Week one.. With my new JV3

[Nicola McIntosh]

nice one craig…i hope it continues 😉

i found the same also when i bought a cadet……the work just seemed to flood in, i boiled it down to the fact when customers knew i had the facility the word of mouth run its course……fab eh!!! 😀 😀

nik

[Jon Marshall]

How much did it set you back?

[Robert Lambie]

well done mate, hope it continues for you.
we were the same when we bought our grenadier craig… albeit we did have some good customers that required this sort of work but other than that, the new doors it has opened for our business has been brilliant.

a tip though… make sure you are "more than covering yourself" when pricing this sort of work… its very easy to fall into the "take what you can get" when starting out to help cover your costs.

[John Childs]

Nice one Craig.

Listen to the wee Scotsman concerning pricing though. You will get unexpected expenses, like the new head we have just had installed, and these need budgeting for. Just because you can do something down to a price doesn’t mean you should.

[Craig Bond]

Robert / John

Thanks for your advice it will be well heeded. Obviously being new to the digital side of things, it could be easy to undercut myself as a lot of the work is taken out of the equation. But I am making a start at £45 per linear meter before any fitting and hopefully this is quite enough. As for unexpected charges (print heads etc.) I do have a two year`warranty to live on for a while but I will be shopping around for a deal towards the back end of the term.

On a lighter note.. After 14 years of running an old Roland PNC1100 plotter (which was an excellent machine and is in no rush to go anywhere) the new plotter is so quick it is scaring me and I have had to reduce the plotting speed 😮 I will be slowly turning the speed up over the next few weeks 😀 😀

Jonm01 – I am not sure if I can tell you how much it all cost – but is was lower than the ad price 😀

[John Childs]

£45 per linear metre? Well, the value of that depends on whether you have bought the 75 or 130. 😀

£45 per square metre is as low as I will go for bare print these days, and usually manage to get quite a bit more. You will deduce from that that I am not looking to get trade work. *rofl*

Although I will help out my friends if they have a problem.

[Craig Bond]

I have the 760mm like you have (i think). Back to the drawing board then!!

[John Childs]

quote CRAIG BOND:

I have the 760mm like you have (i think). Back to the drawing board then!!

Not necessarily.

If the market in your area will bear it – then go for it.

[Craig Bond]

Well I have had no complaints so far. But I do not want to ‘rip’ anyone off nor do I want to be out of pocket. The problem is, I think, I am an honest bloke who is damn good at his job but also knows how much the cost of the job (materials wise) is. For years I have been giving my trade away, until the last couple of years when I thought fuck it. I do not question a plumber about his costs doing a professional job I can’t do, so why should it not be the same for me?

But thanks John for your input I am going to look a lot more closely at the pricing. I was basing it on a manufacturers guide price.

[Robert Lambie]

quote CRAIG BOND:

I am going to look a lot more closely at the pricing. I was basing it on a manufacturers guide price.

by that do you mean a trade suppliers pricing or?

[Craig Bond]

The £45 was a price I should be selling the prints for to my everyday customers. This price was given to me by the suppliers of the machine as a rough guide to what I could expect to be charging per linear meter.

[Lee Ballard]

quote John Childs:

Although I will help out my friends if they have a problem.

Like an absolute Star 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

[David Rowland]

you can get away with raising the price a bit more you know

[Craig Bond]

Blimey Charlie!! 😮

Cheers for that Dave