Pricing

[Allen123]

I'm $8 /sqft for banners. If I'm going to bother doing them, I'm going to make it worth my time. I have bills to pay and kids to feed. Plus it keeps them from ordering banners instead just because they're so much cheaper for times when more permanent signage is appropriath.

Ninja edit: I'd rather race to the top than the bottom!

Also $8.00/sq ft.

 

[Solventinkjet]

I'm not sure how anyone can get more than $3 per square on a banner when searching Google gives you about 100 places that will do it for $1. Are people seriously paying $48 for a 2' x 3' banner? I completely understand the business side and why your pricing needs to be higher to cover for overhead etc. but I am absolutely baffled that anyone who did a little research would pay more then $3 per square.

 

[Gino]

Those banners for a dollar or $3..... are they hemmed ?? What weight material ?? Printed, painted.... whatever ??

Just had a lady call me this morning about a banner to span across a street on a top and bottom cable. She wants it around 30" x 28'. She wont get anything worthwhile for $3 or even $8 a square. She pulled the same thing by saying, we went on line and you can get them for.................. Ahh, how long did your last one last ?? 2 years, but it's in pieces. It was only up twice for 3.5 weeks. Okay, so ours will last you 10, probably 15 years, if you roll it up when finished and make sure you put it in a dry cool lace for storage. She's stopping by Wednesday to place the order and give me all the information.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Those banners for a dollar or $3..... are they hemmed ?? What weight material ?? Printed, painted.... whatever ??

Just had a lady call me this morning about a banner to span across a street on a top and bottom cable. She wants it around 30" x 28'. She wont get anything worthwhile for $3 or even $8 a square. She pulled the same thing by saying, we went on line and you can get them for.................. Ahh, how long did your last one last ?? 2 years, but it's in pieces. It was only up twice for 3.5 weeks. Okay, so ours will last you 10, probably 15 years, if you roll it up when finished and make sure you put it in a dry cool lace for storage. She's stopping by Wednesday to place the order and give me all the information.

I have a local place that sells banners at $3 per square 13 oz with sewn hem and printed. May not last 10 years but won't fail within 1 either. I guess it just depends on how long you want it to last. In my experience people don't need banners to last for massive amounts of time unless they are just trying to skimp on price for a real permanent sign.

 

[Gino]

We make lotsa banners in which dates get changed. Some are out once or twice a year for short stints, so those people want them to last as long as possible. It's taking care of them, that makes or breaks a good banner, when used in this manner. However, regular banners as you suggested are what I always considered temporary kinda signs, but most people try to really get their money's worth and they stay up, sometime 3 or 4 years. $8. is about as low as we'll go, unless there are some extenuating circumstances.

 

[TimToad]

I'm not sure how anyone can get more than $3 per square on a banner when searching Google gives you about 100 places that will do it for $1. Are people seriously paying $48 for a 2' x 3' banner? I completely understand the business side and why your pricing needs to be higher to cover for overhead etc. but I am absolutely baffled that anyone who did a little research would pay more then $3 per square.

The $1 per square foot is only the outsourced price for the banner itself. Several of us pointed out all the additional factors that drive the retail cost of the things we produce and sell.

Our customers routinely pay at least $48 for a 2'x3' banner. Based on a $80 per hour shop rate and our overhead costs, there is no point in even opening the doors if we're not commanding enough to cover those factors AND making a profit. Especially when we're paying nearly $20.00 per hour plus other benefits for sometimes minimally experienced help.


Here is a 3'x4' banner that took 45 minutes to get the info from the client, design, and less than 15 minutes to print, tape hem and grommet and invoice. We charged $124.00 for it because the client wanted something themed for her group and with some western flair added. Our shop rate is $80.00 so this is very much in line with covering all of our costs and our profit expectation.

 

[TimToad]

I have a local place that sells banners at $3 per square 13 oz with sewn hem and printed. May not last 10 years but won't fail within 1 either. I guess it just depends on how long you want it to last. In my experience people don't need banners to last for massive amounts of time unless they are just trying to skimp on price for a real permanent sign.

Whether the desired durability is 1 day or 10 years, the process of accounting for all the costs and expenses and profit in our pricing is the same.

 

[Gino]

The $1 per square foot is only the outsourced price for the banner itself. Several of us pointed out all the additional factors that drive the retail cost of the things we produce and sell.
Our customers routinely pay at least $48 for a 2'x3' banner. Based on a $80 per hour shop rate and our overhead costs, there is no point in even opening the doors if we're not commanding enough to cover those factors AND making a profit. Especially when we're paying nearly $20.00 per hour plus other benefits for sometimes minimally experienced help.

Here is a 3'x4' banner that took 45 minutes to get the info from the client, design, and less than 15 minutes to print, tape hem and grommet and invoice. We charged $124.00 for it because the client wanted something themed for her group and with some western flair added. Our shop rate is $80.00 so this is very much in line with covering all of our costs and our profit expectation.

