Set up fees

[Walt Langhans]

Ok stupid question for the day.

I'm trying to stay out of the custom engrave my logo / picture on something business, but I seem to keep getting pulled into it, so... When you take someones art work and it's not laser ready I'm assuming your charging some kind of set up fee, yes? Then, I assume, you hold on to said art work and if they want stuff in the future you don't charge the fee, yes?

If I'm getting pulled into this end of the business I just want to make sure I'm doing the 'industry norm' so to say.

Thanks!

[Mark E Wilson]

I typically bill $40/hr for art time. That being said I have a very talented artist that is a pro with Corel and Adobe products. Even I can do things quickly so most re-creating is normally about $20. Some good sources for art Brands of the World and I will often do a google search for company name with ".pdf". Often vector graphics are contained in documents. Download and just import in the page that you want. I'm primarily a screen printer so we deal with graphics all day long. If we create a logo it will normally run $150 to $300 and we provide it in several formats on CD. We also have a great relationship with several sign companies and will often call and trade art. It's quicker than having the customer do it.

[Ross Moshinsky]

Setup and art charges are typically two different things. Art charge is normally associated with fixing/converting artwork into a usable format or creating some sort of artwork. Setup charge is the charge that is associated with getting the art onto the substrate.

For example, if you send a bad jpeg, it would be $20 to convert it to a vector and $45 to setup your artwork/text for engraving. If you send quality vector artwork, it would be just $45. This is the way almost all ASI companies do things.

We often use that pricing structure but we also often use the pricing strutcture where we charge if the art is unacceptable but we figure in the setup charge as part of the items retail cost. For example a plaque I rarely charge a setup charge. At this point everything we do is pretty much flat rate.

The setup charge becomes more and more important if you're doing small quantities of odd ball items. It takes time to figure that stuff out. Art charges are actually really easy to figure out now as it is very easy to outsource artwork cleanup and have it done for under $20. Normally I don't like to mark this service up too much as sometimes customers will rather have it look bad then spend the extra $20.

[Dee Gallo]

I'm in line with Mark, that fee structure works well for most things. For more complex artwork "adjusting", I quote a fee and they can take it or leave it. Don't discount your prep time, I find it is more time consuming than pushing GO and watching the head fly back and forth... and certainly takes more skill and experience most of the time. This comes under the "a laser is only a tool" category in my opinion. So is your computer or a pencil. You are the brains.

I should mention that after 28 years in the commercial art biz, customer supplied art is hardly EVER usable.

[Mark Sipes]

It is remarkable (really disappointing) how many people think you can just take an image off the internet and use the image to create a $100-200 plaque. "Oh you need an eps file I can get you that"... and ten minutes later they send you a low res xxx.jpg renamed xxx.eps and then ask what a vector file is. We charge $35.00 to convert and retain the image for future use.

I have on several occasion has a person/school want to make a duplicate of an award that a team had won. In most case the event director and/or providing awards shop graciously allowed a one use of the art and that is truly appreciated..

[Rodne Gold]

Do NOT charge setup fees as a separate item , customers feel "ripped off" by this - just add the setup fees to the total job cost...if the customer winges about the expense , then you can inform them its an hour or 2 to "setup" and the price includes that.

[Tim Bateson]

Only in rare circumstances. I do custom work every day, so I include that in my standard pricing - no extra charges.

[Dave Sheldrake]

"set up fee", same as a "take the spanner out of the toolbox" fee?

So you want me to pay to have the job done AND pay to have the job started separately?

Tell customers what is included at "no extra charge" NOT what you are going to bill them for that they will likely never understand.

cheers

Dave

[Walt Langhans]

Good advice, thanks guys!

[Dan Hintz]

If it's a one-time customer (i.e., someone bringing you a picture to engrave), roll everything up into one bottom-line price. If it's a repeat customer (i.e., doing company logos on plaques), separate out the fees and make note they are a one-time fee and will not be charged on similar jobs in the future.