Making small signs worth it?

[Banners Signs Etc.]

Recently finished an order for a very large, very old, and very friendly client. Basically there were about 40 different wording, different size, around 8''x10'' indoor signs on pvc and coro. As well as about 100 tiny (different) lettered decals.

The material usage was minimal, but the creation, organization, proofing, etc...took forever. Let alone when it came time for production to match each random sign to its substrate..some single, some double sided...and on and on...talk about a headache.

They have also been known to order a bunch of same design small pvc signs, only to come back the next week and order 1 or 2 of the same.


The owner, maybe rightly so, kept the price low...around what we charge for one sheet of printed coro. I'm wondering if there is a reasonable way to charge for a headache...maybe setup charge per sign, cut charge, I dunno?

What would you do? We want them to be happy and continue to order but there has to be a better way.


Also we can't use our flatbed to knock these out because they don't add up to a full sheet and/or they only order one so we need them to be consistent matte vinyl

 

[player]

Don't charge everything by the square foot.

Use time and materials.

 

[J Hill Designs]

Don't charge everything by the square foot.

Use time and materials.

and a shop minimum

 

[ddarlak]

We want them to be happy

well....

If you want to keep them happy, keep doing what your doing.

If you want to make a profit, charge accordingly......

 

[Banners Signs Etc.]

well....

If you want to keep them happy, keep doing what your doing.

If you want to make a profit, charge accordingly......

Well, that's kind of right, because they will turn around and order 5-10, 20 foot banners. So do we suck it up for the little stuff and hope for bigger?

Or figure well we can charge more because they have deep pockets...I guess I'm arguing with myself mostly

 

[HulkSmash]

Well, that's kind of right, because they will turn around and order 5-10, 20 foot banners. So do we suck it up for the little stuff and hope for bigger?

Or figure well we can charge more because they have deep pockets...I guess I'm arguing with myself mostly

when stuff is that small you do not charge per square, more or less it's time, and materials + your mark up.

 

[SignManiac]

Time = money

 

[John Butto]

Your business is like the large grocery stores, "buy one get one free". It must work because it is used with a lot of products.

 

[Marlene]

have you ever had to get a quote from an engraver for thse little plastic signs with just a line of copy? they aren't cheap and the materials aren't all that expense so it's clear that they don't do square footage on little signs and netiher should we