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How much do you mark up on materials?
What mark up do people generally put on materials sourced for a sign?
Vinyl & sheet materials I don’t have a problem with as these are usually bought as standard cost items and can spread between several jobs.
But often there are one off costs associated with a particular job. Do you have a set mark up like a retail shop.
When I worked in retail we automatically doubled up everything from trade to retail price.
As I see it when I source and provide materials I am doing the same thing as a retail shop so do I double up or only expect a lesser mark up.Take for instance a couple of jobs I am doing which require one off hanging sign boards and brackets.
The vinyl work on each face of the sign is basic and would normally only cost £50.
However if the metal bracket will cost me £50 and a one off 19mm foam board will also cost say £50.
Set aside traveling and fitting time for the moment what would you charge for the sign?
I would say £250.
But then customers think £100 is too much for a metal bracket and £100 is too much for a piece of foam board.
Or is it me that thinks this is expensive?So how do you mark up these materials?
cheers
Stuart -
3 Replies
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There’s no easy answer to this, because the big variable is how much time and effort have you put in to prep’ing the job. Did you do a site vist take measurements, discuss artwork send lots of emails etc? Shop signage is not just about the cost of material it also has to cover the hours you have put into the job.
The frustration is you do all the work add it to your price and the client takes everything off to another fitter who is presented with everything and so charges a lower price, because their time for prep’ing is less.
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quote John Lloyd:There’s no easy answer to this, because the big variable is how much time and effort have you put in to prep’ing the job. Did you do a site vist take measurements, discuss artwork send lots of emails etc? Shop signage is not just about the cost of material it also has to cover the hours you have put into the job.The frustration is you do all the work add it to your price and the client takes everything off to another fitter who is presented with everything and so charges a lower price, because their time for prep’ing is less.
I realise their is no easy answer which is why I’m asking how others go about it.
All the things you mention go into me pricing my work but surely the basic price of materials has a % mark up associated with just for supply.Would you say use a sliding scale where if supply only you may double up and as you charge more for other parts and your time the mark up on materials is less important to the extent where you give the materials at cost (or even less).
Personally I always start with the cost of materials then add on the others dimensions such as Time, artwork, site visits etc, so just exploring what others think.
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I think the only way you can look at it is that you want a weeks wages for a weeks work (averaged out over the year) so I tend to go between 50 – 100% for most things.
Steve
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