What do you charge?

[Bigcat_hunter]

I am wondering what going rates are for vehicle wraps. Just thinking about it as a future venture after training etc.

There is only one other outfit (that I know of) in the city where I live that does wraps. What do you charge?

 

[tsgstl]

You will never get a good answer on a open to the public thread like this.
And honestly there is no way to even answer the question. How much material you use is the only constant in the equation and that's probably on 25% of what goes in to figuring out a quote on a wrap.

 

[crystalcoastgraphics]

That's a pretty general question. Depends on what your market will pay honestly. Some areas (lucky ones) get up to $14 a sq foot. Other areas get as low as $7. I suggest not low balling people, but offer a great product at a fair market price, and sell your workmanship and professionalism.

As far as the training goes, I'm not a huge fan of training workshops, at least for us, nothing more beneficial than just going at it and wrapping your own stuff to get the feel for it. If you understand the basics of vinyl installation I'd just start wrapping personal things and learn the materials and techniques.

 

[fmg]

Depends on the vehicle or what you are wrapping dunnit.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

As far as the training goes, I'm not a huge fan of training workshops, at least for us, nothing more beneficial than just going at it and wrapping your own stuff to get the feel for it. If you understand the basics of vinyl installation I'd just start wrapping personal things and learn the materials and techniques.

This I'm on the fence about. It helps to have people there to teach proper methods, otherwise, you could be doing something on your own that you might think is good, but it isn't I'm not saying that you can't learn that on your own, but the odds are against it.

I see it all the time in my industry, particularly with digitizing. Now are those training workshops (and the certificates that might come with them) help in getting higher paying jobs etc. Not directly more then likely, but I can make an argument that they would help in a round about way.

 

[Bigcat_hunter]

Well I guess I could just get some videos and practice on my own stuff. I have a couple of quads and a truck I can butcher!

 

[synergy_jim]

1 beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllioonnnnn dollars

 

[Mosh]

Around here $3,500 is average for a pickup truck.

 

[TyrantDesigner]

-sigh- I really should just copy and paste the formula for what to charge.

Find out what your shop overhead per hour is (non-graphics, non-labor costs for a month divided by 30 days divided by 8 hours) lets call this "O" ... make sure to also add in equipment wear and tear into that.

take your overhead add it to your labor costs for graphics (lets call labor L) and multiply times hours it takes to do a vehicle.
(O+L)xhours=labor costs (C)

materials x margin (for oopsies, miscalculations and other hidden material costs like paper towels or whatever) = Material costs M

C+M= your bottom line. factor in time to deal with customers, art fees, and other costs ... you have your going rate. need some negotiation wiggle room? throw a margin on top of your bottom cost ... that is your top cost you give a customer first.

Business 101.

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

Around here $3,500 is average for a pickup truck.

You mean a Puhickup Truck?

 

[TSG]

MY only advise is make sure not to short yourself on time and labor...Mark up your materials to whatever you think is fair...But don't cut yourself short on time...Or you'll loose your a$$.

 

[Gino]

Ya know, I realize everyone wants to take a short cut to get to an end result, but this question is like asking.....

• How much is a meal gonna cost ??
  [*]How much for a suit ??
  [*]How much do you spend on groceries ??
  [*]How do you make kids behave ??
  [*]How far is up ??

Whatever your shop requires to keep the doors open and feed and cloth all of your employees is what it's gonna take.

 

[trimitbyrich]

I have to say something about the training. I've been in the custom auto graphics business for 28 years. I've laid tons of vinyl and have always been very good at it. Everything I knew, I learned from just doing the job. Developed a really easy system over many years of toning my skills. I tried the same approach with wraps. I spent 5 years trying to teach myself how to do it and " get a feel for it". I got very good at that too but honestly the learning curve was a lot harder and much more expensive a road. I threw away thousands trying to "get a feel for it". I recently went to a training just to get certified. I went into it not really figuring I needed to learn how to install it, just wanted to be certified. I WAS WRONG. If I had taken the training when I first started I would have saved a ton of money, time, and frustration. Even though I've been installing successfully for years I still had a lot to learn. It was worth every penny and I wish I'd have done it years ago.

 

[trimitbyrich]

Around here we are lucky to get $12/ sq ft plus design. If you design in house that's really the only variable you have. Use that shop rate you calculate to set a rate per hour. In our case we have a shop rate of $75 per hour so we charge that for design. The client knows the clock is ticking. This way they make their minds up quicker and they don't waste your time playing graphic designer. " could you make the text red against the black background so I can see what it looks like"?
One more thing, some client's don't mind paying a little extra to have all the hardware removed prior to wrapping. If you give them the choice you can get a little extra to cover your time to remove it all. Be generous to yourself though. Nothing worse than quoting removing hardware at 2 hours and it takes you 8 by the time you have to put it all back together.

 

[Dan Antonelli]

Invest an equal amount of time into learning how to design an effective wrap as you do into learning how to install one, and you should do very well.

 

[trimitbyrich]

I'll admit probably the biggest mistakes were made in the design process. Good point learning the design process is worth the time.

 

[Kentucky Wraps]

-sigh- I really should just copy and paste the formula for what to charge.

Find out what your shop overhead per hour is (non-graphics, non-labor costs for a month divided by 30 days divided by 8 hours) lets call this "O" ... make sure to also add in equipment wear and tear into that.

take your overhead add it to your labor costs for graphics (lets call labor L) and multiply times hours it takes to do a vehicle.
(O+L)xhours=labor costs (C)

materials x margin (for oopsies, miscalculations and other hidden material costs like paper towels or whatever) = Material costs M

C+M= your bottom line. factor in time to deal with customers, art fees, and other costs ... you have your going rate. need some negotiation wiggle room? throw a margin on top of your bottom cost ... that is your top cost you give a customer first.

And P.S. you were WAAAAYYY too kind to actually answer this question lol.

Business 101.

I'm not open 30 days a month. (doesn't mean I'm not here lol)
So you don't short change yourself, you need to divide the first number by 20 M-F or 24 if you are open Saturdays. Those work days need to produce that hourly shop rate.

 

[TyrantDesigner]

I'm not open 30 days a month. (doesn't mean I'm not here lol)
So you don't short change yourself, you need to divide the first number by 20 M-F or 24 if you are open Saturdays. Those work days need to produce that hourly shop rate.

good point, I was guestimating some rough numbers. My actual quote calculation is about twice as long as what I described. Obviously there is room for change in the basics.