If you are in the commercial printing business, the quotation that you give out to clients is very crucial. Items to be considered making a quotation.
If you are in the commercial printing business, the quotation that you give out to clients is very crucial. That is because printing is not just like a buy-and-sell business where you just mark up on the price of the item that you bought and sell it at a higher price. While you also buy materials and sort of “sell” them in a different form, a commercial printing company is run different than other businesses. There is an intricate formula for computing the quotation for the different printed materials.
So what are the items to be considered when making a quotation for a printing job?
Materials
Foremost of what the printer computes is the cost of the materials. How many reams of paper, negatives, and ink will this certain print job consume? They already have a formula for the ink that would take to fill an entire surface area of a paper. So whether you have white areas in your poster, it is still considered colored.
Energy
Included in the computations is the cost of electricity that goes in during production. This does not just include the electricity needed to run the commercial printer but also the electricity eaten up by the computers, air conditioning, lights, and any finishing requirement that would need heat.
Labor
Printing is such a labor-intensive business. You have to pay for the salaries of so many people, from the sales department, to the creative department, to the production area and even delivery, if applicable. You also have to include a percentage for the commission of your sales people because the account executives usually get between five to ten percent of the gross sales for their incentives. It is just like any other business where those people employees in sales get a commission. Sometimes the account executives also use this as a leeway in their negotiations. Just to get a big job for the company, they are going to sacrifice part of their commission just to make a sale. That is why a big chunk of what goes in your printing cost goes to salaries and benefits of the people.
Operational Expenditures
The operational expenses of a printing press include rental, utilities, supplies, and many other things that go in the daily operations of the office and the production plant. There are the electricity, water, internet, and phone bills to take care of. You will need ink for your desktop printer, toner for your laser printer, toner for your fax machine, as well as all the other refillables in the office. Most likely, the printing company has a generator set so that the operations will not be hampered during times of power fluctuations and interruptions. So that will need fuel.
There is just so much that goes on in the running of a commercial printing company. There are so many things to consider. That is why materials become pricey when they have to go through commercial printing. Those who compute the quotations for printing jobs should be careful in their computations because they could lose a lot of money if they make a mistake. If they charge more that is fine because then they have the leeway to give a discount. But if they charge less and the materials have already been paid by the client, that could mean a lot of money.