Step 8 of 10
Your items
Items are priced on perceived value, not cost. Set the price from what the market pays — the app reports margin and stays out of the decision.
Distance is not an item input. Every mile — including the drive back to collect this — is already billed through your advised per-mile delivery fee, which scales with the customer's distance. The item only carries what mileage cannot scale with: its cost per use, the hands-on minutes, the teardown, and the share of the pickup drive the fee does not recover.
Cost per use (1×)
$4.00
Handling @ $95/hr
$1.58
Pickup drive (not in fee)
$0.00
Teardown time
$0.00
Fixed job time
$0.00
True cost
$5.58
Margin
$6.42
This is the support the balloons are tied to. The balloon price already pays for the build and delivery; this item carries only its material cost and any extra handling. It lets you build ahead, drop off the finished column and leave instead of building onsite.
Price to enter in Fanfaire
Break even
$5.58
At 30% margin
$10
Anything under $5.58 loses money. You keep $4.42 at 30%. No return trip to carry.
No return trip — saves $40
Distance is not an item input. Every mile — including the drive back to collect this — is already billed through your advised per-mile delivery fee, which scales with the customer's distance. The item only carries what mileage cannot scale with: its cost per use, the hands-on minutes, the teardown, and the share of the pickup drive the fee does not recover.
Cost per use (25×)
$3.60
Handling @ $95/hr
$7.92
Pickup drive (not in fee)
$16.72
Teardown time
$6.67
Fixed job time
$0.00
True cost
$34.90
Margin
$90.10
Add-on: the garland already paid for the design and install time, so this item only carries handling, teardown and the part of the pickup drive your mileage fee does not already cover. Sold on its own it would have to carry the fixed setup time too — margin $36.35. Your per-mile fee already recovers $16.72 of the pickup drive, so only $16.72 is loaded into this item.
Price to enter in Fanfaire
Break even
$34.90
At 30% margin
$50
Anything under $34.90 loses money. You keep $15.10 at 30%. Includes the $23 pickup and teardown this item creates, after crediting the $16.72 your mileage fee already collects.
You collect this — the $23 return trip and teardown are charged to this item, not to the garland. On 50% of jobs.
Distance is not an item input. Every mile — including the drive back to collect this — is already billed through your advised per-mile delivery fee, which scales with the customer's distance. The item only carries what mileage cannot scale with: its cost per use, the hands-on minutes, the teardown, and the share of the pickup drive the fee does not recover.
Cost per use (50×)
$4.00
Handling @ $95/hr
$7.92
Pickup drive (not in fee)
$16.72
Teardown time
$6.67
Fixed job time
$0.00
True cost
$35.30
Margin
$54.70
Add-on: the garland already paid for the design and install time, so this item only carries handling, teardown and the part of the pickup drive your mileage fee does not already cover. Sold on its own it would have to carry the fixed setup time too — margin $0.95. Your per-mile fee already recovers $16.72 of the pickup drive, so only $16.72 is loaded into this item.
Price to enter in Fanfaire
Break even
$35.30
At 30% margin
$55
Anything under $35.30 loses money. You keep $19.70 at 30%. Includes the $23 pickup and teardown this item creates, after crediting the $16.72 your mileage fee already collects.
You collect this — the $23 return trip and teardown are charged to this item, not to the garland. On 0% of jobs.
Distance is not an item input. Every mile — including the drive back to collect this — is already billed through your advised per-mile delivery fee, which scales with the customer's distance. The item only carries what mileage cannot scale with: its cost per use, the hands-on minutes, the teardown, and the share of the pickup drive the fee does not recover.
Cost per use (1×)
$3.00
Handling @ $95/hr
$4.75
Pickup drive (not in fee)
$0.00
Teardown time
$0.00
Fixed job time
$0.00
True cost
$7.75
Margin
$7.25
Add-on: the garland already paid for the design and install time, so this item only carries handling, teardown and the part of the pickup drive your mileage fee does not already cover. Sold on its own it would have to carry the fixed setup time too — margin -$46.50.
Price to enter in Fanfaire
Break even
$7.75
At 30% margin
$15
Anything under $7.75 loses money. You keep $7.25 at 30%. No return trip to carry.
No return trip — saves $40
Why margin is the wrong way to rank items
A disposable column base is more like a dowel the balloons are tied to than a separate rental. It makes the balloon job easier: build ahead, drop off the finished column and leave. It carries its material and extra handling, but not another delivery or the job's fixed setup time. A collected backdrop is different — it is the reason you drive back, so that item must pay for its return trip and teardown.