custom painting costs & picking a name

[cowboy]

Well now to this part of my business plan I have been putting togather:

For you guys with your companies name painted on the side of your trucks, how much did it cost?

And about picking a name, what do you suggest? I have a unusual last name so don't know if I should go with that or what?

oh and new trucks suck (just joking, just joking )

Cowboy

 

[John Allin]

Cowboy be flirting with disaster joking like that.....

Names are funny things. They reflect the owner and can often define your company for many years to come. Legally, if you use your first or last name in it you have no legal need to file a "ficticous name" with your state, however it is recommended - and you don't need a lawyer to do that.

If you use anything other than your own name (leagally) you have to register it with the state (ficticous name act).

Lawyers will tell you to incorporate, but accountants will tell you to put that off as long as possible for tax reasons.

Professionals in marketing will charge you anywhere from $500 to $50,000 to come up with an acceptable name and logo. We chose our name ourselves, and our logo was done for $300 20 years ago by a racquetball partner I was playing doubles with at the time. I'm told that our logo would cost me $10,000 or better to have "designed" now. So be careful about having a logo designed.

My recommendation would be to keep it simple and easy to remember. We purposely didn't use "landscaping" or "snowplowing" because we didn't want to be tied to that style - although there are some really memorable companies using those two words, and they are great companies too.

Personal preference is probably the key here. However, I would stay away from 'Acme' and 'AAA' something or other.

Good luck. Glad I don't have to go thru that again.

 

[BRL]

Well I remember when I first saw that logo I was impressed. I certainly didn't have any idea that I was enjoying $10,000 worth of impression. Wow! I agree with John in that it comes down to personal preference. I personally don't like using your namesake in the company name, but that's just me & I can't even tell you a good reason not to.

 

[jason2]

Cowboy,

I had my '78 F250 Supercab painted for 1k at Maaco. They wanted $425 to paint my truck, but I had them do a little bit of body work whick brought the price up. And when I say a little bit of body work I mean a very small amount. That is where they make the money, as body work is very labor intensive.

I added some aluminum wheels for another $500. Before it went into the paint booth I smoothed it up a bit. Took all emblems and chrome off, and tossed them into the garbage.

Personally I hate the looks of magnetic signs hanging on the doors. I had a local print shop design my logo and put it on viynl stickers which are on my doors. Total cost for the logo $80.

For under 2k I have a clean, professional looking truck. Looks sharp with tinted windows, no chrome, viper red, logo, and aluminum wheels.

It will pull a mountain with a fresh 460, C6, NP205, and Dana 60's front and back. Plus it was a lot cheaper than buying new.

To get somewhere close to the comfort of the newer trucks, I added an aftermarket front seat for $500, and a good stereo system with a cd player.

 

[Lazer]

Seems many of the radically successful plowers here don't have any name at all on their vehicles. Or they'll have a small magnet to satisfy a local municipality.

All our landscape trucks are lettered full on. Most of our PLOW trucks are blank in the winter.

 

[jason2]

My F250 is parked for the winter. It's strictly a lawn truck. My plow truck has no logo and will not get one.

 

[cowboy]

Well thanks for the help, think I can come up with a good one, and 80$ for a decale doesn't seem to bad.

Well since I'm going to be a one truck, one man operator I would like to have the name painted on my truck, pride reasons almost

 

[diggerman]

All my trucks have a black and chrome logo on them other than my black truck which has a white and chrome logo.None of them are painted they are all vinyl,they run around $150 per truck.My sister who is a grapic artist took my idea and made it a logo.The nice thing about vinyl is that you can easily change you logo as you wish.I started out with my company name then when I added the trucking co. I gave it another name, so they have the same style logo with a diffrent name.Also my logo has a rectangular box at the bottom for the phone number but when I put my logo on a sign the number is to small so I put excavation in the box and put a large phone number at the bottom.So But best of all is you ever sell the truck a heat gun and its off, so some moron is not running aroun with a truck your name on it.

 

[landscaper3]

A nice looking truck and equipment will only attract more customers then all ratty old equipment. We maintain homes that go for over 2-3million along with condos, walmarts and simular buildings, they dont want ratty trucks and equipment out front. Your equipment reflects on your business and having nice clean trucks ANY year and equipment will only further your business. Why paint logos or names on truck, that will only take value away from blue book if traded in you should run vinyl letters looks better alot cheaper and trade in time take a hair dryer and peel them off and will never new.

PLAIN AND SIMPLE YOUR APPERANCE NO MATTER WHAT THE ITEM, yourself, your truck, your mowers and ect says alot about yourself to the public and potential customers. Paint your truck up nice not custom but looking good, letter it up and clean weekly people notice and remember.

 

[Yardworks]

I decided to use a magnetic, because I wasn't to sure how long I was going to keep my truck. It cost $150 and the background was painted first to match my truck. With the painted background you can not tell they are magnetic signs until you get right up to them. The best part is when I go hunting,snowmobiling, or playing I can take off the signs and not have to worry about my business image.

 

[John Allin]

Our first (and only) set of magnetics ended up in some dudes bedroom after two days.

Went with all decals after that.