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Need Help Pricing Help

ivan9329

ivan9329

New Member
Hello guys, I'm still pretty new here.

I have recently made the jump into starting my own small sign shop after working for over 20 years on other peoples shops on and off. However, in all those years I was only involved in design and manufacturing and never in coming up with pricing. My question is how do I price out vinyl decals, printed decals, banners, signs and other stuff etc... etc.... Is there a formula/rule of thumb you all use? or some kind of software the comes up with pricing?

Any advice/help you all could give me would be greatly appreciated and paid forward.

Thanks.
 
jharler

jharler

New Member
I figure out material cost, apply a multiplier to that, add in labor cost per hour (I charge differently for design, labor and installation) and then add any profit I want to make. It's also going to depend on your location and competition. You also have to keep in mind how much overhead you have in terms of employee salaries, rent, electricity and so on to make sure that you're charging enough to cover everything and leaving some left over to build the business.
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
Until you figure out your overhead, hourly rate, etc. you can use a few different tools to get you in the ballpark. (Definitely use White Haus' link - lots of good stuff in there)

These guys have some pretty decent calculators.
thesignexpert.com

Sign Pricing Calculators

How do you price the signs for your sign shop? What variables do you use to make sure you are making the proper amount of profit? Do you just use sign pricing software and not worry about the deta…
thesignexpert.com thesignexpert.com

Signs.com - never price below these guys, they are the bottom line of pricing IMO.

Signcraft has a pricing calculator but requires a subscription

Some people say Materials X 3

Double materials and add labor and profit

For a nice overhead calculator, you can go to Firesprint.com that will help you calculate your hourly rate which is a good first step!

As stated above, no matter what your hourly rate ends up at you still should charge in the neighborhood of your local competitors. No sense in leaving money on the table and if you charge too much over what everyone else does you won't get jobs. Some considerations are the quality of your work and materials. The better you are the higher you can charge. Only you know how good your are.
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Another thread topic that's been discussed ad nauseum. Only if I'm truly stumped or have a specific question do I find it worthwhile to start a new thread. There's probably hundreds of threads here regarding pricing, I've read a lot of them.
This seems to be rampant across the internet, not just here.
 
caribmike

caribmike

Retired with a Side Hustle
When I added signs and banners to my commercial printing product line, I just did some stealth surveys of local competitors and checked online sources including shipping. Later, when I had the ability to properly cost my large format products, I was amazed at the astronomical profit margins. Now that I work in quasi-retirement from my home-based facility, the gravy has only gotten better.
 
FireSprint.com

FireSprint.com

Trade Only Screen & Digital Sign Printing
1.) Use our pricing calculator at https://www.FireSprint.com for the products we sell. Double our price or more. Then do it in house if you want, or send it to us when you get too busy.
2.) All pricing starts with determining your shop's hourly rate. You need to have a baseline for what you need to make per hour. Then from there, it's a matter of estimating time and materials. You can use our free shop rate calculator here: https://firesprint.com/blog/index.php/2021/07/27/how-to-calculate-your-shop-rate/
 
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