Embroidery person needs help with sign pricing

[BFD251]

Good day everyone, I have been in the Embroidery business for 25 years and have always done small sign vinyl and stickers using my cutter or BN-20. I not interested in getting into the sign business but need to serve my customers they want small runs of stickers of one color vinyl jobs.

Looking for help with pricing willing to trade for Embroidery and Screen Printing advice or pay for your time, I think I am way too cheap on items. Can anyone help out?

 

[Gino]

Try to be more specific. What are you selling, how many, what size, what material(s) and what are you getting $$ presently ??
Also, you are getting into the sign business, if you are making signs and selling them. Doesn't make sense to think of it any other way..................

 

[BFD251]

Try to be more specific. What are you selling, how many, what size, what material(s) and what are you getting $$ presently ??
Also, you are getting into the sign business, if you are making signs and selling them. Doesn't make sense to think of it any other way..................

For instance yesterday I made up 10 White Oracal 651 8x8 logos and 6 - 24 x 12 logos (easy weeding) and I charged $3.50 each for the 8x8 and $14 each for the 24 inch one. For pricing, I have a calculator spreadsheet to figure out my cost per sq inch but I don't think I am charging enough for my time. I also add a bunch $ in and feel like I am very inconsistent with pricing.

I just try and stick to making window signs and vehicle lettering for my customers since they ask and I have the logo's ready to go after Embroidery or screen printing. I do a lot of one-off t-shirts with my cutter so I feel like it's a natural fit. I will leave the complicated stuff to the sign pros. Just hoping to get some direction on general pricing? I go online and check out the stores that do custom but pricing is all over the map.

Thank you for responding

 

[iPrintStuff]

Simply put, charge as much as you can and they still want to pay.

There are a lot of factors that come into play here. Put a mark up on that makes them worth your time and never try to compete with online vendors!

 

[Gino]

So, one thing in any business is consistency. You're barely getting $3.50 a sq ft for your 8 x 8s and you're getting about $7 a sq ft for 12 x 24s. You didn't say how long it took ya, but those prices are dirt cheap, unless you like working like that. You ought to be going in at at least $9 to $12 a sq ft for die cut vinyl, even on calendared. You can't just add this or that and think you're making money. You need to know where.... and how all of your money is being spent. It doesn't sound like you have a shop, but are working outta your dining room or garage. However, you still have electric, conversation time, input time, cutting, weeding, taping it up, the tape itself along with the vinyl costs. You need to figure in waste, your heat, insurance(s), and all the other incidentals, not to mention, how many times does one or two go bad and you hafta cut another one to make the set ?? All that goes into the cost of production. Then, you need to put a profit on there and don't forget the PITA cost. That's sometimes more than the job itself is worth. Mine's called SF item.

 

[BFD251]

So, one thing in any business is consistency. You're barely getting $3.50 a sq ft for your 8 x 8s and you're getting about $7 a sq ft for 12 x 24s. You didn't say how long it took ya, but those prices are dirt cheap, unless you like working like that. You ought to be going in at at least $9 to $12 a sq ft for die cut vinyl, even on calendared. You can't just add this or that and think you're making money. You need to know where.... and how all of your money is being spent. It doesn't sound like you have a shop, but are working outta your dining room or garage. However, you still have electric, conversation time, input time, cutting, weeding, taping it up, the tape itself along with the vinyl costs. You need to figure in waste, your heat, insurance(s), and all the other incidentals, not to mention, how many times does one or two go bad and you hafta cut another one to make the set ?? All that goes into the cost of production. Then, you need to put a profit on there and don't forget the PITA cost. That's sometimes more than the job itself is worth. Mine's called SF item.

