[amayausers] Re: Towels (You're the man!!! $1.50 plus $5 hoopcharge)
- From: "Roland R. Irish III" <signman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <amayausers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2005 17:23:19 -0400
I also do screen printing-almost 24 years now-and many times clients will
run to Walmart or Kmart or Big Lots and buy a load of tee shirts for
$1.99-and expect me to print them cheap. I have a 'breakdown' of printing
charges based on volume. For example-a dozen shirts are $1.60 per color, 3
dozen shirts 95¢, 144 shirts 75¢, and so on-but I tell them as soon as they
bring in the shirts-that I will charge a SETUP charge of $25-50 or so-that
my 'print only' charges will total $60 PER HOUR minimum no matter how many
pieces I do-and there will be a SCREEN charge for EVERY color needed. Some
of these 'charges' are 'included' when I supply the shirts-that's in my
markup. But when I can't make a 'markup profit' on the goods, I HAVE to
charge these to the customer-that's my profit!
With screen printing its called 'setup' (or artwork) charges, with
embroidery-its 'hooping' charges. You have to charge something-you are
taking 10 minutes to hoop an item, adding solvy and backing, and setting up
the name or design. So you have some costs and time there. Sewing a name is
only 3,000 stitches-so you charge $1.50 a thousand-that's only $4.50. Charge
$1 per thousand-that's only $3.00. By the time you have setup the name,
hooped the towel, added the backing and solvy-then sew it, peel it, clean it
up-you've spent at least half an hour from start to finish. If you only
charge $3 to $4.50-you are only going to make $6 to $9.00 PER HOUR (one head
machine, 2 towels an hour)....and will never make the payments on your
machine at that rate! Add the $5 hooping charge, now you are making an extra
$10 per hour and starting to show a profit.
I have heat, lights, lease, rent, taxes, and overhead to pay for every day
whether I'm open or closed. So for all my different products (embroidery,
engraving, screenprinting, sign making) I have totaled all my expenses every
year and figured how many hours I am actually 'working' on jobs-and have to
make $60 PER HOUR for those 'working' hours to make a decent profit and pay
my bills.
Automobile dealerships now charge $75 PER HOUR to do simple mechanical work
on your car-and every one pays it. So I don't think I"m overcharging!
It would be GREAT if I was actuall DOING 10 hours of work a day-I'd make
$600 per day. But in reality-I am lucky to do 4 or 5 'real' working hours a
day and that averages out to a decent income.
Roland
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