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Price check: Install 4 posts along a hillside

gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
visual800 said:
you gave a price and they declined...let it go! Not your problem. Everyone looking for a deal so let them deal with it
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I hear you, but I tend to react too sensitively when jobs are declined and wonder if my prices are in line or not. Lately (like since only in the past few months) I've been getting more declines than ever before and I think it's due to an economic shift and people tightening their wallets. My prices have generally remained the same.
 
Johnny Best

Johnny Best

Active Member
Next time lower your price and see if you get the job. People are starting to feel the money crunch. All food products have gone up plus price of cars and gas. People with kids paying outrageous prices for private schools and sneakers.
Don’t take it so personal. It comes with the territory. When you ask on here about prices you are not getting what they are charging it is what they wish they got.
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
Johnny Best said:
Next time lower your price and see if you get the job. People are starting to feel the money crunch. All food products have gone up plus price of cars and gas. People with kids paying outrageous prices for private schools and sneakers.
Don’t take it so personal. It comes with the territory. When you ask on here about prices you are not getting what they are charging it is what they wish they got.
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So with the cost of everything on the rise, your advise is to lower your prices...
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Depends on how your business is set up. For a large company like yours, you probably have a lotta of large customers who can take hits while raising their prices. So, they can continue to pay you your high prices. However many customers for signs are really price shopping more than craftsmanship or quality. Usually that comes with a lotta DIYers. The other thing is, I know for us and many other businesses, lotsa businesses have gone under, closed their doors and just went into hiding, especially after covid. Therefore, there's not as many customers as there once was. You can still find quality and not always hafta pay for it. The old saying about having too much work..... riase your prices and get rid of the lousy ones....... be careful nowadays.
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
gnubler said:
I hear you, but I tend to react too sensitively when jobs are declined and wonder if my prices are in line or not. Lately (like since only in the past few months) I've been getting more declines than ever before and I think it's due to an economic shift and people tightening their wallets. My prices have generally remained the same.
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Ask why, Don't be scared. You spent your time making an estimate, you deserve to know why they went somewhere else. There is no shame is cordially calling out a customer or potential customer that went to another company and you can learn a lot from it. If your head goes straight to price, you're just going to hurt yourself.
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
My pricing is dynamic and I do adjust pricing depending on the customer, like offering discounts/donations for local charities, but not for a high-end establishment.

Qualifying customers has been tough lately. You'd think that with a menu consisting of $15 appetizers and $20 mixed drinks they could afford having a few post signs professionally installed, but evidently not. The customer practically laughed when I quoted the install costs, which, coincidentally, is what I do when I see crackers and bean dip for $15 on a menu. There was nothing to ask about on this one, as it looks like they decided to handle it themselves. Their wood stakes will last exactly one winter, or until a drunk patron trips down the stairs and tries to grab a sign, and takes it down with him. :D
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
The only crappy thing about not installing the signs you make is that some morons don't know what they are doing and do a sh*t job and people think because you made the sign, you installed it. I made a a sign for a bar and they installed it themselves but every little windstorm it fell down. Do you have any idea how many phone calls I got telling me my sign was down? I got mad and called them and asked them to please fix the sign as half the town was continually calling me about it. I don't think they liked that. But the sign is fixed and no more phone calls LOL
 
visual800

visual800

Active Member
gnubler said:
I hear you, but I tend to react too sensitively when jobs are declined and wonder if my prices are in line or not. Lately (like since only in the past few months) I've been getting more declines than ever before and I think it's due to an economic shift and people tightening their wallets. My prices have generally remained the same.
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Understood, I did the same thing back when I was just starting the business, I questioned everything. Overthought a lot of things.

