[amayausers.com] Re: large orders

  • From: "K Nehmer" <nehmer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <amayausers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2008 13:31:15 -0500

I'm not sure how old you dad is--but I bet he likes having you there.

Kathy

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Linen Barn 
  To: amayausers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 1:26 PM
  Subject: [amayausers.com] Re: large orders


  Its actually my dads house.  Its 3300 sq ft cause of the finished basement.  
Our shop is around 1200 sq ft of the downstairs.  He is the only one that lives 
here so he has plenty of room with the business here.

  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 10:44 AM
    Subject: [amayausers.com] Re: large orders


    You must have a large house :)

    Kathy

      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: Linen Barn 
      To: amayausers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
      Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 12:05 PM
      Subject: [amayausers.com] Re: large orders


      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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