minimum orders

[petepaz]

does everyone have min. order either a charge or a quantitiy
i have acust they are pretty good
and they order a lot of prototypes and low quantity items until they get larger orders form there customer
our norm.is $75.00 and i dropped it to 50 for him and he complains about the per pc. price( he tels me i have to have a per pc. price to put in the system and i can't change it for quantities)
so if i sell him something and the price is $2.00 and he orders 100 then when he only needs 10 he wants to use the same price and he can't group it on another po
it cost more than $10.00 to generate an order and invoice it
does anyone else have this issue

do you just charge them a sq. foot price (85-90% of their work is digital)
if so what do you charge based on material and labor i am between $5-7.00 per sq. foot

[customsticker]

You charge them based not only on how much material you use, but how much time. IF it takes you an hour to do 10 stickers - they need to pay for it. I won't even touch 10 stickers, and if I do, it's a minimum of $75.00, per order.

The larger quanities offset the time that it takes for you to setup the artwork, printer, etc. The smaller quantities do not and you will need to compensate for this.

To begin with, I used to accept customers like this. In the long run, you are losing a lot of money. If they need to have a job like this done and don't want to pay your prices, they will need to go elsewhere. They probably don't know it, but most shops would give them the cold shoulder for only wanting 10 stickers. Once people know you have good service and will actually do the work for them *at a price*, they will be back.

Don't sweat it, but don't screw yourself over either.

[customsticker]

Also, don't go off of JUST a square footage system. You need to use the square footage as a base of what materials cost, not as a system telling you how long the job will take.

With some experience, you will see that you need to price the job according to what pays your bills, and not just on the material used. Do the job according to what it's worth to you - not what it's worth to the computer telling you the price.

Each "different" quote you give, put in their phone number and name, and take note of it. This is so if they do come back, you can look consistent.

[mark in tx]

Think of it this way.
Generally,
Short runs of product cost you more in time.
Large runs of product cost you more in material.

Time costs more than material.
You have to be paid for time, which is more expensive than material.

[petepaz]

thanks
i think we are pretty consitant but it is just these small orders that screw things up and we have even done some prototype work for free just because we know the larger order is coming

[Replicator]

NEVER work for FREE ! . . . EVER !

[gnemmas]

You have a good policy with $75 minimum order. Just need to stick to it. It is YOUR shop, ask customer to respect your policy. They have their policy, they would want their customers to follow their policy.

My experience told me that customer generally respect a firm that has a clear policy, even they disagree.

[dswanson]

this topic was addressed about a month ago (if that long) do a quick search. but I think it is absolutely necessary to have a minimum one hour at the minimum when you take into account taking the order, ordering material, setting up, billing, collecting, etc you'd be hard pressed to get it done in less than an hour, there is more time involved in any job than just the production of the project you must be paid for this time

[Flame]

Not saying I have stuff dialed, but my minimum is only $10... just cuz I run into little dinky runs that people would like, and I throw it in with another print run or something for them. I know SignsNow has a $5 minimum, so atleast somebodys got me beat. LOL

[Pro Signs & Graphix]

Flame - Is that for an "On Demand" item, or "When we get to it item"?

[Flame]

That's for a "when we get to it" order. If it's in demand, RIGHT NOW.... it of course costs double. :wink:

[Si Allen]

Easy way to fix this problem...qoute him your volume price and add a design and set up charge for small orders!

[earplug]

I agree with with Si Allen.

$50 set up charge with all orders.
Then give him a $2 per sticker price

If he orders 10 stickers he pays $70 ($50 setup and $2 x 10) or $7 each

If he order 100 stickers he pays $250 ($50 setup and $2 x 100) or $2.50 each

Using this method he gets his "fixed" pricing and you cover your costs plus profit.

Jack

[Pat Whatley]

What Earplug said...it's also a good way to get them to make a bigger order to start with.

[petepaz]

not sure they will go for the set up charge
but we have had a few orders where we have made out because of this
when they do order a larger quantity they use the same price so we make out
but out of every 5-6 prototypes we do maybe you get one large order
normally we do charge prep charges for the first orders for film and artwork
which is a general practice with screen printing and label making which is our main end of this business but know that we have entered the digital world things are different and there are at least 5 other companies just in our town alone that do digital printing
i am sure we will come to terms but i just wanted to see how everyone else handles these situations
thanks for the input

[mystysue]

We only have a 20.00 min order at our shop... and having it low has really paid off for us in the long run.. One of the main reasons we have it set at 20.oo is that we do engraving for all the electrical panels and breaker boxes.. these are 1 inch by 3 inch rowmar and if they order under 20 of them they are 4.50 apiece.. if they come in and order 2 we make them 4 and charge them 20.00 ..
.. we just tell people it cost us 20.oo min to turn on the machine.. It has ended up getting us alot of new customers in the long run..