God Is Good! Advise From You Guys Needed.

[James & Zelma Litzmann]

Hey, everyone, I know I'm a little ecstatic but I just got a call from a company wanting us to engrave 100 pen, now get this . . . 24 designs each . . . HELLOOOOOOOOO, that's like 2400 pen! Yeap I'm excited. Now, the hard part, how much do you charge for something like this? Now I know this is not a lot of money since they have the pens and only want us to engrave them but its a beginning . . . with a company.


Any help you gals & guys can give is very much appreicate.


God Bless,
Zelma (Psalms 18:2)

[Bruce Volden]

Zelma,


Up here I charge $2.15 per pen / pencil, 1 line text. If a logo is needed, I adjust my price according to volume (also if the logo will fit and be legible in a 1/4" space), perhaps $2.35 +/-.


Bruce

[Mike Null]

Zelma

This sounds like it might be a promotional products supplier. If you can get more than $1.00 each, assuming there's 100 of the same for each design.

You might also be able to charge a set up fee for each design. Something like $25 each.

There are pen suppliers who charge $0.50 ea. for laser engraving a logo or a company name.

[Joe Pelonio]

Zelma

This sounds like it might be a promotional products supplier. If you can get more than $1.00 each, assuming there's 100 of the same for each design.

You might also be able to charge a set up fee for each design. Something like $25 each.

There are pen suppliers who charge $0.50 ea. for laser engraving a logo or a company name.
Zelma,

Congratulations on a great order!

On jobs with this sort of quantity normal hourly rates and setup charges often have to go out the window.

I agree, try to get $1+ each but if you go much over that they are likely to shop around and find it less elsewhere. Same on the setup, $25 sounds quite reasonable but be prepared to negotiate on it, maybe a flat amount for all 24. ($25 for each design for 24 is $600 for less than an hour of your time)

In the case of a really good potential customer it's good to start high and
if you have to, drop it some, but know where to stop. You need to make a good profit.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Zelma,

First thing I would make sure of is "are the pens CO2 Laser friendly" a lot of people don't know the difference. If you agree on a price and then find out that there is more to it than just lasering it won't be worth it.

Get a sample pen and run it get them to sign off on the sample then agree on price and run the job.

[Leigh Costello]

I agree with Mike. We have a customer who sent us a pen that was not suitable for lasering after we said we could laser it. Had to eat some humble pie and fortunately for us the customer agreed to let us purchase his pens for him in the future. We charged a flat setup fee of $35.00 and $1.00 engraving + the cost of the pens he chose from our supplier. When he re-orders, we will not charge setup, just lasering and cost of pens + our markup, of course.

Good Job getting a large job!:)

[Phyllis Meyer]

Dear James & Zelma:

God is really Good! Congratulations on your first big job! The company will be so impressed with your work and your smile that they will want to know about all the other items you laser! We always slip something in the order (depending upon the business...coffee mug with thier logo)? Just one, but with a price on if they would like more. A picture frame,...whatever your specialty is! Have a great day and great job!

Phyllis:)

[Rodne Gold]

Congrats , but bear in mind it's a decent enquiry and not a job yet......
I think this will be a client driven pricing job.
Come in cheap , do a sample first like others said , get it signed off. Take a VERY good note of time and estimate how many you can do a day. Be conservative. Ask the customer what you are up against or what the budget is prior to wasting time on this job. Hes gonna come in low , so quote at the top end or 25% above. If you cant make money on the job at that level , you have to pass
You have less wiggle room with pricing if this will be an ongoing order.
You have also to understand that lasering 2400 pens as one man show is going to be mind numbingly boring.
Rather do small lots than scads of em at one time , if anything happens , you lose less items.
What happens if you mess up a few pens?
I would ask for extras in each batch.

[James Stokes]

I have to agree with Rodney, Engraving that many pens is going to be a killer. When I first started this business I engraved several large orders that took several days to do. Now if the order is going to take a long time I add in $ for the boring factor.

[Carol VanArnam]

Zelma, have you made a pen jig yet? I have a really good one and can sent it to you. You can modify it to fit your pens...

PM me with your email address and I can send it to you.....

[Dave Fifield]

I thought, praise be to Allah, SMC was supposed to be a-religeous?

Salamalequm,

[Rodne Gold]

Does it really matter? So long as we aren't preached or proscribed to.
However , I have the utmost respect for anyone that lives their lives sticking to their religious convictions in any non hypocritical way (unlike the respect that someone like my brother in law commands , a Deacon in the church and a kleptomanic in our house)
Now lemme continue engraving my matzohs and gefilte fish for passover:)

In all seriousness , we are actually VERY wary of religious orgs and their orders as we have been left frequently with large amounts of items not collected or non payment by these orgs. This seems to be a problem thru many religions. Most often the ppl ordering the stuff don't have the authority to do so or are overenthusiastic in quantities etc.

