Kelly54487

I'm starting out my own business in making banners/signs,vehicle decals you name it. I need to make a easy form on pricing things for my customers. ex 12" x 24" vehicle decal 1 color $__________ 2 color $________ and so on. Is anyone WILLING to post there price guide forms for us beginners to give us a ball park figure on what to charge our customers. And if not what is the easiest way to price high performance vinyl for vehicle decaling???

Thanks, Kelly

 

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princessracer

Hi-

As far as a price guide.. I kinda wing it. Sorta.

1st- figure out your cost whether its per inch or per sq foot but always charge the full width of the vinyl. example. if its.. one 12"x5" decal.. charge for 24" x 5" - other wise.. when you throw that vinyl into the garbage.. you might as well be throwing money into the garbage.

2nd- know your customers. I do a lot of racecar vinyl, and I know who my competitors are.. I price around what they do... but then I have my secret card which gets me my business =D But, I usually use about.. say, for 1 color.. I usually 24"x 110" (for the 2 sides of the door and the roof) which is 9 ft worth of vinyl. I'll charge about $60 for it assuming its normal vinyl.. But if someone wants a bunch of decals out (lots more weeding) with the same amount.. im charging them more.. its way more work for me.

You really need to consider your cost of your material, whether its high performance or not, and how much time you'll spend cutting, weeding, screwing up, recutting, weeding very very carefully this time around (i had my blade offset wrong (with no idea of this) and spent many hours cussing out my machine and weeding) and then masking.. and possibly layering.

If i have to layer it, the price goes up. if its a small job where I can do it myself it wont be too much more, or if its a very large thing I have to layer, I have to wait for my boyfriend to get home to help me.. (i'm short, and cant layer large items such as 30" x 36" things by myself.. ) has anyone found a trick to do this?) so then the price goes even more so up. I'm having to bug him, and usually then have to work later than i'd like to, plus its taking two people.

I know some people on another forum get $7+ per sq foot for a banner some even get $13 per sq. ft. It all depends on your area.. Where i'm at.. people dont want to pay more than $4 or $5 per sq foot.. And i'm not willing to work for free.. hence why i'm switching to t-shirts.

Dont settle for too little, dont work for free... and dont bother under cutting the other guy.. cuz then you'll lose business when you have to up your pricing cuz working 12 hrs every day wont pay the bills.. and then you're really screwed.

I'd say fair and competitive pricing is the best way to go.. plus, the other sign shops in the town wont hate you.

just my 0.02

Good luck!

 

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pixnstix

That's a great answer Stephanie!

I would agree you need to know your costs including your time, but having done that I would set my price at the same level as your local competitors for the same item, and then compete with them based on better service and quality.

As a new entrant in the market you probably can't afford to be dearer than the competition, and as Stephanie pointed out so eloquently, you don't want to under cut them either.

 

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Matto

I use the price guide you can get from most sign supply distributors. Pocket version is very convinient. I will usually take the calculations they give and then knock 10 to 20 percent off for my area. Sometimes a little more for returning customers. Depends on thier demeanor. I have been able to give on the spot and quite accurate quotes 95% of the time. One other thing I do also. If there is premium vinyl mixed with standard vinyl I bill the whole job out as premium. helps cover the little extra time I take during installation.

Also interesting to hear you are switching to T- shirts Princess. I am a screen printer and am trying to get away from shirts and into signs and banners. No money in shirts for me.I turn more customers away now as I wont (used to) do onesy twosy jobs anymore. you wanna talk 500 or more then the party is on but for me the setup is just too much hassle for the chump change coming in.
My kids are getting more use out of my press than I am. The vinyl side is doing very well. my plotter paid for itself in one week plus put some money in my pocket with way less than half the effort of screen printing.

__________________
Cards kill trees! Give a custom printed shirt.

 

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mrvixx

Get your total expenses per square inch or foot then mark up as desired. just charge for the square inch or have a square foot minimum charge then adjust pricing for more complicated designs etc.

 

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princessracer

Matto-

In my area, there are a lot of people with vinyl machines that are willing to work for next to nothing.. and thats the price that people are expecting here.

Then there are several that have vinyl printers, who are charging less than what I could for full color.

I just cant compete with them. There are less people with DTG machines in my area and theres a higher demand for them. I have no interest in silk screening lol

 

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