Do You Charge for Art Clean up?

[GTracer]

This short video may help you art department to become more productive and profitable.

 

[Signa33]

will check that out

 

[Z SIGNS]

I charge for everything I do

 

[Johnny Best]

I charge for everything I do

How much does that morning bathroom trip cost come to?

 

[Gino]

How much does that morning bathroom trip cost come to?

A nice feeling of comfort and brings a smile to your face of relief. Now, on to conquer the world and charge for vectors. It'll go so much easier now.

 

[Marlene]

good grief that is one long thing to watch and never did see the thing in action really. page after page of words not a big seller, seeing it work in real time would be better.

 

[Johnny Best]

I actually enjoy cleaning up customer's artwork, to sit at my work table and use a Wacom in Illustrator/Photoshop is relaxing. It makes life easier when reproducing the cleaned up logo with clean lines and colors. I use the Timer on my IPhone to see how long it takes me and charge accordingly.

 

[signs2trade]

I never charge for art clean up. I use the fact that there art is not useable, but I will redraw it for free. I make it as simple as possible for a customer. I think a lot of sign companies nickel and dime customers right out the door. Keep it simple. If you feel you need to add a few bucks to the order do so. It never takes me over an hour to have a perfect vector ready to print. Most job take less than 10 minutes.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I never charge for art clean up. I use the fact that there art is not useable, but I will redraw it for free. I make it as simple as possible for a customer. I think a lot of sign companies nickel and dime customers right out the door. Keep it simple. If you feel you need to add a few bucks to the order do so. It never takes me over an hour to have a perfect vector ready to print. Most job take less than 10 minutes.

I agree 100%. The less you gotta bug the customer about issues the better. Give the quote, get the deal, install the sign. Missing out on a possible $60 or 10-20 mins of time is nothing compared to a smooth flawless transaction.

 

[Gino]

Not charge for artwork or cleanup of provided lousy artwork ??

How do you two handle when you have 3 or 4 of those projects a day ?? Someone hasta pay your guy cleaning everything up ?? If not, then you must be hiding that cost in the overall production, correct ?? There can easily be several hours a week in doing this. For the most part, we try to find a way for them to supply clean artwork. In almost every situation, someone has the artwork, in the correct format somewhere.

I'd rather use a few minutes to explain to the customer, how they can save some valuable time and money, if they just find the artwork. Works almost everytime. If they can't find it, then it's justifiably chargeable design/artwork time.

 

[visual800]

Some customers have no clue what vector art is. If they send me their logo and its needs cleaning up Ill just do it to get the job BUT if they come back and want me to send them what I cleaned up, they will get charged for vector art.....and usually they are not happy about it

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Usually my type of customer is higher-end and really couldn't be bothered about small details or want a lesson in artwork. To them spending thousands on a sign is just another task for them in their day that they was to cross off "done".

 

[Hutchextreme]

I don't understand anyone NOT charging for artwork. Anything you do in your shop to work on a job, should be billed. Art is a specialized skill and should be billed accordingly. It's crazy to me the number of shops in my area that don't charge for art, even including complete sign design. I worked for a company years ago that did monument signs and channel letter signs and they didn't charge anything for the hours of work I'd have in designing and revising a sign. They was literally leaving thousands of dollars a month unbilled. He's now out of business (not ONLY because of that). If you're doing work to complete the job, charge for it. People in our industry need to stop giving stuff away.That's what drives profits down for everyone.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Personally, I'm not doing thousands of dollars worth of billable artwork cleanup in a month, but I'm also a small shop. I'm usually not the low bidder on jobs and my direction is for the higher-end client who's not personally invested in the design and is not spending their own money. Knowing the type of customer I have and want, I try to tailor my business practices towards what they want and expect. If someone is going out of business I beg to differ that not charging art cleanup is doing them in. If many business in your area are not charging artwork cleanup maybe that's a sign of where the market is moving. Note I'm saying artwork cleanup, as in what this thread is about, not art charge in general.

