[amayausers.com] Re: large orders
- From: "Linen Barn" <linen@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <amayausers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2008 10:05:38 -0700
I'll jump in here. As a contractor with 12 heads I do work for those kinds of
prices all the time but I do it for my contractors. For someone bringing me
shirts off the street and is a retail customer I would have quoted them $4 and
would stick to it unless I was really in need of some work to keep my machines
running however at this point I am pretty backlogged so I wouldn't do it for
less. If one of my contractors brought me this same job I would have quoted it
out at $3 each for them.
As a contractor I try to keep a balance of contract and retail work otherwise
it would be hard to survive. I normally charge .50 per 1k and on larger
designs I do even less most of the time. The larger designs help to keep my
machines running cause it can be hard for 2 of us to keep all 12 heads running
while I also have to take calls and walk-ins. I have my brother for 4 hours in
the afternoon to help keep things running cause afternoon is when I get a
majority of my calls and walk-ins.
I have 2 lease payments now to the sum of $1000 a month so I can usually make
my machine payments off 2-3 days work. Work out of my home so there is low
overhead with no seperate rent, power, gas, etc, it all ties in with the house
bills and we write off a portion that the business uses and the business pays
my dad rent for another write off.. I find one of the keys to runnning a
profitable contract/retail shop is to be very efficient and work lots of hours
:) Right now we have over 5 orders that are 150+ pcs and with the fire season
finally here my helicopter companies are ordering shirts and hats like they are
going out of style. We just got done doing over 500 hats with names on the
back for allstars also and its time for my Budweiser golf tourney which is 150
hats every year with 3-4 logos on them, they are do the end of the month.
As a 1 head shop you shouuld pick and choose the jobs that pay you better and
contract out the large jobs that need to be done for less or if you have the
machine time then do the contract job at contract prices if you can make money
that way but don't sell contract prices to the average retail custoemr of next
thing you know everyone (the ones that don't already) will be wanting
contractor prices. Part of being contractor price is you don't have to deal
with all these customers that don' tknow what they are doing but rather doing
jobs for contractors that know how to write up orders correctly and in essence
saving you time so you can just sew. Thoretically thats how its supposed to
work but I end up doing alot of color choices for my contractors and do some
extras I really don't have to but in the long run the jobs turn out better
which makes them look better and then makes me look good and next thing you
know word of mouth spreads and I get so busy sometimes its ovewhelming.
Aaron Sargent
The Linen Barn
linen@xxxxxxxxxxx
541-770-2957
Medford, OR
----- Original Message -----
From: K Nehmer
To: amayausers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 9:16 AM
Subject: [amayausers.com] Re: large orders
Rod,
You have expressed one of the conondrums I've often thought about. The
numerous head contract embroiderer who sells designs at 25 to 50 cents per
1000, has a lot more in equipment to pay for!--how do they do it?
Kathy
----- Original Message -----
From: Rod or Sharon
To: amayausers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 10:34 AM
Subject: [amayausers.com] Re: large orders
Michelle,
It is all about volume and contract pricing. For the small business owner,
it boils down to what you are willing to sacrifice and how little money you are
willing to work for, for the time spent. As an example. If your design was,
lets say, 5000 stitches, no thread breaks and no complications, sew time alone
would be 5 min apiece at an average of 1000 stitches per minute. That is 500
minutes= 8hrs 20 minutes. Now add in your time for ordering, receiving and
unpacking, setting up the design and the machine, hooping, unhooping,
trimming, cost of your backing and bobbins all of your overhead etc,
etc........figure all this out and see what your hourly wage would be after
all the overhead is subtracted......it may surprise you.....
In short I often wonder how wonder how they can undercut the little guy so
much because the big dogs still have all the setup, hooping, trimming, etc,
etc, etc, to do and the only time saved is in the actual sew time using
multiple or multi-head machines, even for them..... they are willing to
undercut and pick up the loss by just capturing the volume market.....
Rod
----- Original Message -----
From: Michele Zimmer
To: amayausers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 8:27 AM
Subject: [amayausers.com] large orders
I have someone that called for a quote on 100 shirts. I have only one
machine and the design is just part of a column, like a cement pillar, and
lettering, I told her I'd charge her $10 for the design set up because the
column wasn't going to be that hard to digitize and off the top of my head, $4
per shirt not having the slighted idea on how many stitches it would be. She
said my digitizing fee was better, but my embroidery price was higher, they
quoted her 2.75 per shirt. How do people do this? And am I wrong in not
saying I would do the same thing? I'm actually thinking of calling her back
and telling her the digitizing setup would be free and 3.25 per shirt.
What do you think. I'd hate to lose out on 300.00, but that will be a
lot more work for me because of only one machine and I'm sure the other company
that quoted her had more.
Michele Zimmer
Carefree Creations
Michele@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.CarefreeCreations.com
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