Laser Pricing

[Curt Heggemeyer]

Hello,
Since I am new to the lasering field I am trying to work out pricing for the work. I own a full service sign shop that does wholesale printing around the country as well as vehicle wraps etc. I know the value of customer stuff in that field. This whole field is all new and dont really know how to price the work I do. Some will be retail and some wholesale.
Do you charge per minute? per sq ft of lasered material, cut time and engrave time at different rates depending on what they do?
What is the going rate for some items across the country? I will be doing round objects here soon. but for now I am doing 2 inch tokens for a race car driver right now that needs 750 of them double sided and he is supplying the material. What do most charge for that? How about gun engraving with logos etc. Set up and than time at what rate?
Thanks so much for all of the imformation from a great site.

Curt

[Joe Pelonio]

With a sign shop the laser is great for cutting acrylic letters and logos for wall mounting, not only for your customers but also for other sign shops. I price them per inch and thickness, usually in the ballpark with Gemini etc. but without the shipping cost. Your existing customers may also get name plates and badges from you, those are a pain because there are so many cheap places online to get them so you can't make much unless you have volume, a few national accounts helps. For easy work I have been doing $1/minute plus double the material cost but that too can vary by quantity and the "tedious work" factor. Engraving on their items involves risk of damage so you need to add in extra time for being really careful and perhaps testing on a similar material. When starting out it's hard to give a hard quote without the experience to know how long it might take.

[Rodne Gold]

Easy pricing model is 5x material cost when doing normal stuff and you supply material, more when doing teenyier stuff and slightly less on large jobs in terms of material size. For EG if we had to laser cut and engrave a small item like a 2" x 2" token we would come in at 7x material cost and so on. double sides would be 10x or more..
Either that or double material cost , add a setup charge and go in at $1 a minute laser time.
At the end of it all , pricing is more dependant on what the going rate is for the product using other procesess or what the customer can bear to pay.
Bear in mind that when you have a hammer , everything is a nail.. IE the laser might be able to do something but its not cost effective.
For EG those tags could probably be screened and guillotine cut cheaper . you can't really come in at a lot more than the price charged for that unless it's a job only a laser can do.
For your size operation , I wouldnt touch onesies like gun stock stuff - you can't charge enough for it , you might as well give it away.
I would also decline customer supplied material unless you are 100% sure its laserable and you have done test runs on it.
Also bear in mind that a laser is an expensive tool , it should really be used to make expensive markings on expensive objects - dont try laser a logo on 10 000 cheap bic plastic pens as an EG.

[Curt Heggemeyer]

Good tips guys,

The tokens the guy wants can only be done by laser since he wants to paint the removed areas... glad he is doing it and not me!
It is acrylic so we are save there, can get rid of my scrap sign face material as well on these smaller jobs. I have been stockpiling acrylic for a while since I planned on getting a laser over a yr ago. I dont plan on doing name tags or little things like that, like you had mentioned I dont have time for that. The table can hold 32x 48 inch material. I like to load it and do other jobs while it is running away, but it is only 10 ft from me in the office lobby. It actually sells itself as people love to watch it while I have jobs running. I know in the future my pricing will sharpen up as well, I just want to be in the ball park on some of my stuff. As you have said the other smaller shops can do the little jobs. Those type of jobs for me actually cost me money. Thanks for the tips guys and look forward in hearing any other advice you happen to have.

Curt