$2.88 for Coroplast Signs with wire stakes!

[Locals Find!]

I'm not producing these 500 signs...I just found my best price
from a reliable source and marked them up. I didn't mark them
up a large amount because I knew the political arena is cheap.
BUT, I really did think I was too low. Shipping alone for the signs
is $170....the best I could find for the 30" stakes is .55 each.

If there is a job shop around here selling the signs for .99 I would
check them out...but this is small town America and I doubt there
is one nearby.

I have no problem making $300-400 (20%) for my time and knowledge...
as a small business I have to pay the rent and my employees.
If I can't make a reasonable profit on a job that costs me
$1,500-$2,000, why bother?

Maybe I'm wrong....is any profit better than none at all?
Or does that lead us down a path of lower and lower pricing
and struggling to make a decent living because we can't
mark-up the 40% or more we need to keep our business healthy.

If you lower your profit margin down to say 20% for a retail client. Your sending yourself into a spiral it will be harder and harder to pull out of. You already knew the answer when you asked the question deep down.

If the price goes lower and lower and the cost of business goes up. Your going to end up out of business. That or working like a slave just to have something to do everyday while your children starve and you lose your home till eventually your homeless.

Its simple economics. You need to charge what you need to survive as a business and show 5% growth every year.

Your comment about the political arena being cheap is right because, shops let them. If your going to sell your soul to get a job like that you should be doing some kinda backroom deal with that politician that will benefit you in the long run. If your just doing the job and collecting the check your slicing your own throat.

500 is 10,000 bux. You wont get a order like that at 20 bux each.

The reason Techman says this is he is afraid to actually ask for the sale and demand what his product is worth. People who can't, won't or are too afraid to stand up for their product quality, service & value. Shouldn't be in business. If you don't believe in your product enough to charge what its worth why should your client.

 

[mikefine]

Yes, you should call your customer and ask if it includes shipping, which could be costly -- with the stakes and the signs. So you might be more competitive than you think. Also, find out where your customer is shopping, which is important information. And you should shop your supplies and vendors, like your customers are doing, so you can try to compete with the appropriate profit margin.

 

[UFB Fabrication]

Buy them from the really cheap guy and mark them up.

 

[fmg]

Buy them from the really cheap guy and mark them up.

Bingo!!!

 

[signswi]

These are becoming specialty, bulk products that you can't really compete with on price alone because there are shops that do nothing else.

We compete with superior design, full color, short-run, local focus. Medium to large run? Forget it, we know we aren't competitive and that's fine. Some people (see above) like to buy and mark up and that's a valid approach, we don't get into it much as we prefer to focus on our strengths and sell those products.

Seems like I say some variation on this in almost every thread: You need to compete on pain points that aren't price!

 

[Gino]

Addie............

You're talking out your bunghole again.

Tech is exactly dead spot on.

Your problem is.... well you have a lot of problems............

• You are thinking small.
• You don't have the equipment to do it.
• You don't have the know-how.
• You don't have what it takes or have experienced doing it this way.

Being a broker, you more than anyone should know this routine.... which brings us around again to....... why are you here again ??

Any company that is wholesaling is doing this. They buy at a cost, you can't even imagine and can produce it in a fashion you never heard of or witnessed.
Your theory work for a normal sign shop, but not one of high volume.

In the last few years, we've been doing this and it's working like a charm. Guys like Merritts and Typestries are doing it. Probably on a larger scale than us. However, when we bid out to end-users we don't use our wholesale prices.

One must learn to either price retail or wholesale and keep them separate or it will upset the apple cart.

 

[Proteus]

This thread is full of people comparing digital print to mass screen printing and it just isn't the same realm. My recommendation? Find them cheap and local, make a few hundred off them to cover your time for ordering them, and then sell other products and services to the client -- make your money there.

 

[Techman]

The reason Techman says this is he is afraid to actually ask for the sale and demand what his product is worth. People who can't, won't or are too afraid to stand up for their product quality, service & value. Shouldn't be in business. If you don't believe in your product enough to charge what its worth why should your client.

Adtechia.
Yer so full of bullshyte you should be selling fertilizer. You have no idea about myself or my business. If you had half the insight you make believe then you would never say or post what you did. I am not afraid of anything. My business is doing well and getting better. I certainly do not want or need criticism from you. The fact is you don't know jack squat about what I do or how i do it. You are just a broker running a parasitic business model taking the blood from the knowledge of others.

I know the difference between a high profit item and bundled commodity order. Obviously you do not. So go ahead and spew your line about successfully charging high prices for bulk orders while we others watch your nose grow.

The reason I say what i posted on this thread is because making $200 bux an hour is fine with me verses your way and getting ZERO.

 

[oldgoatroper]

We sell just the stakes for $3.00 each... and nobody flinches at it...

 

[iceon]

I think its all in how you value your time. If you don't think your worth nothing sell it cheap. My invoice paper is worth more than a dollar....
Iceon

 

[kreatore]

Here is a 6 step solution to your problem

1. Raise your prices
2. Raise your prices
3. Raise your prices
4. Don't try and compete with lowballers
5. Don't be a lowballer
6. Repeat steps 1-3.

Perfect

I see that the whole world is country.
different countries, common problems