Pricing, Order Sizes, and What Sales Numbers Look Like

Bare PCB Pricing Basics

A bare board's price depends on:

• Layer count (more layers = more $)
• Size (square inches)
• Quantity (more quantity = lower per-unit price)
• Lead time (rush jobs cost 1.5x to 5x standard)
• Complexity (HDI, controlled impedance, fine traces, blind/buried vias all add cost)
• Materials (high-Tg, Rogers, polyimide all add cost)
• Surface finish (ENIG > HASL)
• Specialty processes (heavy copper, gold fingers, edge plating)

Rough domestic North American prices for FR-4, standard tech:

Layer count	10 boards (proto)	100 boards	1,000 boards
2-layer, 4"x4"	$200 ea	$25 ea	$5 ea
4-layer, 4"x4"	$350 ea	$50 ea	$10 ea
8-layer, 4"x4"	$700 ea	$130 ea	$30 ea
12-layer HDI	$1,500+ ea	$300 ea	$90 ea

(These are illustrative; your actual shop quotes will vary widely.)

PCBA Pricing Basics

A PCBA is bare board cost + components (BOM) + assembly labor + test + margin. The BOM is often the largest portion.

For a typical mid-complexity PCBA:

• BOM: 50–70% of price
• Bare board: 5–15%
• Assembly labor: 10–20%
• Test, packaging, overhead, margin: 10–20%

Order sizes for assembly typically run from a $500 prototype build of 5 units up to multi-million-dollar production runs.

NRE — Non-Recurring Engineering

For new programs, customers pay one-time setup costs called NRE:

• PCB tooling (films, drill programs): $200–$2,000 typically
• Stencil for assembly: $200–$500
• Test fixture (if functional test): $1,000–$25,000+
• First Article Inspection (FAI): time and material

NRE is a great margin opportunity AND it locks the customer in — once they've paid for tooling at your shop, switching costs go up.

Typical Deal Sizes

These vary wildly, but here's a rough guide:

• Prototype bare PCB job: $500–$5,000
• Prototype PCBA: $2,000–$50,000
• Production bare PCB program: $20K–$500K/year
• Production PCBA program: $100K–$5M+/year
• Major OEM account, multi-program: $1M–$20M+/year

Sales Cycle Length

• Quick-turn prototype shop: a few days to a few weeks
• First production order at a new account: 3–9 months
• Aerospace/defense/medical first order: 6–18 months
• Repeat business at existing accounts: hours to days

What "Good" Looks Like for a New Salesperson

In your first 12 months selling PCBs:

• Build a pipeline of 100+ qualified prospects
• Land 5–20 first orders (mostly prototypes and small production)
• Generate $250K–$1M+ in revenue (highly variable; faster in PCBA, slower in bare board)
• Develop 3–10 accounts that will produce $100K+ each in year 2

In years 2–3, top performers in this industry can produce $2M–$10M in annual revenue. The very best, with a deep book, do $10M+ year after year.

Margins and Commissions

• Bare PCB gross margins: 20–35% typical
• PCBA gross margins: 10–25% (lower percent but bigger absolute dollars)
• Sales commissions: typically 2–10% of gross profit, sometimes a small percent of revenue, sometimes a base salary plus bonus on quota attainment.
• Many shops also pay residuals on repeat business — meaning you keep getting paid as long as that account orders.