Calculating price

[VisceralSound 10+ year member]

Say I want to start making subwoofer boxes, how do the people here who build boxes, go about calculating their prices for certain boxes?

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[dumple 5,000+ posts]

labor plus materials

 

[VisceralSound 10+ year member]

Well I know that a 4'x8' pallet of MDF is about 34 dollars, do I charge them for the screws I already own and glue ect? whats labor charged as? like $10.00 for each hour or something

 

[Falcons 5,000+ posts]

labor plus materials

+ shipping

 

[sacsking916 5,000+ posts]

Well I know that a 4'x8' pallet of MDF is about 34 dollars, do I charge them for the screws I already own and glue ect? whats labor charged as? like $10.00 for each hour or something

pretty much whatever you want it to be?

 

[THATpurpleKUSH 5,000+ posts]

Take some business classes and learn you some pricing models:

Pricing Strategy: Four Pricing Methods

There is no "one right way" to calculate your pricing. Once you've considered the various factors involved and determined your objectives for your pricing strategy, now you need some way to crunch the actual numbers. Here are four ways to calculate prices:
Cost-plus pricing - Set the price at your production cost, including both cost of goods and fixed costs at your current volume, plus a certain profit margin. For example, your widgets cost $20 in raw materials and production costs, and at current sales volume (or anticipated initial sales volume), your fixed costs come to $30 per unit. Your total cost is $50 per unit. You decide that you want to operate at a 20% markup, so you add $10 (20% x $50) to the cost and come up with a price of $60 per unit. So long as you have your costs calculated correctly and have accurately predicted your sales volume, you will always be operating at a profit.

Target return pricing - Set your price to achieve a target return-on-investment (ROI). For example, let's use the same situation as above, and assume that you have $10,000 invested in the company. Your expected sales volume is 1,000 units in the first year. You want to recoup all your investment in the first year, so you need to make $10,000 profit on 1,000 units, or $10 profit per unit, giving you again a price of $60 per unit.

Value-based pricing - Price your product based on the value it creates for the customer. This is usually the most profitable form of pricing, if you can achieve it. The most extreme variation on this is "pay for performance" pricing for services, in which you charge on a variable scale according to the results you achieve. Let's say that your widget above saves the typical customer $1,000 a year in, say, energy costs. In that case, $60 seems like a bargain - maybe even too cheap. If your product reliably produced that kind of cost savings, you could easily charge $200, $300 or more for it, and customers would gladly pay it, since they would get their money back in a matter of months. However, there is one more major factor that must be considered.

Psychological pricing - Ultimately, you must take into consideration the consumer's perception of your price, figuring things like:

Positioning - If you want to be the "low-cost leader", you must be priced lower than your competition. If you want to signal high quality, you should probably be priced higher than most of your competition.

Popular price points - There are certain "price points" (specific prices) at which people become much more willing to buy a certain type of product. For example, "under $100" is a popular price point. "Enough under $20 to be under $20 with sales tax" is another popular price point, because it's "one bill" that people commonly carry. Meals under $5 are still a popular price point, as are entree or snack items under $1 (notice how many fast-food places have a $0.99 "value menu"). Dropping your price to a popular price point might mean a lower margin, but more than enough increase in sales to offset it.

Fair pricing - Sometimes it simply doesn't matter what the value of the product is, even if you don't have any direct competition. There is simply a limit to what consumers perceive as "fair". If it's obvious that your product only cost $20 to manufacture, even if it delivered $10,000 in value, you'd have a hard time charging two or three thousand dollars for it -- people would just feel like they were being gouged. A little market testing will help you determine the maximum price consumers will perceive as fair.

Now, how do you combine all of these calculations to come up with a price? Here are some basic guidelines:

Your price must be enough higher than costs to cover reasonable variations in sales volume. If your sales forecast is inaccurate, how far off can you be and still be profitable? Ideally, you want to be able to be off by a factor of two or more (your sales are half of your forecast) and still be profitable.

You have to make a living. Have you figured salary for yourself in your costs? If not, your profit has to be enough for you to live on and still have money to reinvest in the company.

Your price should almost never be lower than your costs or higher than what most consumers consider "fair". This may seem obvious, but many entrepreneurs seem to miss this simple concept, either by miscalculating costs or by inadequate market research to determine fair pricing. Simply put, if people won't readily pay enough more than your cost to make you a fair profit, you need to reconsider your business model entirely. How can you cut your costs substantially? Or change your product positioning to justify higher pricing?

Pricing is a tricky business. You're certainly entitled to make a fair profit on your product, and even a substantial one if you create value for your customers. But remember, something is ultimately worth only what someone is willing to pay for it.

 

[cthedinger 10+ year member]

When I build boxes I usually charge by per sheet of wood I use, then offer other options for an additional cost (terminals, double baffle, 45's, flush mount, extra bracing, etc..)

 

[VisceralSound 10+ year member]

Do you guys use PVC for the I think its called "Aero" ports? with the circle holes rather than slot?

 

[whitedragon551 5,000+ posts]

Looks like you need to figure out how to build a box before you can charge for one. Your putting the cart before the horse at this point.

Get some under your belt before you charge. All the good guys started off doing designs for free just to get the experience.

 

[brodeisel 10+ year member]

Looks like you need to figure out how to build a box before you can charge for one. Your putting the cart before the horse at this point.
Get some under your belt before you charge. All the good guys started off doing designs for free just to get the experience.

If he would do that i have a blue print sitting right here i would let him do.

 

[VisceralSound 10+ year member]

Sure, pm it my way, ill do it, I agree, Im just jumping the gun, send the bp over bud.

 

[TheUnderFighter 10+ year member]

Sounds like you need to learn a lot about building and designing boxes before you even think about charging people for them.

OP, do you have carpentry experience?

 

[THATpurpleKUSH 5,000+ posts]

Sounds like you need to learn a lot about building and designing boxes before you even think about charging people for them.
OP, do you have carpentry experience?

This.

You shouldnt be trying to sell boxes if you don't know the difference between a round port and an aero port.