Loopholes
Once in a while people will think that they’ve found a clever loophole in the system. They’ve found a secret hack that will allow them to get something for cheaper or whatever. But, on a small business like mine, that doesn’t work. If you’re cheating the system - I am that system.
Have you ever seen the folks who claim to have found the secret to cracking McDonalds menu? If you use their app to bypass human interaction, you can say that you want McDouble without ketchup, then add lettuce and Big Mac sauce. Although you’d miss out on the sesame seeds and the middle bun, this ‘hack’ would only cost about $1.50 instead of the $3. But, you’d essentially get the same thing, right? Sort of.
In my industry, pricing includes paper and ink, but it also includes file setup, bindery, and finishing work. That means prepping your file for print, cutting it to its final size, scoring/creasing, rounding corners, binding, stapling, packaging, and whatever else needs to be done, and then delivering you a finished product. Time is money, my friend, those sesame seeds aren’t free, and even if they were, they’d charge you to sprinkle them on.
Page count.
When counting the pages of your book, we need to count them all. The front and back cover, AND the inside of the front and back cover also count as pages. Even if you have BLANK pages, those still count. I’ll still be using paper and supplies.
Cutting.
If you want your files cut, that costs money. It’s time, equipment, experience, and effort. You won’t give yours away for free - why should I?
If you want 25 postcards, order 25 postcards. If you’d like to do the work yourself, let me know and I’ll get as many as I can on a larger sheet, and just charge you for the sheets printed (with a minimum of 25 sheets).
Per Piece Pricing.
Just like any other print shop, my pricing is per piece. That is to say, if you want 50 prints of an apple and 50 prints of an orange, you’ll pay the 50-piece price twice, NOT the 100-piece price once. The prices are set the way they are to account for setup time. If I’m setting up 2 files, I need to be compensated for that.
Design Work.
I’m just a one-man operation. As I’ve grown, I simply don’t always have the available bandwidth to offer design services. That means ANY design services. I won’t change the title on your business card, or change the logo on your flyer, or swap out the font on a poster, or “just add a postcard back” to your postcard.
At times, if/when my schedule allows, I can take on projects like this. If I am able to make modifications happen, I will make small changes at $120/hr - in 15 minute increments. I’m happy to give a breakdown of my rate and how that money would be used before I start anything.
Brochures.
I don’t offer brochures because I’m not set up to fold them. Sometimes people will just ask me to print, and they will fold themselves. I don’t like to do this because often times people don’t set their files up correctly - a tri-fold brochure isn’t 3 equal panels.
I want to give you a finished product. If I print sheets for you to fold and they don’t line up, even though it’s not really my problem, it looks like it’s my problem, ya know?
It’s Easy.
In the last 20+ years as a printer, designer, and web-worker, I’ve heard this 1,000 times. You’re trying to de-value what I do in order to get me to help you.
“it’s easy”
…if it’s so easy, you do it. If it’s such a meaningless task, why are you asking a total stranger to do it? Oh, your “brother could do this in 30 seconds?” - give him a call!