Hey mr signmaker, you misspelled a word on your $124. banner.

 

[ColorCrest]

Maybe the OP or others can use this attached image of a Basic Costing And Sell Price Matrix as a springboard for pricing banners. Be aware, although the chart itself is simple, a fair amount of detailed cost and business analysis needs to be performed to calculate accurately and profitably.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

I'm not sure how anyone can get more than $3 per square on a banner when searching Google gives you about 100 places that will do it for $1. Are people seriously paying $48 for a 2' x 3' banner? I completely understand the business side and why your pricing needs to be higher to cover for overhead etc. but I am absolutely baffled that anyone who did a little research would pay more then $3 per square.

We charge as much as $7.50 per sq. ft. for a few sq. ft., or as little as $4.50 per sq. ft. for 144 sq. ft. plus (of the same design). We include design as part of the price as long as there are no custom art requirements. If we can do it with basic copy/clip art/stock photography, that's what we charge and most banners take around 10-20 minutes to design. For customers who supply their own art files and ONLY then do we charge between $6.00 (less than 11 sq. ft.) and as little as $3.00 per sq. ft. (over 144 sq. ft.).

This begs the question...what are people getting when they buy from an online vendor? Most likely print quality is sacrificed for speed, and you either upload your own files, design your own banner from whatever limited design templates they have available on site, or you pay one of their in-house designers to design it...for a fee. Not to mention there is no convenience of buying local if and when a problem should arrise and last I checked, there's no online vendor on the planet that can have a banner designed, printed, finished and in your hands in less than 24 hours. Not to mention what does it cost to ship that banner? Honestly, I can't even believe we're having this conversation. Not to mention $48 for a 2' x 3' banner doesn't sound bad to me at all.

 

[TimToad]

We charge as much as $7.50 per sq. ft. for a few sq. ft., or as little as $4.50 per sq. ft. for 144 sq. ft. plus (of the same design). We include design as part of the price as long as there are no custom art requirements. If we can do it with basic copy/clip art/stock photography, that's what we charge and most banners take around 10-20 minutes to design. For customers who supply their own art files and ONLY then do we charge between $6.00 (less than 11 sq. ft.) and as little as $3.00 per sq. ft. (over 144 sq. ft.).

This begs the question...what are people getting when they buy from an online vendor? Most likely print quality is sacrificed for speed, and you either upload your own files, design your own banner from whatever limited design templates they have available on site, or you pay one of their in-house designers to design it...for a fee. Not to mention there is no convenience of buying local if and when a problem should arrive and last I checked, there's no online vendor on the planet that can have a banner designed, printed, finished and in your hands in less than 24 hours. Not to mention what does it cost to ship that banner? Honestly, I can't even believe we're having this conversation. Not to mention $48 for a 2' x 3' banner doesn't sound bad to me at all.

Absolutely! Well said. There seems to a huge variation in pricing on everyday, run of the mill sign products that most of us make and i really wonder at times how well folks research and calculate what their shop needs to make to remain viable and profitable over the long haul.

We just finished printing a bunch of political signs for several local candidates who actually PREFER to deal with and support their LOCAL economy.

Could they have gone online and gotten them cheaper? SURE

Could they have gotten test prints for color matching? Maybe, but not the same day that we did them.

Did someone load them up and drop them off at the campaign office like we did? MOST CERTAINLY NOT

At least once a week we get a last minute request for a banner or other signage that we're nimble enough to work into our schedule. Not because we aren't busy most of the time, but because we have multiple printers and have earned enough respect from our client base that we feel comfortable re-arranging the schedule a little ot take care of someone in a pinch. Those folks we help out in a pinch become our greatest referral sources and everyone wins.

 

[equippaint]

There's a big flaw in judging your banner prices for a walk in customer by what's available online. The online guys are low margin, high volume and do no face to face with customers. Id assume this stuff is direct to print with very little human intervention and they probably make decent money through efficiency. If you have a volume job than consider online pricing and how you are going to produce it in a way that you will make money. If it's onsie twosie stuff, ask yourself why you would even want to deal with someone that is so cheap that they will waste hours of their time shopping around for an already cheap product. If they do not value their own time, would you really expect them to value yours? The time you take explaining your pricing to them will end up costing you more than you are going to make on it.

 

[AGCharlotte]

I always look at someone like Signs365 as a starting point for banners. If they charge $1.49/sqr ft, you should be charging at least 3x that (before adjusting for volume/etc.).

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

At least once a week we get a last minute request for a banner or other signage that we're nimble enough to work into our schedule. Not because we aren't busy most of the time, but because we have multiple printers and have earned enough respect from our client base that we feel comfortable re-arranging the schedule a little ot take care of someone in a pinch. Those folks we help out in a pinch become our greatest referral sources and everyone wins.

I can totally relate to this. We do have steep rush fees like as much as 100% of the cost of your order for same day service, but I rarely charge a rush fee on banners. They are one of the easiest and fastest products to turn around quickly.