[RespecttheCraft]

Occasionally I have customers ask for proofs before even discussing payment. What is your stance on making mock-ups or proofs without any sort of money down? or do you usually ask for a deposit?

thanks

 

[Twanabee]

It depends on how much work. I usually give them a mock-up for nothing if it's a simple vinyl job but if I have to take a lot of time, I will charge them for art work.

 

[GraphicGuy]

I will give them a mock up on paper printed in color. If they want a proof on a shirt, I charge them $30 per screen and around $30 for the shirt. Then I tell them that I will apply this money to the final order price.

 

[Pwear]

Never. I tell them up-front that a 50% deposit will begin the job, and we'll send over an art proof shortly after. When I started my business I did alot of proofs and design work before payment and got burned many times. The proof is not for them to decide if they want to do the job, it's to decide how the job will be done. Payment up front ALWAYS, at least for us.

 

[Dan K]

At this point, we usually only do mock ups on confirmed orders - that means estimate approval and 50% deposit collected before we sent mock ups.

There are sometimes great reasons to break this practice though. In some instances we will send a mock up before an order is confirmed if I get the feeling it will help it confirm the order for us.

But then again (why the standard is in place here at our shop) as Aaron said, we have been burned in the past doing mock ups. Us doing the art work, spending the time on it, and the potential customer taking our mock up to another printer.

Everything so far is for mock ups. Printed samples cost $50 per color printed...

 

[760rdl]

never. Like Dan and Arron said 50% up front . The reason i do this is people will take advantage of you and have you work for free and never put in an order. on my order form i have a shirt front and back ...i usuuslly have them tell me what they want and kindda sketch it out along with writing the info. this i do at no charge . if we come to an agreement and they like whats on there i ask for 50% down and tell them when there order will be readt i rip a page from the order form and give it to them as kinda a receipt . (my order form is 3 peice copys) i take what info i have and make a mock up on AI or PS . I then send it through email for approval and thats pretty much it . if the art gets difficult i charge them 15 for every half hour.Never work for free. good luck

 

[Unik Ink]

We always send digital mockups before taking payment. We provide printed samples from past jobs for free + shipping costs to customer. We occasionally offer pre production printed samples and charge the setup costs + print/garment costs of the samples. $150 minimum for printed samples. We discourage pre printed samples since it delays turnaround time, and takes up our press that could be running other orders. We do know that they are necessary for certain orders though. If a company will be running several thousand shirts, I know that they need to see samples to make sure the final product is what they want.

 

[mikelmorgan]

I had a customer take a paper printout of the art we discussed and leave it at a competitor. I do contract work for that competitor. The competitor comes in my shop asking if I can print this order for him. From that time forward we do not do any artwork until we have some sort of deposit. PERIOD.

 

[chobay]

Yes, free mockups, they do not take much time or effort. I consider this good customer service to ensure that everyone is on the same page. If anything, the approval of a mockup by the customer protects you from the customer disputing the placement of images, colors of garment, etc.

One off samples are free for potential big orders, a nominal charge for others..

 

[Unik Ink]

I had a customer take a paper printout of the art we discussed and leave it at a competitor. I do contract work for that competitor. The competitor comes in my shop asking if I can print this order for him. From that time forward we do not do any artwork until we have some sort of deposit. PERIOD.

Oh yeah, we take 50% deposit on all artwork, and always send low res images as proofs. Once artwork is completed we send an order approval form, then receive full payment for art + order, the begin production. If the customer wants to take the artwork elsewhere for printing, we have a licensing fee for full copyright transfer of the artwork. It discourages customers from using us for the artwork, and going down the street to the guy that charges $.25 less per shirt for the printing.

 

[propsuper]

Never. I tell them up-front that a 50% deposit will begin the job, and we'll send over an art proof shortly after. When I started my business I did alot of proofs and design work before payment and got burned many times. The proof is not for them to decide if they want to do the job, it's to decide how the job will be done. Payment up front ALWAYS, at least for us.

Same for our shop. I never put my money in their hands. 50% deposit or work does not begin.

 

[fov]

We dont do the art work before an order but if someone has the artwork in a usable format I will print a paper mock up for them to scale. If they want to see an example of our screen printed work or a sample tshirt they can see and feel one of our designs on a shirt.
But never make a screen or do their artwork for them without an order.

 

[n.signia]

We treat the mock up as a way to "seal the deal" And if that's what I feel a particular order needs to close the deal, we do it, if not we wait until the customer has been invoiced and has paid. Every customer is different, we try to be intuitive to what is important to them, and meet those needs to close the deal.

 

[LFI Grafix]

We've been burned a number of times in the past, too. What's difficult for me is demanding the 50% up front, especially from repeat customers who've always paid when the order was picked up or delivered. But, I've been burned by some of these as well, who don't have payment ready when the order is delivered. They say they'll mail it. Then don't. And I have to spend extra time making calls trying to collect.
This is one of the reasons I want out of this business!

 

[Ken Styles]

^ but that happens with almost every type of business. Except I guess mechanics who will keep your vehicle until the bill is paid.

 

[dfc]

I feel that this is not a huge conversion factor of landing a job, some might disagree... If a customer wants to see the quality of your work, you should have samples of other jobs that you can show them to insure them that they will receive a quality product.

I agree you should always take 50% down before doing anything besides a quote. Your time is very valuable and you can't be working for free, even if it only takes 15 minutes.

 

[Pollchaps]

If people really want shirts they will pay up front. Early on we had to do some work based on faith, but we are established now and people do not complain about paying up front.