Pricing question...

[Linda Kroeker]

Hello everyone,
I've got a question about pricing that I know has probably already been answered here somewhere...
I'm going to be vector cutting mat board which will be 15" x 20" provided by the customer.
Each board will only take about 6 minutes to run...might only be 3 boards at a time. I see here that some charge $1.00 per min...which is what I was
going to charge, but that makes it only $6.00 per board??? Do I charge only the per min or do I add something eles??? They provide the file ready too be run...

[Dave Johnson29]

only $6.00 per board??? Do I charge only the per min or do I add something eles??? They provide the file ready too be run...

I charge a minimum of $15 set up for a job. On something like this, 6 minutes of vector suggests quite a lot of cutting. Is there artwork involved? Set up time?

[Linda Kroeker]

Dave,

No artwork involved...customer supplies material and vector files.

[Dee Gallo]

My local mat cutter charges $25 just to bevel cut a rectangle - I would go with a job rate somewhere between the $6 and $25 - but closer to $15. Hand cutting a shaped mat is very expensive, along the lines of $40-50 per mat, so I think you'd get $15-20 easily - just don't EVER tell them how long it takes or let them watch! The price of your laser is a bazillion times the cost of a mat cutter or razor blade.

cheers, dee

[Mladen Pavic]

Hello,Linda.
I can tell you that prices in Croatia will be at least twice that (a Croatia is poorer country than USA)
Little jobs you can not charge just per min

[Bill Cunningham]

Nothing can be done in 6 minutes... It takes longer than that just to boot the computer, load Corel, load the customers file, port it to the laser, put in the material, cut the material, take out the material, clean up all the crap left from the cutting.. And I'll bet you just about anything, that the customers file will have some problems. RARE is the customer that can provide cutting files that actually work.. The actual cutting time may be only 6 minutes, but everything else ain't..