Full Version: Pricing name badges
From: Precision Laser Creations (PIZZAMAN) [#1]
6 Mar 2007
To: ALL
Hi All.
I do strictly laser engraving. I have a customer who wants a price on about 25 name badges. I haven't done any as of yet and was wondering what most of you charge for different size and style of badges.
Thanks,
Tony
From: gt350ed [#2]
6 Mar 2007
To: Precision Laser Creations (PIZZAMAN) [#1] 6 Mar 2007
I know others on the forum sell for less, but it's just not worth selling for less than the market will bear; and we are not in an affluent area. We've had no resistance to our pricing.
Hope this helps.
From: deeb (DEBRIPPETOE) [#3]
6 Mar 2007
To: ALL
From: Harvey only (HARVEY-ONLY) [#4]
6 Mar 2007
To: deeb (DEBRIPPETOE) [#3] 6 Mar 2007
I am kind of in the middle.
1X3 with two lines $6.95. Pin back. Magnetic back is an additional $2.
From: deeb (DEBRIPPETOE) [#5]
6 Mar 2007
To: ALL
From: gt350ed [#6]
6 Mar 2007
To: deeb (DEBRIPPETOE) [#5] 6 Mar 2007
On the otherhand, you could start your own thread in conjunction with wall-mounted name plates.
Just my two cents.
From: BWC (SPY007) [#7]
6 Mar 2007
To: Precision Laser Creations (PIZZAMAN) [#1] 6 Mar 2007
I charge $12.00 for the 1 X 3 badge and extra for the backing. I reduced prices last year from what the previous owner charged ($18.00) to be more competitive. For some reason she outsourced everything but the rubber stamps.
Brian
From: Mike (MIKEN) [#8]
6 Mar 2007
To: Precision Laser Creations (PIZZAMAN) [#6] 6 Mar 2007
From: Precision Laser Creations (PIZZAMAN) [#9]
6 Mar 2007
To: ALL
Thanks guys. It's obvious that there is a big difference in what everyone charges. I guess somewhere in the middle is where I'll probably land.
Tony
From: Doc (GREAT_ATLANTIC) [#10]
6 Mar 2007
To: Precision Laser Creations (PIZZAMAN) [#1] Unread
From: Laser Image (LASER_IMAGE) [#11]
6 Mar 2007
To: Doc (GREAT_ATLANTIC) [#10] 7 Mar 2007
From: Gary (GNELSON) [#12]
7 Mar 2007
To: gt350ed [#2] 8 Mar 2007
From: Peter [#13]
7 Mar 2007
To: ALL
I don get it ?
if you sell your badges for less than $10.00 each you will not sell any less than you are selling now..
And I am bemused by the amazement of those of you that think it is difficult to sell badges for what they are worth . 8-O
By selling badges for less than that I would deduce that.
Nah..cant be bothered....
We have nutters here in Adelaide selling full colour Millenium printed badges ..with magnets for....$ 5.00....but it still doesnt prevent us from selling badges for what they are worth..
Now, I should say..we have to match these guys, My God ..if we dont..we will go out of business...Oh No...its competition at work....yet..well we dont..
We just continue to sell ours for what they are truly worth...and we still get the business....( funny that :O) )...and when we get the odd scab come in and ask us to match the price...we simply smile and begin to work through, what they will achieve by shopping with us..some just walk out....
Oh...How sad. :-( .....But most begin to soon realise why they walked in our door.. :-)
I am truly not trying to be smug or up myself.......truly (angel)
But it isnt hard to make a living in this business..if you simply stick to your guns...know your business plan, know your market and your goals, know your costs and overheads and know what you need to make for profit.....blah blah blah... :P
:@
regards
Peter
From: Engravin' Dave (DATAKES) [#14]
7 Mar 2007
To: Peter [#13] 9 Mar 2007
.I believe there are some companies who attract business based on price. Their business will be built around that type of customer, which is not very loyal. As soon as they begin to raise prices to where they should be, a percentage of that customer base runs to the next low-priced supplier. For some, that thought gets them out of their comfort zone.
Since there is money being left on the table, it makes sense to raise prices 25%, knowing that they will likely lose 25% of their business, but still keep revenues the same. At that point they will have surplus production capacity to focus on other products or markets to generate even more revenue. This is an example why you should never leave money on the table..
