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Pricing Chart for 2018

Ashley Dalessandro

New participant
Messages
1
Location
Greenwood
Company
BarnYard Framing
Hi All! I own a small frame shop in South Carolina and for the past 5 years have done very little framing while raising 2 small children. I'm back at it now though, and I feel like I'm pricing my work way to cheap. I'm still operating old school without a POS system and use a pricing chart based on United Inches. I would love to get something like Life Saver, but for now I don't want to drop all that money on that. Would anyone who is an "old school" framer like myself mind sharing their pricing with me? I just want to be sure I'm in the same ball park as the industry rather than giving my work away. I think I read that we shouldn't share pricing through this forum, so if it's allowed, could you please email me ashley_dalessandro@yahoo.com.

Thank you all so much in advance!
Ashley D'Alessandro
BarnYard Framing
Greenwood, SC
 
There is no easy answer to this question.

I don't know about the other POS systems, but LifeSaver has a $30+/- monthly rental plan. You will spend that gathering and printing MSRP sheets from the suppliers. If you are going to go down this slippery slope that could easily cause you to actually lose money, Larson has the best one out there IMHO, but none of them will reflect your overhead, etc. and will not provide an accurate model for your business. They are intended to be starting points, and with POS software, most have gone the way of the buggy whip.

You can compare POS systems here (Thanks to Mike Labbe!): http://www.getthepictureframing.com/gfaq/software.htm Most will send you a demo or direct you to a link with a demo.

But even a POS system will require that you input accurate markups, etc. Everyone's is different, and even being accross the same town can make a difference.

This is a separate issue. You may need to get the help of an accountant to get accurate numbers. The Kauffman Foundation has an excellent short-term class on figuring this stuff out called Fast Trac, If you are going to go it on your own:

https://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/entrepreneurship/kauffman-fasttrac
https://www.kauffman.org/

My gut tells me that anytime you are wondering about your prices, you need to raise them at least 10%. And there is an old rule of thumb about continuing to raise prices until some customers are walking away because your prices are too high.

You will find lots of help here for specific questions about markups and pricing, but this one is probably too nebulous to get specific information, though I bet I am not the only one who will try!
 
I don't have a commercial POS system, but I have my own system that I designed that works for me. The biggest problem is getting accurate costing from different suppliers and importing them into my system. Some suppliers are changing all of the time. For most framers, a POS system is the way to go.

The problem with most of the older pricing charts is they are out of date, and no one makes them anymore because there are POS systems.

You can maybe update your own charts. I can give you some of my rough pricing parameters that i use to develop my prices. You can use these guidelines to update your charts. Yours will vary because my customers are different from yours.

1. I divide my pricing into two different areas of 1) mat packages and 2) frame packages. I do this because I do lots of mat only packages.

2. On any purchased item I calculate my loaded cost as my actual cost (including freight) times 1.2 to cover handling, ordering, etc. For example, if my actual landed cost after freight is $10.00 I multiply this times 1.2 to get $12.00. So that moulding that costs $2.40 a foot,will show up as $3.00 in my system

3. I base my minimum basic labor costs on a minimum of $1.00 per minute or $60.00 per hour. This is low for most markets. For my higher end work, I go with a higher labor rate closer to $90 per hour.

4. Do you purchase by length or by chop or by straight cut? This can make a difference. For example for a 16x20, 1 inch wide, you can calculate 42 UI, but if it is a chop, they will probably charge you 8 feet, instead of 7, so you need to adjust your manual chart to allow for this. If I buy chop or straight cut, I have learned to add at least 1 foot to what ever I get. I use factors as low as 2.2 for very large or more expensive, to as high as 4 for very small/ inexpensive. And I have a separate labor charge for joining and fitting.

5. My mark up for mats vary based on size and landed cost, and I never charge less than my cost. My minimum factor is always a factor of 2.

For example, if my mat cost is $20, my landed cost is 20x1.2 or 24; I have my small sizes [non=package] be at least 60% of my cost, plus a labor charge, for cutting a window and sizing. So for a 8 x 10, 60% of 24 is $14.4x 2 = 28.80 plus $7 for cutting a window, and sizing, so the mat would cost $35.80 for a $24.00 landed cost mat, with an actual front price of $20.

You basically are going to have to recalculate your own.

6. For glazing I probably have a factors from 4 to 6 plus, depending on the sizes. And 8 x 10 is going to be 6 plus, and a 32 x 40 will be 4. My CC 15=6x20 is $20 and my museum was 5 times at $100 but I am now offering a discount on museum at $80 and I'm selling a lot more.

I hope this helps.
 
I believe LJ stopped producing the paper pricing charts, which seemed to favor lower than avg markups for moulding and higher for materials and labor, about 8-10 years ago. They used to be in the back of the catalog and were updated once per year. The reality is that are price changes every week, as well as new or discontinued items. It's very much a moving target, and a POS updates with these changes daily or weekly. (depending how often you tell it to). It will also notify you when something has been discontinued, so you'll know to pull the sample off the wall and won't have to have the customer come back in to pick a different moulding. You'll have their customer ordering history on file, mailing list, accounts receivable, and it wont print measurements or part numbers for the materials on the customer's copy. Those things just go on the framers copy (the workorder), but not the customer's copy (the invoice). (The same applies to QUOTES) They're very easy to learn, and you can teach others to use it much faster than a manual method.

I recommend a POS even for a small one person shop. It is so much quicker and efficient, with clear legible paperwork. The cost is minimal, compared with the value of time you would spend keeping prices current with a manual system. (or money "left on the table" because you are charging material prices from a year or two ago, and not from this month) Mouldings, Mats, and Fabrics automatically increase weekly as the market changes. (you specify the markup formula, it knows the current cost, to calculate retail for the area sold). Glazing, Specials, and Labor are things that the framer still has to set themselves, based on their profit goals and freight/supplier situation. We adjust our glazing price table twice per year, in our shop, to reflect any changes from the supplier. (You just put the cost per lite, to reflect the sizes you will be cutting from, so it allows for waste) It also handles a waste factor for moulding, when calculating price.

Whether you are pricing manually or with some kind of POS, it's still important to know HOW to do it manually and maintain the same basic rules. (what your labor costs are, how much you want to mark up various materials, etc)

If this is something you want to consider, all the major POS companies offer a free demo. Most of them are for 30 days.

Good luck!
Mike
Get The Picture, Lincoln RI
 
Here is one I came across, although Larson no longer publishes a price chart they you could still try to ask a rep about one.
 

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