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more work less profit?
Hi all
This week I seem to have spent a lot of time doing art work, and not a lot of production.
I know the work on the designs will come back bescause its for established clients. Thing is though, how do you price for it?
take this as an example.
Guy walks in, wants an escort or tranny with Bob The Builder on the side and back, plus a couple of phone numbers. takes 10 minutes to draw, an hour to cut and fit, 120-150 sqibs no problem, everybodies happy.Second guy walks in wants loads of colors, shadows, stripes, pictures etc, you know the sort. This can take hours to draw and modify to the guys satisfaction. When a price is finally agreed, the equation never seems to work. 5 times the work in hours should = 5 times the cost but rareley does. Whats the answer?
I’ll bet there are loads of you on the boards, who, like me don’t charge enough for a complex job, and if its bit different tend to take less than the value of the design work because you enjoy doing it.
Peter
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8 Replies
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I’ve found a similar thing here Peter. Recently I’ve been asked to do more and more elaborate window graphics, big windows too. I love designing them, making them and fitting isn’t too bad, its just sometimes the designs can take hours.
Take a job I took on this week. A basic window 2 metres x 1.8 metres, with the business name and opening times on it. A simple job it sounds, but then I’m asked to make it stand out from the crowd. My solution was to add in a carticature of the shop owner, made in cut vinyl, similar to the huge parrot image I did (except the shop owner is a woman, not a parrot 😉 ) The design so far has taken me 2 hours, and its still very sketchy. Enough to get a deposit and book the work in, but I figure there is still another 3 hours of work left before its ready to cut (I’m slow at vectorising).
I can speed the whole process up by employing Andrew’s services, but its still alot of work, and in the time it takes I could have easily done 4 or 5 menu boards or 10 A boards. But I can’t charge the earth, after all its still a 2 metre x 1.8 metre window.
I don’t think there is necessarily an answer to this, as I say, I quite enjoy doing it anyway. The only thing I’d like to change is maybe having a small deposit before I start the artwork. Becky was only saying the other day, he asks for £30 up front, this is then deducted from the final job price if they accept the design and go ahead. This still doesn’t address 5 times the work without 5 times the money though 😕
Cheers, Dewi
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I don’t create finished, cuttable artwork until an order is placed. At least this saves me some wasted time if they don’t order. I don’t think I could ever charge an hourly rate for artwork, at least not at a very high rate. I tend to use the ‘perceived value’ factor when pricing. A basic job could have the same material value as a more complex design but will always come out cheaper because I know of the extra time involved and that the customer will tend to accept this as a valid reason for a higher price. It’s a funny old game really; only last week I presented 2 designs for approval: one was nephew art, the other my design (which was fantastic, by the way !) obviously he went for the nephew art copy. On the other hand I have gained a fair bit of work because the customer was impressed with the amount of effort put in rather than just doing the same old boring stuff.
What was the question again?
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Off topic sorry!
Peter, been meaning to say hello since you joined UKSB! A neigbour at last! Surely our paths will cross soon? If you are in Harpenden at all please call in for a coffee and a chat.
On topic!
Yeah artwork is a tough one sometimes. If its a new customer I tend to get a feel what they are about before doing artwork to get the job! How much do I want this project? Do I impress by doing the artwork with the quote, or just give em a price with artwork on job? I suppose it could also come down to delegating artwork to staff, theefore your own valubl time is so wasted if you don’tget the job.
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Hi lamby
its the north and sout divide again i’m in luton and you’re
down south in the posh bit 😛
PeterOffer of coffee reciprocal if you venture into Luton
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Peter,
I’ll be in Luton in December to fit a shop front sign. I’ll bring my own Hobnobs…. -
Peter
Cheers I will!
G just call in, I like biscuits!
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Big G your welcome to, but bring lots of hob nobs, my great danes luv em
peter -
The ones I love are people who ask for designs with no pointers at all to what they want, just ‘make it look really good’ !
What I try and do is get the customer to do most of the rough work themselves, most can find a font they like in Word, or hand draw a rough idea of pictures etc… this makes it so much faster to get the design done and they get something like they already have in their heads.
I always point out to them that doing this saves them money as I woud have to charge an hourly rate for stuff they can doodle themselves in their spare time – looking at it this way they are happy to bumble off and do it themselves, some come back with almost finished artwork that just needs half an hour to tidy, which is great !
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