What to charge?

[Jillbeans]

I have a great customer, for whom I've done a good bit of work.
He needs me to cut vinyl for signs.
I am getting out of the vinyl business (going to paint only) so he is buying the vinyl, and he's supplying the substrate. (his business uses aluminum) He's even sticking the vinyl.
All I have to do is layout, cutting, weeding, and masking of about 10 yards total.
Half of it is reflective 15" and the other half hi-performance 24".
So all I have in it is time and transfer tape.
I have no idea what to charge.
I was thinking $75/hr on the layout part and $25/hr on the mechanical part.
I'll have about 3 hours layout time, probably 5 hours tops cutting/weeding/masking.
Does that sound about right?

Love....Jill

 

[player]

Why so low on the cutting? It takes skill and knowledge, plus the machine and software and computer...

 

[Rick]

It is a lot of small type?

What's your normal hourly rate?

The layout rate is good, the cut weed mask
sounds low to me. I would think 35 an hour is the
lowest I would go.

With your pricing, you would average $43.75

If you bumped up to 35 an hour on the production,
then it would be 50.00 an hour.

 

[sardocs]

I would charge my regular shop rate for all the tasks. When you are busy doing weeding and taping you are away from your easel. I'm home based and I would charge it out at at least $65 an hour, and I'd tell him there's a blade charge for cutting reflective.

 

[John Butto]

...

I was in a melee last time I gave my advice on pricing so here goes.

Since you have "done a good bit of work" with this person in the past and he must pay his bills it seems like a fair price for the work you described. There is only time on your part and no material cost and the only thing is overhead and that would not add up to much. And since you are getting into something else this will be extra cash and you will be motivated to get the job finished probably in less time than you figured. After this job and he comes back to have more work, you will have a better grip on your pricing

 

[AF]

If something goes wrong and you need more material, your dime or his?

 

[bob]

Charge whatever you would charge for a vinyl sign of equal size and number of colors less the vinyl and substrate. The pricing model I use first calculates the price of the work and then adds in the media and the substrate, appropriately marked up, which makes it simple to back them out. If your world isn't so simple then use whatever model you use, price the sign, and just subtract the appropriate items. Sort of like doing a vehicle [no substrate] using air vinyl.

 

[Stormyj]

I dont know about everyone else, but I have this all set up in quickbooks, or a spreadsheet I continually work on,and add items through the estimate feature. I charge $60 hr on all labor, I work from home. And have listed all prices of material, + 30% markup. If there is a friend or great customer, I might give a variable discount.

So plugging your info into my spreadsheet, I get a price of $486.24 where yours is $350. My question is, why is it taking you 5 hours to weed and mask 10 yards of vinyl? Is this layered vinyl, text. It seems to me, that should only take a cpl of hours at most.

 

[Jillbeans]

Cutting/weeding/masking will probably take me at least 5 hours. I can lay out fast but I hate doing cutting/weeding/masking. I do think I'll bump up that price.
The guy is perfectly OK with whatever I charge.
There will be more than enough vinyl in case I jack something up.
One sign features a pictorial in black and white (that I drew by hand, he got his logo from me), mostly just an entry one, a "rules" type sign (all copy) and three 12"x18"-ish like no parking signs.

 

[OldPaint]

i do a lot of R.T.A. vinyl. if its my vinyl( calendared ......i buy it)not small or cursive letters....plain block, no serifs........$7-8.00 a sq ft. HP VINYL $10-14, (depending on vinyl cost) i just did this pickup, HIS REFLECTIVE(he paid for the green and the white), my black.....i did the layout( his design, i have done a couple other trucks for him)so layout was saved. i cut it, weeded it, handed it to him and he did the application. i did this truck for $250.00 and how i figure the sq ft is i save all the backing paper, measure it and double that as i use 24" material.....so for every lineal foot its 2 square feet. i figured bout 35 sq ft(16-17 lineal feet of vinyl), plus a new blade($24.00)required when cutting reflective.....$6.25 a sq ft.
couple weeks ago i did this with my black vinyl, for floor description, like TRASH CAN, PORTABLE STEPS, USED OIL CANS ETC .......to the tune of $720.00 just for layout/cut/weed and hand to the buyer. 90 sq ft or 45 feet off the 24" X 150 SHINE RITE BLACK roll.$72.00...........

 

[boxerbay]

ug weeding.

I hope he isnt one of those give me a flat rate and then sends you a wall of .25 high text to weed out.

 

[Mike Paul]

I think your hourly design/layout rate is fine but I wouldn't change the rate depending on
what task your doing at the time to finish the job; especially the less attractive ones like
weeding reflective, masking, trash etc...

 

[OldPaint]

weeding reflective vinyl............SUCKS!!!! comes off in pieces....shine rite black......i can rip it off...