Question Vehicle Wrap Labor , Costs & Installers

[lushdub]

Hello everyone,

So I currently own a print shop here in AZ and were looking for whats the best way to get more wrap jobs and also best way for installation costs. We currently are having them outsourced and taking large cuts into what could be our profits per vehicle. What's a good standard rate for pay for an installer if it is per hour or per vehicle?

 

[GaSouthpaw]

Not knowing your market, I couldn't say what sort of advertising you could do- other than wrapping your own vehicles with an eye-catching, simple wrap, while realizing there will always be those shops that'll undercut pricing (don't be one of those). Use quality material, and do it right.
Now, as far as how to do it right- do you have people who apply "regular" graphics for you? If not, you need to hire someone (unless you plan on doing the installs yourself). Whoever that person is, spring for the cost of a wrap class for them (or you) to learn the how-to, then practice, practice, practice. Take more than one class if you need to. There are also a plethora of online tutorials that can be helpful.
Good luck.

 

[Gettin'By]

Found this on ZipRecruiter. If you click over to the Jobs tab at the top you can see current job postings. Should give you some idea at least.

https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Vehicle-Wrap-Salary--in-Arizona

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Why don't you install them until you can justify a full time employee?

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Hello everyone,

So I currently own a print shop here in AZ and were looking for whats the best way to get more wrap jobs and also best way for installation costs. We currently are having them outsourced and taking large cuts into what could be our profits per vehicle. What's a good standard rate for pay for an installer if it is per hour or per vehicle?

Good Luck, unless you can build a constant training system and process to be able to rotate through installers and train them up, you will suffer. We returned back to outsourcing our installs because no matter what you pay full time installers, they become transient or go out on their own.

I had installers that I had paid $150k+ and they left, I've had installers with profit share and they left... it's not culture either as we gave them anything they needed or wanted, have fully paid benefits, etc.

My recommendation is to build a process and pricing structure around outsourcing. I can almost guarantee you are not pricing yourself correctly, and I'm in the Phoenix market if you ever want to discuss pricing strategies.

 

[Precision]

I used to think vehicle wraps were a good thing. After doing too many, I realized they are not very profitable, for many reasons.

1st, how many days to complete a wrap correctly?

Every wrapper you train, becomes his own best employee and undercuts the market, because they have zero management mindset. So he's doing wraps for the cost of the roll and whatever he wants to make that week.

Bottom line you make more money selling signs or window perf wraps.

Time is money. Vehicle wraps are a time suck with low margins versus the time spent.

We'll still do the ones that fall in our lap, but you can make more money doing other types of projects for sure.

You will either overpay for an installer or constantly be looking for one. Exhausting!

 

[somcalmetim]

It might sound nice to find a dumb cheap installer but since installing is the most labor intensive part of wrapping they should be making most of that install profit not you. You make money on printing and design but you are going to have problems if you want to make the profit on install without doing it.

 

[capitate]

I'd love to outsource my wrap installs

 

[Connoley]

I pay my vehicle wraps installers an hourly rate of $25. This has worked well for attracting skilled professionals and ensuring high-quality work. For more complex or larger vehicles, I sometimes opt for a per vehicle rate, usually between $700 and $1,000, depending on the job's difficulty.

 

[Precision]

It might sound nice to find a dumb cheap installer but since installing is the most labor intensive part of wrapping they should be making most of that install profit not you. You make money on printing and design but you are going to have problems if you want to make the profit on install without doing it.

Never said anything about "dumb or cheap". Sounds like you are an installer, kind of like I mentioned. Learned the skill, then goes out and wrecks the market. If you pay rent on a shop, your mindset might be different.

Nobody is dumb or cheap. That's the point of this post. Your experience in life and business is completely different subject.

 

[DL Signs]

The bulk of our business is signage and installs. We can/ will do wraps, but have never really had a desire to be a "wrap shop", opting to stick more to corporate vehicle branding.

We're not in a major metropolis, so the market here for full wraps isn't huge to start with, have several shops in the area who do detailing, color change wraps, PPF, etc, but most don't print, so we get a share of that from them. The demand here is greater for color change wraps than printed, but too cut throat with as many who do that in the area, so it wouldn't be very lucrative to compete. As the only one here experienced, my plate is usually too full to have time to drop everything for full wraps, so we just sub most of those out, and make our cut on the design & print end. Have one wrap shop down the road we deal with, he's very good, and extremely talented, we send people there looking for color changes, he sends people here looking for printed wraps (and he gets the install). Works for everyone.

 

[Wrap City]

Installing is an art. Like tattooing. Some installers are great an expensive and some are cheap but do poor work. We make good money on wraps, but I do most of the installing myself.