Hi all. I usually do my work in the scrapbooking world while dabbling in other areas. The one area I do not have enough expertise on is the award area. I have done one or two here or there and usually have a formula I use to price the items. I have been now requested to do 79 plaques for my son's girlfriends mom for an event she has. Her last engraver had many plaques misspelled and she was not happy with them and asked me if I could do something for them. I have never done this big of an order and do not know what is the normal discount to give on this.
She has a budget of $1500 for 57- 6x8 plaques (she picked out value cherry plaques which are only 1.01 each) and a 5x7 plaque plate but the cheapest plaque plate is $4.45 from JDS. There is also 18- 8x10 picture plaques that I would possibly using the same plaque plate and 4 -9x12 picture plaques and possibly use the same 5x7 plate. The average amount of characters on the plates is 154 characters (they run from 325 to 92 characters 12120 characters total to do all plaques).
The total amount to purchase these items are $615.80. My question is I am not sure what to actually charge for this. Remember her budget is $1500. What would you actually be charging for these items?
One other item is she needs 11 6inch 1 column trophies and 1-3 column trophy. These items would be coming out of the $1500 budget as well. (I have never done these and am going to look up what I need for them and how to put them together)
I do not want to undercharge myself (which I think I may be doing if I agree to the $1500 budget) but I also do not want to set a precedent that I can not get out of if she asks me to do them again next year. But at the same time I do not want to over charge so she thinks I am insane lol
So please give me all advice about what may be a formula to sell these plaques to her.
Do you sell the materials at cost and only charge for the engraving? If that is the case what do you charge per letter? Right now I have $0.20 over 100 characters and $0,15 for over 100 characteres (which in this case at $0.15 would cost $1818.00 which is over her budget not including the cost of materials)
Do you up charge the materials and low ball the cost of engraving?
Do you sell material at cost and low ball the cost of engraving (dropping down the cost to $0.05 cents a character)?
Do you add up a small upcharge to the materials and a low ball pricing for engraving? (This will put me over the $1500 budget for sure)
Again I want to keep up with the industry standards but at the same time not setting a precedent that I can not get out of for the future.
Thanks bunches