Banner Rentals

[Billct2]

I agree, neon still has it's place, nothing looks as good a a beautifully designed and built exposed neon unit.
But neon should be a high end valuable product given the skill/expertise involved in doing it right. Why waste your time on $10 crappy banners, spend that time building your network. Lots of small shops used to offer neon till it became really difficult to find a reliable reputable supplier/installer.

 

[CanuckSigns]

If people aren't going to buy one for $45 why would they rent one for $30? Why would I whole sale when I can rent them my self? Selling to some one else doesn't get me returning profits. It doesn't matter is I rent one a month if its paying for it self after 2 rentals.

No offense but its people like you who leave people like this woman with nothing. If I can offer them something and take the business you turn away because they don't want to spend exorbitant amounts of a single time use sign that looks like good business to me.

$10 may be too low but its still better than zero. I still don't see how making money is wasting time.It's only a waste if you are losing money. $10 covers everything and then some.

I see attitudes like yours a lot in the other companies around here. I also see them losing bids to us because we come in much lower. Sometimes thousands of dollars lower for a set of channel letters.

Yup, you sound like the town lowballer, how on earth is $45 an "exorbitant" amount of money? maybe you should go to the dollar store and get some cardboard and sharpies.

 

[jiarby]

LOL!!

I also see them losing bids to us because we come in much lower

I am sure they are all busted up over losing out on the $10 banner job. No doubt you price all your other work accordingly.


You are pretty green around here to be saying things like this...

its people like you...

I see attitudes like yours

You do not know me at all... do you?

All you know about me is that I took the time to read your thread and make a comment about why I thought it was a bad idea and I offered what I believed to be a better solution.

I guess that makes me a real a$$hole.


For $10 all I'd give her is a 24x72" piece of butcher paper and a sharpie marker. I do not give a rats a$$ if she leaves with nothing.

Based on my sales goals and overhead costs my shop has to sell $75-100 every hour of every day. 48 hours a week 50 weeks a year. If I spend more than 8 minutes on a $10 job then I have to make it up somewhere else.

It seems to me that you are confusing making a profit with making a sale.
If I am not putzing with the $10 girl then I can be doing other work that makes me more money.

So,

You asked for advice.

Any one else do this? Good Idea? Any tips? $10 to little? Opinions? Snide remarks?

I gave it.

Send the $10 jobs packing and focus on getting $xxx jobs.

You disagree with me. It's a free world I guess.

You definitely came to the wrong forum if all you want is for people to agree with you and blow rainbows and lollipops up your butt all day.

I guess you were not being honest when you said you wanted opinions about your plans, what you REALLY meant was you wanted opinions THAT AGREE WITH YOURS...

 

[TheSnowman]

Mosh 2.0.

I think you did great thinking outside the box. You may rent things like that out, and I think it'd be a good idea if there's a market for it...but yea, raise the price...it's gotta be worth your time. I had a $25 minimum for a while, but anyone that that price applied to, usually was wasting all kinds of time picking my brain about stuff and wanting to chat, so I had to raise it to $45 now, and I know I'm still generally cheaper than most here on that price.

I lose stuff all the time, but I'm also not working hours and hours and hours, missing time with my family and friends, to make the same money as the joker up the street that works for free, but has to work 80 hours a week (and be busy the whole time) to pay his bills.

 

[gnemmas]

I sent these "consumer" customer to party supply store where it suits them.

Overhead...Overhead...Overhead.

You are overlooking your times worth. What does it take from greeting the customer to finally write up the order? Let's say you got this rental process down to a science, it take 5 minutes, plus 5 minutes of production time, plus 5 minutes return processing time. 15 minutes at my hop rate of $65/hour, it cost us $16.25, it is our COST!!

Even for a loss leader for marketing purpose, you're barking at the wrong tree. Try the "Coming Soon" or "Grand Opening" rental, as a goodwill for commercial clients.

 

[Gino]

I guess you're right.... it's a free world and anyone is free to run their business anyway they see fit. As long as your other signs and neon work are paying the bills, if you feel like helping someone like this out..... knock yourself out, but it still is a bad and lousy marketing plan for $10.

