WWA Info Exchange

This past Winter and early Spring I've been hand routing custom signs for friends, family, and one really big (14' long) one for my local watering hole. So far, all have been for freebies, but now that they are out there, I've got people coming out of the woodwork (no pun intended) wanting me to make Name and Driveway Number signs for them. I'm considering doing this as a sideline business, but have no idea what to charge. I'm thinking I'll price it by the letter or number, but I don't know.

I live in a Summer resort type area on a mountain lake. The folks around here are mostly pretty well to do (except me) and they are willing to pay. I would like to offer this "custom" service at a fair price for both them and me so that I can make a little surplus spending money. I have the time because I'm retired and enjoy doing the work. I don't want the signs to look "Mass Manufactured" so the sign making kits that places like Rockler and others sell are not what I'm looking for. I prefer to do them the way I've described below.

I've been making some of the signs out of old scrap pressure treated wood and some out of new cedar. I've got alot of the PT scrap. I have to buy the cedar.

I've gotten quite a bit faster at it, but it is still time consuming. I usually make a stencil of the actual sign out of poster board, cut that out with a pen knife, trace it to the wood, then do a first pass with a shallow bit, paint or stain the background, take a second pass with a deeper bit, then paint the letters, and poly coat the entire sign with at least 3 coats since they'll be outside.

I recently completed a sign for a neighbor that simply said "Williams" and it took about 3 hours from start to finish, not counting drying time.

Any suggestions on what I should be charging?

Thanks in advance,

Skyrider, aka The Sign Making Fool......

How much is your time worth? Minimum wage? $20/hr? More? Plus materials, and wear and tear on the equipment. For Williams sign, I'd charge a minimum of $75. If you present yourself as an artist/craftsman offering unique products, double or triple that.

_________________
I bring to life, I bring to death:
The spirit does but mean the breath:
I know no more. (Tennyson, In Memoriam)

The first thing to consider is do your signs look different enough from something produced using one of the sign making kits you mentioned? The other thing is do you have any competition in the area? Kind of a 2-part question really. If you don't have any competition, then it will be easier to put yourself out there as a craftsman/artist and get paid what your time is worth. If you have (or subsequently get) competition from somebody using one of the kits, then your signs must be different enough to justify the extra cost. Gene's thoughts on the price for the Williams sign make sense at a minimum. If the market will bear it, I'd change a little more.

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John

I would probably take these things into consideration.

1 Cost of wood. Probably in your case it would be figured by size required.
A 6" x 18" piece would obviously be cheaper than a 24" x 48".

2 Number of letters and/or numbers required to be cut.
I learned on my "scroll saw cut" key chains that names like Jim or Bill can be sold for about $3.00 but, when I got an order for FIRST AND LAST NAMES with as many as 23 letters it took a considerable more amount of time and effort so I started charging by the number of letters. ($1.00 per letter in my case)

3 Time spent by the hour.
I'm like you, I enjoy the work, and being retired, I'm not trying to make a living but never the less your time and skills are worth something. (If for no other reason than an extra six pack every now and then. )

4 Your location.
I have found that the price of things has some bearing on how desirable and wanted they are. If they are too cheap, they must not be worth really caring about but, on the other hand if they are too expensive, people may not want to spend the money to own one.
So, if your area has people willing to spend money to have something different or unusual to show off then, you are golden.

5 Adjusting your prices.
When I was in business, I had a friend who was an upholsterer and started his own business. He was very good at his job and within just a few months he was overwhelmed with work and couldn't keep up. I told him to increase his prices by ten percent a month for a year or until he honestly felt that he was loosing work due to pricing. (He later told me that his father had told him the same thing.) He is still in business to this day and is down to working only ten hour days six days a week and making enough money to take a month of vacation every year. Far better than a few years ago when he was working sixteen hours a day seven days a week and still struggling to make ends meet and loosing his health too.

Anyway, that is my take on what to charge for doing something you enjoy doing anyway.

Rog

_________________
Dont badmouth no strangers, they just friends you aint met yet.

An ounce of responsibility is worth a pound of State and Federal laws.

I spent most of my money on woodworking
tools and beer, the rest I just wasted.

One other thing that can work to your advantage. There may at some point be some neighbor to neighbor competition, similar to the Xmas light show competitions. A "my sign is better than your sign" thing, which could generate repeat business and more income as the neighbors try to outdo each other.

_________________
I bring to life, I bring to death:
The spirit does but mean the breath:
I know no more. (Tennyson, In Memoriam)

Thanks everyone !!! That is all great advice !!! I'm going to take it slow and easy and not jump in too deep at first. No craft shows or flea market booths until I've got a much better feel for what I'm doing.

One thing I'm considering also, is making templates for "artsy" and "cutesy" signs with country sayings on them and mass producing a bunch at a time but still make it out of the old scrap wood that I already have so that my only cost is my time, equipment, and electricity.

I have several friends that have shops in the area that would love to have my signs in them for sale. We'll see how it goes.....

Thans again for all of your sage advice !!!

Skyrider