What to charge?

[txturbo]

This question for people doing this as a business.What do you charge? Do you charge by the square inch?

[48Buick]

One thing I do is to figure up what your time is worth and base the price on how long it will take you to do it.
Also look at the condition of the part. Is it really pitted or is it smooth and easy to plate?
If you are doing a show quality job, that will cost more also.
If your doing work that is better then the local plating shop......charge more then the local plating shop!
Dont cut your throut for work.........unless your starving?
48Buick

[txturbo]

what to charge

Thanks...there isn't a local shop so I don't have anything to compare to.So I guess I'll just test the market and see what will fly.

[SS65]

$1.25 a minute. No joking. I have a timer I use to charge for the actual work being done ie..prep, repair, tank time. That doesnt include tank heating time. It was really tough thing to figure at first, but this worked out the best for me. If I bust my chops for a solid hour, thats $75.00. If you get good, they'll pay it.

[txturbo]

what to charge

Thanks for the info

[chromo]

What the market bares averaged against how much work and profit you want

Although I'm not plating for profit I do many things for profit that are the same principals.

I would think you should look at several things, shape of part, size of part, time and materials required to do the part.

Painting cars for example. I would charge less to paint the hood, roof, and trunk lid of most cars than if you wanted the engine compartment painted and already had the engine out.
I would need many tools of odd shapes and sizes to do a great job in the engine compartment and lots of hand sanding, the jobs a pain in the rear, too many nooks and crannies to worry about. Hit the roof, hood and trunk lid with some grease and wax remover and a DA sander mask and paint. Larger job, easier, less tools, and I would charge less. If body work is not needed of course. I have done engine compartments, my back hurt for a week after all that stooping, squating, and bending to get into all those difficult areas around wheel wells and firewalls and radiator supports etc.. I charged ALOT more, some-one has to pay for all that back pain
And I did not even mind when some-one would say never mind and not have me paint one either.

Every one has different priorities.
Figuring you do really good work. If your fast charge more for your time since it takes less, but if your slow charge less for your time since it takes more. You should not cheat yourself either way, but still be fair to your clients. Not thier fault if it takes you an Hour to do a 30 minute job, so you should not charge as such.

My experience in many service type businesses is that the more you charge the more profit per job, but the less jobs you get. And of course the opposite is also true. the Less you charge the more jobs you get, but less profit per job.

So finding the right pricing for yourself is a combination of things. What is the most people will pay (with out ripping them off) that will povide the works hours you want per week, with the profits you want to earn. And is that a fair price to both you and your clients?

What type market is in your area for the services you'll be offering. And you already said not a local shop to compare with, so that answers the competition question for your area.

Also depending on what your actually doing, maybe some parts are more difficult than others even if they take the same time, so they would cost more. Maybe Fancy wheels with tight corners, you might need specail tools for so they cost more to do than the same amount of time on flat item.

I start what at whats seems like a low but fair price for something then adjust to the demand for it. If I want more work than I am getting I lower prices till the words spreads about my services. I make alittle less profit per job but do more jobs per week so I actually make more per week profits. Then if I want to make the same and do less work I raise the prices and make more per job but do less of them.

Like I accidently became a computer service tech. Friends learned I build my own, started asking me to fix their old stuff when it breaks. Was doing it free for a little while, then they started ticking me off buying retail junk after I had offered to build and sell them better systems for less money. SO then they delete files or something breaks and they call me!! Well no more freebies, $10 an hour. They weren't happy about it, but after finding out thier mistakes aren't coved by the wauruntee and they have to pay the shop, they came back and paid the $10 an hour!
Then world spread, good cheap service tech. Started getting calls from people I never heard of! Sorry, I don't want to be in this business, $15 an hour! Calls slowed abit, but profits rose! Still too many calls for a business I don't want, so $20 an hour! Ok, now I am happy with the work
I still get enough calls at $20 an Hour to be worthwhile, but not enough to bug me too bad. I still don't want to be a service tech, but almost all profit job so I do it. Balance between How much I want to work and the profit I want to make. As a Tech I don't want to work, but at the profit level I will do it. If I'm not doing anything else right then.

They put up with my "if I'm not busy attitude" becuase I throw in those little perks of showing them what not to mess up and where to get free software to help prevent the problems in the future. Stuff the shops don't do because they want the work so they want them to break stuff. I do it because I don't want the calls for simple stuff. I will actualy show them how to fix stuff themselfs so they will stop calling me. The shops don't!


I plan to travel most of the summer so I am trying very hard to go out of business now

Chromo

[txturbo]

what to charge

Thanks chromo...I really appreciate it.

[[email protected]]

Just an example:
Unlike your area, we have 12 known plating shops and 19 machine shops that are equipped to do the plating work. All of these shops are able to do zinc plating. People that come to me for zinc plating stuff have tried these places at one point or another, what gets them with me is personolized approach of my MUCH smaller operation. I charge $75-$100 CAD ($50-65 US) per hour for prep and plating, some clients wait around for their stuff some drop off. What gets most people is seeing other already finished parts in my garage, in some cases I have "before" pictures for parts that came out especially nice. What people like is personal attention that they and their parts get, at this point there is never an argument over the charge. If some wonder, I tell them that everything from glass beads to anodes to myself experience wear and tear and that must be compensated. I can only recall one guy who took a week to come up with the money, he didn't expect the price so high, but when he saw the parts - smiles and no sign of regret. To make long story short - be nice and reasonable, you will succeed.
Andrew - [email protected]

[SS65]

I agree totaly with what you guys are saying. Granted I have yet to make $75.00 an hour for my actual time. I start and stop my timer according to what Im doing. Say Im prepping a part on the wheel and the phone rings, changing wheels, tank heating, bathroom breaks , stuff like that. I get no complaints about price. The people I do work for already know. There are a couple platers around, and they charge a flat rate of $75.00 just to get your part in the door regarless of size. Sometimes they act like they dont want to bother with small stuff. I anodize parts for a local machine shop. The owner was very pleased with my charge of around $30 less, and we both were happy. My problem now is Chrome Tank Size and Power capacity

[txturbo]

costs

My area is kind of unique I guess. Population is around 75,000 and the nearest big city is at least 100 miles in any direction. So if you want something plated, you go to a motorcycle shop or something, have them ship it to a plater. Then they mark it up just for being the middleman. Or you can drive or ship it 100 miles and hope they don't loose your stuff. I've mentioned it to a few people around town and everyone is getting excited that it will be available soon, even though on a small scale.