JOB PRICEING AND COSTING BOOK

[Robert Lambie]

http://www.priceitsignguide.com/30322/i … ?p=1&pno=0

[Phill Fenton]

Yeah – I spoke with Paul at the sign show. What he is doing here makes good sense – and I agree with much of the pricing contained therein.

Well done Paul for pulling all this together 😀

I wish this existed 11 years ago when I first started 😥

[Kevin Fryer]

Thanks every one

[Joe McNamara]

I agree with you phil,

Great idea this so well done to Paul for doing it.

I showed it to a few new signmakers who were asking me for advice about pricing when they met me on the ezytaper stand, and the reaction was one of amazement – like all their prayers had just been answered.

I’ll be using it in my shop as well.

Cheers
Joe

[Graze]

Hi all

I was disappointed with the price-it guide. Maybe it’s a London thing but I found the guide to be way out. I’d be interested to see how everyone else’s prices compare to it.
It’s a good idea though.

Graze

[Garrie]

The Price – it Guide really helps me out, its great to use as a quick look up for a guide price being as pricing makes my head hurt 🙁

[Graze]

quote Garrie:

The Price – it Guide really helps me out, its great to use as a quick look up for a guide price being as pricing makes my head hurt 🙁

I’d agree with the head hurting bit!

[Robert Lambie]

i had a look at it while chatting to joe on the ezytaper stand.
i really like the idea behind the handbook but "although i only had a quick look" i wasnt too impressed. i know its easy for me to say once the work has been done and i in no way mean to slate it. i just think it could have been a bit better. i think i spotted a few prices that i would say were way off, i also think there is more too it than saying this is the average cost for this and that.
i know im being vague… sorry but i dont have the copy i was reading to refer to, "i think joe pinched it off me after i pinched it off him" 😉 :lol1:

[Garrie]

I agree the idea behind it is great and its canny good as guide to help us newbies. 🙂

Thats the key though, its a guide. I could be wrong but I don’t think its meant to be an exact science, just like sign making isn’t.

[Robert Lambie]

its a guide for who though?
9/10 times signage is custom made to your customer. every job is different…
there is also your location that needs to be taken into account…
what "you" pay for your products to the guy down the road.

its fine using something like this for the guy walking in off the street or the yellow pages browser looking for a ball part figure on a van, a-board etc or, as a guide for the newbie to the trade till they get their head around pricing jobs… but never to give a quote on something. i dont think so anyway…

[Garrie]

to quote the Price it site –

quote :

The guide is aimed at the average size company who’s main market is ‘general sign making’ i.e. the company that today is making a shop sign, tomorrow lettering a van, the day after a banner and pavement sign etc, etc,

I agree every job is different, hence why I mentioned its not an exact science.

I’ve never said it should be used to quote from, like I mentioned, its a guide and thats its point 🙂

[Garrie]

just to add, I’m not disagreeing with you at all 🙂

[autosign]

Can anyone give an example of something from this guide as my colleague forgot to pick our one up form the show and I’m wondering what it’s like.

[John Gregson]

Hi All,
I’ve never seen or used the guide but just a thought, if all sign makers use this guide would this not be the same as "Price Fixing".
John

[Jason Xuereb]

Hey guys,

I’d like to add to Rob’s comments. I have an Australian version of a similar pricing book. We using the price guides when we first meet customers when they don’t know exactly what they want but they don’t want to spend over a certain amount.

We let them know this is a guide figure and that we’d need to discuss their design requirements and so forth.

I think its really valuable when your starting out not to be so low in price that your not making anything. Because the word will get around and you’ll be expected to do the work at those prices for everyone.

My pricing book on some things seems to be on the higher side than what our profit margins are. Although you can deem this as a bad thing, it actually works our rather nicely when the client is trying to get you down on price. It gives you some room to play with and in trying to offer them say additional signage and bringing the total cost down. Most people we deal with never accept our first price even though they want us doing the work. I guess that’s business.

To end I haven’t seen your pricing book and don’t know your market so I can’t comment on your book itself just on the way we use it over here. It’s even more valuable if someone asks for a price on soemthing you’ve never done before and don’t want to spend 30 mins on the phone etc trying to price it out for them. Just look it up and spit out the figure +- and variation you think is appropriate. But once you’ve done a few similar jobs you’ll know roughly how much time and the cost of materials that was used to calculate your own prices that suit your specific business.