We have an Embroidery shop so that's our main business again looking for direction and I appreciate the $9 to $12 sq foot, again we have only really used our cutter for t-shirts and sometimes for customers who wanted an hours sign or logo on their window. I developed a calculator for heat press vinyl and adapted that to stickers etc. I am having trouble I guess is judging how long it takes to weed and mask. I was thinking maybe someone had a number they used per sq foot or inch that covered most basic designs. We are not the cheapest for Embroidery and certainly want to be the same for window vinyl, I don't want to undercut others as I think it's bad for the industry.

Thank you for taking the time to comment, what state are you in?

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

We have an Embroidery shop so that's our main business again looking for direction and I appreciate the $9 to $12 sq foot, again we have only really used our cutter for t-shirts and sometimes for customers who wanted an hours sign or logo on their window. I developed a calculator for heat press vinyl and adapted that to stickers etc. I am having trouble I guess is judging how long it takes to weed and mask. I was thinking maybe someone had a number they used per sq foot or inch that covered most basic designs. We are not the cheapest for Embroidery and certainly want to be the same for window vinyl, I don't want to undercut others as I think it's bad for the industry.

Thank you for taking the time to comment, what state are you in?

I charge vinyl by linear foot. A 24" roll of 651 with application tape is $1 a foot in material alone. Good rule of thumb is take your material and double or triple it. Then apply your shop hourly rate to the job and estimate your time. The only hard thing will be for you to estimate job times because you lack the experience. To gauge it, cut out a few decals and time yourself and multiply that to figure the total job time.

If you don't have a shop rate, you need to do some homework and figure one out. Mine is $125/hr. Sometimes I do less, sometimes more.

The reason why it's hard to give you a flat per sq. ft. cost is that some decals could take 10 times longer to weed than others. After all that said, generally it will be around what Gino said, $10/sq. ft.

 

[BFD251]

I charge vinyl by linear foot. A 24" roll of 651 with application tape is $1 a foot in material alone. Good rule of thumb is take your material and double or triple it. Then apply your shop hourly rate to the job and estimate your time. The only hard thing will be for you to estimate job times because you lack the experience. To gauge it, cut out a few decals and time yourself and multiply that to figure the total job time.

If you don't have a shop rate, you need to do some homework and figure one out. Mine is $125/hr. Sometimes I do less, sometimes more.

The reason why it's hard to give you a flat per sq. ft. cost is that some decals could take 10 times longer to weed than others. After all that said, generally it will be around what Gino said, $10/sq. ft.

Great thank you that's basically how I do it but need to come up with a different rate than my Embroidery rate.

Thank you for replying

 

[signage]

your shop hourly rate for embroidery vs Vinyl/signs should not change, your overhead is your overhead. You said that you use the cutter for t-shirts so it sould have already been calculated into your overhead (shop Rate calculations).

 

[BFD251]

your shop hourly rate for embroidery vs Vinyl/signs should not change, your overhead is your overhead. You said that you use the cutter for t-shirts so it sould have already been calculated into your overhead (shop Rate calculations).

Embroidery business and sign business are 2 different animals when I quote an Embroidery job I quote per hour on machine run time including the profit on the garment which comes out anywhere from $150 per hour to $600 per hour, I have a minimum which I will use for signs. I will need to adjust my calculator that I have, I just wasn't charging enough for my weeding, masking etc.

Thank you for your comment.

 

[unclebun]

Shop hourly rate is not calculated from a particular job or jobs. You work at it from the other end. Rent/mortgage, insurance, utilities, etc. Desired labor costs. Equipment purchase/lease and maintenance costs. Capital investment costs. Vehicle costs. Figure that up for a month, then figure out how much has to come in per hour to support that. If your business has slack time, then you have to increase your shop rate to cover those times.

Then the cost of materials, etc. is figured up for an individual job plus shop time used plus profit. And if it's a sign, then you can increase for marketing value.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Shop hourly rate is not calculated from a particular job or jobs.

This right here when it comes in terms of a "shop rate".

Even then, when pricing for embroidery versus cut vinyl or whatever, the dollar amounts may change, the types of inputs of production may change, but what generally one has to consider are the the same from one physical good to the next.