[JAM Marketing]

So I just talked to a potential client that says they can get a 1 color front no back white t-shirt order of 50pc for $3 a shirt.

Is this person trying to hustle me? I don't know ANYWHERE where one can get a deal that low. No way, no how. Thoughts? Advice?

 

[royster13]

So I just talked to a potential client that says they can get a 1 color front no back white t-shirt order of 50pc for $3 a shirt.

Is this person trying to hustle me? I don't know ANYWHERE where one can get a deal that low. No way, no how. Thoughts? Advice?

Have you looked at the prices on Ebay?

 

[JAM Marketing]

Have you looked at the prices on Ebay?

For custom to-order printing? That's a thing?

 

[Rodney]

There's almost always someone somewhere willing to do a job for less. Even lose money (they may not even realize they're losing money)

 

[royster13]

For custom to-order printing? That's a thing?

Sure......Look at your local Craig's List as well....

 

[JAM Marketing]

So then how do I go about this? What would you do in my shoes? This is a possible 400pc account at least once a year.

 

[treefox2118]

You can buy white cotton "seconds" for as low as $1.20 a pop. Ink on a shirt is probably $0.10 tops. If you have an automatic, and you have an amazing screen department that can make the screen quickly and efficiently, then you'd make 100% margin at $3 a shirt.

Would I go that cheap? No. But I also keep money in my local market, and I do remind my customers that without money in the local market, their products won't sell either.

 

[royster13]

You can buy white cotton "seconds" for as low as $1.20 a pop. Ink on a shirt is probably $0.10 tops. If you have an automatic, and you have an amazing screen department that can make the screen quickly and efficiently, then you'd make 100% margin at $3 a shirt.

Would I go that cheap? No. But I also keep money in my local market, and I do remind my customers that without money in the local market, their products won't sell either.

Why 2nds?.....you can buy 1sts for a dime more......

 

[treefox2118]

Yeah but a dime is 8% of your gross cost. If you sell 500 of these jobs a week, the dime adds up.

I remember back when we did a "walk up only" special of 16 shirts for $100. Some of my competitors *****ed, but it was a great way to get people in the door. And then we realized we could make a solid profit if we fixed our workflow inefficiencies. This is on a manual press. Then it became 24 shirts for $100. Again, inefficiencies were discovered and fixed. I'd love to be able to offer 33 shirts for $100.

Why?

Because 95% of people who came in for that offer wanted to upgrade. "How much for black shirts?" and "How much for a second color?" and the like. No one paid the advertised rate.

 

[royster13]

Where can you even buy 2nds delivered for 1.20 each?....But I suppose a dime is a lot of money if you are selling 1,000s a week....

 

[JAM Marketing]

I'd also like to know where I can get 2nds. My suppliers barely ever get any.

 

[jcprinting]

Were u located?

 

[JAM Marketing]

Were u located?

South florida

 

[Celtic]

Jonathan,
Personally, I wouldn't drop to $3 a shirt.
I think that I'd tell them that I'd love to have them as a customer, but that you pride yourself on doing only quality work for your customers, with quality products, ones that won't fail, etc.
I've experienced customers like this over the years with my custom airbrush (motorcycle mural ) work, and the ones that went for the cheap job, came back to me and ended up paying so much more from having to pay twice.
just my 2 cents

 

[jcprinting]

Weve bean tempted to get seconds, the only thing is that your reputation goes on every shirt u print. Some shirts have a longer sleeve than the other, others have pin holes, and others seem they were sewn by a blind man.

 

[Pak sherm]

Unless these are wear once-throw away, I would never make cheap like this. Never seconds, I want to be known for a quality product that people will keep. If that's what a customer demands then they'd be best served elsewhere.

 

[Ripcord]

So then how do I go about this? What would you do in my shoes? This is a possible 400pc account at least once a year.

I wouldn't go that cheap for 50, but maybe I would for 400.

I wouldn't quote that low of a price upfront, but if the customer showed me a legitimate quote from another printer for $1,200 for 400 white shirts and told me I could have the job if I matched the price I might go for it....

I use 30 shirts per hour as my dark-on-light printing speed. (This probably sounds low, but since I'm a one man shop, that hour of printing also includes loading and stacking the shirts myself, answering the phone, breaking in to do estimates, fooling around for a few minutes here and there on the internet etc. Also my small dryer won't handle many more that...)

So even at my slow output, I'd plan to comfortably finish this job by myself in two days for a profit of over $600. I'd rather charge more, but I don't think I'd turn this down.

 

[treefox2118]

Call Cotton Connection in Chicago. They have a lot of "first quality" seconds every day. Tell them tree fox sent you, see if they can hook you up.

They're just down the road from us. If a customer is in desperation mode, I will offer them seconds and warn them. I even keep some of the creepy seconds we find from time to time. One had a long sleeve. One long sleeve, haha.

 

[sledzeppelin]

Only you know what your profit, if any, would be working that cheap. If it's worth it for your time, go ahead. If not, decline.

 

[binki]

We could make money at that price but we don't want to be in that business. I would do this on a 5 oz shirt for 50 units at $6. If they want to go somewhere else then let them for $3. I bet they will be picky as h3ll about the quality too.