how much do you charge to build a pantone color?

[Sbrem]

We also do not charge if the ink has been mixed and tested by us prior.  Only for new mixes.

Same here, but new mixes cost. Unless it's a pita customer, then they get charged...

Steve

[GoWestRob]

We don't charge for it even when we have to mix a new color, but mostly because the customers that ask for PMS matches are our very valued customers.  We throw it in for free as a courtesy.  However sometimes they forget that this extra work for us and take it for granted.  What we should do is itemize it on the invoice at full price and then promo it off so they take notice that we did some extra work pro bono.

[ZooCity]

We don't charge for it even when we have to mix a new color, but mostly because the customers that ask for PMS matches are our very valued customers.  We throw it in for free as a courtesy.  However sometimes they forget that this extra work for us and take it for granted.  What we should do is itemize it on the invoice at full price and then promo it off so they take notice that we did some extra work pro bono.

Bringo.  Always list the service at it's list rate on the invoice.  If you want to discount it off the line total, go for it and note it. 

There's a book, more of a pamphlet called Pricing for Profits I think, I have it somewhere.  It's mantra is that all your clients combined bear the costs of operating and your desired level of net profit.  We really apply this to ink mixes as the first person calling out the PMS pays for us to mix, test, confirm and record. 

[Sbrem]

That would be Mark Goodrich's book. Very good book, and kind of folksy. Yes, all of your labors need to be paid for, whether individually, or in your pricing structure. No "pro bono" work, they will see you as a sap. We have never had a problem getting PMS matches, and we don't do art for free either. As for valued customers, that's all of them here, no freebies, they shouldn't expect that anyway.

Steve

[Frog]

Did Mark used to edit one of the industry rags fifteen or so years ago?

[Sbrem]

Yes, Andy, he did, but I forget which one. The Press, maybe?

Steve

[Frog]

Yes, Andy, he did, but I forget which one. The Press, maybe?

Steve

Yeah, i thought that I remembered him.  Funny story. After a brief conversation (in which I corrected something in print) he once asked me to write an article on CLC transfers, and at that moment, rather than thinking to myself "Wow! I've arrived", I thought "Oh man, these guys are desperate!"

[tonypep]

Won't go there. If you don't have anything nice to say.......lets just say its out of print. No loss.

[Dottonedan]

GoWest, Great post!   Nailed it. And to itemize it and discount it!  I do that with editing files for seps. Takes more time to invoice but I put some time into it and it often never gets noticed. Some thing my magical sep software button makes that jpg at 1.5" looks sooo good.

Eric, as you can see MAN! You've been Very high on that one. I have never met a shop that charged over 20.00 and most customers would squawk about that.

If a customer knows about pmts matches and requires a match, most times they do enough business that you want to make sure you keep them coming back. A high pms match like is going to scare pros away. Those higher volume repeat customers. Heck, these same customers don't usuallky see screen charges either. A flash charge?  What's that?

[ericheartsu]

GoWest, Great post!   Nailed it. And to itemize it and discount it!  I do that with editing files for seps. Takes more time to invoice but I put some time into it and it often never gets noticed. Some thing my magical sep software button makes that jpg at 1.5" looks sooo good.

Eric, as you can see MAN! You've been Very high on that one. I have never met a shop that charged over 20.00 and most customers would squawk about that.

If a customer knows about pmts matches and requires a match, most times they do enough business that you want to make sure you keep them coming back. A high pms match like is going to scare pros away. Those higher volume repeat customers. Heck, these same customers don't usuallky see screen charges either. A flash charge?  What's that?

We work with tons and tons and tons of ad agencies, and graphic designers, and they ALL require exact PMS matches. It takes us a ton of time to tweak these colors in waterbased and discharge colors.

 If it's a match, and something we can pull right from a bucket, or we have from previous orders, there is no charge.

But more and more we are dealing with clients that are getting pickier and more specific, which requires us to work more on our formulas.

If it's an A+ client, usually it's no issue, but more often than not, clients don't mind paying what we charge, but it was eye opening to see so many are not charging for this.

[JBLUE]

We charge for it especially if we are required to match a color. If you give it away you might as well just throw money in the trash. I am a great customer at our local grocery store and they dont give me sh!t for free. At least build it into the cost. The words "we dont charge for it" should be changed to " We screw ourselves out of it".

Sorry to rant but its a hot topic with me right now. I had a customer just ask for a free set up and 15% discount on a 20 pc order where they were trying to bring us the shirts. They logic was well this is my second order so I do not see the problem with it. I said I do and your discount is denied.........lol

[Rockers]

We don`t charge anything to my annoyance. Once the new website is ready this will be changed to probably $10 per color. Alternatively customers can  choose from free standard colors which will be pretty much either Wilflex Epic RFU or Union RFU colors. Just to keep it simple. At times I feel there is too much holding hands and service required for certain type of customer in order to make them happy. Damm it some of them would not even be 100% satisfied  if we shipped a cake with their order of tees.

[Dottonedan]

One thing is for sure. If you don't charge the big boys, don't charge the little ones. My that reminds me of how the poor get screwed on prices of everything. Credit cards, loans, etc. no credit, oh, you pay more!
That's why I don't even own a real credit card. Haven't for maybe 10-15 years. It's a hang up of mine and probably why I won't take a loan out. Piss on them. Then again, that's probably why I'm not super successful like all you guys.

I can see charging  for it or at the least, building it into the price but dang 50-60?  But anyways,  the other thing to be clarified is...would that be a flat fee of 50.00 for the entire order? As in,  1 color or 8 colors, it's 50.00 cuz that would be acceptable and i'm down with that.

[ol man]

Heres the next question --how often do you have to tweak a given formula? - for example we have the cci system and wilflex - cci work fairly well - minor adjustments...However the wlflex system seems to need  alot of tweaking..Alot.

[JBLUE]

Heres the next question --how often do you have to tweak a given formula? - for example we have the cci system and wilflex - cci work fairly well - minor adjustments...However the wlflex system seems to need  alot of tweaking..Alot.

Are you using a scale that is 0.1 or .01 of a gram? It does make a difference for Wilflex.