Pricing Help Please

[James & Zelma Litzmann]

If you cut out letters 8 X 8 in the clear acrylic . . . does anyone have any idea how to charge for something like that? I don't want to over charge but I don't want to give it away either? Any input would be much appreciated.

[Rich Fennessey]

You have to figure out what it is worth to you. I generally set a minimum hourly rate and that number will vary on factors such as 1) do I want the experience, 2) is there more follow on business, 3) is this the kind of stuff that I want to do more of. To get experience early on, I volunteered to do projects for free. That was actually a great idea because I made items that were the basis of future products and gave me some good experience and samples. I'll generally target $75 an hour for machine time and $50 an hour for design and then charge for material. Also consider how much setup time you need and adjust. I've heard of rates up to $300 per hour for cutting but I'm not there yet. I scale my rate based on how good I am at it, so if I struggle on the software side, I won't charge the learning time. I'm also still fairly new at this business so I charge accordingly. Sometimes, I'll design up stuff for nearly free if I know that I may be cutting a lot of it. I can charge real reasonable rates now since this isn't my primary source of income and I'm trying to build up experience.

I recently did a job a fair amount under my target rate because I really wanted to do it and was pretty sure there was follow on business. I also tell them not to advertise the deal I gave them since I wouldn't necessarily do the same thing for another person as cheap. I will even admit to a customer that there request isn't really my specialty and that we'll learn together and see if we can make it work. Also consider some types of cutting and materials will go through bits faster. Some jobs are just really dirty and require a lot of cleanup or emptying the dust collector often. Also plan that you may waste some material, nobody has a 100% success rate - you will mess up some pieces. Also, if you have seen products like you are making in a store, you generally don't want to stray to far in price from those. Of course, you should avoid doing most anything that you could just pick up at a local store - you generally won't make any money.

Bottom line, if customer thinks it is reasonable and you can make money, then charge whatever you like. Some people will think it is too expensive no matter what and others won't believe they got such a good deal.