Is my pricing too high for printed vinyl?

[Stacey K]

I've had a request to print a prepared race car wrap file of 164 square feet. No laminate, just IJ35 on my latex. It was professionally designed so probably 30 minutes of set-up. I didn't get the job the second year in a row (which is fine) because I would not match or get within a little bit of $2.72 square foot. I told the customer that if I sent it to my lowest wholesaler (Signs365) I would paying more than per square foot.

Am I crazy expensive or is she crazy cheap? I would think pricing for this should be a minimum or $4 a square foot - of which I was higher than that.

 

[Gino]

Don't worry about how low that other nitwit can go. It's not easy working for next to nothing and still pay YOUR bills. Let them dive to the bottom in a hurry. Then, you can buy their cheap-a$$ printer and do it for $4.72 a SF.

 

[Pauly]

If the pricing their asking for is cheaper than a trade printer. don't waste your time.
The quoted supplier is undercutting and probably wont be in business for long.

I see this a lot.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

You should be charging far more than $4/sqft no matter what the film is, unless of course it's a material you always have loaded and it's literally just hitting print.

I can tell you non-professional racers, in majority, are some of the worst clients. They want everything for nothing because they know it will get wrecked and your time, abilities, and service is not worth anything to them. I would avoid racing to the bottom on anyone's behalf, especially theirs.

 

[netsol]

gino, that depends
THE MARKET SETS THE PRICE

you are, of course, correct IF STACY IS GETTING ENOUGH WORK.
keep in mind that she hasn't been in the business for 40 plus years and doesn't have your market share and name recognition

when i was in the commercial video business, (1980) and took on several chains of video stores, taking in repairs, (with our operation doing all the repairs) one used to brag to me that he charged almost double what his competitors charged AND HE GOT HIS PRICE.

we took him on as a reseller, and he had higher volume than everyone else.

(1) he had 6 declined estimates for each that was accepted
(2) a week later we would see the same repair, from another reseller (same customer) their price would be 1/3 lower and it would be accepted

point is, THE MARKET SETS THE PRICE just like it is with everything else

stacy may not be able to sustain the same rejection rate that you are comfortable with

 

[Pauly]

gino, that depends
THE MARKET SETS THE PRICE

you are, of course, correct IF STACY IS GETTING ENOUGH WORK.
keep in mind that she hasn't been in the business for 40 plus years and doesn't have your market share and name recognition

when i was in the commercial video business, (1980) and took on several chains of video stores, taking in repairs, (with our operation doing all the repairs) one used to brag to me that he charged almost double what his competitors charged AND HE GOT HIS PRICE.

we took him on as a reseller, and he had higher volume than everyone else.

(1) he had 6 declined estimates for each that was accepted
(2) a week later we would see the same repair, from another reseller (same customer) their price would be 1/3 lower and it would be accepted

point is, THE MARKET SETS THE PRICE just like it is with everything else

stacy may not be able to sustain the same rejection rate that you are comfortable with

This is correct too.
But it depends how bastardised the product is.
If everyone is going it at $2 sq/ft, then you should be around there too.
If you're at $4 and everyone is around $2- $3 then you'll find it harder to get the jobs at $4.

 

[netsol]

i have never printed a wrap.
$2.72 sf may be totally unrealistic
my axe to grind is stacey has a really nice new printer, and tons of new capabilities
I WANT TO SEE HER SUCESSFUL.
my thinking may not be correct, i would want to keep the printer busy, and test my capability printing a wrap (which she may be much more experienced at)

 

[Gino]

gino, that depends
THE MARKET SETS THE PRICE

you are, of course, correct IF STACY IS GETTING ENOUGH WORK.
keep in mind that she hasn't been in the business for 40 plus years and doesn't have your market share and name recognition

when i was in the commercial video business, (1980) and took on several chains of video stores, taking in repairs, (with our operation doing all the repairs) one used to brag to me that he charged almost double what his competitors charged AND HE GOT HIS PRICE.

we took him on as a reseller, and he had higher volume than everyone else.

(1) he had 6 declined estimates for each that was accepted
(2) a week later we would see the same repair, from another reseller (same customer) their price would be 1/3 lower and it would be accepted

point is, THE MARKET SETS THE PRICE just like it is with everything else

stacy may not be able to sustain the same rejection rate that you are comfortable with

For most of the people here...... can you put that into more plain english ??

And no, the market does not set the price, unless you have people secretly manipulating pricing. That, is illegal.

Regardless of where you are located in the country or the world, regardless of how many employees you do and don't have, regardless of anything..... if your work is acceptable, you will get your price. Anyone choosing not to use you is either a cheapskate or doesn't know of your existence.

You actually believe that if I live in a run-down area, I hafta charge what the other dipsh!ts are charging, cause they don't know anything about business ??

We stopped doing race cars and such about 15 years ago..... give or take. Reason had nothing to do with set market price. Just had to do with our views changed. However, when doing a race car or a plumber's truck or anything else...... we got our price, otherwise, we turned the job down. I'd rather letter one race car for $2,500, than to do 10 of them for $250 and make the same money. Work smart, not match the other fools.

 

[Gino]

i have never printed a wrap.
$2.72 sf may be totally unrealistic
my axe to grind is stacey has a really nice new printer, and tons of new capabilities
I WANT TO SEE HER SUCESSFUL.
my thinking may not be correct, i would want to keep the printer busy, and test my capability printing a wrap (which she may be much more experienced at)

And gain the reputation that she's a cheap shop like all the other a$$holes ?? That reputation is very hard to break, when she finds out what she could really be making. Heck, that's why she's here. She senses things are not right in her area. Rise about the rest...... it shouldn't be too hard. Do good quality work and you WILL succeed..... at your own pace, not those bottomfeeders.