But coming up on 34 years, I just dont care enough to worry what I didnt get a job. I quote someone using the best methods and materials I know thats best for their application and their looks . If they find a cheaper option, thats not on me. It sucks sometimes BUT you have no control over that. Theres a reason you or me or anyone else didnt get a job and I guaranteee you its over price, everytime! people dont care about quality, they dont care like they used to about how well a design looks and the image it would portay for the their business, they care about price
 
N

netsol

Premium Subscriber
Johnny Best said:
Next time lower your price and see if you get the job. People are starting to feel the money crunch. All food products have gone up plus price of cars and gas. People with kids paying outrageous prices for private schools and sneakers.
Don’t take it so personal. It comes with the territory. When you ask on here about prices you are not getting what they are charging it is what they
CanuckSigns said:
So with the cost of everything on the rise, your advise is to lower your prices...
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IN REAL LIFE, the market sets the price,whether you like it or not.
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you need to find that level where you get an acceptable number of jobs & a reject rate you can live with.
when i read what some of our members charge for wraps, i remember my uncle describing the size of the
fish he caught
 
I

ikarasu

Premium Subscriber
I charge what I think a job is worth.

I hate vehicle wraps - so we usually quote 2-4k depending on the job... Were quite a bit higher than the other shops around here, but if im going to do a wrap.... I'm going to make it worth my time.

My buddy owns a shop and charges $18-2000 for a full color wrap that takes a week. I don't know how he does it... He says he has to stay low or he loses to the shop down the street. Takes him 4 days to wrap a vehicle properly.

In those 4 days i can make 10x that selling signs, for less work / less headache, and I'm not going to bed exhausted and aching from all the bending.


You don't always have to be the cheapest... But try to be the best. I wouldn't dig a hole for under $100, even if the going rate was $50... Doesn't mean it's worth my time to do it at that price.

Stick to what you know and want to do - price the shit jobs high, if you win it at least you're making decent Proffit, and if you lose it just look at it as your back isn't going to hurt for a week to make a few hundred bucks.
 
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JBurton

JBurton

Signtologist
Gino said:
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1685981198965.png
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
ikarasu said:
I charge what I think a job is worth.

I hate vehicle wraps - so we usually quote 2-4k depending on the job... Were quite a bit higher than the other shops around here, but if im going to do a wrap.... I'm going to make it worth my time.

My buddy owns a shop and charges $18-2000 for a full color wrap that takes a week. I don't know how he does it... He says he has to stay low or he loses to the shop down the street. Takes him 4 days to wrap a vehicle properly.

In those 4 days i can make 10x that selling signs, for less work / less headache, and I'm not going to bed exhausted and aching from all the bending.


You don't always have to be the cheapest... But try to be the best. I wouldn't dig a hole for under $100, even if the going rate was $50... Doesn't mean it's worth my time to do it at that price.

Stick to what you know and want to do - price the shit jobs high, if you win it at least you're making decent Proffit, and if you lose it just look at it as your back isn't going to hurt for a week to make a few hundred bucks.
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This x 1000!! We also don;t do wraps for the same reason, there are shops out there that do wraps all day long who can knock out a transit van in a day, and it will look better than my attempt which would take 4 days, In the time it takes me to wrap a car, i could produce 5 times the profit printing industrial warning decals without the stress of wrapping a car lol.
 
I

ikarasu

Premium Subscriber
JBurton said:
Say what? Is he flying solo, or at least in a studio setup where there's multiple vehicles in progress with other rappers?
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Solo, for the most part. He has a small shop.

Were about 4 days with 1 person, but he's getting old and slow.

We have 3 installers. Myself (production manager) a sign maker, who does all the other stuff as well. And our graphic artist.


We try to limit the 1 person to installs... With the graphic artist doing all the hardware removals / put backs. Then if it's a crunch him and me will help out as well...

Losing our applicator guy for 4 days sucks. Losing me / graphic artist / signmaker for 2 days sucks even more.

The shops who do nothing but wraps can juggle a ton of wraps and do it quickly - a helper can hop from vehi le to vehicle getting it ready...for us we have to stop production in some area.

We don't do enough wraps to justify hiring someone full-time for it... So I hate them. It screws up all our production! So I over charge and hope no one wants it done... Sadly we still get a few :roflmao:
 
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