quoting for sign boards help please

[Paul Seeley]

You’ll know your costs better than anyone Josh. Don’t get into a job that is just keeping you busy.

Quantity of 60 might be worth getting a price for screen-printing or printing direct to substrate which’ll cut out your labour costs even if it leaves less profit in the job.

[John Dorling]

I would agree with Paul. I’d get a quote for a trade printer to do print them direct to board. They will deliver them to you made up so all you have to do is a few emails and some designs, put your markup on and it leaves you free to do other work. You’ll probably make more on it that way with the amount of labour you’ll free up. Also don’t be afraid so stick to your guns with prices. Some people will try and nail you down for the last penny. If he won’t pay a price that allows you to make some profit then tell him to jog on. You never know who will walk through the door next.

John

[josh morris]

Great advice there thanks guys 🙂

Is there any recommended screen printers that people use or is it just find a local one? I’m from south Wales by the way.

[Chris Windebank]

sovereign trade screen printers down by you
01495 248300

[josh morris]

Thanks Chris will give them a try 🙂

[David Hammond]

We’ve printed 100 boards similar spec to yours.

Few things:

Lamination – Could be OTT, our customer wasn’t bothered about durability. They just wanted to stick them up because they had to.

MD5 – That’s a bit OTT. MD3 would be more than sufficient 3 year vinyl

Ordering boards cut to size, that’s going to take some time to mount. If you have a laminator I’d print them on 1370 wide vinyl and mount directly onto 8×4 sheets, and trim out to the trim marks.

That’s our technique, but again it depends on your space and equipment.

[Colin Crabb]

£250 on foamex – you should be able to get 12 signs per 8×4 sheet = 5 sheets
Foamex sheet @ max £26per sheet = £130

You can cut foamex with a good sharp knife, don’t worry about having it pre-cut, It will be easy to trim graphic & the foamex sheet in one.

Agree with David, life of these sign warrants a 3year vinyl, nothing more.

Call Antalis or Trent Plastics and ask for Foamex prices.

Hope this helps

Colin

[josh morris]

Thanks for the reply David and Colin 🙂

I wish I did have a laminator would make things a lot easier! but unfortunately at this point i cant afford one.

I was thinking about MD3, im just that used to using MD5 i forgot all about it to be honest! 😳

hes told me hes had a quote for just under £400 for the lot from another local company, so looks like it will be a no go as how ever i do it, it wont be worth it. subbing out the work to trade printers ive been quoted £400 and hes asking me to go lower

[David Rogers]

He wants cheap – give him cheap.

You’ll get 14 500×400 out of an 8×4 (4 rows of 3 – 2000×1200, then 2 end to end 400×1000)

5 sheets of the cheap 4mm correx not the super strong 6mm.

11m of print on MD3 non laminated

Say £100 to manufacture and however long you want to take to print & lay.

Could do it all day long for £400 if you wanted. Yes, it’s undervalued but if you want the money you can do it…better than twiddling your thumbs.

[David Hammond]

Do some digging online and you can source the job, printed Direct to 5mm foamex trimmed and delivered for less that £250 (excl VAT). 😉

[josh morris]

I’ve now been quoted £240 plus vat for the job on correx, trying to find out if the customer in question has a genuine quote or he’s trying to play companies against each other, every time I ask for proof of quote he avoids the qustion, he also wont answer if the quote includes vat or not., he’s told me the name of the company but doubt they would like me phoning and asking! 🙄

[David Hammond]

Tell him to go to the other company, and spend your time finding another, more profitable customer, or calling around suppliers to find better prices on materials 😉 😉

[Colin Crabb]

quote :

Tell him to go to the other company, and spend your time finding another, more profitable customer

Wise words, if you told him £60, he’d have a quote for £50 quid 🙄

At £240 for 60 signs (£4 each) I’d not bother with him, unless you can out-source it totally and make a few £££ for the office admin, its not worth your time bud running it for tiny margin with your current equipment (labour intensive).

[Hugh Potter]

personally, I’d probably do it for the £8 a board if fairly quiet. otherwise I’d give my price and leave them to it.

if you really want the work, tell him no further quotes until you have seen a price in writing but, at £4 a board.. that’s about my cost on foam!

[Denise Goodfellow]

most companies will price match or try to beat any like for like genuine quote.

when we have asked to see quotes, most of the time they make an excuse and say the other people are messing them about and go with us

or

they will email a quote over that’s totally different to what we were asked to quote on or they quote using correx when we were quoting on skybond

we will only look at what we have quoted on upon seeing their proof of another quote.

we have spent too much time on time wasters, throw the ball back in their court and refuse to play until they show their proof.

[Hugh Potter]

:clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2:

well said!

[Martin Cole]

quote josh morris:

and hes asking me to go lower

Tell him to f..k off and move on….. find more profitable work it is out there.
If you end up doing it something normally goes wrong and it will come back and bite you in the ars.e.

I know your new and want the business but don’t be a busyfool, and if anyone mentions I saw it on Ebay, tell them to F..k Off and then shoot them.

I hope this helps

😉 😀

[josh morris]

Really good advice thank you everyone 🙂 have taken every word on board, the ball is in his court, I will wait to see his reply and decide from there 🙂

[Steff Davison]

quote Martin Cole:

quote josh morris:

and hes asking me to go lower

Tell him to f..k off and move on….. find more profitable work it is out there.
If you end up doing it something normally goes wrong and it will come back and bite you in the ars.e.

I know your new and want the business but don’t be a busyfool, and if anyone mentions I saw it on Ebay, tell them to F..k Off and then shoot them.

I hope this helps

😉 😀

LOL 😀

[Gary Birch]

quote Martin Cole:

quote josh morris:

and hes asking me to go lower

Tell him to f..k off and move on….. find more profitable work it is out there.
If you end up doing it something normally goes wrong and it will come back and bite you in the ars.e.

I know your new and want the business but don’t be a busyfool, and if anyone mentions I saw it on Ebay, tell them to F..k Off and then shoot them.

I hope this helps

😉 😀

You’ve got over the disappointment of last night then Martin? :lol1:

[Danny Miller]

Hi Guys looking for a new laminator currently have a standard desktop manuel roller but gives me nothing but problems getting a good finish, i’m now looking to get a machine can anybody point me in the right direction, also are they simple to use and would i get a better finish ?

Thanks Danny

[Danny Miller]

sorry was meant to be a thread