How you're all pricing yourselves OUT OF BUSINESS

[Ninja 16]

When environment and expectations change, you either need to shift your operation to keep pace or risk getting left behind. This is the law of evolution and is applicable in nearly all areas of life and business. No where is it more true than the sign industry. In this instance I'm speaking specifically to pricing. As a general rule we don't like to make recommendations on what people should charge for any given job because one to the next there are sure to be many different variables- and it's up to you figure these things out. It's called market capitalism. However, when customers ask us what would be a "reasonable" price to pay for something they need done, we'll offer our opinion based on our experience. What I can tell you, is that the chat correspondence I had recently with a prospective USCutter customer illustrates in no uncertain terms, how quickly the market will be saturated by anyone with $400 and a bad taste in their mouth from a ridiculously high price quote. I get these types of correspondence from customers very frequently. Your ability to maintain long term profitability selling signage and cut vinyl is in no small part dependent upon your willingness not to price your self out of business by turning your potential CUSTOMERS, into your competition. 

 

Yes- USCutter is in the business of selling vinyl cutting materials and equipment and in theory, it's in their best interest to sell to anyone and everyone who would buy from them. The elephant in the room is that if you help to flood the market and enable everyone and their mom to do everything themselves, you will only help to turn what is a lucrative business for many, into a tool for hobbiests, soccer moms, and anyone with a dumpster business that needs lettering. Flooding the market can hinder demand, which in turn will hurt everyone's bottom line. USCutter will always, willingly sell their equipment to anyone who wants to buy it, but for god-sakes, STOP PRICING YOURSELVES OUT OF BUSINESS. 

 

 

 

[7:04:28 AM]You have joined the chat conversation with James .


Department: Live Support

Subject: I want to re-letter my dumpster fleet and don't want to pay a company to do it all when I could buy then machine and supplies cheaper. Is there any reason why I should not get the MH series? Thanks.

 

[7:04:28 AM]Benjamin: Hello, thanks for choosing USCutter, I will be with you in just a moment...

[7:06:31 AM]Benjamin: Technically no. No reason at all. I would caution that there are good reasons why people charge as much as they do for this stuff. There's a steep learning curve to it and it's never as simple or easy as it seems it should/could be. If you feel you're being price gouged you might try shopping around more. If you really don't care about the time investment to learning the equipment, software and application processes then absolutely the MH is a good option for you.

[7:06:43 AM]James: Okay. Thank you. All I need is lettering without graphics and we normally install them ourselves so I thought this would be a good way to go.

[7:13:24 AM]Benjamin: It certainly can be the nearly the same money to get the cutter and just do it yourself in some cases. I feel like a lot of places are pricing themselves out of business by charging more than they should. This isn't rocket science we're talking here, and it's well with in you ability to do it all yourself. The costs are tricky to calculate though. You need the cutter, say $230 if you get the 24" MH, you need vinyl, say another $50 just to use a round number, you need application tape- say $30, and you need weeding and application tools- say another $40. Out the door (being conservative) you're right around $360 give or take. And that's for a cutter that only comes with a 90 day warranty.

[7:15:04 AM]Benjamin: ...and that's before the hours of time to learn the software and labor for the production/application... but the benefit is that you get to continue to use the equipment and continue to do this yourself.

[7:15:56 AM]Benjamin: So- if the cost to have someone else do it is close to the cost of you getting the stuff and doing it yourself (and you don't mind the labor and learning curve) I say go for it.

[7:16:02 AM]James: I have 12 dumpsters that have 10" ADVANTAGE letters down each side and the phone number. The cheapest quote I got is 450 per dumpster. That seems high to me and that's us installing them

[7:17:59 AM]Benjamin: Oh man yeah way too high.

[7:18:48 AM]Benjamin: You should be around $50 or so for each dumpster to have someone just cut it for you- maybe more if they use quality material that will last.

[7:17:22 AM]James: I thought so. Thanks for your help.

[7:19:00 AM]Benjamin: anytime.

[7:19:40 AM]The chat conversation has ended.

 

 

Please take this with a grain of salt those of you who have been doing this for years; sign-making, printing, banners, decals, etc. My goal for this post is to promote discussion on the topic and relay information I feel will be useful to those just breaking into the business... and perhaps slap a "wake up call" on the door of those who insist on price gouging for 10" x 50" lettering that the customer will install themselves. I do not claim to be a vinyl "guru". I have never owned a sign shop. I am not privy to the pulse of pricing in every market in the country. I have however been heavily involved in the industry for many years, from many different angles and have more experience than most to speak on the subject.

