Bidding on large print jobs. Calculating costs?

[disneytoy]

My 9890 will arrive in a few days. I already hae a business I've dealt with interested in me doing their printing.  Primarily on Epson Glossy, but we discussed fine art printing on Bamboo Veneer and even metal.

I've done my calculations and see my material costs for Epson Premium Glossy and Ink at around 1.5-2ml per square foot about $1.50 for me. (I know, paper waste, ink clogs cleaning cycles, but I need a baseline) I don't have overhead, no employees or studio space rental. I do enjoy printing.

On Monday, I will meet with my client. I believe they will have some runs of 100-300 pieces. I want to give him a good deal. We are in LA and he expressed his printing costs are high. He knows the quality of my personal work. And appreciates I'm not a 19 year old working in the photo booth at Walmart.

What range would be in the ballpark for Glossy per square foot?

There are cheap alternatives in the $3-5 range, but those are dye prints with questionable paper. I know Costco is cheap and some like the quality. I couldn't compete with Costco prices.

I don't want to lose his business. The 9890 is for my personal Fine Art work, but if I can cover the costs with a steady flow of print jobs why not? And its my understanding, a 9890 needs to print, not sit around.

So any thoughts. I was thinking $5-5.50 square foot but that may be too high?

He understands that I also offer him near 24 hour service. He can e-mail me a job Sunday Night and get it to him Monday/Tuesday if needed.

I kind of believe personal service like that adds value.

thanks

Max

[robertvine]

If you know what he is printing on now you might be able to estimate what his current costs are and see if you can beat that price. But you are offering a high-quality professional service so don't try to compete on the price that low-quality labs are offering.  Depending on how well you know your client you might be comfortable offering a high-quality product and service for the same price that he is currently paying.

[Phil Indeblanc]

My question would be, How will you deliver the work? Meaning will it be mounted? I ask this as this looks to be the tougher part and the costly part. If he wants it rolled up and that's it, then that would be great.

I think anything around $5-6 is good for the printing, but mounted on what?

I'm in the same situation as you are with one of my clients :-) 

Some places for convenience like FedEx do it for $12sqft print&mount, but others do print and mount for $8. Most I come across use a z6200. So if the machine is something specifcally sought out, maybe you can leverage that in price?

[disneytoy]

My client is a company that does mountine etc for large customers. Just not the printing. So I will provide the prints only.

[Phil Indeblanc]

Sounds like I need their services :-)