Need Your Thoughts on What to Charge for my Services

So part of one of the things that seperates me from other hobby shops is that I'm going to offer a) model builds, either box stock or custom, for those who don't have the time or skill and b) painting services, either doing it myself, or renting the booth out for others to use it, who may not have the facilities at home.

I know professional model builders, or should I say, awesome, mind-numbing, NNL-grand-prize-winning model builders, charge sometimes hundreds of dollars for their builds--and rightly so. While I consider myself an above-average, skilled builder, I don't put myself in their league.

I was thinking of the following prices for these kinds of services. It occured to me that charging them hourly would be kinda lame, since a good model build can take a month (including paint curing time.) So I figured I'd charge for specific types of services. Let me know what you guys think--and please be honest; after all, I won't be building anything for people here, so the question is really peer-to-peer here :icon16:

1. Box stock build: cost of kit, cost of paint and possibly glue, $30 for the build.

2. Custom build: cost of kit, cost of paint and possibly glue, cost of any aftermarket parts I may use... fabrication and use of sheet/tube/strip styrene would be free, provided it's not excessive (eg. kit-bashing a rollcage.) $40 for the build.

3. Paint booth rental: this one I would do per use, ie. once for primer, once for colour, once for clear if applicable... $10 per use.

4. Paint jobs: Basic primer + colour without excessive coats would be the cost of primer and paint + $20. Base clear would be $25. Custom paint jobs involving stenciling, or two-tone paint jobs with masking would be $30-35 depending on the difficulty. Polishing and buffing free.

What do you guys think? If anything, I think the build prices might be too low...

I think the build price is terribly low: I don't know this market but it's figured you'll settle on a cost unit for hour and multiply for the hours needed. If you do it as a job this could be an approach. I guess you need more than 10 hours to finish a OOB, so 3 bucks for hour... Let the people haven't time pay the right price for your job or at least sell they some die-cast :)

Just keep the times for a couple of OOB.

Man, you're cheap! $30 for a build is nothing. How many hours do you envision one of these box stock builds will take you?

The prices are indeed low, I would charge a base price and charge per hour on top of it. Because now a nice full detail would cost the same for a tamiya F50 as it would for an aoshima SA22C Rx-7 (partscost excluded).
And something is up with your paint booth rental. Now it costs the same to rent the booth for primer+color (2*$10+ cost of paint etc) and to get it sprayed by you ($20+ cost of paints). Seems a bit crooked.

The prices are indeed low, I would charge a base price and charge per hour on top of it. Because now a nice full detail would cost the same for a tamiya F50 as it would for an aoshima SA22C Rx-7 (partscost excluded).
And something is up with your paint booth rental. Now it costs the same to rent the booth for primer+color (2*$10+ cost of paint etc) and to get it sprayed by you ($20+ cost of paints). Seems a bit crooked.
I agree with guys: also you'll decide an hour/cost also for the spraybooth: may be 5 usd/hours,

or at least may be interesting give a prepayed cards with all the step needed: 4/5 work unit with: primer+few mists+2wet+clear at a total amount of 15-20 bucks plus material that they buy from your shop. You'll sell also some transparent box with shop's logo for model transportation and curing: I bought something for less than 2 eur at hardstore

Okay, thanks for the feedback, I guess I didn't get my math straight... Are you guys saying maybe $30 "base price" for all builds... and then add $10 per additional hour maybe?

I've never really tracked how long it takes with actual LABOUR, just how long an overall build takes (3-4 weeks including painting and drying.)

As far as the paint booth ya, I guess my math was no good, that makes sense :P ... Maybe make the paint jobs $40, $45, and $50-55?

i think you should work out roughly how long a typical build takes and then work out an acceptable hourly rate.
one thing that people always have a problem with is how to ask for money which you should never be afraid of; after all, you are putting in time and effort.
put it this way, I charge £19 an hour (recommended standard in the uk for my level) for my cad drafting time and for the most part, that is monkey work.
mostly, the hourly rate is used for smaller jobs that shouldn't take that much time i.e simple lease plans, outlines, shopfronts etc etc.
on the other hand, i also charge £400-£450 for a "complete" set of plans (usually, ground, first, roof plans, front+rear+side elevations) which i think is reasonable.
first things first, for you i guess the most important starting point is how long it takes, and how much materials (and costs) is involved.
you could also do it the builder's way and have a fee for labour and then bill for cost of materials seperately.

one thing though, if you do charge on an hourly basis and not flat rate, be prepared to actually put in the non-stop hours for it, especially seeing as if it is on a professional level, you WILL have multiple jobs on the go.

I think you sell yourself short my friend. Charge what you would make doing a job you are qualified to do, after all if you are hired by someone to build it becomes a job and not a hobby.

Hmm I dunno, I guess it becomes a balance between affordability and my time. I really don't believe I should be charging what the full-time guys who make a living with this do. Guess I have to build a model now and decide how long it takes :)

At those prices, you will run out of your own free time in a heartbeat. Don't balance the cost compared to what "full-time" builders charge. Base the cost on time spent building, plus materials. Compare that cost with the quality of the finished model and see if it works as a saleable product. Pay yourself a fair wage, otherwise the project is doomed... - Mark

I also think your prices are quite low but most of all I think there is much to little differentiation between box and detailed builds and paintjobs.

Seems that, from your point of view, paint jobs would be your best product with regards time invested vs income. Detailed builds the worst for you.

McDonalds has a philosophy "Get them in then trade them up" i.e advertise BigMac for 50cents but then make sure they buy fries, coke, pie and all extra sized :) Maybe your base box-build price is OK if you can trade them up to detailed builds and aftermarket parts - if not, raise the price and sell them quick and more profitable paint jobs.

My 2cents (if it made any cents/sense) :)

Well, I'm about to start on a Steve Kinser sprint car, so I guess I'll start timing myself and we'll see what happens. Thanks guys :)

EDIT: BTW, the store will be called Tiger's Den Hobbies. What do you guys think? :)

I think you're way lowballing it too, I've wanted to reply earlier but AF has been fitful. Honestly, opening a hobby shop will already be a strain on your modeling as a hobby, doing it for someone else at such a low price will be awful. I see it burning you out in no time. Personally, I wouldn't build models for people at all, it's not something I feel that money can equal when you consider not just the materials and time, but the effort, creativity, and the heart that goes into it. If that's not you, ok, have fun building for others! But I'd be terribly afraid that those costs will kill the business and ruin your passion for models.

I've built maybe.... a dozen models for other people over the last 3-4 years, and I LOVE doing it. I don't think that'll be the case. But yes, I think I do have to seriously reconsider my hourly charge...