How to price products

[bob]

Knowing what to charge is every bit as much a part of being in this business as being able to do the work.

Blindly relying on someone else's algorithm to price your goods means you're not fully competent to be in the business. There's nothing wrong with using an algorithm to produce prices if and only if you understand exactly how it works and you really don't need it, it's just handy.

You should be able to generate a price all by yourself and, if you have some system or another, this system merely should confirm the price you manually produced.

Most packages available are far too detailed and thus produce way too much variation in price for what is fundamentally the same product. Estimate is probably the worst in this regard.

 

[igneous]

bob- i understand and agree with you totally - i know how to and have calculated my shop rate and know what my materials cost - i'm really just looking for some software that allows me to use my rate, enter my mat costs, and calculate costs based on the estimated design time/complexity. how do you price bob>?

 

[sarge]

i use ms access .. it is very easy to set up .. i use it to manage costs, materials, contacts, job status, and a host of other junk that is pretty much just for me .. you can link it to excel using the odbc engine .. have it installed through your network where all devices have access to the application .. so what does it do for me .. i can bring up the customer and know what i charged him and have a visual for all projects and a list of all material used and the cost of that material .. i track the estimate of man hours and a map from my location to his .. i also tract the tax percentage .. and for what it is worth .. i also tract my contacts birthdays, anniversary, kids and spouse .. so i can send a card .. if i have a problem trying to figure out what to charge i SWAG it .. but i would really look at MS Access .. it makes my life so much easier on managing contacts, contracts, materials on hand and material costs and a ball park figure for simular jobs or give a cost estimate for the same

 

[igneous]

hah- funny you would say that, i noticed that GraphixCALC was built on an access platform and was just considering relearning it for that purpose.

great info sarge, thanks a ton

 

[sarge]

yvw .. i have wrote many access db's for my clients .. if your handy enough to add lipstick to that pig you could personalize it for them (your clients) just like graphicCALC, and give your business another dimension .. i have never seen graphicCALC .. but i do understand what your saying