 

Take from this what you will. 

 

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

[7:16:02 AM]James: I have 12 dumpsters that have 10" ADVANTAGE letters down each side and the phone number. The cheapest quote I got is 450 per dumpster. That seems high to me and that's us installing them

I can't imagine that is anyone from this forum - even our highest quoters are not in that area!

 

Since gettting the printer I have to say 90 percent of what I do it printed and not cut vinyl - the cost to get in is much higher and the returns are diminished greatly from all the people that buy a used printer and give thier products away for about the price of material.  I suspect they will weed themselves out when it comes time for new equipment or major repairs but that is the state of the printing side right now.  there will always be a call for cutters but the market is saturated right now with so many people having them and the market is turning toward printing in many cases because of the prints are cheaper, less labor, and allow shading and fine detail that the customer have come to expect.

 

just my 2c

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

is this price a typo?  it is double what it sold for anywhere else before it was discontinued a couple of months back

http://www.uscutter.com/Hotronix-16-x-20-Swinger-Press

[Ninja 16]

is this price a typo?  it is double what it sold for anywhere else before it was discontinued a couple of months back

http://www.uscutter.com/Hotronix-16-x-20-Swinger-Press

No it's not a typo, although I don't remember what it was going for previously. We did take a look around the web and only found it for a lower price in a couple places. Hotronix requires "map" pricing so I'm not sure how anyone is selling for less than the map price amount- but we're for sure going to look into that. I can tell you that we are going to drop the price on this unit as low as we can... probably today. (your welcome)

 

As for the post above, one thing I failed to observe is the "...10" ADVANTAGE letters down each side..."  Each side being the operative term, and I missed that in our initial chat. If I'd caught that he wanted two sides at that size I would have told him to expect $80 - $100, not $50, but either way it's a far cry from $450 per. 

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

I agree that the 450 is way out of line

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

here is the pedistal air for 3300   http://www.stahls.com/air-swinger-heat-press

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

Benjamin, you might want to call hotronix and make sure it is still vailable at all - I see you drop ship it and it looks like veryone only has the air version as of this week.  everything has gone to the fusion

[eashonk 24]

As for the post above, one thing I failed to observe is the "...10" ADVANTAGE letters down each side..."  Each side being the operative term, and I missed that in our initial chat. If I'd caught that he wanted two sides at that size I would have told him to expect $80 - $100, not $50, but either way it's a far cry from $450 per. 

I was getting ready to say, $50 is very low, because I threw the design together using IMPACT because it is tall and skinny and came up with 56" x 20" minimum with 10" letters for name and 7.5" phone number, 2 for each dumpster, my calculator says $117 and that's just material.  I wonder if this guy is giving the whole story, like the 12 dumpsters are spread out over a metropolitan area and you have to go to each one and put on the lettering.  Or the lettering is some custom font that needs to be drawn, or each letter is 10" tall by 10" wide, or something stupid like that, which the customer never bothers to tell you when you are quoting a job.

[eashonk 24]

The truth is that this is actually a good thing, because the simple little jobs that anybody can do are the only jobs those who price gauge have the ability to do, so those of us that actually have a degree in graphic arts and can do the hard jobs will be more respected for our ability to create high quality multicolor custom graphics applicable across a variety of media.  Things which the common hobbyist will never learn on their own.

[OWJones 1,981]

Something else to consider - I work at the city/county landfill 3 days a week as my "real job", and a lot of the dumpsters we see have reflective lettering to make it easier for the drivers to pick out the right dumpsters in a dark alley at 4:00 AM.

 

$450 is still crazy high for each dumpster, even with reflective, but at least it's not quite as obscenely high if you're comparing against solid colored cast vinyl...  Plus dumpsters tend to get beat around a lot, so you wouldn't want to use cheap grade vinyl.

[mabscotthandyman 1,410]

I very much doubt the quote was $450.00 each self install sounds like a bull s....ter to me . I would not worry about the saturation of cheap cutters as you can tell especially in the complaint section a lot of the people that buy a cutter never learn to use it . And a lot of people just buy for hobby type use . I only do signage no cut decals for self install , stick people , or lettering for car Windows only commerical type work and I belive there will be a call for that ..

Most business don't have the personnel or space to set up a sign shop and would rather pay out the money to have it done right and it is a business expense that can be wrote off .

So I don't worry about pricing a sign at 500.00 or more .

Dan