How Do I Price My Screen Printed Items

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Graphicscom
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How Do I Price My Screen Printed Items

Post by Graphicscom »

Pricing Your Screen Printed Garments
ok guys, i'm new to the business aspect of screen printing because all i've done with it so far is take 2 yrs of it in highschool. i've recently registered my screen printing company here in south florida. Now i'm trying to get everything organized as far as where to buy all the equipment i need without breaking the bank. my question, and i know it will be tough for me to get an answer for because people are always competing with prices, but i would like some kind of a break down of how and what to charge customers. i do know most of the different things that are charged, for instance, screen fees, art fees, and then so much per shirt.
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Post by Guest »

1. You need to know ALL of your expenses in running your shop
2. You need to know your Competition
3. You need to know where you want to be.

There are roughly 176 hours of work per month (give or take). You are only making money while you are working on jobs that are going to bring you in money. By this I mean from starting to finishing the job. i.e. we will generalize this by calling it PRINTING TIME. If the press is running you are (should be) making money. If the press just sits there it makes a nice paperweight. But, you know that you won't be printing 176 hours per month. Most shops are lucky to be PRINTING 40-60% of that time. i.e. 70-105 hours per month. So you need to squeeze all your expenses into those hours (since you are printing and that is when you make your money to cover your expenses and make a profit).

So, to simplify all this down and make it a little simpler. All your monthly expenses (including labor) would be divided over the hours you figure per month you will be printing - maybe factor on the low side as you will need to grow into the business. Lets say your expenses are $5000 per month including your labor. Let's say you figure on 100 hours of PRODUCTION per month. $5000/100 hours per month = $ 50 per hour to cover your expenses.

Now, how long will it take you to do the job from start to finish? This is where print rates come into play. Just starting out you will find that it will probably take you longer to print shirts until it becomes second nature. Let's say it is a 100 shirt order. Let's say you can print 75 1 color shirts per hour. It would take you 1.33 hours (100/75 shirts per hour) to physically print this job of 100 one color shirts. This doesn't take into account the buring of the screen, taping, blocking out, setup and teardown and reclaiming of the job. These figures might total 30 minutes for prepress and 15 minutes for teardown/cleanup. So factor another 45 minutes.

Total time so far? 1.33 printing hours + 45 minutes for setup and teardown. 1.33+.75 = 2.08 hours for the job. Well, we are getting somewhere.

So, let's say the shirts are white Tees and cost us $1.50 including shipping (you need to factor shipping in - it is a cost).

100 Shirts at $1.50 each = $ 150.00
2.08 hours @ $50/hour = $ 104.17
Total costs before profit = $ 254.17 ( or $2.55 per shirt)

Now, what will your market bear for a job like this? THis is where KNOWING YOUR COMPETITION helps. If you know that the going rate for a job like this is $5.00 then you can easily charge $5.00 and make almost $2.50 per shirt or $250 on the order.

The profit on the jobs you make is the business's life blood. Money keeps it floating and growing. So, if you markup your jobs 100% then you make a 50% profit. If you can only get $4.00 a shirt out of this order then you are only marking up your job 60% and making a 37.5% margin.
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Nice Job!

Post by ImagePro_Design »

The best explanation I have ever seen... in fact I have saved it my quick notes and plan on refrencing it the next time a Newbie pops in with the same question... nice job Guest.


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leapfrogz
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How to price

Post by leapfrogz »

I had this happen to me many of times and I'm only been it for about 4 years. My customer say they will print there shirts for $4.50 a shirt and I tell them if you think my service doesn't justify my cost then you should go and try them. Once they got there order it took 4 weeks and there was other add ons that up the price that they didn't agree on. I never print a t-shirt cheaper then $6.00 I don't care how many they buy before I start a job I give my customer the price when it will be finish so they know exactly what the cost is and they have already agreed to the price. You have to ask your self what your time and equipment is worth. Think about it yes you can go and buy t-shirt for $1.50 to $2.00 but your customer can't even if they go to Walmart and order 100 of them they need there markup in the t-shirt. Yes even if you can print 100 shirts an hour. You still have to take into consideration prep clean up and ink plus most important your time and expertise if they think you making money hands over fist they should get into screen printing and see how hard it is to just print one order. Most screen printer try and underbid other screen printers which keeps the price very low and not a very good profit. I believe my time is money and I should get paid for my time and knowledge. Some screen printers get into this field because they think there is a lot of money in it but then when they keep tring to underbid everyone there profit is small and they have to work twice as hard to make any money. :D
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Post by itsbizar »

Well said, leapfrogz...it is the not knowing what's really involved in turning a profit that doesn't just hurt our competitors, it hurts all of us because dropping price de-values what we all do.
xIIscrapsIIx
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Re: How Do I Price My Screen Printed Items

Post by xIIscrapsIIx »

Now, how do you factor in size and number of colors?
prince123
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Re: How Do I Price My Screen Printed Items

Post by prince123 »

Price its depends upon quality. . Try to offer best quality product on affordable prices..
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