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lets see if this works:) Help me price

A

appstro

New Member
I got a call Friday. The guy on the phone asked if I do "train" decals... I said well....sure. He then asked if I would be willing to come out on Saturday and take a look at this full size diesel locomotive. I agreed to come on out. Its a 30 mile drive but he assured me that it would be worth the trip. I arrived and could not believe the size of this train engine! My work would not be the huge side decals of the engine company, but the smaller decals that are all over the locomotive. It seems this guy is repainting the entire engine with new colors and instead of masking out the "caution", "no step", "fill here", etc.. decals, he is just going to replace them. Most of the decals are simple black type on white vinyl and average 2 inches x 10 inches. We walked around the locomotive and he called out the measurements while I wrote everything down and took pictures. I counted 25 different decals in various sizes. (total decals being made would be about 50 in the end). One or two of the decals will be plotted vinyl only and are about 20 inches x 38 inches.

I told him I would call him with the quote info as soon as I got home and ran the numbers. I started my quote knowing that I would have to design each decal. They are very simple so I figured my design time at around an hour. I normally do free quotes but in this case I decided to charge him for my trip and work it into the quote. I figured about $240.00 design and labor - thats $60 hr 4 hours total for everything. Then most decals I charged him $2-3.00 each, except for the larger ones which I charged $20.00 each.

So the total I came up with was about $572.00 including taxes. Did I price this right?

I respect your opinions VERY much and expect nothing but your honesty. :) Thanks everyone in advance.:signs101:
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
I believe you're too low.

Your hourly rate is your business, but I think $2-$3. a pop is too cheap.
Also, I think if it's round trip equals an hour, 4 hours doesn't cut it.
You're going to have more than 2 hours in total application time. You're gonna be up and down, over here, over there and all around and you're not considering wasted set up and knock down time at all the different places. You'll have almost a day involved here, 1/2 hour there, 4 hours work, 1/2 hour back and if you're including the quote trip..... another hour.

Only you know what your local market will bear, but $572 doesn't sound like it.
 
John Butto

John Butto

New Member
60 miles round trip / 15 mpg at $4 = $16
trip time (4 hrs @ $60) and taking measurements = $240
material cost, design, printing and cutting (8 hrs @ $60) = $480
total = $736 plus sales tax
 
rjssigns

rjssigns

Active Member
We do industrial labeling for a client and charge per square inch. It is three tiered dependent on size. I would say you're a tad light on pricing. The smallest units we do are the bar codes and those are a buck a pop at 1 x 1.5.(print/lam)
 
A

appstro

New Member
labor has turned out to be about 10 hours total. At $60.00 hr what would have been reasonable? Surely I cannot charge him $600.00 for labor?? I was thinking 6 hours or $360.00 labor...So using Johns figures seems pretty much in line with what I should have charged I think. In the end I was about $200.00 shy of where I needed to be. Final price for everything was $592.00
 
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