Pricing

[DS]

Being new to framing, are there guidelines or formulas as to what you should charge a customer to maintain being competive?
Also, are dust covers used on metal frames - and if so, how do you attach them?

 

[B. Newman]

Dan, someone will invariably tell you to do a search on this topic. There are lots of things that you need to do. There are formulas for mark ups and hundreds of ways to do it. Yes, you need to "shop your competition" and understand "what the market will bear."

But most importantly (IMO) is to know what it costs you to "turn on the lights" every day, (overhead) what it costs you to make any given frame, (cost of goods) and what amount you want to keep (profit). After you know that, you'll be able to determine what to charge.

"Being competitive" should not be the first key. Surviving, and then thriving should be your goal. Then find a way to market your business (a niche) in order to charge the prices that you need to charge.

True, this is not really an answer to your question, but you gotta know where you want to go, what it costs you to get there, and why, before you detemine how to make the trip possible.

Betty

[ 10-22-2003, 07:34 AM: Message edited by: B. Newman ]

 

[Ron Eggers]

Dan, everyone has their own pricing formulas based (hopefully) on their costs and their markets. Jay Goltz, Vivian Kistler and others have books on establishing your own pricing and a search of this forum and the Grumble business forum will give you lots of opinions.

Be leary of generalized charts provided by vendors. They are too, well, general.

Most of us don't put paper dust seals on metal frames. What I prefer to do is to fill the frame with backing - usually Coroplast corrugated plastic - to discourage bugs and dust from entering the frame and to provide a more even pressure than you can get with spring clips.

[ 10-22-2003, 07:33 AM: Message edited by: Ron Eggers ]

 

[Bill Henry-]

Dan,

Many framers use a commercial point of sales software package while many others have developed spreadsheets for determining their pricing. I use spreadsheets. I believe that they are much more flexible and certainly a whole lot cheaper than plunking down cash for a dedicated computer and paying for software which requires you to do business like the programmer/framer decides you should. (No flames, please!)

Determining equations for those spreadsheets is, of course, an individual process, and no one can give you an absolutely definitive answer as how to proceed – you are likely to get 10 different approaches from 8 different framers.

However, that said, I have written a tutorial (as yet unpublished) to guide framers who choose to use spreadsheets in their pricing. If you are interested e-mail bill@framersloft.com and I can send you what I have written.

As far as dust covers are concerned – again different framers use different approaches. For wood frames, I use Elmer’s Glue to run a bead of glue around the perimeter of the frame, overlap the back with black Kraft paper, then trim the excess off with a specialized “fitting” knife. Others use ATG tape which I find to be too expensive to use; or a type of masking or duct tape in lieu of Kraft paper to seal the back of the frame, which, I believe, is too expensive, too. Plus I find that Elmer’s glue can be more easily removed than can other adhesives.

Since the corners of metal frames are only held together with hardware and are not airtight, there is no easy, practical way to seal them – most framers don't bother.

[ 10-22-2003, 10:22 AM: Message edited by: Bill Henry ]