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What's your shop minimum?

Custom_Grafx

New Member
Currently;
$80 here for people without a clue - retail type one offish type stuff
$60 for people who have a clue and know what they want/need

Thinking of increasing to $120/$80 respectively.

Would like to hear others...

I remember I used to be at $30 a few years ago for small things... and thought I'd be happy with $60/$80... but still... I find it very difficult to justify some of the things coming in this week.

Or... should I just stay positive and think big picture... "maybe one day they'll come back with something bigger"? It's just the good old gut is telling otherwise and I feel sick...
 

Pat Whatley

New Member
$25 minimum. I don't really mind small, one-off orders. I don't get that many of them these days. The minimum was put in mainly to eliminate the kids wanting car decals. $25 works for us but it's not a strict rule. If somebody wants something smaller, is easy to deal with, and it's something we can knock out the next day while working on other jobs we'll go below it.

Sometimes it leads to bigger jobs but not often enough to eliminate the minimum.
 

Custom_Grafx

New Member
I would go crazy very quick if i did $25!

Surprisingly, the $60 crowd has me stumped more and more these last couple months. Usually it's the $80 crowd that drives me insane... coz the $60 "trade" type customers... they usually know what they're talking about...

The last couple of months... I'm seeing more and more "designers", "photographers", and "artists" rock up, with ZERO knowledge of computer graphics, colour systems, or vinyl media or what's doable/not doable... who look at me funny when something doesn't cost $2.75 like it does at Officeworks (our equivalent of your Staples).

I think I should get into printer sales... HP ones...
 

TheSnowman

New Member
We do $25 as well for people I am not annoyed with. I'm a one man shop in a small town, so my overhead isn't ridiculas...then again, the guy up the street will print you a 4' X 8' banner for $25. Ok, not really, but sometimes it seems that way.

If someone is being annoying right off the bat, I jack up the price to make it worth my time they are going to waste, or enough to lose the job and get them out. You can kinda judge that in about the first 30 seconds generally though.
 

strypguy

New Member
Small town one man shop here too. I'm at $50 for most jobs min. Just doesn't seem like it's worth it to go any lower. I will, however, sometimes go lower for a repeat or steady customer.

John
 

petepaz

New Member
usually $75-100 but if it is a good/regular customer we will do $25-50
(if you want to pay cash we will take anything) in general by the time we write up an order, enter in computer, produce the item and then invoice, it cost at least $50-75
 

Craig Sjoquist

New Member
I just lettered a bowling pin.. name 300 game and date $20 the other day took me less then 15 mins total, profit was at least $14.

If I'm making a profit or going for a good cause I'm happy
 

cdiesel

New Member
$75 for production, $250 for offsite installation.
Of course, we'll cut DOT #'s or something for a guy if he's not a jerk and not charge him the $75.. But having the charge in place allows us to use our discretion.
 
Ours actually depends on what the sign is...
25$ for anything RTA
45$ for anything produced (on a sub-straight) in house (no install)
around 125$ for an install
 

artbot

New Member
$1250, which amounts to $2500 retail. they are usually all a loss because have of the labor ends up being proposal time.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Ours has been posted at $85.... and I keep talking about $125.

We just posted our 'Truck Washing' cost at $125 and we haven't washed a single truck........ :banghead:

We are quoting at the $125. I just have a problem posting it. I believe in it, but I don't want to scare some smaller jobs away that might be profitable still at $85 or so. Maybe we'll just make it for 'Walk-Ins' which don't happen that much anyway.
 

FireSprint.com

Trade Only Screen & Digital Sign Printing
We won't turn a press on for less than $75, but it really depends on the product. Stock items like wire sign frames don't technically have a minimum. We have alot of great customers though and if we would get an order for $5 in stands, we typically just do them at a n/c sample.
 

artbot

New Member
ha! i'm almost always broke. like negative $15 in the account, maybe $20k in receivables. that said, i have a meeting tomorrow (THE meeting after several pre-meetings with investors and a consultant) they will be dangling a partnership in front of me. i'll do my best to not show my excitement.
 
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