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Shop charge for laminating customer supplied lam.

SigSignsMT

SigSignsMT

New Member
I have an other sign shop I do laminating for. He doesn't like the price I am charging him and wants to supply his own roll of lam.

I want to be fair; I would assume I would charge my hourly shop rate. Any insight is greatly appreciated.
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
I only have a manual laminator but if I had to change rolls out all the time I might get crabby.

I don't know how long it takes to change rolls but I would add a "production fee" which includes removing your roll, adding his roll AND then removing his AND adding yours and getting it ready for your prints - each time you do this. Is there any scrap involved with the change out - if so, add the extra square footage to your production fee.

Is it the same lam you use or is he planning to purchase cheap stuff that might screw your laminator up?

Is he going to buy the right kind of lam, not that he comes back to you in a few months because the lam fails.

Is this job creating decent extra money for you or are you more or less doing this guy a favor? Remember that he can always buy his own laminator for 4k if he doesn't like your prices.

I have no answers for you but just the list of questions that I would ask myself.
 
SigSignsMT

SigSignsMT

New Member
Stacey K said:
I only have a manual laminator but if I had to change rolls out all the time I might get crabby.

I don't know how long it takes to change rolls but I would add a "production fee" which includes removing your roll, adding his roll AND then removing his AND adding yours and getting it ready for your prints - each time you do this. Is there any scrap involved with the change out - if so, add the extra square footage to your production fee.

Is it the same lam you use or is he planning to purchase cheap stuff that might screw your laminator up?

Is he going to buy the right kind of lam, not that he comes back to you in a few months because the lam fails.

Is this job creating decent extra money for you or are you more or less doing this guy a favor? Remember that he can always buy his own laminator for 4k if he doesn't like your prices.

I have no answers for you but just the list of questions that I would ask myself.
Click to expand...
I've been printing/laminating for him for about 7 years. I used to do everything for him, print&lam, but he ended up buy his own printer a couple years ago. It may be a matter of time before he does buy his own laminator.

I assume that he will purchase 1 to 2 types of lamination which is the Arlon 3510 or the 3420 (he likes cheap) - What he decides to use for his customers is up to him, I will just be laminating his prints. He rarely takes my advise and wants to do the cheapest possible, no matter longevity.

The only reason I ask, is because I didn't have a laminator up until about 10 years ago. I had another sign shop do my laminating and brought my own roll; they charged me $25 per trip, didn't matter if I had 1 or 2 rolls for multiple jobs. $25 just doesn't seem like enough, especially with unloading my own lam to put his in, etc.

I have an idea of what I should charge, and that should be my hourly shop rate. But I wanted to pick the brain of the community.
 
petepaz

petepaz

New Member
we charge $75 an hour normally for shop time but that changes depending on the job.
not sure how much you have to laminate for him or houw long it takes but you can either charge him by the hour or charge a set up charge and then a per sheet charge for laminating.
example $75 to set up the machine and $3 per sheet (those are random numbers i pulled out of the air. you need to figure out what you need to make or what it's work for you to mess around with the job)
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
It might be worth timing yourself this afternoon, remove your roll, put it back on, set up the laminator, take it off, put the roll back on, set up the laminator, add 30% and that replaces your old "$25" rate. Then charge by the hour for the laminating itself. Make sure you cushion enough for the set up time because he won't be happy if you say $50 today and next week you change it to $75.
 
I

ikarasu

Active Member
Charge your hourly rate + A bit more for machine wear and tear.

Does he realize you'll probably waste a ft (4.5 SQFT) Everytime you load his roll? Depending on what material he uses that could add up.


5 mins to load the lam, 5 mins to unload it... 5 mins prep work / webbing... Then however long it takes to laminate a roll. Make sure you charge a setup fee or you'll be doing a ton of 10 FT jobs
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
With our laminator, it takes about 15 minutes to unload our media, load another roll then get it webbed up properly, then you need to do it again to reload your media. So right off the bat before you run the job you have 30 minutes of shop time, at our shop that's $45, then a full roll of media takes about 20 minutes to laminate, so we would be around $75 to laminate a full roll. If he doesn't like it, too bad.
 
Scotchbrite

Scotchbrite

No comment
We have one guy we do this for and it's not a set cost. We basically do time & material with markup. Sometimes he supplies material and sometimes we provide it. The length of print can vary, so that's why we just charge him for the time spent.
 
rjssigns

rjssigns

Active Member
Years ago I laminated for another shop. Charged a buck per linear foot and they supplied the laminate. Was a good gig until the owners retired.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
If he doesn't like your price, then just tell him, you don't use end-user supplied materials...... PERIOD. You don't need these headaches. He bought a printer to cut ya out, now he wants to supply the rest of the job. Tell him as of March 18th, your pricing is going up. Let him scramble, not you. I'd charge a lot more than shop rate for such a minimal job. Anyway, how much do you do for him in a month's time ?? It can't be worth the hassle. If it's a lot, then he's got enough going on to invest in his own and cut you out. Do it on your time.
 
Billct2

Billct2

Active Member
Nope. Once it's clear he is becoming a competitor and not a customer I'm done. Also I wouldn't do a job like that (except for a friend). Using client supplied lam on their print? What happens if you mess it up, or the lam is crap, or in 6 months it fails because the materials are incompatable? Not worth it.l
 
Z SIGNS

Z SIGNS

New Member
Working for another shop is never a good. To many what if's.
What happens if you mess up his print and laminate?
What happens if they bring you some kind of material your not used to working with?
What if your busy working on a big bucks job?
 
A

Ardor Creative

New Member
I only allow companies to supply their own materials when it's something expensive and specialty that I don't want to purchase myself. If this person is trying to lessen their costs they can just buy their own laminator with what they're attempting to save. Force them to get their own laminator to save yourself all the headache.
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
Believe me, if he gets a $250 Chinese laminator like I have because he can't afford a nice fancy one like you have, and has to figure out how to set it up so there isn't static and bubbles, etc...he's going to pay you whatever you want. I was warned it would take some fiddling around, and it DID. BUT, my son and I got it figured out and it works well on 4'x8' prints so I'm happy. I had to order a few prints out in the mean time trying to figure out how to get this thing dialed in.
 
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