When someone comes in with a story about how they can't afford this..... or that's too much money.... I always wonder what they do for a living.... or maybe in what ways do they waste their hard-earned money that $25. for something like this to be too expensive ??

They'll spend $40 on a decorated cake, $35. on soda and ice cream, $30 on snacks and $20 on plates and a birthday hat, but $25 is too much to spend on little Jimmie or Suzy to have a banner for their 4th birthday to keep forever.

Instead of wasting valuable and precious time with folks like this.... I make them a quick offer. I'll print something out in full color for $25 on a piece of nice paper at 2' x 5' and they pay me cash. Heck, I'll even scan in a photo of the kid and put it on for that price. I charge the sales tax on top. That's a total of $26.50. If they can't afford that, then I tell them I'll give them some paper and they can draw it up on their own.


Don't be a chump for $10. Heck, I feel bad doing it at $25. but I tell myself, I'm helping them out. Otherwise, I'd be renting signs out by the armful with your reasoning.

 

[Jillbeans]

I personally think this is a very bad idea.
If they can't afford $50 for a banner why are they even having a damn party?
I sell at least 1 2x4 banner for $50 every week, one color polybanner.
The party thrower buys a Sharpie and all the guests sign it.
It becomes a keepsake.
I think $50 is even too cheap.
By the time you listen to the rant of the cheapie mom, cut weed mask and stick the vynull you've already wasted at least a half hour of your life that you will never get back.
Then you have to peel the stuff off for the next mom, if the first one brings it back, adding another 15 minutes to the initial 30.
All this for ten measly dollars?
Not worth it.
Love....Jill

 

[The Phranc]

Yup, you sound like the town lowballer, how on earth is $45 an "exorbitant" amount of money? maybe you should go to the dollar store and get some cardboard and sharpies.

$45 for a banner you are going to use only once is a lot for the average American worker to spend. This isn't for a business.

Is the cardboard and sharpy quip intended as an insult?

 

[routierracing]

renting

10 is just way to low to mess with anyway you look at it. So that needs to go up.

Here's another thing to think about though for everyone who mentioned the pain of not getting them back or damage. If you can get a deposit for the amount you charge retail for that banner, then you can actually hope that they DO NOT bring the banner back. Or if its a day late you pull out enough to cover the next day. Its the same principal redbox uses to make a lot of their money. They are better off when you dont return the movies. But if the customer isn't willing to leave a deposit for the full amount, it isnt worth doing.

 

[The Phranc]

LOL!!


I am sure they are all busted up over losing out on the $10 banner job. No doubt you price all your other work accordingly.

No doubt at all.

You are pretty green around here to be saying things like this...



You do not know me at all... do you?

All you know about me is that I took the time to read your thread and make a comment about why I thought it was a bad idea and I offered what I believed to be a better solution.

I guess that makes me a real a$$hole.

I don't have to know you. A simple understanding of how the English language works and a reading of your posts are all I need to know to discern your attitude. And how long I have been a member here has no bearing on my understanding of the words you typed out.

For $10 all I'd give her is a 24x72" piece of butcher paper and a sharpie marker. I do not give a rats a$$ if she leaves with nothing.

See another example of your attitude. I don't have to know to know what you are about. You display it for every one to see. That attitude is what makes you an azzhole.

Based on my sales goals and overhead costs my shop has to sell $75-100 every hour of every day. 48 hours a week 50 weeks a year. If I spend more than 8 minutes on a $10 job then I have to make it up somewhere else.

Thats splendid. I understand if your over is too high and you can't bring your self to do things for lesser people.

It seems to me that you are confusing making a profit with making a sale.
If I am not putzing with the $10 girl then I can be doing other work that makes me more money.

No I understand what a profit is just fine.

So,

You asked for advice.


I gave it.


You disagree with me. It's a free world I guess.

You definitely came to the wrong forum if all you want is for people to agree with you and blow rainbows and lollipops up your butt all day.

I guess you were not being honest when you said you wanted opinions about your plans, what you REALLY meant was you wanted opinions THAT AGREE WITH YOURS...

