Pricing Formulas

[Hellagraphs]

I'm wondering if anyone has a proven method for building pricing formulas. Due to supply chain issues, I'm having a hard time getting my preferred vinyls and laminates which affects my quite radically. I like using Arlon Series 3170 Laminate on most of my prints but if its out of stock then I have to use other options which are usually $200-$400 more per roll. Does anyone have any tips and tricks for calculating your prices(ink+laminate+vinyl+labor) and how does that change from a stable market to a fluctuating market?

 

[Gino]

Okay, so you have a formula now for what you normally stock, but you can't do the math with pencil, calculator & paper or figure out what slight increases you might now have ??

If XX product costs you $XX amount, then what does $XX plus $200 cost and divy it out accordingly ??

 

[Stacey K]

I had some general pricing categories and if those were based on a 4x8 sheet being 50 and now I pay 75, the difference is 25 x 2 = 50. I add 50 to the sign. Same can be said for vinyl or whatever. It might be helpful to create a quick spreadsheet that compares your old price to the new or temporary price so you can quickly calculate how much extra to add.

 

[2B]

personally, I'm a percentage kinda person.

calculate the percentage difference between the 2 materials and add that percentage to your current pricing
these amounts are fictitious
current material $575.00 - preferred material $350.00 = $225.00
$225.00 / $350.00 = 64.29%

Meaning if you WERE charging $3 per SQFT + 64.29% = $4.93 per SQFT for the NEW pricing

 

[binki]

We work on a shop rate/profit per hour we want to make. Calculating time is a little challenging but once you have it down it works pretty well. We take material cost and figure out how long it will be and add the shop rate on top of that and we have the amount. This will vary our margins but in the end it is all blended and comes out where we want overall.

 

[Scotchbrite]

The only thing I have a formula for is bulk stickers. I set it up in Excel and I can change the square foot price of the vinyl and/or laminate as needed. Same for ink and labor.

We also do a profit/loss analysis on every job, so I can go back and use an old job to get current pricing by plugging in the current material and labor prices. That's also done thru Excel. This comes in really handy when you need a good idea how much time something is going to take.

Other stuff I quote by the job and look up the current pricing for the materials even if we have stuff on-hand. I've also added a line on our proposal stating that due to availability, quotes are not guaranteed. I had noticed building contractors were doing this in the past year and it seemed like a good idea.