-
Vinyl Lettering Pricing, Your views please?
hope this is in the right fourm, found this price list recently on the net for single letters. What do you guys think of this and what do you charge?
Happy new year to you all
Craig
Up to 1" (12.5mm) 20p 11in(279mm) £1.40
Up to 2 in(50mm) 25p 11.5in(292mm) £1.50
2.5in(62.5mm) 30p 12in(305mm) £1.60
3in(76mm) 35p 12.5in317mm) £1.70
3.5in(89mm) 35p 13in(330mm) £1.85
4in(101mm) 45p 13.5in(343mm) £2.00
4.5in(114mm) 50p 14in(355mm) £2.20
5in(127mm) 55p 14.5in(368mm) £2.40
5.5in(139mm) 60p 15 in(381mm) £2.60
6in(152mm) 70p 15.5in(393mm) £2.75
6.5in(165mm) 80p 16in(406mm) £2.90
7in(178mm) 85p 16.5in(419mm) £3.00
7.5in(190mm) 95p 17in(432mm) £3.10
8in(203mm) £1.00 17.5in(444mm) £3.20
8.5in(216mm) £1.10 18in(457mm) £3.30
9in(229mm) £1.20 18.5in(469mm) £3.45
9.5 in(241mm) £1.25 19in(483mm) £3.60
10in(254mm) £1.30 19.5in(495mm) £3.75
10.5 in(267mm) £1.35 20in(508mm) £3.90mod-edit
Please use descriptive topic titles when posting.
this post has now been edited. -
20 Replies
-
quote Craig Gibson:found this price list recently on the netWhat was the country of origin though.
Even in the UK, there can be a wide difference as to what you can charge from area to area, level of competition, and a multitude of other contributory factors.
I’m not at work at the moment so I can’t compare our prices, although I should say that due to the nature of our work, we very rarely use the individual letter pricing method.
-
i agree with john on this one…
we do a bit of both, calculation wise i mean. dependent on customer type etc
though on individual letters (again like john, i don’t have them in front of me) but from memory on these sizes ours is:-4" letter is about £1.00 – £1.20
10" letter is about £4 – £4.50
20" letter is about £8 – – £9very seldom does anyone ask for only a few letters/numbers though…
-
again we will not charge per letter.
-
To be honest, lists like that are (in my opinion) pretty pointless as they over simplify matters. They work only as far as somebody buying individual pre-cut letters (on ebay)…not any use for ‘signmaking’.
eg. You get somebody come in for two 1" letters….are you really going to load the material, program, cut, weed & tape all for 40p?
As a guide – a pair of 1" ‘taxi letters’ sells for between £7-£10 here – that covers the ‘hassle’ of such a small job and is still a fair price most drivers are willing to pay.
I tend to work on area used (linear), based on the most economical cut and add on for estimated time to be taken. Ever job is priced on it’s own merits so I don’t have price lists per se.
Not really an exact science I know…but my ‘using the force’ method results in strangely repeatable quotes!
Dave
-
I don’t sell signs by the letter.
Talk about nickle and diming someone!
If I worked that way people would be bitching if I charged them for 14 letters rather than 13.
I don’t like the signs by the pound mentality and try to avoid it at all costs.
Love….Jill -
don’t do letters individually and why would I want to set my plotter going for 20p 😀
lynn
-
I charge by the sq m, and have a minimum charge for anything less than $25 (or half an hour of labour)
Not worth the hassle. Only exception is if they are a regular client, then I’ll give them the letters FOC, as a goodwill gesture.
-
just to try explain my take on this from our side.
we are based in a small industrial estate in a town centre.
we get allot of folk walking in off the street looking for anything from vinyl lettering, for sale signs, taxi numbers and names, etc etc to be able to take on small jobs like this efficiently you must have some sort of pricing structure. having a set pricing list per letter, per size is a quick and easy way of doing it. e.g.Man comes in looking for
"Mind the step"
1 inch high, vinyl text only.Girl at the reception desk counts 13 digits including spaces.
cost per letter approx 55p = total £7.15+vatthe order is processed and picked up later that day, or as soon as we can, without interfering with current orders.
the job is run from off-cuts of vinyl we keep in bags under a table. so the material has already been paid for.
i often read posts asking, "what do you all do with your vinyl off cuts?" well this is our way of dealing with that… turn your waste into money.
i know the procedure of charging based on the square footage etc of vinyls used… as i do on guesstimates on the likes of vehicle livery and the like… we will all use what pricing methood best suits us for the job in hand.