It may not be quite as simple as I have stated above, but that is the way markets work in general.
EDITED: 7 Mar 2007 by DATAKES
From: Jerry (JERRYERVIN) [#15]
8 Mar 2007
To: ALL
I have been in the Custom Picture Framing business for over 16 years. I have added an engraver to the mix and will soon offer trophies and awards to my customers.
I just wanted to add that in our industry, we have the exact same conversations.
Those of us that can't or won't charge enough for our goods and services don't make it in business very long.
Thanks Guys for reminding me that it is all the same world.
Jerry
From: UncleSteve [#16]
8 Mar 2007
To: Engravin' Dave (DATAKES) [#14] 8 Mar 2007
Why in the world would anyone make standard 1x3 name tags when you can buy them engraved with a pin or two studs on the back for under $3.00 and sell them for $10+?
From: Doc (GREAT_ATLANTIC) [#17]
8 Mar 2007
To: Peter [#13] 9 Mar 2007
I must have missed that class. The laws of supply and demand in a very competitive market may have a little something to say about this overly broad assumption. Perhaps the economics are different in Adelaide, but here in the Center of the Universe ( ;-) ) we're driven by the dynamics of competition.
Our store is located in Fairfield County - among other things, essentially the bedroom community for Wall Street. Additionally, the adjacent town of Stamford is the second largest concentration of corporate headquarters in the U.S. (behind only Manhattan.) Unlike the Lodge Poohbah who might buy 5 badges at a time, the people who buy these types of items are professional buyers who purchase 500 at a time. Forget the Internet, if we were to even suggest a price resembling $10 for a name badge, not only would we not get any orders, but we'd also lose credibility for dozens of other product types they purchase: plaques, awards, crystal, client gifts, etc.
"What they are worth" is what the client willing to pay....nothing more or less, no magic formula, nothing steeped in tradition. And in fairness, it's important to examine the economics here. Consider a typical 3x1 name badge, laser engraved with a magnet:
Plastic: $.14 (a quarter-sheet of Rowmark LazerMax yields 73 badges of this size)
Magnet: $.29
Labor: $1.50 (based on 40 seconds at $135/hour)
Amortized Overhead: $.01
Total Cost: $1.94
At $5.25, the margin is 2.7 times cost. Now, how many times do you think the average retailer will reject that kind of return on an incidental item like a name badge? We have a little saying in this company: Hogs get fat, but pigs get slaughtered.
Just a thought.
From: PenTrophy (PENINSULATROPHY) [#18]
8 Mar 2007
To: Doc (GREAT_ATLANTIC) [#17] 8 Mar 2007
From: Dave Jones (DAVERJ) [#19]
8 Mar 2007
To: Doc (GREAT_ATLANTIC) [#17] 8 Mar 2007
In your expenses you show 40 seconds on the laser, but I'm guessing there's a couple minutes involved there somewhere, such as taking the order, entering the name in the computer, positioning the name to the next available space on the plastic, putting the plastic in, removing the final part, cleaning it and wrapping it, etc... At least if you're making the badges in small quantities. Obviously less extra time per badge when doing large quantities.
$0.01 overhead amazes me. If that's based on 40 seconds, then that's $12/day (assuming you can bill customers for ever second of an 8 hour day), or $60/week or $240 per month. That means you can pay the rent, utilities, equipment costs, insurance, garbage pickup, showroom materials, office supplies, workers time not spent on billable jobs, your time cleaning the laser, accountant, etc... all for $240 per month. But if the real job took longer than the 40 seconds of laser time, lets say 3 minutes each for one or two badges, then that $0.01 comes out to more like $32/month to cover all of your overhead.
I don't know your business at all, but if it does take a couple extra minutes per badge in small quantities, and your overhead is more like the typical couple thousand a month that most small businesses have, then I'd add another couple of dollars to that cost, bringing it closer to $4 for a $5.25 sale. But I'm making a lot of assumptions and could be completely wrong here.
From: Mike (MIKEN) [#20]
8 Mar 2007
To: ALL
I have several wholesale customers which I sell as a group. I have a fixed price for all of them whether their order is one or a 100. All but one customer in this group sells 1500 to 3000 of these name tags per year each. They all sell at the price I established as "magic". But one of the members insists on setting their own price which is 20% higher--and even though it is well under $10 per name tag they haven't sold a single one in more than three years.
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