Help quoting a job

[Gene Hobbs]

Hi guys
I have a customer wanting me to mark his logo in three different spots on his product. The product is 7" round and 3.5" tall has to be done in a rotary. The logo its self is about 2" wide by .75" tall. He wants a quote on a hundred to start with but it could end up alot more than that. Oh it is a shock cover that is anodized and will go on race cars. It takes about 4minutes and 48 seconds to mark each one. I want to be fair on pricing and not over charge just because they have lots of money, but buy the same token I need to make money also. Any help would be appreciated.

[Gary Hair]

Gene,
Calculate the time to:
unpack
setup
laser
cleanup
repack

Multiply this time by your hourly (minute) rate and you should have an answer.

I'm a bit concerned that it takes that long to mark, my 30 watt laser would mark something that size in a couple of minutes max. What resolution are you using?

Gary

[Rodne Gold]

Gary , I think he has to do it 3x on the object.
$10 on a 100 item order sounds good , that $100 an hour. Give him a 1 and a 10 piece price 0f $75 and $25 , tell him the $10 an item price would be the 250+ price but you giving him a break - would normally be $15
You must be realistic re pricing , regardless of your costing model , Ie it has to be near your competition's and what the general market price for this type of marking is. He could probably have em screened or Yagd for $10 or less...
Good luck

[Gene Hobbs]

I gave them a price of $8.00 each. They said it was to much that they could get decals cheaper. I said true you can but, the first time you hit them with a pressure washer the decal is gone. Cup drivers are some of the biggest tight wads I have ever had to work with. They expect you to do stuff for free just because of who they are. I told them to call around they may find someone cheaper to do it. Or they could go spend $23,000 on a laser. Thanks anyway guys

[Joe Pelonio]

Some jobs are just not cost effective for laser. I wouldn't have been interested in that job for under $10 each, but they could probably get them screen printed for a dollar or less if only one color. Think about finding business partners to work with, you could have offered them screened for $0.50 each more than you pay and made a few dollars for doing nothing.

[Gene Hobbs]

Joe your right. It just makes me mad that they call me and tell me to do a couple samples for them to look at. It took quite a bit of time to lay it out the way they wanted it to look. Took it to them and they loved the way it looked untill i told them the cost. They would'nt even tell me to my face. They just sent an email that said where not going for the price I had given them. So I wasted alot of my time on a customer who was just courious. I seem to have been doing this alot latley. What I should do is send them a bill for the hours I worked on the samples for them. Ok rant over everyone have a nice day.

[Mike Null]

What do you mean you haven't sent a bill for the prototype work?

[Gene Hobbs]

Right I think I will put that in the mail today.

[Scott Shepherd]

Gene, I think you nailed it. From the many posts I have read on sign forums, I can't recall one that involved a race car or race team that had a happy theme. They tend to want everything for free or next to nothing. They appear to love throwing out the "If you do it for free, you can put your company name on the car as a sponsor for free" type thing. In many cases, someone involved with the race team will buy the equipment and they'll do it for free for the team.

They are cheap, cheap, cheap from all I have seen and read.

[Mark Winlund]

Joe your right. It just makes me mad that they call me and tell me to do a couple samples for them to look at. It took quite a bit of time to lay it out the way they wanted it to look. Took it to them and they loved the way it looked untill i told them the cost. They would'nt even tell me to my face. They just sent an email that said where not going for the price I had given them. So I wasted alot of my time on a customer who was just courious. I seem to have been doing this alot latley. What I should do is send them a bill for the hours I worked on the samples for them. Ok rant over everyone have a nice day.

One way or another, you have to be paid for your efforts. Either a setup fee or higer costs per item. If a specific customer turns you down due to the price, all of your other customers have to pay a slightly higher price to make up for the loss. It's the cost of doing business.

Mark

[Rodne Gold]

You have to give a customer an indication of pricing right up front. If you do protoypes and samples without prior arrangments as to payment for them , your work was a "Bet". You bet your time and effort that it will pay off in the end. If you lose , you lose.
There will be those that appreciate your willingness to go the extra mile and wont object to your pricing.
The silver lining in all this is that you get experience in terms of pricing , the job and business practice.
Your response to these guys should be along the lines off " Sorry I couldnt meet your pricing model . but please keep me in mind for other projects where my laser marking can be cost effective"

[David Fairfield]

Maybe its just me, but I get some perverse satisfaction out of telling a customer who doesn't like my pricing to take his job somewhere else.

I guess that comes from knowing my work is worth what I ask, and from experience dealing with cheapskate customers. Often the lowest spending customers create the biggest problems.

Dave

[Bill Cunningham]

Some folks simply have no idea.. Got a email yesterday from a woman that simply asked:
I have 80 pieces shaped like a heart, what will it cost to engrave them?

Sometimes you just want to press the delete key..

My answer was obviously 80 pieces of what? What size? What do you want on them?..
It turned out they were 80 Chinese made chrome hearts, and she didn't know if they were plastic chrome 'like', or metal, about a inch across..
Well, we know there's nothing finer to work on than Chinese chrome, even when it doesn't flake off due to the heat.. So I told her her $30.00 set-up, and $9.00 per piece along with no guarantee that they would even survive. Mabe I should have just pressed the delete key

[Rodne Gold]

Blowing off a customer or getting annoyed with em is not a good business practice..they have taken the trouble to come in or make contact - if they dont buy anything , thats part of the game .. the best way of gaining something in that situation is to treat it as an excercise in goodwill.