 

[Pauly]

i have never printed a wrap.
$2.72 sf may be totally unrealistic
my axe to grind is stacey has a really nice new printer, and tons of new capabilities
I WANT TO SEE HER SUCESSFUL.
my thinking may not be correct, i would want to keep the printer busy, and test my capability printing a wrap (which she may be much more experienced at)

This is where she needs to do the math and see if it's worth it.
Yeah if she wants, and knows there's still a profit to be made with charging $2.7 sq/ft and the printer isn't doing much.
Then she could take the job, run the printer, make something off it.
That should be about 2 hours to print? 3? i don't know how fast her printer is.

 

[rjssigns]

I've had a request to print a prepared race car wrap file of 164 square feet. No laminate, just IJ35 on my latex. It was professionally designed so probably 30 minutes of set-up. I didn't get the job the second year in a row (which is fine) because I would not match or get within a little bit of $2.72 square foot. I told the customer that if I sent it to my lowest wholesaler (Signs365) I would paying more than per square foot.

Am I crazy expensive or is she crazy cheap? I would think pricing for this should be a minimum or $4 a square foot - of which I was higher than that.

I assume this is a "roundy pounder" so here goes.
First rule of lettering or wrapping race cars is don't do them.
They will spend tens of thousands of dollars on an engine then spend countless dollars more on suspension parts etc...
When it comes to getting their car done all they do is whine and beg you to do it really cheap. Oh and they will bring you lots of business too. Yeah right.

Stick to your guns on price and send them to the low ball bottom feeder in your town.

 

[victor bogdanov]

I would gladly print a ready file for $2.72 per sq ft with no laminate. that's 50 cents materials/ink per sq ft. 164 sq ft = $300 profit for 20min of print time on my Colorado. On my Roland that's probably an hr of print time and a little more ink cost but still profitable.

 

[Gino]

Are you trying to see how little money you can make ?? This isn't an exercise in who can do it cheaper and still make a few cents.

Work smart, not dumb..... and for peanuts. After you figure in your phone time, internet time, set up time, trimming and rolling it up, you'll have at least another hour of time invested.

Try this on...... what happens if you've just started this job and a quick turnaround job comes through you've been waiting on for 5 banners at $425 a piece and they need them by 5 o'clock today ?? Are you still making money, since ya hafta turn that banner job down to get this other one finished on time, too ??

Ya can't have pricing all over the place willie-nillie. Cripes, that's what 1/2 the threads are about in this place..... keeping things in line and making everything profitable. But no-o-o-o-o-o.......... you can make money doing this job for next to nothing.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Id assume that the material and ink costs are about $1sq/ft doing this so it's not terrible if you are basing the square footage off of the actual amount of material used rather than the print square footage. You can't always compare actual work to hypothetical work. If you have a big backlog than it may not be the right thing to do but if you have the available time and capacity, I personally feel like I'd rather be making some money with it than no money. The bad thing with cheap people is there is never an opportunity with them to make up the money. There are no doors to be opened with these types, it's all cheap work or no work.
It takes 2 things to be in the race game, 1. You have to have money because it is an expensive hobby. 2. You have to have no shame in asking every single person you know to give you something for free and ask all of your friends to help you work on your car for free.

 

[Z SIGNS]

Sorry to be blunt. But you have asked a dumb question.
When you are in business there is no such thing charging to much.
You are in charge of your pricing. It's based on the true value of your work and what you need to get to make a profit.
It is NOT based on what the guy next door is charging.
Do good work and outshine your competition and you can get whatever you ask

 

[victor bogdanov]

Try this on...... what happens if you've just started this job and a quick turnaround job comes through you've been waiting on for 5 banners at $425 a piece and they need them by 5 o'clock today ?? Are you still making money, since ya hafta turn that banner job down to get this other one finished on time, too ??

I have 4 printers, an extra 164sq ft isn't going to prevent me from doing a job. Worst case scenario I'm so slammed i can't do the banners, I have a good friend 5 minutes from my shop that specializes in banners and he'll knock them out no problem at wholesale pricing for me.

I'd rather get the job and do it at $2.72 than not get it at all. A printer going 8hrs per day at $2.72 per sq ft on 40 cent/foot material is good money

 

[netsol]

gino is correct, in that, once you do a job for that customer you have pretty much set your price for life...
that being said, he is already in the category of a customer i hope finds someone else to do business with

 

[Stacey K]

Thanks for the replies. I do have enough work right now. Since I just bought my printer I have not had a request like this yet so that’s why I’m asking. I also need to be careful that these race types are not above lying to get a deal. I guess he wasn’t lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Try this on...... what happens if you've just started this job and a quick turnaround job comes through you've been waiting on for 5 banners at $425 a piece and they need them by 5 o'clock today ?? Are you still making money, since ya hafta turn that banner job down to get this other one finished on time, too ??

No, you tell the racecar guy that you ran out of ink and it's backordered because of Covid. Then do the good jobs and when you're freed up again, that ink will magically show up so you can finish the nonsense work.

 

[Gino]

I have 4 printers, an extra 164sq ft isn't going to prevent me from doing a job. Worst case scenario I'm so slammed i can't do the banners, I have a good friend 5 minutes from my shop that specializes in banners and he'll knock them out no problem at wholesale pricing for me.

I'd rather get the job and do it at $2.72 than not get it at all. A printer going 8hrs per day at $2.72 per sq ft on 40 cent/foot material is good money

Here we go again........ we're not talking about you and your setup. The OP has one printer, so that's the example I gave, not some make-believe fantasy set up.

I guess being a bottom feeder can pay off, if you have 4 printers. That makes more sense, now. You rely on quantity, rather than quality and work for pennies on the dollar. Yep, you figured out capitalism when coming to this country.