Problems generally stem from their lack of business experience, naievity etc.
The most common problem is disagreement on pricing AFTER samples and quotes as in their eyes , their org is non profit and charity based and they then expect your prices to have no profit attached and for you to subsidise their cause. They also mostly overestimate quantities of items they can sell for fundraising and dont understand that these must be paid for upfront. Term of payment are also a problem , we don't work on the "when they pay me , I will pay you" system.

Thus , unless it is a regular customer , we demand payment up front for anything we do for a religious org. The mere fact a customer comes in with piety and good intentions does not mean you will have a satisfactory transaction.
One other thing that REALLY gets me is often a gift horse is looked in the mouth , for example I do freebie work for my synagogue , its always onesies and fiddly stuff I would prefer NOT to do , and often I get sort of hacked off when someone phones the next day with a general air of "why havent you dropped all your production and done this job immediately , we have an irate congregant demanding their XYZ"

[mike wallis]

Hey, everyone, I know I'm a little ecstatic but I just got a call from a company wanting us to engrave 100 pen, now get this . . . 24 designs each . . . HELLOOOOOOOOO, that's like 2400 pen! Yeap I'm excited. Now, the hard part, how much do you charge for something like this? Now I know this is not a lot of money since they have the pens and only want us to engrave them but its a beginning . . . with a company.


Any help you gals & guys can give is very much appreicate.


God Bless,
Zelma (Psalms 18:2)

Amen, God Is Good! It sounds like he's really starting to bless your business.

Sincerely, Mike

[Guy Hilliard]

If you think 2400 pens is boring try 3500 Tongue depressors (4 orders so far)...

[Bill Cunningham]

What takes the 'boring' out of the monotinous jobs, is the ritual called the 'depositing of the cheque':D

Whenever I have one of those jobs, I always have another (usually two or three) jobs on the go at the same time.. The machine won't work any better if your standing over it watching! The occasional look, to make sure flames arn't leaping out of the cabinet, and keeping a ear open for 'funny sounds' is usually enough...When you are working, and the machine is working, you seem to make twice as much money.. funny how it works that way..

[Steve McKee]

Guy, if you don't mind sharing, what on earth do you engrave on tongue depressors?

[art baylor]

Company logos or new product announcments. The company then sends them to have ice cream bars or popcicles molded around them to give away to
customers or employees.

[James & Zelma Litzmann]

Well, we lost the chance to engrave the 2400 pens . . . guess why?

They already had someone to do it at 16 cents a pen. Not worth my time, maybe I am wrong but that is a whole lota trouble for nota lota money.

Hey, please tell me if I'm wrong. I don't mind eating crow, well, maybe alittle.

Life goes on and there is another bighter day tomorrow. When He closes a door He opens a window.

God Bless,
Zelma (Psalms 18:2) :)

[Joe Pelonio]

Whenever I have one of those jobs, I always have another (usually two or three) jobs on the go at the same time..
This is the nice thing about doing the vinyl work too, I'm running a job now that will take 100 sheets of 12x24, each is taking 28 minutes to engrave, 2 minutes to cut. Leaves me plenty of time to work on signs, banners and other vinyl work in between.

[Phyllis Meyer]

Dear James & Zelma,

Great attitude! You are so right about him opening a window when a door closes. There is a reason that this didn't work, and sometimes as you already stated...it wasn't worth your time! You will get something else! How is the coffee shop going? You both have an awesome day!

Sincerely,
Phyllis:)

[Joe Pelonio]

Zelma,

Definitely not a money maker at that price. They must have found someone with a laser and nothing else to do.

You'll get a better order soon to make up for it.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Zelma,

This sounds to me like a typical "YAG" laser job we have customers here that have the Yag lasers and a typical pen only takes 10 seconds to mark, you then add the automation and these shops could easily run 2400 pens in 3-4 hours. If you do the math it equates to about $96.00 per hour.

When it comes to the ad specialty market it is hard to compete.

Cheer up there will be more to come.

[Ed Maloney]

Maybe it would be a good idea to laser a few pens and give it to your client so they have something to compare the 16 cent "bargain" to. You never know.

[Guy Hilliard]

Steve;

The tongue depressors are used as part of a crafts kit. My client seems to sell a quite few of them.

[James & Zelma Litzmann]

Hey guys, I told you when God closes a door He opens a window. Not to brag but to let you know we are being taken care of. We just finished our biggest job yet, engraving 120 clocks and have 16 vases yet to do.

God Bless,
Zelma (Psalms 18:2)