The Framers Forum

Hi

I am in the process of taking over a small framing business. Is there a standard pricing formulae used in the business. The retiring owner made up his own and I am interested to see how it compares.

Every framing business has different outgoings so every business should work out their pricing based on all of their expenses, a desired profit margin and annual desired income.

A tricky one, we all wonder about ! when i started, a framer told me materials x 3 plus vat, hes been framing 35 years ! another said materials + 20% for wastage £12.00 labor + 40% profit +vat, I also have the origins school of framing chart which is pretty good. all very confusing ! I work out of a workshop so my overheads are low and my turnover is not enough to be vat registered so i don't charge vat.But I do have two teenagers to support, so I need loads of money ! after five years of being self employed 2010 is going to be my year. Ive just got a web page , gone on the town website and joined a kent wide shopping discount site. I'm getting new fliers printed , quality postcard size hoping they will be put in the drawer alongside the menus and not in the bin! I'm also thinking about a computerised pricing system but don't know which one! just something simple. Ill check them out if I go to the spring show or maybe lion will have some at their open day!

The REAL QUESTION!


Was he making a profit when he decided to sell his business with his existing price chart? If yes, you can keep it or modify it as you wish. If no, then it is a priority to change either the method of calculation or probably the costs factors he is using.


As stated before, each shop has its own break even point and values of their product and service to their customers. One price chart does not work for all.

The problem with trying to explain pricing is that if you ask 10 different framers, you are likely to get a dozen different answers – none of them completely wrong (or 100% right for that matter).

Many of us view our pricing as proprietary; not so much that we don’t want to let our competitors know what we’re doing, but that we’re afraid that we might be subject to ridicule because we’re doing it wrong.

There used to be a booklet on “Pricing for the Picture Framer” (or some such) available at the PPFA book store. The book store used to be available to non-members, but it looks like they’ve changed that. You have to have a password to get into it.

I don’t belong, but if you can find a member of the PPFA and ask him nicely for his/her password (or you can pony up a hundred bucks [pounds] and join yourself), he/she may let you browse through the PPFA catalog.

I used to have a copy of “Pricing”, but I can’t find it. It was short and fairly basic, but, at least it got me started in the right direction.

Vivian Kistler has a great book to give you a good over view of how to approach pricing http://columbapublishing.com/shopsite_s ... icing.html

Also her shipping rates from the US are very fair, I ordered a bunch of books from her a few months ago and everything arrived OK.

I also notice that she has a sale on right now with a great reduction on what I paid, luck you if you are ordering right now.

I would suggest that you have a look at the other books she sells and if you have a budget get some of them, in particular have a look at the books for studying for the CPF exam by the PPFA….even if you don’t intend to sit the exam, the information in those books is wonderful for all levels of framers.

Good luck with the venture

Yeah, Dermot, that's the one I was thinkin' 'bout!

I would like to get Estlite one day, but for now I use a price chart. It doesn't have a fixed "across the board" mark up, by the mark up varies with the size of frame and the value of the moulding. I've been fine tuning the chart over the years to get the best results.

Also the glass, backing board and mounts are priced in united inches, not per unit area. At first sight these flat materials have equal price increments for each increment in size, but as the size gets smaller the mark up gets bigger.

Too many of us are frightened to charge what our work is really worth. "You pay peanuts, you get monkeys" applies here. I got rid of as many cheapskate customers as I could years ago, by pricing at a sensible level and ignoring those who want me to beat another framers price. Pricing is not just about mark ups, but where you are positioning yourself in the market and defining your business tactics.

If you are not thinking about tactics, when pricing and selling, then you need to! It is an important part of running a business!

Where I have difficulty with pricing is on the smaller items such as A5 or 6" x 4", do most of you charge a minimum price for something like this regardless of the moulding, say £22.00?