standard Formula for price on Trophy, Plaques, medals

[Andrew O'Hara]

Still in the process of starting up my trophy business.
I'm wondering if there is any sort of standard formula used for determining the mark up price on trophies, plaques, medals, and other awards?
In my sign business I have always taken my material costs and generally multiplied by 5 or 6 to get my retail price.
Can anyone suggest what the mark up should be on my products?

[Chris J Anderson]

I simply did a spreadsheet, in which I input...

1- The size of the plate I'm making.
2- The engraving area.
3- The cutting length.
4- The time to set up the job.
5- The time to clean / pack.
6- The freight costs.
7- The cost per sq cm of the material I'm using.

Just set your desired machine / artwork setup rates per minute and go from there.

You can fine tune with experience. Do a few samples and accurately monitor your times etc.

Cost obviously changes with quantities, be realistic with your data in and you'll get good data out.

IMPORTANT - Remember that when you suddenly have an expensive repair / replace on your machinery, you will wish that you had made an allowance for repair / upgrade of equipment.

cheers and good luck with it...

[Keith Outten]

On every job you should apply X% for profit plus X% for overhead in addition to your material and labor costs. The overhead fee will cover your shop expenses and replacement or repair of your machines.

Assuming your business is legal you will have insurance costs, a phone bill, electricity, rent, advertising, SSI , federal and state taxes etc so don't short yourself on the percentage you apply to your overhead fee.
.

[Henri Sallinen]

I just finished a running job with hundreads of round pieces engraved and lasercut with a about price: Material costs x 20.

So multiplying it by 5 or 6 wouldn't cut it in my case.

[Andrew O'Hara]

Very helpful, thanks!

[Andrew O'Hara]

Greatly Appreciated, Thanks!

[Ross Moshinsky]

Type in: Trophy or Plaque or Award on google. See pricing. That's your baseline pricing. You also have to figure in cost of living & doing business. If you live in a region where both are high, your prices will be on the higher end.

[Tim Bateson]

+1 on Ross's comment. Along with the worksheet of-course. It takes both. If your worksheet comes out to $10, but the local market is at $7, you'll have a lot of unsold inventory. If your worksheet comes out to $10, but the local market is at $15, you may be busy but throwing away potential profits.

[Rodne Gold]

Trophies and awards , bought in , x2 , add engraving etc to that

Stuff from scratch , between 4 and 6x material cost - and if it sounds too cheap , it is and if it looks to pricey , it is.

The secret is to charge what the market will bear ... do what my opposition do.. they ask for quotes in an undercover way on various stuff so they can see where our pricing is.. you need to do the same , you need to know your market , who your competitors are and what they charge. You need to do your homework.

What you have to ultimately do is ask this question "why would anybody use me " and if you can only answer positively in terms of pricing.. you are wrong.!!!!


If you are not the only game in town with bought in awards etc - you then should not concentrate on that and then gain a competitive advantage due to creativity and articles made from scratch.
Have a look at my site - Im massive into trophies , but the best money spinners are custom awards. Check out the acrylic awards sections for ideas.

[Mike Null]

The secret is to charge what the market will bear ... do what my opposition do..

As an example, I'm in St. Louis, I read where guys on the west coast are getting as much as $15 for name tags. Here, if I quote $10 I can be sure I won't get the job. As a result my name tags are $10 and less--most in the $7.50 to $8.50 range if they are engraved. Less if printed.

I have a certain line of plaques that I price at $50, 40, and $30 depending on size with the 9x12 at the $50 point. These are all with a laser engraved plate or sublimated plate. I rarely engrave directly into wood. These prices are profitable and represent a competitive position that will get me a fair plaque volume.

[Tim Bateson]

...The secret is to charge what the market will bear ...

Very true. A side note to this is it'll take a bit of sampling to arrive at a good price. For example I have a set price for a particular specialty I have. When quoted the cost, a customer may back off because the quote is way to high. For every one of those, I get at least 2 customers that will exclaim "Is that all??" and often leave a good tip on top of the charged price. You aren't going to please everyone with your pricing, so get use to it and move on.

Note: My pricing is really a bit more complex than stated, but a good businessman needs to keep some trade secrets.

[Scott Shepherd]

a good businessman needs to keep some trade secrets.

LOL, too right. Having gotten to know a number of people on this forum, I'd guess that quite a large number of people don't post anything that they really do much of

We have a lobby area, or showroom (it's not much of a showroom), or whatever you want to call it. We had a lot of things we do up there. We do a lot of wholesale work. Our wholesale customers would come in, we'd walk into the lobby and they'd be staring with great focus at the smallest of details, like who's company name was on a sample we had out there. After watching it for far too long, and having one customer buy his own laser and try to compete with us, we stripped out most all of the things we do on a daily basis and replaced them with generic samples. We used to let people into our shop, now you're stopped at the door.

[Dan Hintz]

Having gotten to know a number of people on this forum, I'd guess that quite a large number of people don't post anything that they really do much of

Why, whatever do you mean, Steve?

[Scott Shepherd]

Why, whatever do you mean, Steve?

Well, I didn't want to throw you under the bus Dan, but if everyone knew how much money you had made off of laser engraving water dishes for cats, they'd all be lining up to buy new lasers to keep up with the demand. How you get so much for them is beyond me

[Dan Hintz]

if everyone knew how much money you had made off of laser engraving water dishes for cats, they'd all be lining up to buy new lasers to keep up with the demand. How you get so much for them is beyond me

They're ferret water dishes, thank you very much, and I add the word "premium" whenever I talk about them to potential customers.