first time making menus for a restaurant..how much should i be charging?

[0igo]

so i have a customer that wants menus (4 for each table) and i have no idea how much to charge.. how much do you guys recommend i charge? ps i usually charge $1000 for everything even for 500 business cards but no one ever buys so then i am forced to sell 2500 business cards for $150. anyways any help is appreciated thanks guys .

 

[J Hill Designs]

(costs x 2) + (labor x $shoprate)

 

[TimToad]

so i have a customer that wants menus (4 for each table) and i have no idea how much to charge.. how much do you guys recommend i charge? ps i usually charge $1000 for everything even for 500 business cards but no one ever buys so then i am forced to sell 2500 business cards for $150. anyways any help is appreciated thanks guys .

So, you have a set $1,000 price for anything you design or produce?

Do you make signs on a regular basis?

Do you do graphic design on a regular basis?

The previously stated formula seems like a good place to start. You might even surprise yourself and get a few jobs if you apply some real world processes to your pricing.

 

[CanuckSigns]

i usually charge $1000 for everything even for 500 business cards but no one ever buys so then i am forced to sell 2500 business cards for $150.

you charge $1000 for everything?...
you seem surprised that no one want to spend $2 per business card?!?

 

[Gino]

Can you give us a realistic number of how many they want and what the design/layout will be ??

I guess my problem with this is...... this is offset printing most likely. Why not just send them directly to the proper printer and just look forward to the next job...... which might be the menu boards up on the wall or a sign outside.

 

[Rick]

There are a million ways to make a menu... but first...

Are you doing the layout?
4 menus per table means nothing to us, how many menus total? Do they need extras as menus tend to get nasty after a while....
How will you be making them?
Are they inserts going into a sleeve?

 

[0igo]

So, you have a set $1,000 price for anything you design or produce?

Do you make signs on a regular basis?

Do you do graphic design on a regular basis?

The previously stated formula seems like a good place to start. You might even surprise yourself and get a few jobs if you apply some real world processes to your pricing.

No it was a joke. What I meant to say is that I would love to sell all my work and products really high but of course they would never get sold. I said it because I knew someone was going to say something like sell them for a million dollars.

 

[0igo]

(costs x 2) + (labor x $shoprate)

Of course I never forget to charge for labor and design but let's get that out the way.. I don't want to charge like $200 for something like 16 menus because that would set the margins way down I feel for my area.

 

[0igo]

Can you give us a realistic number of how many they want and what the design/layout will be ??

I guess my problem with this is...... this is offset printing most likely. Why not just send them directly to the proper printer and just look forward to the next job...... which might be the menu boards up on the wall or a sign outside.

It will most likely be around 16-20 menus sort of like brochures that are printed and then laminated. I don't know how much to charge for this and don't want to low ball this project.. I want to keep prices around the same baseline with my other competitors in the area

 

[Gino]

For a menu, there is no reason to laminate them. They'll be shot long before any lamination will help anything, except raise the cost. For something like 110lb offset gloss print, full color, you'd be about $1.50 ea. Go to 100 pieces and you'd be around 50¢ ea.

 

[TimToad]

It will most likely be around 16-20 menus sort of like brochures that are printed and then laminated. I don't know how much to charge for this and don't want to low ball this project.. I want to keep prices around the same baseline with my other competitors in the area

Single page? Multiple pages? How many?

The bulk of the cost will be in the design time. Especially if its multiple pages.

There really isn't much in the way of material costs.

 

[0igo]

woah Gino coming through with answers! thanks man

 

[Rick]

Of course I never forget to charge for labor and design but let's get that out the way.. I don't want to charge like $200 for something like 16 menus because that would set the margins way down I feel for my area.

Menus are about the hardest thing to design, we recently did one where we went back and forth for weeks before finally nailing it... this menu changes 4 times a year. Once we set up the template, they layout the seasonal menus. It's the time it takes, not what people charge in your area. We start at 350.00 bucks a page.

Menus for some chump greasy spoon may be a quickie layout, then there are gastropubs and restaurants that want a certain look, there is not set price or method of print for a menu until that is confirmed with the client.

From the little info you have given, I agree with Gino... though I would get 500, easier to replace the menus than cleaning yucky greasy laminated menus.

Besides the books I have on menu design, my favorite place to see menus are here:
http://www.underconsideration.com/artofthemenu/

 

[0igo]

Menus are about the hardest thing to design, we recently did one where we went back and forth for weeks before finally nailing it... this menu changes 4 times a year. Once we set up the template, they layout the seasonal menus. It's the time it takes, not what people charge in your area. We start at 350.00 bucks a page.

Menus for some chump greasy spoon may be a quickie layout, then there are gastropubs and restaurants that want a certain look, there is not set price or method of print for a menu until that is confirmed with the client.

From the little info you have given, I agree with Gino... though I would get 500, easier to replace the menus than cleaning yucky greasy laminated menus.

Besides the books I have on menu design, my favorite place to see menus are here:
http://www.underconsideration.com/artofthemenu/

thank you this is really helps a lot. i have yet to do menus myself. i usually just ordered them from another sign shop. i plan on printing the menus on some poster paper from walmart and folding them myself.

 

[HDvinyl]

 

[TheresYourSign]

thank you this is really helps a lot. i have yet to do menus myself. i usually just ordered them from another sign shop. i plan on printing the menus on some poster paper from walmart and folding them myself.

With an office jet printer? Print on poster paper from Walmart... I see so many problems with this like quality. I'm still not sure what you're trying to ask us. Are you designing menus from start to finish or did the customer supply a design and you're going to print it- on your Walmart poster paper? Realistically order the menus from a vendor/shop that specializes in printing menus and mark it up to something you think is reasonable or they'll just go to... vista print.

 

[phototec]

What kind of printer are you using?


Along with my Roland 54" eco-sol inkjet printer, I also have a Epson Stylus Pro aqueous inkjet printer (for printing 17" wide photographs), you can't print on Wal-Mart poster paper because the ink bleeds, you need special coated papers to receive the ink so it doesn't bleed into the paper.

 

[player]

This is not a very professional thread.

 

[reQ]

I like how this dude builds his business & pricing from the forum threads ^^

 

[HDvinyl]

Some people should NOT be in this line of work, like a man with shaky hands should NOT aspire to be a surgeon.