A strange "what would you charge"

[ikarasu]

I really do appreciate all the input from everyone.
However, IMHO what wholesalers (or any other other shop) charges should never be factored into a price, they buy in huge bulk
for material and ink... A place I used to work at paid $80 for a gallon of ink. If you can't get the price you need to
get after material and overhead for a product, then you don't need to offer it. There's plenty of niches in this this industry
that pays multiples of what standard sign projects do (not speaking about this situation).

Problem is the guys supplying all the materials. The only cost is ink and machine time.

We don't compete with wholesalers. But wholesalers will print on their material, hem, grommet, and ship it out within 48 hours for the most part, for less than this guy wants to charge a "sister company". I say sister company because it sounds like they both throw a lot of work to each other, and have a closer relationship that a wholesaler and their client has. So while you shouldn't try to compete with wholesalers... Obviously this is a bit of a different situation, and the OP knows it... or he would just go with his standard pricing, and not ask what others would charge.

I doubt the "Client" cares about paying for the banners, so sure... charge $15. It'll just be a transaction for him - he'll likely appreciate it. But doing him a favor and helping him when he's down will leave a lasting impression on him, and when your machine breaks down... you'll have someone to turn to. But thats just my opinion... We have lots of people who we send work back and fourth to, most wont hesitate to drop everything theyre doing and rush a job for us if we need it done, because we treat them right and do the same.

Building good relationships helps you a lot in this business... and spending $10 on ink is a small price to pay to have the situation stay on the back of this guys mind and be grateful for what you did. You never know when you'll need a helping hand.

 

[Gino]

I hear ya and I do think it's quite nice, but what happens if 4 of your closest sister companies all have a breakdown at the same time. Odds are truly against that happening, but then, what if ?? Which one do you do first ?? How much ink are you gonna go through ?? How much of your own work/deadlines are gonna suffer ?? How much loyalty are you really gonna build ??

For me, I don't give two sh!ts what the wholesalers charge or anyone else for that matter. I've been saying for years, you hafta make what ya hafta make to keep your doors open. Not what wholesalers do...... not what your competition does...... friendly or not. None of that really matters. How much goodwill and loyalty can you take to the bank at the end of the day ?? How many loaves of bread or pounds of meat will that stuff buy ya at the grocery store ??

You guys are mixing emotions with business. Fine, if ya wanna do it...... and I've done it on occasions, but it doesn't always come back smiling at ya.

 

[Andy D]

soooo... what are ya gonna do???

LOL...1st off, when I start a thread, I try to keep it concise & put minimum amount of fluff in, but to add to the background; my situation is different
than most other members here, I run the sign/graphic department for a company that caters to Contractors, Engineers, & Architects. I spend most
of my day bidding sign packages that are not built at my location. We have a printer and laminator for quick turnarounds, but they never see the volume
as a normal shop.
So on one hand: I didn't have anything that had to be printed & was glad to keep the printer running.
On the other hand; he was actually part way through the project when his printer cr@pped out, so I had to spend some time color matching what he had
already printed & he did have to have them that day, so I ended up staying about a hour late to get them to him.

As other have said, good will is more valuable than the extra $ if I'm in a bind, and he puts my job to the front of the line, so I emailed him
that I would be okay with " $5 per banner and one "get out of a bind" card.

That being said, had I not had a great working relationship with him or if I thought the favor wouldn't be reciprocal, the price would have been closer to $25-$30 each.
I couldn't care less what they can get banners from somewhere else, they're paying for my expertise & overhead.

 

[ColorCrest]

On the other hand; he was actually part way through the project when his printer cr@pped out, so I had to spend some time color matching what he had
already printer & he did have to have them that day, so I ended up staying about a hour late to get them to him.

This was the first thing that popped into my head, actually.

 

[jimbug72]

We have a similar relation ship with a local shop. Not exactly "buddies" but are on quite friendly terms.

We generally do as Jburton said and pocket the favor and so do they. As far as I know money has never exchanged hands between us, but the favors back and fourth have been relatively small. A few yards of material here, a bag of grommets there, maybe a short run of decals or a small bucket of screen print ink.

Thirty 3'x4' banners would probably be worth tabulating some credit given your type of relationship with this guy. For our relation ship we would still probably pocket the favor. Never know when we might find ourselves in the same boat.

 

[Andy D]

I've been saying for years, you hafta make what ya hafta make to keep your doors open. Not what wholesalers do...... not what your competition does......

I couldn't agree more! The thing that get me is a shop lowering a price on a product because their customer can get it cheaper elsewhere, they say "well we do that to keep the customer from shopping around,
but we get back when they order XYZ product".
That might work in the short term, but if you're charging $100 for 4'x 8' coroplast sign and $500 for a max-metal sign & the shop down the street is $250 for the coro and $450 for the max-metal,
eventually the people who buy a lot of signs figure it out, & in a few years you will one of the guys on here that bitch about how "the industry sucks, you have to work 70 hour a week to get by."
You think your customers are loyal to you and won't piecemeal their projects? I bet you know what vendor has the best price on vinyl but way too high on acrylic, and you get some stuff from one place
and other stuff from other places... & guess what, your customer does too.

 

[shoresigns]

$15–18 per banner for 30 banners sounds about right to me, if you're OK with doing it at cost for this buddy/client. We would break even at $21.43 CAD (= $16.31 USD) per banner, running them on Roland eco-sol in a relatively expensive city.