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Cut Vinyl Pricing

SignGuy45212

Printing, Engraving, CNC Routing
If I'm cutting out, say the "Toyota" and it's only 1.5" tall by 9" wide.
How do you price cut vinyl for something like this?
Say I'm at $9 a square foot.
Would you price by the actual size of the logo, or would you price by the width of the vinyl: say 15" wide, by the 9" long?

the logo calculates to be something like 90 cents, if I calculate just the logo.
But then, some other logos seems too high if I choose the roll width. Any help in finding a basic guide would be great.
 

ddarlak

Go Bills!
if this is the entire job, one piece of vinyl that small then cost of vinyl doesn't even come into play for the final cost of the job.

this would fall into a minimum price you have to maintain your level of satisfaction on how much your time is worth.
 

Billct2

Active Member
If you are talking about one piece you need to have a minimum unless it can wait to be done with other stuff.
I hate little jobs like that, even with a minimum they are loser. You take the order anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes (if you're lucky),
set up the design cut file, another 5-15 minutes (assuming there's no approval process), load the material, cut/weed/tape, another 5-15 minutes,
produce the invoice, another 5 minutes, customer picks up and pays 5-10 minutes.....
 

Signed Out

New Member
In case you think $50 is too much for a one off custom made high performance cast vinyl decal... Value meals at McD's are like $12 now.
 

equippaint

Active Member
So what do you do when its one of your regular heavy hitters that needs this sort of thing every so often? That's more typical for us and it ends up like Billct described. It seems like you could ruin a good relationship over $2 in vinyl but you cant give everything away either.
 

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
So what do you do when its one of your regular heavy hitters that needs this sort of thing every so often? That's more typical for us and it ends up like Billct described. It seems like you could ruin a good relationship over $2 in vinyl but you cant give everything away either.

If it's small and they rarely order small stuff then I just do it for free... I'm not charging a good customer that orders a lot for $40 or $50...its silly. If they order small stuff regularly then I charge a minimum.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
With any luck or careful planning, you're printing most of the day on your printers/cutters. Hopefully, they're running pretty much 6 or so hours a day, so it shouldn't be too hard to fit a small thing like that in anywhere and just gang it in and use decent pricing for the person. If ya wanna be persnickety, you can charge a walloping minimum charge, but be sure everything is posted on your wall, before you just start making up numbers...... or it'll look like you're making this sh!t up. It should already be a policy of this sort of thing already in place... If not, make a policy sign, post it and start adhering to it.
 

bannertime

Active Member
So what do you do when its one of your regular heavy hitters that needs this sort of thing every so often? That's more typical for us and it ends up like Billct described. It seems like you could ruin a good relationship over $2 in vinyl but you cant give everything away either.

At that point we charge $3.95 sqft per color with a minimum charge of $15. Occasionally we'll just give it to them. Even more rare, I'll cut it and let them weed/tape it.

For walk-ins it's a 2x2 single color piece with setup for $45. Whatever you can fit in it. If i can do it on the spot, I may go like $25 if it only takes a few minutes (5-10.) There are people that will balk at that price and mention some guy at Traders Village that'll do it dirt cheap. So I typically tell people to go find him if they don't want to wait while I do it on the spot for $45. I've found that if a customer can't wait, I never get around to doing the job so you either wait now or it could be up to two weeks.

Earlier this week a walk in needed like 6 green squares and white numbers. Didn't even want them cut out, taped, or numbers applied to the green. I had both cutters open and it literally took less than 10 minutes for everything. He had $50 cash out before I even started to write it up. I'd do that all day long if I could, but that's not realistic. lol
 

pkeshtgani

New Member
we charge by the linear yard. Plus the cost of weeding. If you buy it by the yard. You charge it by the yard.
For example 22x54” = 2 yards of 24” vinyl = 2x$18 + $10/15min for weeding and tape.
 
If I'm cutting out, say the "Toyota" and it's only 1.5" tall by 9" wide.
How do you price cut vinyl for something like this?
Say I'm at $9 a square foot.
Would you price by the actual size of the logo, or would you price by the width of the vinyl: say 15" wide, by the 9" long?

the logo calculates to be something like 90 cents, if I calculate just the logo.
But then, some other logos seems too high if I choose the roll width. Any help in finding a basic guide would be great.

I price this at a round up 2 square feet. 18 dollars. Its not the vinyl its your time and work.
 

Jeremiah

New Member
make that while drinking coffee and talking on the phone in 15 min tops, weeded, transferred in a bag. Have 20-25.00 in your hand.
 

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
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HulkSmash

New Member
$250 minimum in our shop.

$350 if it requires us getting a vehicle to do something offsite. No matter how small.

If it's a large client, we do regular work for, we literally just add it to the daily burn, and give it to them, as making an invoice for it will cost more than the actual job.
 
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