When pricing a custom perpetual plaque project, make sure you consider all of your valuable time. Include time spent with the customer understanding their often-complex requirements, design time, template making, hole drilling, and application of the plates. Also consider including several extra plates. I always keep two at the shop so the client only has to make one trip to the shop to pick up the newly engraved plate and deliver one from the plaque. The second plate is for when they forget to bring the plate from the plaque.
Some clients bring the plaque in for updates. Some are designed with a special plate location for the current winner. If the client brings the plaque in for me to move the plates, I have to consider this in the pricing. Some designs require moving all the previous winners in a rotation pattern. Whatever the design, offering custom designed perpetuals can increase business.
-Bob Hagel, Eagle’s Mark
