Opinion on my price please

[Gary Birch]

I would be looking for more than that. Haven’t time to work out exactly but can see I would be looking for more. I would used a minimum of 551 though.

Your customer hasn’t any cause for complaint at those prices, not in my opinion anyway.

Cheers

Gary

[Alistair Richards]

They weren’t complaining at all, they said, at least they’ve now got signs as the others didn’t even turn up. I was just curious about my pricing. 😀 They were delighted with the job.

[Gary Birch]

Good!!

You never know they may just be trying it on for any future work you may do for them with the thinking you will lower your prices to compete with imaginary prices. After all any one can be cheap when they don’t do the job.

Cheers

Gary

[Hugh Potter]

quote Alistair Richards:

Hi All,

I’ve just finished fitting a job a couple of miles away. The customer was let down by another company.

It was for 1800 x 450mm signs x 2
and 1200 x 300mm sign x 1

Job same style as attached, I used 3mm skybond and 651 vinyl. The two bigger signs were fitted to timber cladding and the smaller one to a masonry wall. All at reasonable step ladder height.
I charged £85 per big sign and £45 for smaller one and £40 for fitting, so £255 job total.

I got paid no problem, but asked the customer how my price compared to the other company. Response “Quite a bit more”.

Obviously, I don’t know what materials the others were gonna use, but what are your opinions on my price.

Thanks for looking.

just a quick rough est..

3mm dibond is what £50 + vat and delivery a sheet for good stuff? i’d be doubling that so say, £120,

651, about 3-4m, x 2 colours of 651, say 8m of 610, £100, (I include workshop labour, mask etc in my mtr rates)

fitting @ £25 per hour, 3hrs incl travel and setitng up / packing away etc?

£295 i guess.

[Neil Kelly]

I think that’s a very reasonable price i would be looking at £400 for the same job the reason he was let down was probably due to the other company cocking up on his price and not being enthusiastic in doing the job.

[Steve Underhill]

I would have charged more than that too.
the problem is people see a bit of board with their name on, not the designing, laying out, cutting, weeding, taping, fitting to the board, then fitting to their premises, I would say that was very reasonable.
I just lost some work to a guy with a cheap cheap chinese cutter, and some hideous stretched/squashed cooper black, with a fascia with a font I have never seen before all in caps in a script font. it even had the address on it which is pretty unnecessary for a chip shop, kerning was ridiculous, solicitors maybe but chip shop no.

so cheaper is not always good, your prices were fine if a little on the cheap side

[Hugh Potter]

quote Steve Underhill:

I would have charged more than that too.
the problem is people see a bit of board with their name on, not the designing, laying out, cutting, weeding, taping, fitting to the board, then fitting to their premises, I would say that was very reasonable.
I just lost some work to a guy with a cheap cheap chinese cutter, and some hideous stretched/squashed cooper black, with a fascia with a font I have never seen before all in caps in a script font. it even had the address on it which is pretty unnecessary for a chip shop, kerning was ridiculous, solicitors maybe but chip shop no.

so cheaper is not always good, your prices were fine if a little on the cheap side

often think i should review my pricing, while my costs have risen little, they have indeed risen, and regardless of the fact i’m workshop based at home, i like to try and keep my pricing on a level field with other businesses.

as it is i can’t compete on everything though, sometimes i lose to the big boys, other times i win hands down (without discounting). and then occasionally, i get a job i feel is too expensive and make good money because the customer hasn#t tried the big boys who can prob do cheaper.

Hugh

[Alistair Richards]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. Good to get others opinions. 🙂

[Colin Bland]

I think we are all seeing start ups with little idea of what they are actually doing and how to price the work.

This week alone I have done 2 sales calls where the client has had problems with another sign maker – neither of them were known companies the first job was approx 4.5m x 0.9m acrylic fascia panel changeover with applied vinyl into an existing box.

I saw the sign after it had gone up and it was atrocious poorly applied, the text was all over the place design was bad panel joint had no rebate or half lap etc etc you could see through the joint to the tubes.

The client refused to pay the balance of £1500 yes that’s right £1500 because the guy had not put the tel no or street number on the sign.
The so called sign maker had snatched back the sign Leaving the box and electrics open to the elements and the client £750 pound down. The client did not have an address for him or even a land line number just a mobile number – a fool and his money are soon parted comes to mind

The next job was a fascia sign approx 5.5m x 700mm again where another unknown had "fitted" 3mm black foamex panels to the face of a panatrim by face fixing through the foamex with self tappers into the trim the panels had text on pop ons screwed to the foamex the end result was that the panels had cracked both where the text was and where the panels had been fitted and of course had badly warped – its not even summer yet !

That job was done for £145 !

The end result for me was that with the first job the client liked what I had to offer but would not part with a deposit even though I have premises website yellow pages advert liveried vehicle etc etc we have come to an agreement after I got another of my clients a few shops away to vouch for me.

The second job the client told me I was overpriced – compared to what he payed before !!

I guess what I’m driving at is have faith in your own abilities know the market rate and your costs and keep one eye open for unhealthy competition.

Things are tough there will be lots of good competition which is healthy and lots of triers which I think will cause problems for legitimate businesses if we let them.

Don’t get sucked in and ensure your work is good quality at all times.