-
Fair comment Rob, I don’t get passing trade, so I usually have to post it. I also use mine from offcuts, but only being a one man band, its me that has to do it. And my time is very expensive :lol1: :lol1: I’m an artists after all 😉
-
Just to elaborate on Rob’s post………
We are the exact opposite. We are based in redundant garage premises out in the sticks, with very little walk in business. Whilst we will do the odd "mind the step" sign, that type of work probably represents 0.01% of our turnover, or even less. That’s also the reason we generate so much waste – we have no jobs to use it on.
Our work is very time sensitive, so we don’t operate a first in – first out system. Our jobs are scheduled on a "most important customer first" basis. I can’t afford to delay a hundred van a year customer for the sake of a No Smoking sign. What can therefore happen is that somebody walks in off the street looking for his line of text and we say we can do it, then something more important comes in, and the little job keeps getting pushed to the back of the queue and results in an irate customer who gets fed up waiting and eventually tells us to stick our sign in our ear. Rather than cause that sort of aggravation it is usually better just to not take on the job in the first place.
Having said all that, pricing by the letter is a valid way of calculating prices. For those little jobs, as Rob says, there needs to be a structure so that staff can easily work out a price on the spot.
On bigger jobs it is also a good way of double checking a price calculated on a vinyl area and time basis. This is of vital importance to us. If we undercharge on a one-off van that’s fine, learn the lesson and move on, but we can’t afford to do that on a hundred van job. Apart from being bad business, doing a hundred vans at a £10 each loss would drive me nuts. So, for those quotes we need to use every tool in our armoury to arrive at a price that is both profitable to us and competitive to make sure we get the job.
I understand the "I’m not turning on my cutter for a couple of letters" mentality, and whole-heartedly approve, but it doesn’t really apply to us. Specialising in vehicles means that whatever we do is usually part of a vanfull of graphics, so calculating costs on a per letter basis is as good a way of doing it as any.
Jill, I understand what you are saying, but my biggest problem is not the number of letters, rather the height. If I have a line of text to put on a van I know how many letters there will be, and how long the line will be, but unless I type it in I don’t know exactly how tall the letters will be, so do I charge for 100mm letters, or will they be 120mm? The point though is that the customer doesn’t have to know any of this. How you calculate your price can be your little secret. Whether you are charging him for seventeen 60mm letters, or fifteen 65mm ones shouldn’t matter, all he needs to know is the total price.
In truth, if we used the per letter method exclusively, we would need more than one price list because the letter price we charge will vary for a one-off "mind the step" and even a small ten van fleet. Along with the time taken to prepare a quote, that’s the main reason we only use that method for double checking a price already arrived at by another process.
That’s quite a diatrabe. Sorry. Also, bear in mind that I have just woken up on the sitting room floor after imbibing a little too freely at the New Year celebration last night, so I happily acknowledge that it could very well all be bullsh1t. 😀
-
impressive response John , for a man ‘under the weather’ :lol1: :lol1:
-
quote Shane Drew:for a man ‘under the weather’
I’m fortunate in that respect Shane. I don’t normally suffer from hangovers. I’ve only ever had two of them in my life. 😀
I have to be aware though that the alcohol is still flowing through my veins, and that my judgement is impaired, so I won’t be going anywhere this morning. Especially on my bike. 😀
-
Thanks for all the replys. I actually price each job using square mtr but i do get alot of people looking small names etc and cut these using my off cuts.
I just had too much time on my hands as i was holidaying for christmas and browsing in the evening. It was a uk site and just thought for the people looking small names etc it would be good and wanted to know if anyone else used such a thing and what the price would be.
Robert, you use this and find it works ok?Craig
-
quote Craig Gibson:Thanks for all the replys. I actually price each job using square mtr but i do get alot of people looking small names etc and cut these using my off cuts.
I just had too much time on my hands as i was holidaying for christmas and browsing in the evening. It was a uk site and just thought for the people looking small names etc it would be good and wanted to know if anyone else used such a thing and what the price would be.
Robert, you use this and find it works ok?Craig
If you use a quoting program like estimate V1.98, it has the option of pricing on a per letter basis. Might be something to consider if you want to go down that route.
At least it takes the guess work out of what it actually cost in time and materials.
I understand what Rob was saying, and agree 100%, the only time it becomes a problem is when word gets out that you do small letter signs cheap, and then before you know it, it starts taking up a fair portion of your day.
I’ve been there. Boy racers coming in for decals and such, and your flat out doing a well paying job.
If you make them wait too long, they spread the word that you are slow to produce them and before you know it, the reputation you have worked hard at is starting to get tarnished.
