# How to charge for vinyl cutting?



## Gavh (Jun 8, 2011)

I thought I had posted this already, but the post isn't showing. Anyways I need to work out what to charge for vinly cutting but the problem I am having is when charging per running meter you can have simple designs and complex designs which could be worlds apart in terms of time spend cutting over the same length of cutting. Should one rather charge per second? I was going to charge around $12 per meter for just cutting? Am I way off?


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## Louie2010 (Feb 26, 2010)

I always calculate my cost and then work on marking up the job from there.

So with vinyl I calculate the cost by the sq. inch used, which includes all waste.

For example say you pay $225 for a 25 yard of 15" vinyl (including shipping), your cost is then .017 cents per sq. inch. So if you are cutting a design that is 8"x11" I would calculate my cost of the vinyl this way. 

I would factor in an extra 1" of waste running the length I would be cutting, and factor in the entire 15" of the width of the vinyl, so I would calculate 9" x 15" = 135 sq inches used. Multiply that by the cost of .017 per sq inch and the cost used for that design is $2.30.

As far as the complexity of the design I don't factor that into my cost of vinyl. However it could very well make a big difference in your labor time in weeding the design. So when calculating my labor or time in the overall job I might charge a little more for something that was going to be a hassle weeding. That is really subjective to many other variables about the job itself.

Hope this helps you a little.


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## Gavh (Jun 8, 2011)

Thanks for the reply! I think I will have to use my discretion when it comes to charging a rate for how complex a design is. Would be great if the software could predetermine the time it will take to cut a job!


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## tkdtiger (Aug 22, 2012)

thank you for the details on charging...im new at this


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