The Price Is Right? --Dickeson

What the Sam Hill is the right price for a job: the fair price, the competitive price, the price that covers the costs, that yields some profit? Where and how shall we decide?

Looking for Answers

We want the Lone Ranger's silver bullet—some magic price to ask for a job that covers all these things. So, maybe, we look to our black box, our computer MIS (management information system), for the answer. (See the 30 or so listings in the July 2005 Master Specifier of Printing Impressions magazine.) How many of those systems tout their "estimating" programs to provide the right price? How many of them are still using Spencer Tucker's model of machine-hour rates published back in 1962?