So, I made that sign for my daughter’s barn and did it at cost as a labor of love. The material cost was about $250-$275.
It turned out so well I posted it on my FB page and shared with some local equestrian groups. Within a couple of hours I got requests for more info and prices.
Pricing is a real weakness for me, I don’t have a good formula. I didn’t keep close track of the hours but with the carving and the painting and assembly I guess 10-15 hours spread across multiple days for the paint to dry. I had to do a fair amount of tiling that won’t be necessary once I have the 5.1 set up.
Anyway, I explained to the folks that materials were $275 and I was asking $750-$850 total depending on design and size.
The first two thought that was too pricey for them. I have been paying through the nose for everything related to the equestrian sport and thought this might be my chance to get a tiny bit back.
Is that amount unreasonable? The thing is 8’ wide and probably weighs 60+ pounds.
That’s actually pretty cheap. My brother just finished 2 8x4 sign for a customer. The customer bought the marine grade plywood and did the painting themselves. He charged $1000.
I would get some pricing from some local sign companies and see what they are charging. If you are near a city there should be a couple that you could easily call and find out. Price less than them and you should be golden. I think your pricing seems SO low! That’s an amazing sign and definitely worth getting paid for!!
It’s so unique it would be tough to compare apples to apples. I don’t think I could really explain it to a local sign shop. I would guess they would change the same as me just for the center portion.
We have a horse show coming up next Saturday and will be bringing it there. I will have plenty of cards on hand
And yeah, the price seems low to me for the hours I have in it, but my daughter thinks that me making double what McDonalds would pay is crazy talk
Take the "knowns’ - Material Cost, Machine cost (run time) and incidentals (bits, sand paper, paint, ect), last I checked NONE of this stuff is free. The “unknown” is what value you place on your time…to actually do the “work”. Only you can place a price on what your time is worth. Set your price and see how the market responds. Are you willing to make $x dollars less and sell 2x as many (as an example)? A thought is to have a simple guide, either written down or in your head, of the cost associated with a given project if someone wants to debate price. The “general” public has no idea the actual work that goes into creating a UNIQUE, QUALITY product, so a little education may go a long way on helping them understand your pricing and, in your mind as well, make you comfortable with whatever price YOU set. You may also highlight the fact that they are dealing with YOU (American made product, Local, small business owner(?))…not some unknown website poster from some unknown location. (This from a guy that has NOT sold a single product!) My 2 cents!
Writing as a handyman/contractor. In addition to taking account of cost inputs and target margins, it found it helpful for me to dial in my workflow process to make it as efficient as possible. To the degree that you can minimize the back and flow design process with your client (time suck that you typically can’t bill for), and make sure your workflow isn’t one that you have to do a ton of custom setups, that will help keep costs down.
You’ve got a define, niche market, which is a great way to start. Good luck!
My pricing format is very simple.
Time and Materials plus 20%.
CNC time is $1.00 per minute
My time is $50/hour.
That equates to $100K per year for my time and about $100K per year for the CNC machine, minus consumables, etc. (I am estimating on the CNC time).
You already know what it took you to make the first one, so you should have a good estimate of how long it will take to make their product. You’ll just have to add in the time needed for their custom design.
Honestly, the price you quoted seems low to me. I was thinking $ 1,200 to $ 1,500.
Yes, its a balance between chasing everyone way getting every job you quote but not making any money.
My hope is to get a little buzz going to develop some demand.
I do need to keep better logs on the design and manufacturing time. If course on the first type of anything there is a lot of head scratching time vs having a repeatable known process.
I do a lot of my design work sitting in the car while my daughter is at her riding lessons. That doesn’t really make it less valuable time, but it is time that would be wasted otherwise.
I should try to equate it to things that the horse people know about. That total cost is less than I pay monthly for leasing and board for a horse. It is less than double what I pay for her lessons monthly.
Maybe I should see what a bale of hay costs and explain it in those terms. Plus, this sign will outlive us all.
If your price incudes painting you’re probably below where you ought to be. Each separate color introduces complexity. If it’s an equestrian related project and they’re balking you gotta remember two things.
Keeping horses ain’t a cheap hobby and
they’re probably being mindful of how to feed their horse habit.
I have done pricing professionally for decades and can tell you that your price should have NOTHING to do with your costs. I know many people will choke on that but I can give you hundreds of examples of things you buy that have nothing to do with their cost (just think of airline tickets to begin with). Your price should be based on the value you provide the customer and the alternatives the customer has. Those things are hard to learn but there’s a good suggestion above about contacting other sign companies for a quote. You might check Etsy too for something comparable. That’s probably your best option in this case since monetizing the benefit of a nice sign will be tough unless you know a LOT about your customers’ businesses (probably more than they know:-)).
