when (if ever) do you suggest sending the job to a screen printer?
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Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
when (if ever) do you suggest sending the job to a screen printer?
So straighten me out here on the numbers. For 20 shirts you'd send them to your screenprinter. That means for more shirts, still the screenprinter - and what's your cutoff? YOU do up to how many without sending them to the screenprinter?
I've never sent anything to anyone. I do everything myself. I don't think I've been working very smart though - just very hard.
I got an order today for 48 shirts. All with the same One Color Text/Design on them. Front Pocket and Full Graphic on back. 1/2 shirts in Bright Yellow, other 1/2 in bright orange.
I had planned to use my vinyl cutter.
Interested in how you would handle this order, and how you'd price it.
Hopefully, now that we have some new members with different points of view, they'll be some answers posted to this thread as well.
I always think this is an interesting subject.
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I got an order today for 48 shirts. All with the same One Color Text/Design on them. Front Pocket and Full Graphic on back. 1/2 shirts in Bright Yellow, other 1/2 in bright orange.
I had planned to use my vinyl cutter.
Interested in how you would handle this order, and how you'd price it.
I think it varies from job to job. For example, if it's a single color graphic on the front and a single color graphic on the back for 48 shirts, a screen printer is totally setup to run those type of jobs REALLY fast.
Of course, you COULD do it yourself, but what kind of profit would you be making for the order?
Take that profit number and call up 3 screen printers and ask them what they would charge you at CONTRACT pricing for the same order.
Compare those two figures and see if you could be working on a higher profit job and just outsourcing the 48 piece single color job or if you would make more money doing it in house.
The variables change when you are talking about 6 pieces, 10 pieces, 5 color designs with low quantities, etc.
It would be great if we could get a side by side comparison of the different printing process costs for this order as an example. That might make a good case study for reference.
Re: when (if ever) do you suggest sending the job to a screen printer?
I usually only send orders of over 50 to the screen printer as its really not to cost effective with the cost of screens etc for smaller amounts.. of course this also depends on a few factors..
48 shirts id prolly do in house and charge between 8 -10 a shirt.. I also add 1 for 2x size and 2 for 3 x size shirts
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Re: when (if ever) do you suggest sending the job to a screen printer?
Thanks Rodney.
Dumb Question.
I understand I need to establish a relationship with a screenprinter to start outsourcing some of these jobs. What exactly does 'contract' pricing mean? Is there a standard definition? Why would they give me a better price on MY 48 t shirts (contract price) than the next customer that comes in? How do they know they'll benefit by giving me a better deal, if they don't know I'll be back? I hope I'm making some sense.
Other question: Quality Control. I may be a bit of a control freak, but it scares me to think of handing this job over to a screenprinter that I haven't used before. No matter when I decide to start using a screenprinter, there's gonna HAVE to be that first order that shows me the quality of their work.
Y'all never have quality control issues when outsourcing?
Re: when (if ever) do you suggest sending the job to a screen printer?
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What exactly does 'contract' pricing mean?
Contract pricing basically means that the printer is dealing with someone "in the trade". Like a fellow printer with too much work or a printer in a different medium (like heat transfers).
They benefit by you sending them jobs that help keep their press running. Plus, as someone in the trade, you cut down on a lot of their "leg work" of tracking down the right graphic, finding the right t-shirt for the customer, etc.
You just send them the print ready graphic and the t-shirts, and they print the shirts and send them back to you (or blind ship them to the customer under your name).
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Why would they give me a better price on MY 48 t shirts (contract price) than the next customer that comes in?
Less back and forth time with graphics, you supply the shirts, building a long term relationship with a customer that will most likely send more work.
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How do they know they'll benefit by giving me a better deal, if they don't know I'll be back?
It's usually a trust relationship. But if you are an established business, it's not too hard to show that you are a serious potential client with an existing customer base.
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Other question: Quality Control. I may be a bit of a control freak, but it scares me to think of handing this job over to a screenprinter that I haven't used before. No matter when I decide to start using a screenprinter, there's gonna HAVE to be that first order that shows me the quality of their work.
Sure, that makes sense. Your customers do the same thing with you. They don't know your quality control, so they probably do small test orders to make sure you give them what they need.
Think about why a customer would want to trust you with their order? What would motivate you to do a good job for them?
Those same things would motivate a screen printer to do a good job for their contract and in house clients
Pride in their work.
More word of mouth referrals from a job well done
More jobs and business in the future from a job well done
Protecting their company's good name for quality by standing behind their work
etc...