I prefer to charge them a fair price (for me) so they can go in the production list as a normal job. That way, I’m happy because I’m not diverting resources from the meaningful work, and the client is happy because I can give them a definite date when the job will be ready to collect.
The other problem I found is that I used to price a job at $1 per 100mm. Then boy racer A would decide he wanted an extended style font. Fair enough, the job would still be charged at $1 per 100mm in height. But boy racer B would decide he wanted a condensed script. It would be 30% shorter and he’d expect a discount. It all got too hard. That why I stay with the per sq m rate, then we are all happy.
-
I have used the per letter pricing for years. Sometimes a sign comes out to expensive (in my opinion) after working out so I then charge a lower letter price to keep it real. I am interested in the sq meter price! what would be a fair price for an intermediate vinyl??? just so I can compare my price structure.
As far as the small jobs go, if I am busy its a minimum of £30 otherwise its what I think I can get away with at the time. -
We also use a m2 based price list. If there is more then one m2 or more we give some discount (10-30%) depends on used vinyl. Also we have minimum price (app. 15 EUR). We use cut-offs for such jobs but we also use them in screen printing in situation when we put few small designs on the same stencil and we do not use all of them at the same print.
-
quote Mike Grant:I am interested in the sq meter price! what would be a fair price for an intermediate vinyl??? just so I can compare my price structure.
.mike, multiply your cost per metre x 4 or 6 (depends on the margin you operate within) to get a supply only price, or by 6 or 8 to get a fitted price.
That’s a pretty standard formula in these parts.
-
I cost sign boards per m2, and bigger vinyl cut jobs on linear metre. Car graphics are priced per linear metre + labour for design/installation. Light boxes, frame structures etc. is priced cost + markup + labour. Small jobs are priced "perceived value" – if it is made from offcuts or "virgin" material is of no consequence. ( For example, red vinyl lettering that reads "NO SMOKING" 50 x 400mm will cost maybe 3 times less than red lettering 50 x 400mm that reads "NISSAN"
Then, off course, I give various percentages discount to "blue chip clients" and "trade buyers" etc. Charities also get a discount. The odd customer gets a freebie. ( A "freebie" client is GUARANTEED to look you up when he needs something again. )
After many years you develop a "feel" for what is the "right" price. In most cases if you came looking for a quote for something I quoted 6 months ago, my price now will be within a maximum variation of 5% of the previous quote.
Happy hunting for 2009! I’m officially opening my new sign venture on the 5th January, although I traded for a few days prior to the Xmast shutdown to feel the water. The new shop looks brilliant. Very upmarket, with a "European" feel to it ( Read: my premises are very small and ridiculously expensive!!)
-
quote Gert du Preez:I cost sign boards per m2, and bigger vinyl cut jobs on linear metre. Car graphics are priced per linear metre + labour for design/installation. Light boxes, frame structures etc. is priced cost + markup + labour. Small jobs are priced “perceived value” – if it is made from offcuts or “virgin” material is of no consequence. ( For example, red vinyl lettering that reads “NO SMOKING” 50 x 400mm will cost maybe 3 times less than red lettering 50 x 400mm that reads “NISSAN”Then, off course, I give various percentages discount to “blue chip clients” and “trade buyers” etc. Charities also get a discount. The odd customer gets a freebie. ( A “freebie” client is GUARANTEED to look you up when he needs something again. )
After many years you develop a “feel” for what is the “right” price. In most cases if you came looking for a quote for something I quoted 6 months ago, my price now will be within a maximum variation of 5% of the previous quote.
Happy hunting for 2009! I’m officially opening my new sign venture on the 5th January, although I traded for a few days prior to the Xmast shutdown to feel the water. The new shop looks brilliant. Very upmarket, with a “European” feel to it ( Read: my premises are very small and ridiculously expensive!!)
Well thats a great explanation of your structure and good look with your new venture.
-
Hi all
I’m pretty sure that the prices came from our website.The reason we decided on pricing per letter was so that it made it relatively easy to work out without actually typesetting to work out the meterage used. The website work like this and safety signs goes directly to the apprentices email and he deals with it and from off cuts. We also have a minimum charge. I don’t know for sure but would say that the average order value is between £30 – £35. Which when cut from off cuts or even off the roll using a metre of vinyl which the apprentice can do with no input from me I am more that happy with. I would also say that 95% of the time that even though prices are listed people still ask for a price which is then supplied inc delivery and VAT.
At the moment this works well for us but having said that things change.
Cheers
Gary
Log in to reply.