Fairly confident I left a decent chunk of money on the table on this job or simply am running too high of a cost to produce this type of sign. I'm looking for what you'd charge and how you would tackle this project.
Details/Specs:
Size: 28"x18" Oval shaped carved sign. Red PMS485 background with white letters
Mounting: Hanging (eye hooks)
Turnaround: 1 week
Customer: For the trade (another "sign shop")
What I did:
Two pieces of 3/4" PVC (Panels fused together with PVC glue). Painted with 3 coats custom mixed PPG DTM paint. Edges sanded, painted, & textured to hide any seams. Letters filled with Krylon Fusion gloss.
Price: $400.
Mistakes:
1. Customer came in needing it in a rush. I had 3/4" in stock and knew to get it done fast, I couldn't do a single panel. The dry times would kill me.
2. Didn't factor enough time for cleaning up the PVC. Cleaning out "fuzzies" in the guy took longer than expected.
3. Carve time estimate was way off. Took twice as long to carve (again, not a huge deal, but still an extra 30 minutes I didn't account for)
4. While it's not a ton of money, buying gallons of paint when I need a quart is wasteful. The paint won't go bad, but it's just wasteful.
5. Free "extras". I only had gloss black so I just spent $5 on a new can of satin black for the hardware. I also textured the edges to hide the mistakes. It's hardly a lot of money, and I have plenty of both left over but it was free add-ons.
6. Trying to be competitive to get wholesale work from a local shop. For a retail customer, my pricing would have been double, easily.