Pricing Question For Stores With Wizards

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MAX,

How did you price out fancy designs before you acquired your Wizard?

We purchased a Fletcher F-6100 in April of 1999 and none of our pricing strategies / sturcture changed except our multiple opening charges. We now charge the same $3.00 for oval or rectangular aperature. Our F-6100 believes that an extra opening is an extra opening, is an extra opening..... Before we charged more for ovals/circles which was more of an industry historical reaction.

For offset corners, slants or combination cuts we usually charge $5-$10.00 additional dependent upon the complexity of the design.

I would also be interested in learning if others with CMC's (Wizard, Fletcher, Eclipse, Mat Maesto, Gunnar, etc.) have altered their pricing with automation?

John

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The Frame Workshop of Appleton, Inc.
www.theframeworkshop.com
Appleton, Wisconsin
jerserwi@aol.com
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We charge the same as we always did on regular mats or extra openings. For fancy cuts we add $15.00 per mat. We use a Wizard.
 
We use the Wizard. Our pricing is the same as we have used for thirty years. You start with the mat size and add a time and design fee. Simple designs require almost no design time and the labor is included in our basic mat charge. Wizard (computer designs) templets are charged by the number of elements (corners) used times 75 cents. Mat layout is billed at $45.00 per hour with a $15.00 base charge for all multi-opening mat.
We also charge for the design desk time to layout the artwork. Most customers understand you are creating as special program just for them and are willing to pay for the service.
"We as framers are our worst enemy---WE PREJUDGE WHAT OUR CUSTOMER WILL PAY". We must remember that our designs will last for years and when other home design items are gone the artwork will still be hanging---maybe in it's second home.
 
We use the same method of charging for mat cuts as pre-Wiz. Because it is so much faster, we often use the specialty (pre-loaded) cuts as a promotional item, especially on a large order. It's that little sweetener that we will throw in if we think it will help close the deal. It's a lot less costly than a markdown.On one time or custom design, all bets are off and we charge what we think it's worth.
 
I charge the same price for Mat Maestro cut mats. I also charge the same for oval as rectangle openings.

The only adjustment I made was for an order of 5300+ 16x20 mats.
 
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