Consultation charge

T3Shirts · January 9th, 2015, 06:28 PM

A start up business is asking for me to show them the screen printing process from beginning to end. How much is a fare amount to charge? Should I charge hourly or daily?

Ghostwork Ink · January 14th, 2015, 08:41 AM

How in depth do they want you to teach them the process is the question? I've sold used equipment to start-up companies and briefly showed them the ropes but never took more then 3 hours.
If you're showing them the complete process, from the raw design on the computer, pre-press set up, the printing process and the finished product; i'm sure this will take more than a day. I would defiantly charge no less than $30 a hour for an 8 hour day, I think it should take a minimum of 2 days.

tonypep · January 15th, 2015, 06:48 AM

$1,000 per day minimum. 5 days plus follow up

Ghostwork Ink · January 15th, 2015, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tonypep

$1,000 per day minimum. 5 days plus follow up

A bit steep in my opinion; at $1,000 per day for 5 days + a follow up , they're better up taking a trip up to Vastex and taking the screen printing "A to Z" 3 day class for $500
Perhaps if this was a high volume automatic shop that's already established and needed help training a fleet of workers on equipment and staging, then that price would somewhat be fair. But i'm sure this guy just wants to learn the basics to get himself moving.

tonypep · January 16th, 2015, 08:20 AM

Most consultants run from 1k to $1500 in our industry. Classes are OK but you get what you pay for. Onsite/real world is best. You are paying someone to potentially teach you to earn you quite a bit of money without stumbling over pitfalls and potentially losing money. Classes also won't teach you the business side. The higher price tag is completely justified providing the right consultant is chosen. $500 is not going to teach you beginning to end

Ghostwork Ink · January 16th, 2015, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tonypep

Most consultants run from 1k to $1500 in our industry. Classes are OK but you get what you pay for. Onsite/real world is best. You are paying someone to potentially teach you to earn you quite a bit of money without stumbling over pitfalls and potentially losing money. Classes also won't teach you the business side. The higher price tag is completely justified providing the right consultant is chosen. $500 is not going to teach you beginning to end

I agree and disagree. .
Really this completely depends on what type of person who is in need of the experience and consultant. This could very well be the average Joe who just wants to print some tshirts out of his basement; if this is the case, I think we could both agree the classes would be best. A higher production / automatic facility that relies on daily impression numbers would need a professional to come onsite and teach you much more than what those classes would teach you.
I've played both sides, 3 years ago a gentleman from Maine flew to my facility in Pennsylvania; he set up an MHM that i bought used, trained 4 of my printers on it and was here for a total of 3 days and ran me $2000 .
On the flip side of things, I've sent 1 of our newbie printers to the Vastex classes for the weekend, he prints manual only. He went into the classes knowing very little about printing, he came back to work monday setting up 6 colors like a champ.