Cheers
Jason

[Shane Drew]

Jason, I only ever purchased the book once. Some of the prices are pie in the sky stuff. The A frames signs in my book said to work on $350 for a doublesided A Frame. I’m battling to get $220 in my local area. I’ve got 2 cowboys doing them for $150 and $195, just down the road.

The thing I found tho with the professional sign guys around here, is that they use it as the maximum price to charge, so they’ll undercut the price by 10 or 15%.

However. the cowboys reason if that is what the going rate is, then they’ll beat the opposition that may be using it, so the go well under the books price on every quote.

I had a very embarrassing experience last year though. I had just purchased the estimate software and was playing around with it, and was pretty chuffed with my purchase, when I got a call from the editor of Image magazine, one of our trade mags. He’s a good mate, and a straight shooter.

He said ‘ hey shane, what do you reckon about the Australian Industry price book that is being sold at the moment’.

I took a deep breath, and went to town on why I thought it was a total waste of money, now that I use estimate blah blah… Told him that the prices were unrealistic blah blah..

I then drew breath and asked him why he was asking.

He said ‘I’ve just bought the guy out that started it’

You could have heard a pin drop. All I could say was ‘oopps 😳 ‘

I saw him at the sign show yesterday, and we had a good laugh about it, but it was a bit tense on the day 😕

He has sold a few hundred now, so its obviously popular, just not for me really.

The real problem I have with the book, like all this sort of stuff, is it makes the sign guy lazy.

You need to know the cost of running your own business day to day, to have an idea if the prices they quote are good for you. If you don’t know your own expenses, or what your local market is expecting to pay, the books prices will be irrelevant.

Just my view anyway. It does not work for me at all.

[Jason Xuereb]

I agree Shane all our quotes are under whats in the book. But when we were starting out I found it really useful in terms of pricing things we’ve never dealt with. For instance now with vehicles I don’t need to rely on the prices in the book. I can see the design calculate the material costs, estimate the prep and install time and then add on the profit margin.

On the other hand when your first starting out I don’t think you should be allowed to charge say an install time of say 12 hours when your more experienced it would take you say half the time. If your learning that’s the cost of learning. I remember the first vehicle and shop I did I think i spent easily double the amount of time I would now with the vinyl installation.

I don’t see myself buying any updated versions of the book. Once we have our systems in place to see what we are most profitable at obliviously we’ll concentrate on these areas along with dropping the price.

Drew: How was the queensland show? We nearly came up to see the ezy app taper but we got a job this weekend and bit the bullet anyhow and bought it.

Jason

[Shane Drew]

quote jxuereb:

😉 Drew: How was the queensland show? We nearly came up to see the ezy app taper but we got a job this weekend and bit the bullet anyhow and bought it.

Jason

Yeah Jason, I got a call from Warrick on Thursday asking me if I knew you. He said you may be coming up here to see the ET machine.

Pity you didn’t come though, had a good time meeting Mike Potter and a few other sign guys and girls I’ve not seen for a while.

More about the show here https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … 859#209859

Warrick was giving away stubbie holders too… make sure he sends some down with the machine. He tells me he gave you the show special anyway… He and Maree are a great couple mate. When you eventually meet them, you’ll see what I mean..

Shane Drew

[Andrew Bennett]

quote Shane Drew:

Warrick was giving away stubbie holders too…
Shane Drew

I always wondered how they printed onto them, especially the inside bottom. The one’s I have a brilliant.

Back to the thread………………:oops:

I tried to order that guide through their web site so that I could see if it would be a help but I never received a copy, or should I say I have not received a copy as of yet.

[Martin Pearson]

Andrew, I did exactly the same thing, because I wasn’t at the sign show I ordered one from their web site as soon as I saw this post, I haven’t heard anything yet either, not even an email to acknowledge me inquiry. Maybe its just because they are really busy after the show.

[Warren Beard]

I e-mailed them to request a copy and have received an e-mail back from them (not an automated one……….. I think)

This was part of the e-mail I received

"You will now automatically receive the guide when it is published every year,
our first edition was published at SignUK on the 1st May and those copies not collected at that event will be sent out by post over the coming weeks. please be patient as this may take us a few weeks to complete.

I hope the guide will prove to be a useful tool for you and your business."

I received this e-mail 4 days ago so by the sounds of it it might be a few weeks yet 😕

[simple signs]

could they not email a pdf version while they are getting the print run ready ?

[Shane Drew]

quote simple signs:

could they not email a pdf version while they are getting the print run ready ?

doubt they’d do that… easy for someone else to copy it then….