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Pricing Program

Thanks to those who are contributing pricing info in this group and by
direct email.

I went over some of my own assumptions a few months ago but I'll rehash here.

You have to have pricing that adequately covers many different variables and
yet at the same time is limited enough so that you can readily figure out
and quote a price.  I'm not saying that you should be prepared to quote to
anyone without thought - but you also shouldn't have to spend a lot alot of
time.

I've seen many shops with one or two per-foot price ranges, and that's it. &
I've seen them do well. Of course this would apply to trusted volume
customers who give you good patterns, install it correctly with no
questions, and say "thank you" as they hand you a check.

I divide the major categories into: straight, shapes, letters, & artwork.

Letters have: 3 ranges [3"-5" & script],[6"-9"], and [10" plus] which
eventually if you get large enough is the same as "Shapes".

I use a glass & per heat method.  The tricky part is how long per heat.
A good production bender can do 1 per minute or more (but you need breaks).
I don't think it's unreasonable for a small shop doing non-multiples to
clock in at 3 minutes but I wouldn't go much over that (except maybe for
soda lime).  So I average this to 2 minutes. 

I think 3 levels of glass are fine.  You can separate clear & standard
powder on production runs because there it makes a difference.

Did we include layouts, artwork if asked, site visits (even if you don't
charge this, it needs to be somewhere in your pricing)., etc.

Installation has In-shop mounting, Window Hanging, Indoor surface, Indoor
into-wall, Exterior.  Stage work is another beast altogether for reasons
that Tom & I could explain in about 100 words or more.

Now, again - you can't go crazy with this stuff. I do look a little foolish
if I can't say it's roughly this & roughly that if this occurs... etc.

Price levels based on client:  wholesale (i.e. trade), commercial, retail ,
& levels in between for occassional re-sellers..   

I've pulled out my two earlier windows hacks of my program and I'm rehashing
things now.  I can see that the ability to customize is very important for
different shops.  I'd like the program to be able to show basic costs and
then apply mark-ups to different components of the price.  I'm hoping the
first small scale version will be available in early March - but cut me some
slack, look how long MS took to make Win95 and (mine won't use as many
resources.)

Kenny

Kenny Greenberg   Neon Artist, Scenic Specialist, Columnist - Internet World
c/o KRYPTON NEON 34-43 Vernon Blvd Long Island City, NY 11106
      Ph: 718-728-4450   Fx: 718-728-7206  Email: kenny@neonshop.com
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