How to calculate cutting vinyl time and price ??

[Kathy Moore]

​	This is what I use in excel, for qty, can you an use a discount or the vlookup function	​	​
​	​	​	​
​	Vinyl cutting calc​	​
​	Height​	8​	​
​	Width​	18​	​
​	TSI​	144​	​
​	Number of letters​	58​	​
​	Qty of sets​	1​	​
​	Cost per letter​	0.35​	20.3​
​	Cost per si​	0.05​	7.2​
​	Cost per order​	$27.50​	​
​	​	​	​

What is TSI?
SI?

 

[Kathy Moore]

Newbie here. Guess someone is going to have to draw me a picture. I do not know what the abbreviations stand for?

 

[MJ-507]

Over in my small town, there are big players, corporates, midsize companies, small fish, m&p's, the whole range. Those big big fish, the ones that have to keep moving, they can be fun to work with, but as the joke goes, why are lawyers safe to swim in shark infested waters? Professional courtesy. They can be great, and they can be a royal PITA. Staff migrate from smaller firms to larger ones, and sometimes, they get to bring along suppliers who they trust.
All jobs get quoted to cover for Rumsfeldian uncertainties, but where the customer is on a real tight budget, if I've come in way under on shop time, And if the client is a decent human being, I'll pass on a little of the savings. Not everyone chooses to maximise profit at any cost. Customers never expect the job to come in under quote, but what goes around sometimes is returned, one way or another.

I suppose it depends on what type of customer you are providing your work to. I've always worked for companies that don't really deal with someone who wants to buy a banner for a retirement party or a yard sign for a high school graduate. For people wanting those sort of items, my current employer recommends they go to a local FastSigns or Sign-a-rama as our overhead is too high to be cost-competitive. Our clients are typically land developers, architects, large-scale property owners/managers, etc. where we are working on multi-million dollar projects. Giving any kind of rebate to them would not gain any 'street cred' as much of the work is on a bid-basis where the lowest (or next to lowest for the smart decision) bid is awarded the job. Not to mention that we are providing the work to pencil pushers at faceless corporations - not to some Mom & Pop who came to the shop while they are out kicking tires to find the best deal. We still get referrals, we are given no-bid jobs, and we do travel w/ some of the pencil pushers when they switch companies, but it's not because we saved them $30. We receive those things because we have great relationships based on building fantastic signs - on time - and tending to mistakes, changes, etc. in a timely manner.

I don't understand, nor agree, with rebating money when the customer felt comfortable enough with your quoted price enough to award you the work but, whatever works for you. I know, as an employee, I'd rather my employer maximize profits so I can receive raises & bonuses that I've earned instead of giving money back to people that didn't mind spending it in the first place. I also don't see anything wrong with wanting to put food on my table instead of someone else's.

 

[karst41]

Good morning group! Could someone guide me to know how to charge the cutting time on my cutting plotter? For example, if I cut a 1 square meter square with many squares inside, should I charge the same for 1 square meter with 2 squares inside? I appreciate your comments on how to collect the cut. Thanks !

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