Pricing MDF Doors

[andyb]

For you guys that are cutting MDF doors and drawer fronts, how are you pricing them? I've talked to one guys that charges per square foot then X amount for the ogee groove or X amount for the raised panel look. A local cabinet shop charges a flat rate in a size range and then X amount for the groove but uses a template and a hand router.

Andy B.

[richards]

What are your competitors charging for similar doors? If the price is high enough to make a decent profit, start there and then make sure you charge a little more for the addition features/quality that you can add with your Shopbot. On the other hand, if they're charging too little to make a decent profit, why get caught up doing something that will not be profitable? Out where I live, most customers shop for best price with no idea of the difference between price and value.

[jhicks]

Andy, listen long enough and you'll hear everything from a flat $ amount per door panel to make it up in volume to a base with upcharges.
The real question is can you do them? How many will you get per sheet/yield? Do you have a minimum charge to run a single 12x18 for example? and where do you put all that scrap to hopefully use later?
In the final analysis, start high, do some web research, sell the sharp corners feature over rounded corners by the hand router guy.
Sell added detail in any form like edge detail and interior carving detail.
Time is $ and everyone has a different motivation from hobby to shop overhead to cover. Don't forget the others may charge freight, design fees, and have set up charges plus miimums etc. It all adds up so once you take a job or 2 you'll be able to tell if its something you want and can make $ on. Try a sample and time your work from design to cleaning the table. How much time it takes is a lot more than the file run time. Around chicago you'be hard pressed to find any shop rate under $70.00/ hr. that will do reasonably reliable quality work.
If they want doors, what about the cabinet side panels, kick plates, and counter top blanks, and architectural florishes/accents?
Where there are doors, there are also higher margin pieces. I like to call them "rich niches"

[trakwebster]

Many years ago, back in northern Texas where I grew up, there were two sort of haphazard ranch hands who got a bright idea to make some money on the weekend.

In our town (Henrietta, Texas) there was a courthouse on a large block in the middle of town, because our town was the county seat. On Saturdays, farmers often brought produce and eggs and such and sold them from their vehicles there in the morning.

Because one of these wranglers had a pickup, he proposed that they'd buy produce from farmers (who didn't go selling for themselves) and then they'd sell it at the courthouse on Saturday morning.

It sounded like a good idea, so they got up early and drove around buying produce and showed up in town, and sure enough by the early afternoon they'd sold out.

Only problem was, they weren't really business men, and they'd sold it for the same price as they'd bought it.

So when they went to count their money, they hadn't made anything.

"Well, shoot," said one. The other turned to him.

"Well," he said, "We're just going to have to get a bigger truck."