A strange "what would you charge"

[Andy D]

A buddy of mine (edited to say not really a buddy, we just have have a good trade-out working relationship) , with his own shop had his printer go down and asked me to finish printing
around (30) 48" x 30" banners. His banner material, art ready to print, he's doing all the finish work,
all I had to do is load his material rip, print, & hand him the roll of printed banner... So just my ink & machine. I have no idea what to charge, I'm thinking $15 to $18 ea.
What do you think?

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Ugh, I've done this before for a friend, a very good friend, and I just charged him the materials and my literal time to load, babysit for takeup reel, and laminating.
I'd consider whether or not your buddy would help you out in the same situation, then decide if you want to pocket a favor or pay for the ink... If it was my friend, a very good friend I'll reiterate, I'd pocket the favor because he'd have my back if I was in the same spot.

I agree... If hes a good friend just charge the matieral cost (that he'd be paying anyway). That's what friends are for...relying on others.

 

[Andy D]

Sorry "Buddy" was a bad description choice. He's a nice guy & the shop owner of a screen printing / sign shop & we have a real good working relationships with trade-outs. So this would be a credit against stuff I have him screen print.
You think $15 ea sounds right?

 

[bannertime]

To be honest, that seems high? Considering you can get $1sqft within two days from S365. If I was just throwing pricing around, I'd say anywhere from $0.75 to $1.50sqft is good. So yeah, I guess it's not a bad price. Especially if it's a fast turn around.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

We charge $0.75/sqft for ink and time. So we would be around $7.50/ea

 

[fresh]

i'd probably charge $50-75 hour for how ever long the printing takes. I assume you're doing other stuff while its printing and you're not bumping jobs to get it done. I assume it would take between 3-4 hours to finish, so $200-$300. I don't think i'd charge more than $300.


Edit: I'd probably only charge $150. $2 a linear foot. I actually prefer pricing things per linear foot vs sqft because it doesn't matter if i'm using 5" or 50", i'm still most likely using the same amount of material and its going to take the same amount of time to complete. Sure, ink costs might be differnt, but I don't charge differently for something with 100% coverage vs something with only 5% coverage.

 

[ikarasu]

His material... Artworks all setup.. I presume he's going to hem.and grommet.. Good working relationship, and you guys would charge more than signs365 would charge for banner, print, hemming and grommeting?!

If it's a guy you regularly work with, tell him to bring a pack of beers over when he collects the banners and you guys are even.

I know it's blasphemy to say this, but not every job needs to be for profit. Your trade partner is in a bind and needs help, sometimes gratitude is worth a lot more than making $2-300 on a job. Heck... Maybe next time you're in a bind and need your screenprints rushed, you'll jump to the front of the line because you spent $10 on ink to print him some banners.

Now if you have to charge.... At least charge less than what he can get a fully made banner for from another trade partner. If it's mostly white space... Go in super cheap. Throw the roll on at the end of the day and hit print, tell him to pick it up in the morning.

 

[ams]

I would do it at $2.50/ sq. ft. but if you have the extra time to spare and he is a really good friend, then you could do $1.50. But if it slows up your normal work, it's costing you money.

 

[ddarlak]

Tell him, pay me what you think it's worth, then you don't damage a nice working relationship by gouging him for $15 a banner....

 

[untitled]

Tell him, pay me what you think it's worth, then you don't damage a nice working relationship by gouging him for $15 a banner....

I agree with this guy. He will pay what it's worth to him for getting him out of a bind if he is a decent person. At least cost of ink and some time. If he comes back and doesn't pay anything then you know what kind of person he is in reality. But if he is a decent guy then you know if you are in a bind you have someone that will help you out.

 

[Andy D]

I'm glad I asked, the responses surprised me, I thought $15 might be too cheap.
Keep in mind this will be a credit that I will apply towards screen printed shirts or embroidered
hats from him, down the road.

 

[Billct2]

I agree with those who say, how can you charge more than he could buy them wholesale for? It's a favor for another shop, so I think the $7.50 number is about right.

 

[OhioSigns]

He might have been able to get them from Signs365 for cheap but if you rushed it because he needed it that's worth something. Most shops are not in the business to give wholesale prices and compete with the pricing of Signs365..... they are cheap because they do tons of volume, have buying power for materials and are very systematic and automated........ where we are not. I would be at $1.50 per Sq.Ft. for the ink and time. I think you're spot on at $15 a banner.

 

[Gino]

Most of y'all sound good in practice, but I think you're missing the concern of most business owners.

I would charge for the ink and wear & tear on the machine, and MY time would be donated. However, he said 30 banners. That means for a few hours of the day, your machine will not be making money for your shop. How do you get that back ?? Also, like he said, it's gonna be a credit in his account on their records. I would tell him, $$XX is the cost to put into his books and that's the end of it. He can't be expecting your boss to practically donate something he has absolutely no control over. If that doesn't work, then tell HIM to come in, load it up, do whatever babysitting needed and just charge him at about $6 a banner for ink and 1/2 your hourly cost to run the machine.... ours would be around $135 an hour, so half of that per hour doing his work.

 

[BALLPARK]

I would be around $1.50 per square foot. I would also remind him to keep this in mind when you use the trade with him in terms of your pricing should not be full retail on the trade items.

When we trade with retail clients we get full market value for the value of the trade. But this is not the case for you and I would suggest to help him as you too will need help one day on an order from him.

 

[ddarlak]

I just don't think this even approaches the realm of business to business sales, this is helping a guy out of a jam. this just goes into the silent uncounted category of karma. let him name the price and you'll both be happy.

 

[ColorCrest]

I just don't think this even approaches the realm of business to business sales, this is helping a guy out of a jam. this just goes into the silent uncounted category of karma.

This policy might depend on the local situation. " 'n the day" in my area, shops used certain equipment and processes that would occasionally fail so outsourcing to a local competitor was common. In that era, a certain shop software was used by almost everyone. It accounted for such circumstances. The order entry had a category of "Redo / Promo." Promo being the key word here. At the very least one is promoting good will. Again, in my area at the time, "promos" amounted to thousands of dollars per year for almost every shop, thus an actual concern for accounting. That said, so-called promos could be zero $ as far as the net.

let him name the price and you'll both be happy.

I think this can be a very smart policy.

 

[2B]

If y'all are on good working terms and helpful to each other.
30 SQFT is a minimal run, be a helping source and let the positive energy pay it forward.

IF you have to charge
10 SQFT per banner, we would be closer to $1 per SQFT for an unfinished roll of banner.
There are several MM that will do a finished banner .89SQFT + shipping

 

[Andy D]

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).

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

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