Low pricing.

[SignManiac]

I just checked your website and I would say you are charging exactly what your work is worth so I can't fault you on your business strategy. You're selling a commodity and there's no way you would be able to charge more even if you wanted to.

You've been doing the same quality work your entire career and if you had wanted to improve you would have done so by now. You in fact make it easier for your competition to upsell very easily. I like guys like yourself, you're good for business.

You may have all the toys but you lack any of the design skills to really profit from those tools. Having a printer alone does not make a great looking sign.

 

[Just Another Sign Guy]

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

sorry wasnt me ... but hmmm maybe that is what i should be doing with my time ... now if there was only an online version that truly captured the experience of playing 720' like back in the day.

i just checked out your work as well (adkins signs (no space between the two) dot com for those that wish to look as well)...and have to say it explains EVERYTHING.

 

[ddarlak]

I just checked your website and I would say you are charging exactly what your work is worth so I can't fault you on your business strategy. You're selling a commodity and there's no way you would be able to charge more even if you wanted to.

You've been doing the same quality work your entire career and if you had wanted to improve you would have done so by now. You in fact make it easier for your competition to upsell very easily. I like guys like yourself, you're good for business.

You may have all the toys but you lack any of the design skills to really profit from those tools. Having a printer alone does not make a great looking sign.

:U Rock:

 

[Mosh]

Edited post: I am not a mud slinger.

 

[Farmboy]

I just checked your website and I would say you are charging exactly what your work is worth so I can't fault you on your business strategy. You're selling a commodity and there's no way you would be able to charge more even if you wanted to.

You've been doing the same quality work your entire career and if you had wanted to improve you would have done so by now. You in fact make it easier for your competition to upsell very easily. I like guys like yourself, you're good for business.

You may have all the toys but you lack any of the design skills to really profit from those tools. Having a printer alone does not make a great looking sign.

Thank you!! Thats why I felt I had to post his site. I'm not setting the world on fire with quality art work...but at least I know it. That's why I hire people that can.

 

[SignManiac]

Your lucky your shop is not near mine, you would be closed up by now. HA HA

I have watched seven shops open and close their doors in the sixteen years I've been in this location. They all tried to do what you're doing and they failed. You are not even close to being in my league young man so don't think you could put me out of business even for a minute. You would be proven wrong.

Perhaps if you could set your ego aside long enough, you could learn a thing or two from this website but you obviously know more than the rest of this industry does about business economics.

Please do write a book and sell it on the book stands at Walmart. Good luck in your desire to conquer the world.

 

[sunset signs]

Yes it is hard to compete. Especially in the current economy. Still hanging on though!
I am glad I found this forum though... Nice community going.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

I have watched seven shops open and close their doors in the sixteen years I've been in this location. They all tried to do what you're doing and they failed. You are not even close to being in my league young man so don't think you could put me out of business even for a minute. You would be proven wrong.

 

[Mosh]

In 21 years in this location I have watched lots of shop go under. I most of the time buy their equipment for penny's on the dollar.
It is not very Christian of a person to downgrade other's work. I don't make coments about your hair loss.

 

[DOGraphics]

Are you sure your not 12?

Nanna , Nanna, Nanna :ROFLMAO:

 

[Gino]

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.

This says it all. While I have no problem when shops deliver the quality of signs you have displayed.... it tends to show a pattern and you have definitely lived up to my expectations throughout this and some other threads.

I honestly don't know why anyone would be advertising as being the cheapest shop around and no one can beat your prices ?? You sound more like a furniture store or some liquidation commercial.... desperate.

Anyway, good luck to ya there Mosh and keep on keepin' on............
​

 

[SignManiac]

Lucky I'm not a Christian then. Let's keep religion out of this post. You have enough problems going for you as it is.

 

[Master's Touch]

Ok--I'll say it. Mosh yer a troll. You came in here to start something, I mean why else come in and say, "Hey, all you guys bellyaching about the bottom feeder who puts sign prices in the toilet? Yeah? Well, I'm him...now sit at my feet and learn the wisdom of my throat slitting ways."

Gasoline and matches, man whaddaya expect???

And whoever brought Christianity into anything!?!?!?

 

[Rick]

There is no difference in the shiny 4 color cards you all order online and this guy, I am amused...

 

[Mosh]

This is a business, we are here to make money and destroy the competition!
So far we have done that with quality signs at a reduced price.

 

[Just Another Sign Guy]

Rick i respect you greatly and am constantly thankful of your input but i am missing the similarities so i look forward to becoming enlightened on this one.

one gangs up client designed orders and bangs them as quickly and inexpensively as possible out the door for ppl to mark up and resell (and never claiming to be highend custom boutique printing)

and the other well he just makes cheap signs? now if he was making wholesale signs and selling them to signshops as cheaply as possible i would see the comparison in that they are both selling cheap crap.

or if he was a merchant member pretending to be a wholeseller adn then selling the same garbage ... i mean stuff...to the public at the same prices... i would understand teh comparison

 

[bob]

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?

Certainly. A pricing model must account for whatever supplies consumed but it should not be based on merely marking up those supplies. Rather it should merely amortize consumables on an overall average.

A commodity is generally a fungible product. It doesn't matter who produces it, any iteration of the product is functionally interchangeable with any other iteration.

Not so much with handcrafted custom goods. Still, the commodity aspect provides a baseline from which to deviate. There necessarily exists a price point at which a client will opt for the commodity rather than the custom goods. The trick is to know just what point that might be.

 

[Just Another Sign Guy]

This is a business, we are here to make money and destroy the competition!
So far we have done that with quality signs at a reduced price.

that sure isn't very christian of you.....

roflmao

 

[Zambookajoe]

I do to.......... but I let them undercut themselves out of business.

 

[MachServTech]

So we letter Joe Schmoe's truck for $75 and people freak out we are not charging enough. Too bad for them I guess. Price it right and the business will be there.

I think its fair to say you are leaving a lot of money on the table, pissing on it and then lighting it on fire.
So the guy whose truck you lettered likes your work? Now where is the discount off that $75 price when he wants you to letter his whole fleet of 100 trucks?
What if the guy never comes back....you have made $0 to cover your plotter and installer....this makes no sense at all.

So your thinking is this: producing small jobs at cost will be a loss leader for large accounts?

Keep our Forum in mind when you go out of business....you might want to sell some stuff here.