Special Requests

[Metriccar]

I have been getting a lot of special requests, ie, "I have a BBQ and want a pig, cow, and hefer on it with a logo around it," etc.

Sometimes I can find clipart but even then I'm spending time putting this all together, converting, etc. I can't just say I can do that for X amount of dollars , then make it and hope they like it. I have to come up with it, then show it to them, then I may never hear from them again. Even if they do, I sunk more time into it than standard stuff I make.

How do you handle this?

This is not the type of business I want to go after, but beggars can't be choosers.

[wilber]

Atleast 1 hour of design time min on all custom stuff to be paid up front. If they go with the design you can take it off the bill if you want. If they don't like it you still did the design so you keep the money. If you take it off the bill make sure you have your time covered in the price. That way they feel like they are getting something for nothing.

[beefy]

Metricarr,

I'm not doing business yet with the arty plasma cutting but this issue is something that I often think about. I do hourly hire in the tight access excavation industry and I get treated like a mangey dog. In this industry, bookings are taken without any deposits then they cancel you and you are out of work for that day (I turned down other jobs because I was booked, but they are long gone). It gets worse, they book you for 1, maybe 2 days (MAYBE), so you can't give another customer a confirmed booking for for that 2nd day. The job gets done in 1 day and you are out of work the 2nd day. There are no "retention" charges in this industry for the customer having you on hold for that 2nd day. There have been weeks where 5 days work were available yet I only managed to get 2 of them due to cancellations, etc. If customers had to pay to book you and to reserve you for extra days, things would be completely different seeing as the customer is the one that gets hurt.

As a business model it's the closest thing to insanity in my opinion. It has left me bitter and twisted and has taught me one thing. People will often take as much from you as they can, without any care as to how it screws you or leaves you out of pocket.

If you don't have to eat crap, don't. You have a business to support and you can't do it by wasting all your time doing design work for jobs that are not going to happen. Explain to the customer that the bulk of the time is in the custom design work, cam time, etc, and that has to be paid for. While you are searching for their graphics, then creating the file, you are not doing the other money making parts of your business. There's a zillion other businesses out there that charge for their time, and rightly so.

Fixed products is the best if you can pull it off. I love the idea of a website with a "buy it now" button next to the product. Money is paid up front, the design is already done, and you just have to go in the workshop and make it. Of course this industries strength is in the customisation.

Keith.

[hacnwac]

This is only my thoughts guys and I hope I'm not making to many people upset. First off I would like to say that I thoroughly enjoy all of beefy's posts and intellect on all subjects. Having said that I will have to beg to differ with his opinion on custom work compared to hit a buy now button. I too am fairly new to the cnc world all though I have been in business for almost 25 years. As with Metriccar I have a hard time trying to justify costs and effort on designing one off jobs. If you can only make a few products and even if there is good profit it them someone will come along and do it for less. I also know that if I do not practice and try to improve my drawing and computer skills thru these less than stellar paying jobs I will not succeed. Not every customer is tight and if I didn't do certain jobs I know I would't have got some lucrative ones. This is short term pain for long term gain. I see quite a few people on here that can draw up designs quicker then I can make up my mind and I know that if I ever get that good ,design costs go way down and profit will go way up. It does not take to much surfing the net to see the the metalwork that stands out from the crowd. Every job can't pay great or the whole world would be in this biz.
Mark

[beefy]

This is only my thoughts guys and I hope I'm not making to many people upset.
Mark

Hi Mark,

as far as I'm concerned you are certainly not making me upset. On the contrary I read what you have to say and reflect on my own thoughts. Eating dirt for so many years has probably made me a little bitter and my advice may not be the best.

Thanks for adding your experiences to the equation, good for all of us.

Keith.