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How to I account for waste?
Guys
When quoting for a job how do you allow for waste or dead space? For example I am printing 600mm high banners but the client now thinks he might be better with 700mm high. including hems etc this is too wide for my printer. (1370mm JV33)
How much extra would you guys factor in for that. I suppose what I am asking is do you count the remaining 500-600mm as waste. I know I may get a job for it again but to me that is not concrete enough and I would intend my price to cover the blank 600mm or so.
What do you guys do? I know I could use the tuff tape and do away with the hems as it is around a pitch and they will get quite a bit of abuse!
Thanks
Ruairi -
12 Replies
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When we first had our printer, we saved all the waste thinking it`ll come in handy one day……..
After tripping over the 3 "boxes of bits" for years, it now goes in the bin,
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I have to agree. Funnily enough I was in our media store today and wondered to myself when does a roll end become rubbish….is it worth spending the time loading a couple of metres of media… I don’t think so… I know we certainly need a sort out in there.
We stock different widths in media to try and reduce wastage.
Not really any help am I 😳
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Both comments are a great help! It makes me happier that I should charge the dead space in! Hopefully someone might say what exactly they do! Cheers for now
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Or – do what I do.
Offer to sell the same customer the ‘waste’ as a second (discounted) smaller banner. Explain to them (if you want) that the material is ‘x’ wide and the remainder often gets discarded.
Buy 1 – get 2nd half price. there’s hardly anybody that passes up a bargain….and you make significantly more profit.It’s also worth nothing that we buy our materials by the linear metre – and use them…by the linear metre.
Sell them that way…charge for the length you use, not just a square metre rate.
Dave
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give them the choice.
2 off 2ft banners or one deeper than 2ft. cost the same.
but i do keep 760 wide banner for the ones that only want one. -
If you charge 1370mm for a 700mm banner you are going to end up expensive, when i set my prices i took into account a percentage of waste. The cost of the waste to yourself is very minimal if you are paying £2 per sq mtr then if your waste is 500mm wide it is only costing you £2 for every 2 meters of printed banner. The cost of the banner should make this an insignificant amount. However if like me you don’t like waste use the waste to print "Under new Management" "Closing Down" etc even just plain text must get you a £5 per mtr.
Hope this makes sense
kev
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The only answer I have for this guys is use the waste…….
I have a similar problem with magnetics, often customers want mags 500mm or 450mm wide, this is cut from a 600 sheet leaving a 100/150mm strip to bin…
Also on some digital print on vinyl jobs i had the same problem the print left a 100mm strip down the side, so I popped in a dozen or so compressed gas safety signs, print and cut them along with the job, popped them on the mag strip and presto, I have 12 magnetic compressed gas signs for the beck of vehicles…. sold them for £3 each and that essentially raises the price of my per meter print from £35 to £70…. wooo hooooo…. no waste now in my work shop!
What I do is then rinse and repeat with other small items like no smoking in vehicle decals and other small signs. I even do my own give aways on the blank bits such as the labels I put on the back of my letters and packets for posting, and I print my business cards as stickers that I also throw in with orders.
The blank parts on your banner you could print "SALE NOW ON" mini banners and stuff like that, come up with a novel give away that your customers may use. One of my most popular ones that I often print on the edge of a run is "NO tools left in this vehicle overnight" stickers with my company name number and web address on that I leave on the front seat of vehicles that I have signed when they go back. There are loads of permutations for doing stuff on the xtra bits, thats where "flea bay" has its advantages… You can often under price the nobs that call themselves sign makers on ebay with stuff that you would normally throw away… they don’t like that 😉 It cost you nothing and you can get the cost of the original print back from those sales!
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Cheers guys. I normally charge the banner by the metre so waste isn’t a problem but I wasn’t sure if that was the right way to do it!
I use some of the waste but definitely not a shrewdly as you guys! Thanks for the advise it was a great help.
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quote Ruairi O’Boyle:Cheers guys. I normally charge the banner by the metre so waste isn’t a problem but I wasn’t sure if that was the right way to do it!
I use some of the waste but definitely not a shrewdly as you guys! Thanks for the advise it was a great help.
Gotta do what you can to make that extra up, things are tight…AND I hate throwing stuff away! Consequently I used to (and probably still have to some extent) got a workshop full of off cuts and strips of vinyl lol
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all my saved offcuts of vinyl I take to the local Nursery and playgroup…they are really greatful for it….ask schools if they would find a use for it…I chuck away the smallest amount i can get away with. I charge the same per meter allowing for waste and add on time if its small stuff that needs weeding.
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quote Cheryl Smith:all my saved offcuts of vinyl I take to the local Nursery and playgroup…they are really greatful for it….ask schools if they would find a use for it…I chuck away the smallest amount i can get away with. I charge the same per meter allowing for waste and add on time if its small stuff that needs weeding.
Brilliant, thanks Cheryl, my 3 year old is at pre school and they are a charity I will send it there… no problems with safety or anything with the stuff we use?
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I had a workshop full of off cuts and had to dump the lot as they were starting to get more expensive to store than I was ever going to get out of them again!!
Again thanks for the opinions guys, at least I know I am not too far away in how I do things.
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