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Originally posted by PKing:
Honest Pay....for Honest Work
How much are YOU(your time)worth?
Do you have a shop hourly rate?
Broke down in 15 minute intervals?
I don't really think chargeing what others might charge.Is a very good way to run your business!
Hope this helps

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Maybe it is not a very good way to run a business if that's all Jack is doing... charging what the other guy is charging based on information received here. I think that this needs to be clarified a little.

Yes, you should have a shop rate and figure EVERYTHING into your cost and what you want your profit to be. There are times (IMO) that some of us decide to try a new tip or trick, choose a different substrate, a new brand of paint or any number of things that we did not do before. With any product you can easily figure what you need to make a profit. You know your costs, you know your overhead, you will figure out how long it takes (additional steps...time) to produce your product in this new fashion and with this information you develope a price.

Is it a good thing to ask for what others charge? Sure it is. Do you buy the Sign Contractors Pricing Guide or any other pricing guides? Sure you do. Why? Because you want a "GENERAL" idea of what everyone else is getting for their product. Same here. You want some general information to see if you are in the ballpark with your price.

Perhaps your location determines whether or not the price is higher or lower than others. Perhaps you are completing a task using 18 steps when you could do the same task with the same result in 7 steps. This is a great place to feel things out.

I think that Jack's question was very worthy and that in asking it he shows that he is interested in doing good business.