How do you handle quality issues in your shop if a customer doesn't like what you delivered or if something slips through the cracks?
Just make sure the printer you work with has the same or similar policies.
Also, if the shirts are going to you before they get to the customer, you can quality check them yourself.
Re: when (if ever) do you suggest sending the job to a screen printer?
Thanks again - soo much Rodney.
I know you can't tell - but I HAVE been in business for a while, but for mostly personalized orders, or just the retail customer that buys 1 or 2 of my regular designs. It's the pricing and dealing with the bigger orders that tends to intimidate me or make me answer too quickly with crazy answers like 'no, no set-up fee'. I guess I'm so used to making 15 - 20 orders a week with a total of 30-40 shirts - when someone comes along and asks for 40 or 50 in one order, it kinda freaks me out. Ridiculous really.
Re: when (if ever) do you suggest sending the job to a screen printer?
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I know you can't tell - but I HAVE been in business for a while, but for mostly personalized orders, or just the retail customer that buys 1 or 2 of my regular designs.
Sounds like you're in a perfect position to grow
To your customers, you're probably known as the person to go to for "t-shirts". So while some may come to you for smaller orders, that will also lead to bigger order requests (as you've seen).
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It's the pricing and dealing with the bigger orders that tends to intimidate me or make me answer too quickly with crazy answers like 'no, no set-up fee'. I guess I'm so used to making 15 - 20 orders a week with a total of 30-40 shirts - when someone comes along and asks for 40 or 50 in one order, it kinda freaks me out.
Think of it this way. You could still be making 15-20 orders a week and spend your time making personalized shirts.
AND, you could be taking those larger orders and outsourcing it, and STILL getting paid while the printer does their thing and you keep making the small orders in house. At the same exact time.
Try one outsourced order at first. Not a biggie like 200 pieces or anything. Just one that's on the edge of what you'd normally do. Maybe 40-50 pieces.
Start to establish a relationship with a screen printer and see how that first order goes.
You may find out that it's much easier than you imagined, and on the off chance that you do you run into difficulties you know you've got a community of t-shirt gurus waiting to help you out
Re: when (if ever) do you suggest sending the job to a screen printer?
I don't start looking to contract out jobs unless they are over 100 shirts and I know the customer won't be looking for more of the same design later. But there are also things other than costs that you need to think about when working an order. You have to think about the service you provide and the control you have over the quality of the shirts you are sending to your customer.
People can go pretty much anywhere and get shirts, what my customers get is awesome customer service. I work with many clubs that have events, and in those cases outsourcing can be a good way to go because they usually won't be coming back wanting the same artwork again, so you don't have to worry about reproducing the same shirt 6 months later.
However, Many of the groups I do shirts for end up needing one offs later or they come back with smaller order of about a dozen or so. I have one group that contacts me after they hire a few more people and want 5 of the same shirt. This type of situation would not be good for outsourcing in my opinion. I need to guarantee that the shirt I give them today looks exactly like the 80 shirts I gave them last December and of course the customer wants the same price per shirt. Coming back 6 months later isn't a problem with vinyl.
Re: when (if ever) do you suggest sending the job to a screen printer?
Good points. Thanks.
The other question I run into with these larger orders is this:
My site offers primarily white shirts. Working out of my home, I don't have the space to stock dozens of shirts in dozens of colors and sizes. Once I get the hang of the vinyl thing, I plan to stock Black shirts here as well.
So, when a customer wants 50 bright yellow shirts, I have to order them. If they've asked for 10 small, 20 medium, 10 large, 5 xlarge, and 5 xxlarge - of course I feel like I need to order a couple extra shirts in each size in case of any press mistakes or whatever. When all is said and done, and there were no mistakes (or maybe only 1 or 2), I end up with extra shirts.
I now have a big box full of grey hoodie sweatshirts left over from my last big order.
How do y'all handle this type thing?
I'm sorry if I'm asking questions that are common sense to y'all, and I do sooo appreciate all the help I get from this group of awesome, giving, people.
Re: when (if ever) do you suggest sending the job to a screen printer?
If I can get 50 one colr plastisol transfers (which the quality is equivlent to screen print) for around $1 a piece and I can get Gildens for $1, would it still be cheaper to set up a contract print with a screen printer for 50 shirts? What about using the new duracotton HT?
This is a discussion about when (if ever) do you suggest sending the job to a screen printer? that was posted in the Heat Press and Heat Transfers section of the forums.
Re: T Shirt Pricing 
