Pricing Help!

[Mohammed Hasham]

Hi, I need help with pricing. Someone need 800 cylinders every month.
They need their logo on one side and writing on the other side. The cylinder is 5 inches.
The logo and writing is about 2 inches and 4 inches. How much do you think I should charge for one cylinder? They would provide the cylinder.

Thanks,

[Mike Null]

Mohammed

Do you need a rotary device to do the job?

How long does it take to engrave each?

How much time does set up, handling and re-packaging take?

[Brian Robison]

What's the material?
Can you run a "dry cycle" and figure out the cycle time?

[Mohammed Hasham]

It's take about 2 mins to do cylinder and it take about 1 min to set up.
I'm not using a rotary. But he wanted a quote if I did because a bit got cut and I don't have a rotary. Packaging won't take that much time. I would include it in the 1 min to set up because I just have to put it back into a box.

Thanks for your help.

[Joe Pelonio]

I wouldn't do it for less than $6 each, but would prefer to get $8.

[Doug Bergstrom]

I agree with Joe, I wouldn't do t for less than $6 each.
Doug

[Mohammed Hasham]

Is $4 too less. That is what I was going to charge because it would be huge for me.

Thanks,

[Joe Pelonio]

You don't want to lowball it, they will always expect your prices to be that low. If it's potentially a really good customer, then drop it some if they balk
at the first price. but keep in mind that when you are running them it will take you at least 40 hours/month per your time estimate, that's $80/hour at $4 each which may sound good but you can count on it taking longer than that, and you still do have overhead like the laser cost and electricity.

[Gary Hair]

Someone posted what I thought was an interesting way of calculating pricing for a larger job. Determine your "daily" rate. Mine is $960.00 - 8 hours times $120 per hour. Then determine how many of those items you could do in an 8 hour day and divide that into the daily rate. If you can live with both numbers, then you have a good price. Make sure you include everything you need to do during that day to process this order - unpackaging, setup, lasering, packaging, delivery, etc.

At $4.00 each, I would need to be able to completely process 30 per hour to make $120/hour - your rate may be more or less than mine.

It's not a one-size-fits-all method, but it will give you another way of looking at it.

Gary

[Mike Null]

Mohammed

It is a big opportunity so be sure the price you set is one that'll make you glad you got the order.

With that kind of volume the customer is sure to shop around for pricing and I wouldn't risk losing the business especially if you're just getting started.

[George M. Perzel]

Mohammed;
How firm are they about the "800" per month?
Best regards;
George
LaserArts

[Craig Hogarth]

I agree with Mike, quote what you think is fair for you. Some of the veteran engravers here have a pretty good workload, so for them to make $60 an hour may not be worth their time. When I have nothing going on, i'll gladly take $60 an hour just to keep from losing the job. Even if I was busy, I'd probably take that job at $60 an hour considering that there's potential for a long term client, something that most new engravers do not have.

are you doing these one at a time, or several at once?

[Mohammed Hasham]

Thanks for everyone help. I showed him samples and he was really happy. He said min 800 per month. He does printing on these tubes right now and the printing comes off. I think it's pad printing and I know printing it's really cheap. I really need this client, it would be huge for me. I just got started this year so I just don't want to loose him. I will try $4 and see what happens.

Thanks,
Mohammed

[Brian Robison]

Good luck with the job, BTW, if $4.00 is too high, I'll do it for $3.99!;)

[Phyllis Meyer]

I agree with George, how firm are they needing 800 per month? If you tell them $4, or $6 are they going to bring you 100? It has happened to us (not any more), and you have to be prepared for this! Make sure you give them the prices for: 1-50, 50-100, or however you want to break it down. Good luck with this, it may be just what you need, have you considered some sort of contract with this amount? Let us know how it works out!

Sincerely,
Phyllis

[Bill Cunningham]

I've been doing a similar job on custom formulated plastic tubes for a highly specialized job & company over the past two years..(the plastic is laser safe) These ones are about .75" x 2.5" and only require the logo etched in.. They also tried printing, but not much will stick to them. The laser etch has no contrast at all, but it never wears off and thats whats important, and they bring me 1000 at a time.. I just got a call from them last week, and their ramping up production, and asked me if I could handle 5 or 10,000 pieces.. They know the price is pretty well fixed, because the time it takes to do 10k is 10 times more than it takes to do 1k .. It sure is nice when jobs like this just come in out of the blue...