Û IMPORTANT NOTES FOR DESKTOP PUBLISHING USERS ± ___________________________________________ ± ° Registered users of ALPHAQUOTE are provided a 20% ° ($10) discount coupon good toward the purchase of ° "PRICING GUIDE for Desktop Publishing Services", by ° Robert C. Brenner. This 300+ page book in its third ° printing is the ultimate resource for a successful ° DTP business. Chapters include: ° ° 1. Price and Pricing Concepts ° 2. Pricing Strategy ° 3. Estimating, Bidding and Negotiating ° 4. Price Distribution--survey responses from other ° companies across North America. ° 5. Appendix Û Equipment & Software used in the business Û Publications which are regularly read ° Helpful addresses ° Profiles of typical DTP, prepress and ± Service Bureaus ± ° "Price, not timing, can be everything." ° --Normal Dolph, Success Magazine, June, 1991 ° ° Although ALPHAQUOTE was originally written for ° traditional typesetters, it is also appropriate for ° Desktop Publishers. Because the nature of DTP ° production differs from traditional typesetting, a ° few adjustments need to be made in order to guarantee ° accuracy. The setup file DTP.DTA supplied with the ° program is based on national averages and should be ° used initially. However, using the correct hourly Û rates for your organization is critical to successful Û estimating and a successful business. Please make sure ° your rates correctly reflect: ° Rent ° Equipment Depreciation ° Salaries ° Employee Benefits ± Supplies ± Deliveries ° Advertising ° Repairs ° Bad Debts ° ° The best method is to have your accountant calculate ° your hourly rates. A general "rule of thumb", ° however, is to multiply the salary times 3. For ° example, if you wished to pay yourself $10 per hour, Û your hourly rate to charge your clients would be $30 Û dollars an hour. Although not very scientific it is ° surprisingly accurate. ° ° Û Always complete the estimate answering all of the ° questions. Pasteup is an automatic function in ° DTP whereas ALPHAQUOTE handles typesetting and ° pasteup as two separate operations. The best ° procedure is to split your DTP hourly rate in half ± and use those figures for typeset and pasteup ± rate. For example, if you charge $35 per hour, ° then the typeset rate would be $17.50 and the ° pasteup rate would be $17.50. Answer yes to the ° Paste Up Y/N question and answer the rest of the ° questions to complete the estimate. ° ° Û Use the productivity % to fine tune ALPHAQUOTE. Û This is a percentage of efficiency of the person Û doing the work. 85% is considered average. By ° raising this percentage the price will be ° lowered--it takes a more efficient operator less ° time to produce the job. Lowering the percentage ° conversely increases the cost. Find an average ° that works best for your organization. Avoid ° basing estimates on you most efficient ° employee--if a less efficient person actually does ° the work you lose money. ° ± Thank you for evaluating ALPHAQUOTE. I hope you ± find it a useful tool for your continued success. ° ° ° Bruce Robey, ° President Û AlphaBytes, Inc.