Should I charge more than $29 for this sidewalk sign?

[858graphics]

I'm getting ready to launch a new website
Ten Dollar Sidewalk Signs| 100's of designs to choose from

It's going to sell blank a-frame hardware for $10. I am also going to start carrying a line of pre made designs and was thinking about making them $29. My goal is to get a lot of volume so I can keep my (already paid for equipment) moving at night and generate a 2nd revenue stream.


How much would you pay for a sign like

 

[Guest]

It's hard to imagine you could make a decent profit at that rate. I would think you'd fetch double that rate- the bright side would be only needing to sell half as much to make the same yield. And you could sleep at night instead of printing fold-up signs! Why drive the market price down with silly pricing? What happens is Big Box comes out with $19 signs right after you start with $29 signs.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Why drive the market price down with silly pricing?

The race to the bottom worked well for commercial offset, didn’t it?

858graphics, you do know the market rate for such signs don’t you? With the internet, local or regional pricing no longer has any meaning, which can make it hard. Your costs are related to your location, even if the market is no longer regionally restricted. You have to decide where and how you are going to play. You have done a proper business plan haven't you?

Seriously though, you need to know your true costs. Material and outwork is easy enough, you know what you have to buy in goods and services for. Then you need to work out labour and machine hourly rates that cover their share of paying the overheads of the business. The business has costs that you can’t avoid and these have to be recovered by sales. Once you know how long the labour takes for various tasks (you will have worked out their hourly cost rate) and printing and add it to the material and outwork costs, you know the cost of producing one sign. If the cost of producing one sign is more than the going market rate, give up before you start or rethink your business model so that it is profitable. If your costs to produce a sign are below the market rate, then the difference between your costs and market rate is your margin. Of course, you can also sell below and above the market rate – however without knowing your true costs beforehand it is all an exercise in futility.

For example, in my neck of the woods, one can expect to pay a market rate from $150-250 for a single A1 size double sided A-frame, depending on print and material options.


Stephen Marsh