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Shop's monthly expenses?

LEGEND

New Member
Just curious about a rough monthly cost to keep the business running. Not including salary of employees, just a rough cost to have your doors open. From electric bill to rent to Adobe Cloud software subscription, etc.

Doesnt have to be 100% accurate, just a rough idea to run a shop in your neck of the woods.

Thanks in advanced.

Cheers!
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
When you add together electric, gas, water/sewer, fire inspection, fire marshall inspection, insurances, grass cutting, taxes, phones, cable, and no payroll, it's gonna vary from shop to shop. Ours is around $11,000 give or take.

That does not include inventory, inks, supplies, substrates, lunches, bonuses, and other incidentals.
 

Billct2

Active Member
that's like asking "What's a sign cost". Even the same size shop will have wildly different overhead depending on where they are.
 

Kentucky Wraps

Kentucky Wraps
Internet
Phone answering service
quickbooks
shop tracker
web marketing (seo)
utilities (gas, electric, water)
shop towels, TP, soap, water cooler...
Dumpster
design software upgrades
computer upgrades
taxes to state, county, city, fed
insurance
Sign & Digital Graphics Subscription
OH! And don't forget to subtract the CC/PayPal fees, and consider Disappearing Pens, tools, dumb mistakes employees make (and you).

Not counting Rent, Wages, Unemployment Insurance, Workers comp Insurance, Health Insurance, Printer/Laminator payments, fuel, unforseen repairs to said hardware, etc.

Yeah, it's no wonder 8 out of 10 businesses fail.
Non-business owners think we have tons of money because we "own" a business. They don't realize that the business actually "owns" us. :)
 

SolitaryT

New Member
Our nut for a shop with two owners and no employees is consistently about $1600 + materials, which work out to be between 5 and 50% of the profit, depending on how much work we do in-house. We're a small shop, so to stay competitive sometimes we have to signs365 it and mark it up a few bucks.
 

Get Lucky

New Member
Home based we run about $900 every month varies a little when you are talking about such a small amount.
 

TXFB.INS

New Member
that's like asking "What's a sign cost". Even the same size shop will have wildly different overhead depending on where they are.

exactly and each month will be different, you run the machines more = more electricity, during the summer = more AC
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
The OP was only asking for a general overall cost around the country of sign shops. I doubt he thinks everyone's cost will be the same, but there are some constants in all business. How else would a bank give a loan or one do projections ??

Our electric bill is practically non-existent most of the time and our gas will be soon, too. However, that's rare for most people. When it was a cost, it was almost the same month after month with A/C, heat or any other machines running. Our machines are all turned on most of the time and running. If you have machines not running at least 2/3's of the time, why do you have them ?? Fluctuation of a few hundred dollars is nothing for us, but if you have machines not running a few days a week or just sitting around making sure things are correct before leaving the shop, then perhaps your electric will be $28.74 less from one month to another.

Evidently, conjecture is a pretty tough call for some.... and not others.
 

LEGEND

New Member
The OP was only asking for a general overall cost around the country of sign shops. I doubt he thinks everyone's cost will be the same


Exactly. I knew it was going to vary and that's exactly why I asked, I wanted to see the difference from shop to shop, state to state.

And also to see what type of expenses are generally overlooked, since i'm planning to sail on my own sometime in the future...
 

LEGEND

New Member
that's like asking "What's a sign cost". Even the same size shop will have wildly different overhead depending on where they are.

You can view the question that way, but it was asked more like "What did your sign cost."
 

LEGEND

New Member
Plan on relocating?

You should only really care about costs in your section of the state.

It's more to see what type of monthly expenses your shop invests in and the monthly costs of it overall. I suppose I could have asked to list some of the major monthly costs... oh well.
 

Kentucky Wraps

Kentucky Wraps
Hopefully my list of things often overlooked helped. I know I didn't put dollar amounts next to each one (they may vary per location) but you can add your dollar amounts to them and cross ones off that aren't applicable to you or you won't use.
Should help. I know I wish I had that list before I dove in.
 
Last month we were at around 12k not counting payroll. Upon further inspection about 40% of that is from replacing disappearing pens... :ROFLMAO:

Sorry about that. They are all in the console of my truck. I clip them on my collar during work, then take them off and they accumulate there.
 

artbot

New Member
as an outlier, i suspect my business presence on the property increases the electricity about $50 a month. during my old partnership from two years ago we were around $20,000 (33,000 square foot building). now that i've embraced working plein air, i can't imagine going back.
 

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