Where did I say all I wanted was people to agree with me? I was being honest but I understand how you might think I wasn't seeing the attitude you have. Other people disagreed with me but unlike you they didn't come off as an uppity snob with a stick up his butt.

 

[CanuckSigns]

$45 for a banner you are going to use only once is a lot for the average American worker to spend. This isn't for a business.

Is the cardboard and sharpy quip intended as an insult?

I don't think you are understanding the concept that your time is worth something, if you are of the mindset that "the raw materials only cost me $2 so I can sell it for $5 and make money" then I suggest a career in a retail flooring business, everything by the square foot.

Every dollar store I have ever been in has had "Happy Birthday" Banners made from cheap polypropelene for $1, if the customer is so strapped for cash, send them there.

I challenge you, next time a customer comes into your shop needing a very small job, get a stopwatch and time how long it really takes from the minute they place the order to the time they pick it up, you will be amazed!

 

[HulkSmash]

I Honestly don't think you can even buy a pack of sharpies and a cardboard box for 10 bucks. Just sayin.

 

[routierracing]

You have to understand a lot of what people are upset about is devaluing your (and more importantly all of our's) craft. Everytime we cave to do something for next to nothing, myself included, we think "well xx dollars i didn't have anyway." Then you hear from them or their friend expecting another cheap deal possibly this time for something for their business. You shoot them a more than fair price and they think wow I had something similar done a while back for a third of that.

So you see you end up working your butt off to barely cover overhead that way. And in the process of only hurting youself your also lowering the public view of what our craft is worth hurting all of us.

 

[routierracing]

I Honestly don't think you can even buy a pack of sharpies and a cardboard box for 10 bucks. Just sayin.

haha Great point! I good salesmen would mention they can barely make a handmade banner for that.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

This isn't for a business.

Bingo! You're right, it's not for a business. But that doesn't matter, assuming you are a business.

The fact that a business isn't buying the banner should have zero bearing on the price you charge whatsoever. Your costs involved in producing the banner are not affected by the end user or the intended use, so why should your selling price be? And how is it your problem that they can't afford your normal price for a banner?

I'm not cold hearted, I'mall for helping people out and finding ways to service a person's budget, but sometimes there's nothing you can do. Shooting yourself in the foot and taking a $10 order because $10 is all they can afford is bad business. If they can't afford what you have to charge to make a living, that isn't your problem. The best thing you can do for them is to send them on their way.

 

[CanuckSigns]

You have to understand a lot of what people are upset about is devaluing your (and more importantly all of our's) craft. Everytime we cave to do something for next to nothing, myself included, we think "well xx dollars i didn't have anyway." Then you hear from them or their friend expecting another cheap deal possibly this time for something for their business. You shoot them a more than fair price and they think wow I had something similar done a while back for a third of that.

So you see you end up working your butt off to barely cover overhead that way. And in the process of only hurting youself your also lowering the public view of what our craft is worth hurting all of us.

What scares me the most is that HE even thinks he's overpriced, if there is one person who should value your work it's YOU!

 

[The Phranc]

You have to understand a lot of what people are upset about is devaluing your (and more importantly all of our's) craft. Everytime we cave to do something for next to nothing, myself included, we think "well xx dollars i didn't have anyway." Then you hear from them or their friend expecting another cheap deal possibly this time for something for their business. You shoot them a more than fair price and they think wow I had something similar done a while back for a third of that.

So you see you end up working your butt off to barely cover overhead that way. And in the process of only hurting youself your also lowering the public view of what our craft is worth hurting all of us.

I do value my time for what it is worth just not for the maximum I can get for it. Honestly sticking a number on something isn't worth $40 an hour. Now the designing I do for neon pasterns is but the labour it takes to make a plex face or plex box isn't.

Is $10 too cheap? Looks like it might be but at the same time it sure isn't worth $40 were a purchased banner would be, if not more.

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

FYI the going rate for a pack of cigarettes in New York is over $11.00. The taxes have forever changed the lives of people who use to work for beer money as they're now working for butts.

 

[Red Ball]

I just love this forum.

 

[HulkSmash]

He's been in business for almost a year now. Lay off him, he know's what he's doing...