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Low pricing.

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Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Guess I just don't understand this new fangled math they're using these days.

I can understand a loss leader... like magnetics or yard signs, or even giving someone a break for whatever reason, but to model your business around just undercutting just doesn't make any sense. I suppose I need to hear more of this new way of doing business.

Please Mosh..... do tell.


The other thing is... why are you discussing this out here in the peanut gallery ?? This is the kinda crap that really hurts everyone and you are really giving us a display of so many of the things most don't want to do in business.... ANY business.
 
bob

bob

It's better to have two hands than one glove.
SurfaceSigns said:
...deletia...

What's funnier to me is that while you all have no problem charging a customer 500 or 1000% mark up on the vinyl you sell, most of you probably do as much as you can to get the lowest price from your own vendors, and complain if they raise the prices even a few percent. Do as I say, not as I do seems to be the mantra. I have no doubt that the folks at 3M, Orocal, Roland, etc. would love to have the margins we have.

...deletia...
Click to expand...

This paragraph seems to nicely sum up the signs as a commodity mindset. Perhaps if your business is mindlessly cranking out goods ala Oakley et. al. that might be appropriate. There is a place for that but there is another dimension to the business.

I deal in handcrafted custom goods, not mass produced commodities. If I wanted to be in that business I'd start manufacturing camshafts. I have an extreme dislike for doing more than one of anything. Here in this shop it would be a rare thing to produce more than 3 or 4 copies of something. More often than not I send clients and their jobs requiring multiple copies to the schlock jockeys down the road.

There is a totally different set of clients for my shop and for the commodity wranglers.

The cost of vinyl, and by extension all supplies, involved in crafting a unique solution for somone's situation means is, for the most part, mere overhead. In my pricing model for rigid work the only significant variable is the substrate. For a typical job done here in my shop all materials save the substrate are a trivial component of the price of the work.

This is far different from buying and selling sign supplies which is what the signs as commodities crowd seems to see themselves doing.
 
Bigdawg

Bigdawg

Just Me
I'm a lil scared too ddarlak... cuz' bob and me are on the same page here.

And Mosh? you're 37 and you've used this "business model" (and I use that term loosely) for 21 years? So you opened your shop and started undercutting people when you were just 16??? Wow... the price of plotters 20 years ago was unreal... so how did you make all that money by 16? That's what I want to know...
 
Mosh

Mosh

New Member
Started as a junior in high school, hand painting and carving signs. Got my first computer (gerber sprint 3) around 1990 or so. This is the only job I have ever had in my life.
 
Mikeifg

Mikeifg

New Member
kraigsnowden said:
So are you asking a question here or not. Thanks for undercutting everyone and being "another one" screwing the industry. Do you see doctors lowering their prices to get jobs from other doctors? No, they all charge high prices, and they all get them too. You keep working twice has hard to make half the money. I hope it works well for ya. Why you'd even admit to this just to tick everyone off is beyond me, especially when you know how most of us already feel.
Click to expand...

I agree:rock-n-roll:
 
quicksigns

quicksigns

New Member
This might be off subject, DanStriker do you use to play Call of Duty on line? Your name looks so familiar. If you were, I was ]{ap10]{unt
 
K

klmjff

New Member
Wow, this is really a touchy subject. You $6 a sq. ft. guys aren't going to change Mosh's stand ( I believe he was just goating you guys anyways, and it worked), so just let him be and let him do what he wants.

There are always people out there that are going to charge less and make money at it. Just because they arent charging as much as they "should", doesn't mean they should be called names and demeaned. It's their choice to charge $2.00 a sq ft, as youre charging $6.00 a sq. ft.
 
quicksigns

quicksigns

New Member
wow that's cheap. I could order from u and resale to my customers. Why are u selling so cheap if there is no competition around you for miles away? I would charge alot more. Maybe you should be a merchant member here instead of selling to the public.
 
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B Snyder

B Snyder

New Member
bob said:
Depends. A hundred or so yard signs are certainly a commodity. A hand crafted custom work just as certainly is not. I deal in the latter.
Click to expand...

You once wrote "While signs are custom goods they are still, paradoxically, a commodity. An effective pricing model has to account for the commodity part..."
So, signs are a commodity except when they're not but either way, when pricing, the commodity aspect needs to be considered. No?
 
S

sunset signs

New Member
The shop I work at is 30 minutes away from Mexicali... They do the work for nothing. People walked in my shop asking the US quality at the mexico price. It is so frustrating. Some will gladly trade the quality for the price. Sometimes I wonder what the hell is wrong with people. "I can get half the price if I cross the border"
 
JR's

JR's

New Member
Sunset, wow I thwart I had it ruff. I feel for you.
its almost like the old guy down the road that would letter and stripe your truck for a case of beer.

JR
 
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