I have just done my first window splash job. What is the best way to price them?
Posted by James Donahue (Member # 3624) on :
I used to do ALOT of splashes, I subcontracted for a lady in CA. I can tell you a few of her methods and one of mine. She was good to work for. She never wanted us going out to a job for less than a certain amount. She had a minimum price, which kept away calls for a little dink 2'x2' or such. If I recall the minimum was $125, of which she got 35%. She supplied the paint, rollers, and customers. We were so busy we would meet her different places all over town, she of course had a cell phone. what we subs had to do was line up our jobs by geography, and go to it. For a fast food chain, she would drop her min. to $100, and give us $75. This was only if they had at least 10 stores to do. She said it was the fast food places that kept her name and ph# in the public eye. That was her only means of advertising, a distinct signiture about 5"w x 2" tall, that included a ph#. At that time, (10 yr. ago) the most i remember a job selling for was about $500, on a car dealership. It might not sound like much to some folks, but we were movin'. Speed was esential. As for me now, I'm not doing splash here in east TN. It's a tougher market. If folks out here are gonna pay $200 for some window lettering, it had better last 10 years.Once, out there, KFC ran one promotion right behind another, and we went around and did all the stores we just did, 3 and a half or 4 weeks before. Skin free crispy if I recall. We got to joking about what would happen if we left the "p" out. I know, some of us are "maturity challenged". My current pricing involves knowing my hourly shop rate, based on calculations in a little green book called "on the bussiness of signs" (i think that's the name.) I cross-reference a price I'm about to quote in 3 ways. One is hourly rate, one is square foot price, the last is "days". That is, if i think a job will take 6 and a half hours, I think about it and ask myself are you sure? Looks more like an all day job to me! Or day-and-a-half! If I cross reference at least two of these, I'm better off. When I get in trouble is when I quote "off the cuff", with only one, quickly. Hope this helps, Jim.
