to ship, its integration capability is amazing. Plus the other big auctions sites actually inflate the postage prices and give you a "discount" off that inflated price. I use stamps.com, runs $15 a month + postage. I also use Shipworks, that runs $20 a month. with the two combined, I can come into my shop in the morning, and I have a stack of order packing slips that are paid and ready to be shipped. Then with 3 mouse clicks, I can print off all the shipping labels for all the orders ( mine are usually all the same weight ) . A process that previously would have taken me an hour or two now takes 5 minutes. It will then mark all the items shipped on their respective sites, upload tracking information and send the confirmation emails. I have on average 40-50 orders, collectivley, across 4 sites per day. I look at it as I hired a shipping employee for $35 a month.
  6. mac6986

    Store Front Signage question from a newbie.

    Be careful with the plastic! low-energy plastic and regular vinyl dont get along. You'll put up the sign and a week later you have an angry customer asking why the graphics are peeling off the sign. I stick with hi-tack vinyl on plastics.
  7. mac6986

    Bought the Roland BN-20

    Former BN-20 Owner Things to consider: When printing, you do not get 20" of printable area. You only have 18.9" max. Account for 4" added onto the front and back of a job so the pinch rollers have something to grab if you printed with reg. marks for print-lam-cut alignment. so a 30" print job will give you a 38" sheet of whatever you just printed. If you're not using Roland Media, a lot of places don't carry 20" material. They will cut it for you but some places charge, others dont. another cost to consider. Even if you don't ever print white ink, you will still have to replace that cartridge every so often. the printer will kick on every couple hours while its in sleep mode and pump a little ink into the waste tank to prevent the heads from clogging. the printer will not run without that cartridge even if you're not using white ink. The best way to calculate the price of each job is to make up an excel spreadsheet that you can change the variables of material cost and markup to calculate each job. There will always be an exception and a variable with each job. you cant really just come up with a general cost per sq ft, and apply it to everything. You'll be ahead on some jobs, and losing your shirt on others.
  8. mac6986

    The mental phases of a larger order

    Inquiring minds and all . . . . . What was the product and how many?
  9. mac6986

    Wall Decal HELP

    Same here. only about 10% of customers leave reviews on etsy.
  10. After operating a home based business, and moving into a retail space, I can say it boils down to one thing. Is your business dependent on walk-in customers? If not, and you have a decent space in your home ( like a full basement or garage you can devote to the business ) stay home as long as you can, until you actually outgrow it and have the income to support it.
  11. mac6986

    Wall Decal HELP

    On etsy, you can reply to reviews of 3 stars or less, but no pictures. You can make your point that the customer was troublesome, and that the seller was right, but you still have the low review, and that will have long-term effects. best to just get rid of the troublesome customers, without letting them leave bad reviews.
  12. mac6986

    Wall Decal HELP

    In my experience with selling online, its a moving target. How much are you willing to help for the good reviews vs. taking the hit, and refunding the purchase. The customer may be extorting you because they feel duped (even though they weren't) but never the less, the fact is they have the power in this situation. You need to determine how much a bad review will have an impact on you. If you are a new seller, and have like 2 reviews, I would refund the purchase and move on. one bad review will drop your star rating significantly. In a market where there are 10 other sellers selling the same decal, a future customer will see "oh this seller only has 3 stars? I'll find someone else." and that's it. That's all it takes to lose a sale. Starting in the hole, is much harder to get your rating up than maintaining high ratings while your shop is in its incipient stages. On the other hand, if you have like 500 reviews and you're sitting on a 5 star reputation, Still make an effort to help the customer, but if they threaten a bad review, you can take the hit, and not be affected by it. You'll still be at a 5 star rating and the people that see the one bad review followed by all the other good reviews, will assume it was a fluke situation, or a fussy customer. I would re-write your shop policies and make them iron clad. "These decals are for interior use only. They are meant to be installed on walls that were painted by rollers or spray only. There is no guarantee that the graphics will adhere to special paint/brush effects and/or stucco style walls & ceilings. If you have any concerns, please contact the seller BEFORE purchase." Again, bottom line is the customer has all the power in this situation. you can do everything right, but there will still be customers out there that will misinterpret things and say its your fault. If your reputation isn't built yet, is it worth destroying it over the price of one decal?
  13. mac6986

    pricing this? and doing this?

    the sign faces are usually 1/8" - 1/4" acrylic. you can get the acrylic sheets from Harbor Sales, and they'll even cut it for you and you're going to have to figure in some sort of bucket truck. I assume that light box is about 20'-25' feet in he air? try lifting a sheet of 1/8" acrylic and then see if you want to be man-handling that 20 feet in the air on a ladder. bucket trucks can range in prices per hour or by the day. I don't know where you are located, but the few places by me will only rent it to you for a whole day. and that runs about $250-$300 for the day. your price is right for your shop if you accounted for all expenses and marked up accordingly. As far as how the payment is being taken care of, I would not have the customer pay the electrician separate. You are the contractor for the whole job. you get any outside resources you need, and you pay them yourself, then add a fee onto the end invoice and mark up each service. I contract an electrician, or a mason, I pay them, and add 10% onto the invoice that the customer pays. That's just how I do business.
  14. mac6986

    Pricing Help

    I read this as one sale, not two. $2.55 each decal. the decals are close enough in size to charge the same price ( the more expensive of the two once you figure out cost ) you said you know your costs, and they are your friends, you have to decide what you want to give away and what you want to charge for. that is just what someone coming through my door would get charged. what size material you cut on will change your costs.
  15. mac6986

    Pricing Help

    in this case, you would need to decide how good of a friend this person is. You have the rest of the information you need. If It were a new customer walking through my door, on my 30" cutter cutting out of 30" rolls, $700, out the door. Then just charge him for the roll of material. The value of the product is your time and knowledge of how to make the end product.