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Local competition wants my help.

dirttoo

dirttoo

New Member
A local guy with a home based shop only does vinyl cutting and is looking for some things printed from time to time. He contacted me and we met. All went well and he said he has been paying $5.50 per linear foot for 30" intermediate material from his previous printer who was out of town and required aditional shipping cost. I work from my home and I have a Mimaki CJV. I am very new at printing and I was wondering if his prices seem fair? He seems to have quite a bit of work if i'm interested. Thanks for any info you can share.
 
tsgstl

tsgstl

New Member
That's only $2.20 per sq. Thats a little low imo for someone who's business model is not set up as a wholesale company. Especially one that is new to printing and much likelier to have a larger waste/mistake %.

I love relationships like this, it doesn't bother me at all to work with competitors as long as it is equal for both parties. He is getting the better deal. And most likely once his "other guy" comes back you are out of the picture. I would add at least another $1 per sq ft without even knowing what material you are using.

Good luck
 
Border

Border

New Member
I think you need to establish minimum runs first, along with varying price points for minimum cutoffs, eg: 0-10 sq. feet, 11-25 and so on. Laminated VS non-laminated...

You don't want to get a bunch of 5 or 10 dollar individual jobs.
$5.50 seems low, especially for any kind of short run.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
If he's buying something, he's no longer competition. He's a customer. You just got a portion of his job. We do quite a bit of this in our area.

$5.50 is far too cheap and like Border mentioned, you need to establish minimums.

I'd go at least with $50 dollar minimum. What do you care if it messes up his turnaround time. He can either save up and combine more orders or just keep paying the freight from the other guy.

Be careful, he could also be testing the waters, because if you are cheap enough, he could think if you're making a good profit.... he might just consider buying one himself and really become your competition all the way around.
 
threeputt

threeputt

New Member
If you do enter a relationship with him, be sure to cover your bases.

1) Will you run the prints from the files supplied regardless of how they "look" to you? Obvious spelling errors, images that don't look right, etc?

2) Will you run test samples regarding colors? What he's designing on his computer and may have shown his client may look a good deal different than your final output. (different RIP software, color profiles, inks, etc.)What controls are in place to deal with this.

3) How will you feel when he brings files for a client you considered "your client"? (this happens)

4) Deadlines need to be discussed in written terms.

And on and on. As you can tell, we print for our competitors.
 
Mosh

Mosh

New Member
Unless wholesale is your gig, DON'T DO IT. They will think their order is more important than all other and...trust me, been there done that!
 
royster13

royster13

New Member
Mosh said:
Unless wholesale is your gig, DON'T DO IT. They will think their order is more important than all other and...trust me, been there done that!
Click to expand...

Got to agree with Mosh on this.....It is very hard to burn the candle at both ends and come out ahead.....If you have time to print for someone else, you could better use the time to knock on doors and make sales to your own clients.....
 
Border

Border

New Member
Pat White said:
Even for long runs.....I wouldn't sell anything for that cheap. (even wholesale)

In order to make money on that...you would have to have REALLY good buying power and a production printer, and/or really low overhead.

Either way, I'd say the original supplier was working for free.
Click to expand...

Yup, I know it is way too cheap... just did not want to get into discussing any real numbers out here in the open forums.

:toasting:
 
Patentagosse

Patentagosse

New Member
+1 what threeputt said.
Got my 1st printer in 2004 (SP-300) and was the very first in my area so many competitors asked me to print for 'em knowing I'm very picky on colors and always deliver great jobs. So I said YES and shortly after, they were rushing me at every jobs claiming they would lost the client if it wasn't installed the next day. Files came un-calibrated to work with my settings so I had to tune colors on almost every jobs. At the end, I was working 16 hours/day, sometimes putting my own jobs on the side. I made 'em look professional because the prints were awesome and they all, one by one, bought their own printer. Sure, they paid whosale prices so I wasn't really making good money and now that they established themselves as dependable sources for large format printing with the jobs I printed for 'em, a part of my own customer base has shifted for my competitors.

Take my words: IF YOU WANNA DO IT, MAKE SURE YOU'LL GET GOOD MONEY OUT OF IT w/o sacrifiying your clients. He'll end up getting his own printer sooner or later.

The only shops I'm still working with are 2 places that make amazing carved signs and really don't wanna invest on a printer, they just have some requests from time to time...
 
Patentagosse

Patentagosse

New Member
ProWraps said:
eh didnt see that part. i saw the part where it says he has quite a bit of work.
Click to expand...

They say they have a lot of works but you quickly realize they have many small jobs that requires different medias, with or without laminate so every jobs have to be treated on an individual base. Always for yesterday (...)

You will rarely get 4 jobs to be printed on the same stuff, trust me (calendred, cast, reflective, window perf., hi-tack... with or without their respective laminate...) 'been there, 'done that

Even if you try to educate 'em, even if you send 'em your own calibrated color libraries to save you from tuning their reds (just an example...), you'll still wasting a lot of time. They will keep on arguing you told 'em $3 per sq.ft. so they won't pay more because you tune the file before output.

No more sub for me...:frustrated:
 
ProWraps

ProWraps

New Member
we sub a TON of prints. no problems here.

but, we spell it out for the customer right up front.

if they have any requests, the need to make them know before we print.

and ALWAYS pay by CC up front on wholesale work.
 
tsgstl

tsgstl

New Member
I love wholesale to smaller guys. They always give me what I need and know the biz so they are very descriptive. If I need a extra hand with labor they are always right there. And most of the guys I wholesale to do stuff I don't so I use their services. From window painting to neon to sandblast to extra lift truck. And if its a smaller job I fit it in to odd shaped prints.
 
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Patentagosse

Patentagosse

New Member
There's always a way to do it right and get benefits... If you are big and serve smaller ones, you're not affraid of "helping" competitors or as ProWraps mentioned, when they pay up-front before you start the printer... eh! what can goes wrong? I didn't do it the right way so I faced many issues. I was also working with other shops competing for the very same jobs I quotes (on many occasions, that was OK 'cause at the end all the jobs were produced here anyway) but on some others jobs, it was like stealing my clients.

My point: set worthwhile price and stick to it and charge for any minute passed playing with the file for whatever the reason (cutpath, color tuning, ...)
 
SIGNTIME

SIGNTIME

New Member
you should be getting at least 3.50 sq ft unlaminated and no cutting... we do this with a couple of small companies and we just give them normal pricing -25% ... it can be a pita when you are busy but when your not up to your neck in other jobs its nice... pays the rent and for just starting to get your feet wet with ink its good practice
 
Patentagosse

Patentagosse

New Member
I prefer working with commercial printshops around that just want to give their customers a global solution for their needs (read one-stop-shop) so usually it's magnets, coroplast, banners, pop-ups but most likely it's short-to-medium runs of durable vinyl decals. The fact we can contourcut in any shape w/o costly die setup is a plus for us. The best thing is the files are coming my way the way I want 'em and they can give me color reference for color matches (so many "wannabe" stickermans don't even know what PMS stands for...)
 
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