I currently own a t-shirt shop in a small downtown area. We started screen printing about 2 years ago and we started to do custom vinyl about 6 mths ago. These 2 additons helped business greatly. The town embroidery guy is leaving. We get ask a ton about embroidery and we always shoot them his way....now we don't have anywhere local to send people. I was just thinking about doing it myself. I'm I crazy? Would this be toooo much? How much money am I going to have to invest in the begining? Is this something anyone can do? Do I need any special skills? Once again, am I crazy???
Any help or insight would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Do you know why the local embroider is moving? Is their equipment for sale? If not how many heads do they currently have? How many employees does it take to run their shop? Would they sell you their client list? These are all questions I would have to look at first before any conclusion if you are crazy or not.
First ask yourself if you have the time to do add it.
We added it about 3 years ago and it has definitly taken off (alot this year)
I am in the same situation as you, we don't screen print but we do transfers (laser, sublimation and cut material) awards, signage etc.
Anyone can learn a machine and they good ones are not cheap but I am sure you have already found that out.
You will need some software, at least for names and some editing. We use DrawingsX3, and get alot done with it. You will want to find a good digitizer for when you need it. If you are already good with Corel that will help ALOT.
Some of the predigitized designs are nice but unless you can a deal, most people will want there logo.
Yes you will end up bying different thread colors, backings, hooping devices and hoops. It all adds up over time but makes the jog easier.
We started and are still on a single head but its time for an additional. The nice part is getting a good design set up. Then you can keep loading the machine while doing something eles. just as long as your not one of those people that can't jump around to different jobs.
There is obviouly more, but we were in the same situation of no one else doing embroidery in our area so it really was a great fit.
He is keeping his machine. He said he is going to do some things from home. He has a 2 head machine. He is running the business on his own right now. From what I understand (small town hear say) he has been losing business slowly because he is NEVER on time with anything.
Do I have time? Not really. But I have a partner and we would be willing to bring on someone else if we needed to. I think we could really get some business. I'm mostly scared about the finacial investment. I have NO idea about pricing jobs. Is there some type of systme. I'm guessing based on stiches, but how do you know how many sitches? I know ....what a newbie!
I would contact a few embroiderers near your town. Come up with different job examples and call them randomly to check pricing. We have a single head machine and it more than pays for itself each month. We are in a city of about 45K and have about 5 local shops to compete with that offer embroidery. Your situation sounds one that could be potentially very profitalble. Our single head machine was about 15,000 and runs about 350 per month. We charge $6 for a 3 letter 2.5" monogram and 1 per 1,000 give or take for other jobs. Less when they bring several pieces. As for difficulty, the machine really wasn't that difficult to learn. The software can be kind of annoying sometimes and there's a lot about it that I still don't know. I'm learning everyday. But after training and a few weeks, I learned enough to do most of the jobs that I was getting. If you're strapped for time like me, I would recommend getting an outside digitizer to create your embroidery files for you.
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Hard labor kills, make t-shirts instead.
I tarted with embrodery 14 yrs ago and still learn something new eveyday. I'm thinking of addig 2 more heads to the shop. I just bought a new cutter and i'm trying to learn that software too. I encourage you to check out all your options and do what's best. Good luck. .... JB
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It is rather expensive to start up, but if you can become a one stop shop for your customers, then it may well be worth the investment.
As for setting prices, it depends on stitch count to a certain degree. For me, it also depends on if the customer is buying the garments (or whatever) from me or, if they're providing their own.
I have a $14 per piece minimum for customer's own goods. On goods that I supply, I really make my money on the merchandise. So for example on a polo, I would charge $6 - $8 for up to about 8k stitches, and up charge from there.
I'm just starting to digitize the simple stuff myself, I still send out the more complicated digitizing jobs.
To find a digitizer, I suggest sending a graphic to 3 or 4 digitizers. That will help you judge their customer service, as well as their digitizing skills. Nothing more frustrating than having someone be late with your file, and then having problems sewing it out when you have a deadline.
Go to some shows if you can so you can see the machines in action. Take the training. But most importantly, find out how close or far the nearest tech for the particular machine is. Call the customer support department for both the machine, and the software before you buy -- see how long it takes for them to answer your call, call you back, or answer a fairly simple question.
I have a $14 per piece minimum for customer's own goods. On goods that I supply, I really make my money on the merchandise. So for example on a polo, I would charge $6 - $8 for up to about 8k stitches, and up charge from there.
Wow, around here prices like that are pretty unheard of and would probably get you laughed at when you gave them to customers. Here, people pinch pennies like they're hundred dollar bills and say for a $20 polo retail, I'd just charge an extra $2-$4 for a total of around $22 usually. I'd love to be able to get $28 for a polo that I pay $10 on with embroidery. Luckily, the cost of living around here is nothing compared to Cali.
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Hard labor kills, make t-shirts instead.
Wow, around here prices like that are pretty unheard of and would probably get you laughed at when you gave them to customers. Here, people pinch pennies like they're hundred dollar bills and say for a $20 polo retail, I'd just charge an extra $2-$4 for a total of around $22 usually. I'd love to be able to get $28 for a polo that I pay $10 on with embroidery. Luckily, the cost of living around here is nothing compared to Cali.
I think you're quite right that the cost of living is a huge factor in pricing. However, don't forget that we are talking about custom shirts. No matter where you live, I think that if someone balks at paying $18 for a custom t-shirt, then they don't value the craft, and they don't want a custom shirt badly enough. Remember, these are the same people who will pay upwards of $30 for a concert tee, a sports team tee, etc.
We have been in embroidery for 23 years (since 1986), started w/ a 1 head machine, and grew from there. However, today's market is a lot harder to make a good profit due to competition, overseas embroidery, and overhead. A good embroidery operator will cost you $8-$12 per hour. A good single head machine new runs about $15K. I always looked at embroidery as making profit in dollars, and screen-printing as making profit in cents....reason is that contract screen-printing you get $1-$2 to down 1 color, whereas in embroidery, you can get $6 to put down a few letters. It would definately be a good addition to your business, but you would need at least one more employee, well trained, to run the machine. Also, I can take a Jerzees 437m 50/50 polo shirt that cost me $6 wholesale, put a 1 color s/p left chest on it, and retail maybe for $10. I can take that same shirt, put a 8,000 stitch multi-color emb. design on it, and retail for $16. Embroidery does get you better profit. A good operator can probably knock off 3 (three) of these 8,000 stitch designs per hour, so that's $30/hr profit.
Make sure you get a machine that can run caps, and jacket backs as well. Also, you'll need a good digitizer, as most all customers want their own logo. All in all, I like embroidery...it's clean, no fumes or ink mess, and takes up less room.
So Keely,
What Did you do? I know that it has been 2 months since you posted your question, but I was just wondering if you decided to expand into embroidery?
Best Regards,
Emb DTG Guy
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Thinking about expanding to emboidery 
