Hey everyone! This might end up being a long post so I apologize in advance, I would just rather not start "screwing up prices" for the industry. I am rather to signs, well sort of. I own a screen printing and embroidery shop, and we purchased a new building about 1 year ago. It has about 5 times the space we used to have. I have 2 vinyl cutters that I have used for doing names/numbers for our T-shirt orders, and a few things for the storefront. I have come to a point where I have people asking for sign quotes. I used to get about 1 inquiry a month and I would just refer them to a guy I met a while back who did signs out of a small warehouse space. Well he is gone I guess. Now although I do love storing boxes and dust on some of my tables and counter space, I figured I would clean them off and try to make some $$$. My question has to do with price. For those of you that don't know, prices in the screen printing/embroidery field are horrible, good luck making any decent money! I installed some vinyl on a customers 2 side windows and charged them like $85. I thought I was making good money, and they went bonkers! Apparently they were paying way more than that at some other place. So I explained it was because they were a good screen printing customer so I "did it for cost". I quoted 1 other 2x4 banner and raised the price of what I was going to quote them and still had a over excited customer. Ok, so back to my question, is anyone willing to give me a few "pricing guidelines" or "how we go about pricing"? I understand that the profits for sign making is rather higher than I am used to. I just don't want to be the "low ball guy" that ends up ruining the market for everyone else. Thanks for your time!
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A little help for a noob please...
- Thread starter twinc
- Start date
Air Art Girl
New Member
welcome. Purchase the Sign Craft pricing guide. It will help you determine what you should be chargning
weaselboogie
New Member
Get a subscription to signcraft and you get the pricing guide free.
$40
$40
Ken
New Member
"I understand that the profits for sign making is rather higher than I am used to."...twinc
See that's what so many people think..There's nothing wrong with profit. Just dont get the idea that all the sign people are rolling in it. Each region or state will have it's saturation point and when that happens, the competitive, rather than the creative, will be dogging each other for their slice of the pie.
Start pricing higher..if they don't bite..well, they'll go somewhere cheaper..and the other guy will do the cheap jobs.
What's the saying..?
Fast.
Cheap.
Good.
Pick any two.
Cheers!
Ken
See that's what so many people think..There's nothing wrong with profit. Just dont get the idea that all the sign people are rolling in it. Each region or state will have it's saturation point and when that happens, the competitive, rather than the creative, will be dogging each other for their slice of the pie.
Start pricing higher..if they don't bite..well, they'll go somewhere cheaper..and the other guy will do the cheap jobs.
What's the saying..?
Fast.
Cheap.
Good.
Pick any two.
Cheers!
Ken
Craig Sjoquist
New Member
Welcome to a outstanding forum and people
git r dun
git r dun
S
Sign-Man Signs
Guest
Enough! Just about every day there is a "Newbie" that wants to know how to price their work. Maybe I'm stupid or something but did they go to school at all?
Here it is, the BIG secret, the Holy of Holyest, the cats meow, the "it can't fail answer to pricing"....
Your cost of material + your cost of labor= Your price for your sign.
Forget what the other guy is selling work for. Beside how much profit you want to make to cover your overhead and put money in the bank.
That's it...Now ask a serious question like "What's coroplast?"
Oh yea....:Welcome:2:signs101:
Here it is, the BIG secret, the Holy of Holyest, the cats meow, the "it can't fail answer to pricing"....
Your cost of material + your cost of labor= Your price for your sign.
Forget what the other guy is selling work for. Beside how much profit you want to make to cover your overhead and put money in the bank.
That's it...Now ask a serious question like "What's coroplast?"
Oh yea....:Welcome:2:signs101:
Jackpine
New Member
Ditto....good guide and a great trade magizine.
D&Tgraphics
New Member
AMEN BROTHER!!!
DOGraphics
New Member
:Welcome: 2 :signs101:
The Big Squeegee
Long Time Member
Welcome from OK.
Doyle
New Member
From what I understand, the screen-printing industry standard for artwork etc. is around $30 per hour...... you can get more than that for sign work, where the average is probably around $60-$70 per hour.
In order to get a good idea what you need to charge for an hourly rate, try this link.....
http://www.pricingmadeeasy.com/estimate/products/profitwatch.php
Also, I markup my materials 100% most of the time, then add your hourly rate. It is tricky to master your pricing, because there are so many products that have a higher perceived value in which you will make more money on than the above calculation.
In order to get a good idea what you need to charge for an hourly rate, try this link.....
http://www.pricingmadeeasy.com/estimate/products/profitwatch.php
Also, I markup my materials 100% most of the time, then add your hourly rate. It is tricky to master your pricing, because there are so many products that have a higher perceived value in which you will make more money on than the above calculation.
hattersroxie
New Member
find out how much material it costs are,multiply it by 3 and add 10% for yourself 
may not work on all orders but it usually does-if you dont want to go through the trouble of all the adding...signcraft is the way to go...
may not work on all orders but it usually does-if you dont want to go through the trouble of all the adding...signcraft is the way to go...
Fred Weiss
Merchant Member
Whichever way you go, do not consider it as carved in stone. Track your quotes to closed orders ratio for every kind of sign you plan to offer. I've always found that somewhere around 75% closed orders is about right.
What am I talking about?
If I make 100 quotes and 75 of them turn into orders my pricing is neither too high nor too low ... it is well matched to my local market and the public's perceived value of what I do. If I close 90 out of 100, I'm almost certainly pricing too low and if I close less than 75 out of 100, I am pricing above the market.
Now your only problem is to produce work at those prices and still be profitable enough after all the bills are paid to pay yourself a decent wage and have 5% to 15% of the gross left over to grow your business or grow your retirement fund.
What am I talking about?
If I make 100 quotes and 75 of them turn into orders my pricing is neither too high nor too low ... it is well matched to my local market and the public's perceived value of what I do. If I close 90 out of 100, I'm almost certainly pricing too low and if I close less than 75 out of 100, I am pricing above the market.
Now your only problem is to produce work at those prices and still be profitable enough after all the bills are paid to pay yourself a decent wage and have 5% to 15% of the gross left over to grow your business or grow your retirement fund.