How is your impression of a fast food joint that charges for sauce? Whataburger is NOT cheap, but they charge 50 cents for sauce? I mean, I just paid $10 for a $2 hamburger, you won't just give me one sauce packet? Pisses me off every time. Contrast that with Chick-fil-a that is very customer friendly and gives you sauce. Are they loosing money and failing? No, that cost is figured in and the customer is happier.

 

[papabud]

for me, complete design is chargeable. simple clean up i usally just eat it. if they send real crap, its chargeable.
i love producing a product that meets or exceeds the customers expectation.
and sometimes i produce exactly what the customer gives me.
if the art can be quickly and easily cleaned up. making a better product or my job easier. then its done.
i hate nickle and dimeing costumers. but if from the start they know they have crap i will offer to fix it for a small fee.
but all this is based on the customer, our relationship and my mood or work load at the time.

 

[signs2trade]

Not charge for artwork or cleanup of provided lousy artwork ??

How do you two handle when you have 3 or 4 of those projects a day ?? Someone hasta pay your guy cleaning everything up ?? If not, then you must be hiding that cost in the overall production, correct ?? There can easily be several hours a week in doing this. For the most part, we try to find a way for them to supply clean artwork. In almost every situation, someone has the artwork, in the correct format somewhere.

I'd rather use a few minutes to explain to the customer, how they can save some valuable time and money, if they just find the artwork. Works almost everytime. If they can't find it, then it's justifiably chargeable design/artwork time.

I can do 25 a day easy. I have one employee dedicated to this....

 

[Gino]

So, from what you're saying, you do about 125 jobs a week that need cleaning up, which in itself justifies a decent billing, thus producing around $150,000 worth of jobs a week. You are doing a lot more than us, but I still think you should be charging for it. Otherwise, you are losing money...... even at $150,000 a week, unless you're doing more than $150,000 a week. We're not speaking about the jobs that come in RTP or no clean up needed, just your dedicated employee's scope of work. Cripes, you must be doing over $200,000 or more a week.

What the Hell are you doing on this forum, if you're doing that kinda work and not being a Merchant Member, looking for work ??

Find your statement a little exaggerated.

I can do 25 a day easy. I have one employee dedicated to this....

 

[signs2trade]

So, from what you're saying, you do about 125 jobs a week that need cleaning up, which in itself justifies a decent billing, thus producing around $150,000 worth of jobs a week. You are doing a lot more than us, but I still think you should be charging for it. Otherwise, you are losing money...... even at $150,000 a week, unless you're doing more than $150,000 a week. We're not speaking about the jobs that come in RTP or no clean up needed, just your dedicated employee's scope of work. Cripes, you must be doing over $200,000 or more a week.

What the Hell are you doing on this forum, if you're doing that kinda work and not being a Merchant Member, looking for work ??

Find your statement a little exaggerated.

I can do 25 a day easy. I have one employee dedicated to this....

Ha... I said I CAN do 25 a day. I have no clue where your getting your numbers.. hahaha...

 

[Gino]

Ha...... based upon your post. You have an employee dedicated to doing 25 a day. Otherwise, it's just another empty statement. Try basing your comments on things you know or things you are experienced in doing. Not some fabricated wannabe throwing out dumb numbers.

The numbers I used are merely based upon facts. If you're gonna go to the trouble of vectorizing a piece of artwork, as by your own earlier statements can take up to an hour or as little as 10 minutes, the average cost of that job is probably worth around $1,200 to $1,500 each. Even if it's as little as $1,000, that's still $125,000 a week, according to your statistics.

Therefore, if you're not making decent money on your various projects, then you're giving work away you can't really afford. Thus, your doing art for free is just plain dumb.

However, do as you feel is best for your business to keep your doors open. It was only about a year ago you were advertising for help and moving into a brick building, so I guess you don't need to charge for your stuff, huh ??

 

[Propaganda Ink.]

The real concern here is whether or not it is ethical for a neutron to charge for any work...