Bulk Tumbler Engraving Pricing

[Tony South]

yeah sorry, it is $70 an hour for profit. not includingn the price of cups.i called walmart and they would not give a discount but thats okay. i still made $70 an hour just for the engraving. i will soon be opening an account with jds to get better prices.ill post some pics of a cup also.km.jpg

[Amy Heise]

Awesome! They look great!

[Tony South]

Thank you!

[Mike Null]

Tony
FYI--When I did my first order of walmart cups I ordered them online for pickup at the local store. I was lucky--the clerk suggested we open the carton to check the shipment. The cups were thrown loosely into the carton with no protective packing. Two of the 8 were dented.

I try my best to avoid anything Walmart.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

i will soon be opening an account with jds to get better prices.ill post some pics of a cup also.

JDS cups are nice because other than the lid, they are unbranded and therefore have no front/back...just throw them in the laser and go. Try to buy in cases, and take advantage of the free freight at $500 if you can. Mixing and matching colors did not provide a case discount last (only) time I tried. Good luck and post your pictures.

[Nick Andraka]

Not trying to be nosy, but if you are charging $70/hr of actual time operating the laser (after cost of the cups), your "take home" is somewhere in the mid 20's?
Is that all the market will pay?

[Tim Bateson]

Not trying to be nosy, but if you are charging $70/hr of actual time operating the laser (after cost of the cups), your "take home" is somewhere in the mid 20's?
Is that all the market will pay?

I think he stated that the $70/hr was after all expenses. Personally I think that's still way too low. I aim for $100/hr or above & "if" (it's rare) I sell merchandise as well as my service, that number has got to be much higher.

[Nick Andraka]

Tim,
By the time you figure in the real costs:
So the $70/hour is the gross intake minus the cost of the actual cup?
Then subtract machine purchase/maintenance, utilities, shop space, Insurance say that adds $8, so you are at $62.00
the $70 was calculated for just time actually etching, how much time was spent talking with the client, looking at/for cups, purchasing cups, packaging, invoicing, processing payment, etc?
Lets say that was only 6 hours or $120 of your time, round that off to $4 against each "engraving hour" so we are down to about $58 per engraving hour.

Then after the profit of $58, Federal, state/local income taxes, 15% self employment taxes, business property tax, accounting all eats up OVER 50% of the profit, so your take home is less than $29.00

As a business owner I'm not getting out of bed for that

Nick

I think he stated that the $70/hr was after all expenses. Personally I think that's still way too low. I aim for $100/hr or above & "if" (it's rare) I sell merchandise as well as my service, that number has got to be much higher.

[Ross Moshinsky]

Tim,
By the time you figure in the real costs:
So the $70/hour is the gross intake minus the cost of the actual cup?
Then subtract machine purchase/maintenance, utilities, shop space, Insurance say that adds $8, so you are at $62.00
the $70 was calculated for just time actually etching, how much time was spent talking with the client, looking at/for cups, purchasing cups, packaging, invoicing, processing payment, etc?
Lets say that was only 6 hours or $120 of your time, round that off to $4 against each "engraving hour" so we are down to about $58 per engraving hour.

Then after the profit of $58, Federal, state/local income taxes, 15% self employment taxes, business property tax, accounting all eats up OVER 50% of the profit, so your take home is less than $29.00

As a business owner I'm not getting out of bed for that

Nick

Run from this industry then.

[John Lifer]

yeah sorry, it is $70 an hour for profit. not includingn the price of cups.i called walmart and they would not give a discount but thats okay. i still made $70 an hour just for the engraving. i will soon be opening an account with jds to get better prices.ill post some pics of a cup also.km.jpg

You Guys just can't read.... Price of cup isn't included in his $70 per hour.

I get that it's low, I can't get much over $120 per hour MAX for the time on cups. And I've had several relatively small orders (less than 100) walk at that. And wanted both sides engrave, personalizing with Name on one side.... Which would have been $96 an hour..... Cups are tough around here..... And I don't have that much laser competition. And Yes, if you are sourcing the cups, you'd better be adding in several dollars for that above your cost.

[Tony South]

Just to let you all know. First of all I am new to the laser engraving industry and I only have a fiber laser engraver. (50w) I might not be charging as much as you do. And that is because this is not my main income. We are a laser welding shop and the welding generates most of the income right now. I get a lot more a hour doing laser welding than for doing these cups. I do not have to pay rent or taxes on the building because my father owns the building and rents half the building out and that pays for the bills. When I get more we’ll known for laser engraving I will begin to charg a little bit more. Ether way I am making $70 an hour. I admit I did not include the time with customer and finding cups. All I can say is I’m making good money in my head to just sit here and engrave cups. Not much skill into the work other than knowing the laser and how it works and getting settings right. I also took into account interruptions and such witch the 10 cups an hour. If I do them nonstop for a hour I get 13 done but that’s if I don’t get interrupted. So far I have been able to get 10 or more done in an hour. Thank you all for your input I just figured I’d let you know why I don’t charge $120 a hour yet. Packaging is done while cups are engraving, invoice takes 5 min and there is only one. payment process is as long as it takes him to write a check.(I already discussed this with him) And again $70 a hour is what I am taking in. I bought the cups but the customer is paying for the cups and then I make $70. Again thank you all on this forum. You guys help a lot with the engraving side of the business!!!!!! From now on ill try and charge more(:

[Glen Monaghan]

When I get more we’ll known for laser engraving I will begin to charg a little bit more. [...] I just figured I’d let you know why I don’t charge $120 a hour yet.

Everyone has to figure out what their time is worth, and it is very common for someone new to a field to undervalue themselves due to their inexperience, quite understandable. However, be aware that charging $70/hr now will condition your customers to expect that in the future and result in a lot of pushback if/when you want to ratchet up to something like $120/hr. It can also contribute to a downward spiral when someone else comes along with a laser and says, "well, he's charging 70 and I'm new, so maybe I'll charge 50 to start..." Then you have to explain to a customer why your [old or new] price is 90 or 100 while this other guy is only 50... You'll need to be pretty convincing that your quality, timeliness, and service justify charging twice as much as the next guy.

[Kev Williams]

it's also not uncommon for someone OLD to a field to undervalue themselves... ahem I do it all the time. I'd say 8 of 10 one-off customers end up paying me more than I quoted. But I prefer that scenario over one like I got last week, some rep for a business calls and wants 50 knives engraved, in 2 different places, then emails me an RFQ. My price was probably lower than anyone of you would charge for engraving a knife ONCE let alone twice. The reply I got back was 'well, we were expecting closer to $1 each'... no kidding. I can understand where Cub Scout Den Mothers could use a price break when spending out of pocket for gifts & such, but when another business who's IN business to make money doesn't feel MY business needs to make any...I don't get it...

[chad shoemaker]

I have a 30w fiber laser with rotary... I am having problems with the Tumblers moving with engraving!! Does anyone know what settings in rotary mark that will help me out?
Thanks in advance