56 Frames Price

[Bagel Framer]

Hi all,

I was asked to quote someone for 56 brown frames (260mm x 340mm) complete with glass and backing, so came up with a figure of £8.00 a frame - does that sound about right or am I selling myself short please?

By brown frame I'm thinking a thin one incidentally.

Thanks!

[Roboframer]

I'd be looking at about £45 each, but I'm thinking of a thin brown REAL WALNUT VENEER!!

We need the cost of your materials, but stuff like that - mark-ups - should be in the members only section.

But anyway, for that amount and assuming I'd be just providing the frames (plus hardware?) and not fitting any artwork, from my normal retail price I'd deduct the fitting charge for the size and then 20% for quantity - which is my formula for ready-mades sold in the shop.

[stcstc]

buy some readymades from one of the bigger suppliers, mark them up and sell them on

[Roboframer]

It's not a standard size.

Check!

[Gesso&Bole]

Are you selling yourself short? Depends on how you worked out the price . . . . this is where many Framers MISS THE POINT about pricing. Whatever the numbers (£8.00 per frame in this example) one framer may be able to make good money at that price, whereas another framer may be MAKING A LOSS at that price, because it depends on the structure, and overheads of your individual business. You are heading blindly into the fog if you are just trying to copy other people's prices. (Don't try it with Ikea, for example!).

This is so fundamental to the success of small framing businesses that I make no apology for banging on about it. Check out an older post that covers much of this here viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4455&hilit=+pricing#p40741

This is the basic process to price for 56 frames.

1 How much moulding will I need for all 56? Therefore what size pack/how many lengths - allowing for wastage? How much per metre, and delivery charge.
2 How many can I get out of a sheet of glass/Backing board/mountboard(if appropriate)? Total sheets, pack sizes, delivery charges
3 Calculate cost of wedges, pins, hanging attachments
4 Packaging costs (this can be significant)
5 Delivery to customer costs if appropriate
6 Add together the cost of all of the above materials, rounding up to the 'pack' size, and including delivery charges and VAT if you cant claim back

The above calculations will tell you how much you are going to have to pay out to do the job (incidentally this is the MINIMUM amount of deposit you should take)

BUT now you have to consider your overheads, and how much you want to earn. So you need to know what it costs you to run your business, and you need to know how much you want to earn per hour (hourly labour rate), and then you need to estimate how many hours the job is going to take - add in to this the time for packaging, as it is all part of the professional job.

So your price per frame is going to be . . . . . (where x is the number of hours the job will take)

Cost of materials + x(hourly rate)= Price for the whole job. Divide that by 56, and you will have your price per frame.

If this comes out at way more than you were expecting, or the customer is prepared to pay, then you have just saved yourself from working hard, doing a job that was actually going to lose you money!

Oh, and by the way, when is the customer going to pay you? Add some bunce to the price if you are expected to lend them money for 30/60/90 days

[Graysalchemy]

To me I would be wanting to make probably £5 - 6 per frame so really I am only going to make £250 - £300 on a job which is really half a days work. Now I could easily do that with my equipment and framing in a commercial way but you need to ask yourself are you able to complete that number in a short time scale to make it cost effective.

I have an ongoing contract for making frames for hotel bedrooms I sell for about £13 but probably make £8.00 gross profit which is good but each frame is still cut four pieces of moulding cut the glass and back, cut a mount, dry mount print, clean(ish) assemble and pack. I do about 40 - 50 in half a day but it is hard work. If the moulding was dearer then I would make more money but £13.00 is the budget so you have to cut your cloth accordingly and allot an appropriate time to the job.

As Jim says it may look good from the outside but when you actually cost it it may not be worth your while a couple of decent bespoke jobs would probably take less time and make far better margins.

[prospero]

You need to test make a frame to see how easy the moulding works. Little complications on a single frame don't amount to much, but x56 could add an appreciable amount of time to the job. Such things as trimming the whiskers off the rebate (448 ends) after cutting and touching up the (224) corners.

Also, take into account the time involved in physically packing them all up safely for transport. Longer than you think.....