Ontplates.com, like any other business, is faced with rising costs. We have maintained steady prices for the past 6-7 years. However, some of our operating costs have jumped recently, and we’re wrestling with that age-old question: Do we raise our prices overall?
There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes here than most people realize. For example, our web hosting costs have gone up. We now subscribe to additional web security services in order to protect our site from spam-based attacks. This protection prevents spammers from sneaking off-topic text into our site (usually about pharmaceuticals, from what we’ve seen). It also gives us a better view of our incoming mail, so we can sort real customer messages from spam. The free Google ReCapcha function is terrible at doing this; we missed many customer emails last year that were false-positives for spam. So we now pay a couple hundred more per year, to keep the site running properly in this spammy world.
As fuel prices rise, so do many costs that we typically absorb. Shipping is a big one: We have always offered free shipping to our customers, because they appreciate the “what-you-see is what-you-get” aspect of our pricing. We absorb these costs by choice. Yes, they reduce the taxable income of our bottom line, but the more we pay to Canada Post, the less remains in the modest coffers of our business. We used to be able to ship most any pair of plates throughout Ontario for $14. Now, it’s $16 or $17.
The costs for our supplies are also on the rise. It costs us more now to acquire the special primer that we need to prep plates before painting them. We go through a lot of primer in order to restore our plates; we have to buy it by the case. As fuel prices rise, so too to prices for paint, solvents, plate-sized poly bags, and even our shipping supplies.
Ontplates.com is a niche business, with a tightly-focused target clientele. We sell between 100 and 130 YOM items annually, on average. We’re not a high-volume business. We do pay income tax on our revenues after deducting legitimate business expenses. At the end of the year, the business turns a modest profit, but it’s certainly not lucrative enough to give up any day-job!
We have advertised for many years in the Old Autos newspaper out of Bothwell, Ontario. The annual fee we pay for our ads has not increased in the last few years. No doubt, Old Autos is experiencing a rise in their operating costs, yet they have not seen fit to pass those increases along. We admire that, and are thankful.
We have chosen not to apply pricing-structure increases at present. However, the time may eventually come when we’ll have to revisit the matter. We’re hoping that $1.60 gasoline is a prediction for the distant future!
Thank you for reading. Happy motoring!