Forum Suggestion – Design Task

[Robert Lambie]

sounds a good idea phill 😀

ill post the first mock up job and we all can get going…
the only prob i see is the ones that post first will eather discourage the ones that are about to post or have them alter there prices as they may be way to high or too low…
i think if we try this in the show us your stuff forum as it would mean me creating a new upload section alos. if it proves popular ill give it a forum of its own…

does that sound fair..?

maybe mike could post the second task and then we can see if i do the third then back to mike or whatever…. 🙄

[Robert Lambie]

what about if we post the mock up sign… then mail me it.. ill copy bits from you all and ill win 😎 😆 😆 😆

nah really though… we can do it the way phill has suggested or i can post the mock up job. on say sunday… then you all send me your work and ill post them all on thursday before chat or the folling sunday… gives us plenty time to knock somthing up… 🙄

then again we could just post it as we always do….

[Lee Attewell]

Count me in…

[Tim Shaw]

I’ll have some of that.

I can forsee one problem, we will need some kind of handicap system
for Mike. May be he should only get the brief with 20 minutes to spare.

Or we limit him to using only black and white vinyl.

[Tim Shaw]

I’ll have some of that.

I can forsee one problem, we will need some kind of handicap system
for Mike. May be he should only get the brief with 20 minutes to spare.

Or we limit him to using only black and white vinyl.

[Lee Attewell]

Mike’s gotta do it blind folded. I’ve been looking at some of his work. Man he’s scary.

[signscript]

here here!! good idea that man, just dont do a design brief for a banner coz rob will just moan about my prices again !! lol 😀

[Robert Lambie]

🙄 what? me? when? where? 😆 😆 😆
im saying nothing kev 😉

ill put my own in like the rest of you… 😀

oh yeh mike has to do his under water in a tank.. with his comp on the outside of the tank… sounds fair to me…. 😉

[signscript]

dont forget that he will also be blindfolded, gagged + handcuffed

[Tim Shaw]

And he has to wear a boxing glove on his mouse hand.

[signscript]

and hanging upside down from a meat hook!!

[signscript]

after 24 pints of Batemans XXXB best bitter. then we’ll see whos best !!
😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 (hot) 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

[Phill Fenton]

😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

To summarise then, Mikes handicap would be as follows:-

Only given twenty minutes to do the design – this after drinking 24 pints of Batemens xxxB. The design to be done in black and white vinyl whilst hanging upside down from a meat hook, wearing a boxing glove in his mouse hand, gagged, blindfolded and handcuffed whilst submerged inside a tank of water.

Seems fair enough 😮

[Steve Broughton]

Kev, how can you drink that ( oh i swore) (hot) makes you “break wind” something rotten 😮
This sounds like a good idea, i’ll have a go
Hey whats wrong with the word F A R T its in the dictionary you know, oops sorry forgot Roberts not got one hee hee
Big Brother is Watching you know!!!!!!!!

[Tim Shaw]

Martin,

I think the handicap is still lacking something, Mike can probably overcome all that, what if remove his “sign shed utility belt”.

[Phill Fenton]

Better get some Kryptonite as well – Just in case 😕

[Robert Lambie]

quote :

whilst hanging upside down from a meat hook, wearing a boxing glove , gagged, blindfolded and handcuffed whilst submerged inside a tank of water.

i swear mike i didnt say a word about your fetish 😮 😮 😮

[Mike Brown]

…I’m taking this all in ya’ know… 😉

[signscript]

we could start a whole new forum on this… what do ya think rob??

[F. Skierk]

I would be particularly interested in a forum like this. Im always undercutting myself… well that’s what I reckon. Being new you just don’t know what a good or a bad price is. There are so many cowboys out there willing to do it for nothing I feel I have to price jobs low to get them. I know they must be desperate or selling dodgy vinyl but it’s very hard to say this to the customer without sounding desperate. 🙄

[Martin Pearson]

Sally, if you are having problems pricing jobs you could always get some of your friends to ask for quotes from other local companies. This will give you some idea of where to set your prices. As for doing jobs cheaply you are not doing yourself any favours. If you get a reputation for being really cheap then you will probably only ever attract the type of business you dont really want. Its normally the people who dont want to pay that want the most and are first to complain. They are also generally the hardest to get to pay.
Its difficult when you first start as you need the work to pay the bills, but believe me I speak from experience. We did a lot of work really cheaply to get work coming in, no one else would have done it at this price other than Jessie James working from his back bedroom, who you will never beat on price because he has no overheads. (no offence to any signmakers called Jessie James !!!).
The upshot was that we spent ages on artwork, visuals, and applying vinyl all for next to nothing. The people we were doing the work for wouldn’t have worked for the money we were charging them. When we tried to charge a customer a sensible amount for a job we were told we were ripping them off because their neigbour had got a similar job done by us for half the price. We have changed our pricing structure now which was a complete nightmare to begin with, we loose more jobs than we did before but we probably make more money overall.

[Phill Fenton]

Very sound advice from Martin – I’ve been there too.

It’s very hard to raise prices without losing existing customers after doing low price work. You will also lose jobs from being too cheap as the customer will worry he is getting an inferior job from you.

I always advise any small business starting out offering a service (as opposed to retailing) not to underprice their work.

Having said all that – I still do 😕