Pricing Question Related to Setup

[Fronkies]

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening.
I have been running my machine for a little over a year now and have gotten decent ish at using Fusion. I make a fair number of fire pits and usually do sports ball themes and corporate logos. I don't do a large volume of business so those setups are always free. I don't mind that so much because I am still learning so I am slow. I don't expect that I can charge for drawing and setting up the cut yet because I am very slow at it and have no clue yet how long it should take or where to begin with it. I am curious what y'all are doing. Do you charge a base fee? Refundable fee? Only if it looks tedious or time consuming?

[tnbndr]

If it is an item that I can fabricate over and over and sell, I don't charge a design or setup fee.
Anything custom designed as a sign, monogram, etc I just build the design/drawing time into the cost of the item.
Truly custom work that will only be done once or someone needs several ideas I will charge them design time but tell them if/when they decide to hire me to fabricate the design time charge will be a credit toward the cost of the item.
There is an excel spreadsheet cost calculator in these forums somewhere, and if you plug in your costs and time and numbers it will get you close.
You are better off just charging a decent price for items and not breaking ever cost down for the customer.
For instance fire pits. I had a bunch of common designs that I put on fire pits and made them up for display and sale. If a customer wanted a custom design on a fire pit I told them it would be $100 more and 50% deposit, that way if they backed out or didn't show up my time was covered and I could still sell the fire pit.
Anything with a custom name or something that only that customer could use would be 100% deposit before any fabrication.
You will learn with experience what works and what doesn't.

[Fronkies]

If it is an item that I can fabricate over and over and sell, I don't charge a design or setup fee.
Anything custom designed as a sign, monogram, etc I just build the design/drawing time into the cost of the item.
Truly custom work that will only be done once or someone needs several ideas I will charge them design time but tell them if/when they decide to hire me to fabricate the design time charge will be a credit toward the cost of the item.
There is an excel spreadsheet cost calculator in these forums somewhere, and if you plug in your costs and time and numbers it will get you close.
You are better off just charging a decent price for items and not breaking ever cost down for the customer.
For instance fire pits. I had a bunch of common designs that I put on fire pits and made them up for display and sale. If a customer wanted a custom design on a fire pit I told them it would be $100 more and 50% deposit, that way if they backed out or didn't show up my time was covered and I could still sell the fire pit.
Anything with a custom name or something that only that customer could use would be 100% deposit before any fabrication.
You will learn with experience what works and what doesn't.

That is how I feel about it. If I can make money on the design I do not mind. I also don't mind adding their name or other custom text because the base logo is reusable. This large design I just quoted only had 15 minutes of machine time so I charged a solid hour of shop time and a little extra for the materials. I do take a deposit prior to the cut. I am happy to know I am on the right track.

I have the spreadsheet from the forum and have made some tweaks but my pricing is based on machine time X shop rate + materials. It has been working well so far.

[SegoMan DeSigns]

Nit picking some bidding jobs is a money loosing situation, time spent bidding is gone forever. You need to price your projects based on previous projects and like you say add some for customization. I make a lot of signs and have to show a finished product and color layout proof, so a lot of draw time is required just for a bid. Larger organizations with committees are the worst to work with as they want to see it 10 different ways..

[Fronkies]

Nit picking some bidding jobs is a money loosing situation, time spent bidding is gone forever. You need to price your projects based on previous projects and like you say add some for customization. I make a lot of signs and have to show a finished product and color layout proof, so a lot of draw time is required just for a bid. Larger organizations with committees are the worst to work with as they want to see it 10 different ways..

I think that would be maddening. I have been very fortunate in that my customers have been easy to please. Not counting that one guy. He buys repeat orders from me so I cut him some slack. What about farming out some of the work? A buddy suggested looking into some freelance designers to save me some time.

[SegoMan DeSigns]

I think that would be maddening. I have been very fortunate in that my customers have been easy to please. Not counting that one guy. He buys repeat orders from me so I cut him some slack. What about farming out some of the work? A buddy suggested looking into some freelance designers to save me some time.

I have on occasion referred some of the "difficult" ones to online graphic artists. When your a one man show stepping away from the shop to draw / bid costs you money. It's a tough balancing act for small time operators.

[Fronkies]

I think that would be maddening. I have been very fortunate in that my customers have been easy to please. Not counting that one guy. He buys repeat orders from me so I cut him some slack. What about farming out some of the work? A buddy suggested looking into some freelance designers to save me some time.

I have on occasion referred some of the "difficult" ones to online graphic artists. When your a one man show stepping away from the shop to draw / bid costs you money. It's a tough balancing act for small time operators.

I am small potato's and have a bit of time between jobs so I can spend some time on it. But I finished my last quote and was amazed at how little cut time was in the file. I had expected it to take WAY longer than 15 minutes of cut time. I feel like my quote was stupid cheap for what it is.

[adbuch]

If it is an item that I can fabricate over and over and sell, I don't charge a design or setup fee.
Anything custom designed as a sign, monogram, etc I just build the design/drawing time into the cost of the item.
Truly custom work that will only be done once or someone needs several ideas I will charge them design time but tell them if/when they decide to hire me to fabricate the design time charge will be a credit toward the cost of the item.
There is an excel spreadsheet cost calculator in these forums somewhere, and if you plug in your costs and time and numbers it will get you close.
You are better off just charging a decent price for items and not breaking ever cost down for the customer.
For instance fire pits. I had a bunch of common designs that I put on fire pits and made them up for display and sale. If a customer wanted a custom design on a fire pit I told them it would be $100 more and 50% deposit, that way if they backed out or didn't show up my time was covered and I could still sell the fire pit.
Anything with a custom name or something that only that customer could use would be 100% deposit before any fabrication.
You will learn with experience what works and what doesn't.

[tnbndr]

I am small potato's and have a bit of time between jobs so I can spend some time on it. But I finished my last quote and was amazed at how little cut time was in the file. I had expected it to take WAY longer than 15 minutes of cut time. I feel like my quote was stupid cheap for what it is

I used to do my designs and bidding in the evening when I was finished in the shop. I did farm out a couple of jobs to free lance artists to design. They are not crazy expensive and it keeps everyone happy.
If you are relying on Sheetcam for cut time in your bids, beware that it is not all that accurate. I would increase that number. After a while you will be able to look at a project and put a rough number on it without a calculator. Tell a client that it would cost roughly $200, but you will have to confirm material costs etc. If they are still interested then you can move forward.
Good luck and have fun.

[Fronkies]

I am small potato's and have a bit of time between jobs so I can spend some time on it. But I finished my last quote and was amazed at how little cut time was in the file. I had expected it to take WAY longer than 15 minutes of cut time. I feel like my quote was stupid cheap for what it is

I used to do my designs and bidding in the evening when I was finished in the shop. I did farm out a couple of jobs to free lance artists to design. They are not crazy expensive and it keeps everyone happy.
If you are relying on Sheetcam for cut time in your bids, beware that it is not all that accurate. I would increase that number. After a while you will be able to look at a project and put a rough number on it without a calculator. Tell a client that it would cost roughly $200, but you will have to confirm material costs etc. If they are still interested then you can move forward.
Good luck and have fun.

I use Fusion for all of my work. I would like to be able to toss out a number to a potential client but I am not that good yet. I think I am going to look into farming out the design the next time I have an oddball like that.

[tnbndr]

I think I am going to look into farming out the design the next time I have an oddball like that.

Reach out to Ben Delap at designsbydelap@gmail.com