custom stencils

Whats up? Like the forum. Having trouble with the little faces. Heres my ? A Friend came up to me and asked if I would re-stripe his plaza. He also asked if I could make 20 stencils of the names of each shop to be painted in front of each store. Avg # of letters is 15 per name. He is going to pay me for the re-stripe, but is passing the cost of the stencils to each store. I was thinking of charging $50.00 per stencil. Thats making and painting them. Since the stencils are going to be used one time I am going to cut them out of cardboard. Should I go higher or lower on these stencils.

Make a few and see how much time you have involved and charge accordingly. Sounds like you are in the ballpark at 50. You will be able to get a lot more uses out of them than once. Save them for the next re-stripe. In the winter I make extra H/C stencils out of cardboard for when we get busy. You can get quite a few uses out of them before you toss em.

I would buy a set of alphabet stencils and locks from Parking Lot Planet and use the reusable plastic ones. I use mine set regularly for things like that. Then they have to have you come back to restencil.

Why make them at all? Have them custom made, pass on the cost to the owner and supply him the stencils when you are done with them.

We buy all our stencils, and like the previous post said pass the cost along, then we have them and it keeps our "foot in the door" for the next time they need a re-stripe it will be a little cheaper because we already have the stencils, or you can sell them after the job and thats all money in your pocket if your originally charged them for it in the bid.

I agree about having the stencils made. If your customer is charging back to the tenants get them made and charge for time and effort. Then offer to your customer to keep the stencils for future touch up or give them over to him since he is the owner and his tenants paid for the stencils. [font=Arial][/font]