Our company does a lot of screen printing and some Edge printed decals, but we are relatively new to the digital printing market. We bought a Mimaki JV3 a while back and have used it for banners and for some decals, but we are getting requests for higher-end digital prints and, at the risk of crossing into forbidden territory, I'm at a loss for what to charge. I know what my costs are, but I need a rule of thumb on these digital prints. Is there a per SF charge that is relatively standard? I will probably be using 1440x720 profiles with a lot of ink coverage, so any guidance would be appreciated. I don't want to price myself out of the job, but I also don't want to undercharge them, which hurts all of us. Thanks in advance and if this is not appropriate, let me know. I am a newbie to this site.
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How much to charge - want to be a good citizen!
- Thread starter MarkH42
- Start date
speedmedia
New Member
Yeah, I would assume you want to double, or triple your materials + shop rate. This is sort of a loaded question though, what one person gets is going to be different than another. You have to rule in your costs and operating costs, employees etc to determine your rate. You may sell it at 6 PSF and we may sell them at 8psf (obviously just throwing around numbers)
Only you know how much profit you need to make to continue in business and make it worth while.
Thanks,
Kurt
Only you know how much profit you need to make to continue in business and make it worth while.
Thanks,
Kurt
iSign
New Member
Kurt is correct, although it is the more complicated answer, it is also the way to operate your business for survival. You need to know your hard costs of the ink & media, but also the annual, monthly, weekly and finally, as a mathematical by-product of the above... your hourly costs to remain in operation, which of course includes ALL your overhead, including the price of your JV3, maintenance, and of course your wages for non production work too... so figuring out YOUR "shop rate" that's required for YOU to remain profitable is critical.
Besides that, sometimes a quick comparison of other peoples pricing can help in a pinch, but don't let the ease of finding that info (here or elsewhere) keep you from doing the hard work to ascertain your monthly nut, your own amount of administrative hours vs. productive hours you are willing to invest & the profit you desire. If you are honest with the numbers, you will know how to price.
I've been printing for 6 years with my JV3, and I charge $10 / sq. ft 80% of the time. In 6 years, I've printed higher than 720x720 maybe 3 times. I doubt you will need to print that high rez either.
Besides that, sometimes a quick comparison of other peoples pricing can help in a pinch, but don't let the ease of finding that info (here or elsewhere) keep you from doing the hard work to ascertain your monthly nut, your own amount of administrative hours vs. productive hours you are willing to invest & the profit you desire. If you are honest with the numbers, you will know how to price.
I've been printing for 6 years with my JV3, and I charge $10 / sq. ft 80% of the time. In 6 years, I've printed higher than 720x720 maybe 3 times. I doubt you will need to print that high rez either.
Great information. Because this is somewhat out of our normal range of business thus far, calculations are a little muddy, but I'm narrowing it down. My next post will be asking about 4 passes vs. 8 or 16, uni-directional vs. bi-directional and dpi. Time isn't an issue at this point on the Mimaki, so I'm guessing more passes and uni-directional add time and resolution, but not ink usage, whereas the dpi effects ink usage. If I'm wrong, somebody let me know! Thanks for the input!