How much do you charge for screen setup?

910 Views 18 Replies 12 Participants Last post by djque, Aug 13, 2015

spham

Discussion Starter · Apr 2, 2014

We normally charge $15 per screen/color/location, had a customer wanting a 3 color. We would charge $45, but they are saying their "other printer" charges $15 for setup regardless of how many colors, etc.

I always thought industry norm was to charge for EACH screens, I've seen anywhere from $10-$25, so we settled on $15. Thoughts?

1 - 19 of 19 Posts

red514

· #2 · Apr 2, 2014

i agree with your industry standard pricing. the average charges i see from the many shops i've dealt with is 10-15$/screen for setup only.
with many of these shops, on a production run over 1200 pieces setup charges are 0$/screen

at my old shop, i would charge 35$/screen. this included film out put, screen exposure and setup.

royster13

· #3 · Apr 2, 2014

There is no such thing as "industry standard"....

spham

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 2, 2014

True, there is definitely no "industry standard," i'll re-word that. After talking to 10 different screen printers that charge anywhere from $10-$25, we settle at $15.

red514

· #5 · Apr 2, 2014

royster13 said:
There is no such thing as "industry standard"....

fair enough.

industry average in my area

spham

Discussion Starter · #6 · Apr 2, 2014

Yes! I like that phrase better, "industry average." Thanks for your input

debbbbsy

· #7 · Apr 2, 2014

There is no such thing as "industry standard"....

I agree. This is not a cartel.

For small quantities, yes charge for screens and set up.

Every job should be quoted individually, depending on the complexity of the design and the quantity of shirts required and of course how busy you are.

We take a view on whether or not we want to win an order, when it comes to haggling, removing the screen cost is an easy move. Any order 500+ we don't charge. For us the profit is in the printing.

Mtnview

· #8 · Apr 2, 2014

spham said:
We would charge $45, but they are saying their "other printer" charges $15 for setup regardless of how many colors, etc.

Are they going to show you a printed statement by this "other printer"? Do you want to get in the habit of price matching? Once you start down that road where do you draw the line?

Reactions: 2

dbmike

· #9 · Apr 3, 2014

We market ourselves as having no set up/screen fee's. So we just have it rolled into our pricing matrix.

We've found this to work very well so far, especially in Central NY where there is a ton of competition.

We do charge screen fee's ($5) for contract printing though.

spham

Discussion Starter · #10 · Apr 3, 2014

Mtnview said:
Are they going to show you a printed statement by this "other printer"? Do you want to get in the habit of price matching? Once you start down that road where do you draw the line?

Didn't show an official sheet, looked like something pasted from the internet. Not trying to make it a habit but it would be a good account. Good point, definitely learned that giving them an inch will make them want a mile. I guess it really depends on how bad I want this account...

Reactions: 1

latitude42

· #11 · Apr 3, 2014

If you don't make dollars, it doesn't make sense!

team first inc

· #12 · Aug 12, 2015

Technically, we charge $16/screen/color/location but like another poster above, we roll it into the pricing so we advertise that we don't have screen charges. It's built right into the total price. That seems to work well.

Ripcord

· #13 · Aug 12, 2015

Mtnview said:
Are they going to show you a printed statement by this "other printer"? Do you want to get in the habit of price matching? Once you start down that road where do you draw the line?

I don't play that game. If someone has a legitimate quote from another printer that's lower than mine but reasonable, and it's a job I want I might match it. But setting up 3 colors for the (already a little low) price of one? I'd let the "other printer" have the job. I'm plenty busy with customers who pay me for what I do.

djque

· #14 · Aug 12, 2015

Yeah i would let the other printer do it also. I have a friend that wants 16 shirt total

8 with a picture of all 8 each person like the attached image with different names and bride friend there called.

Then 8 more shirts that have a song slogan cut in htv and in supplying the shirts.

I said $300 she said that's high were talking $10 per shirt she said the guy at the swapmeet said $8.00 each shirt so i said go to him then. My issue was this is like a sister to me and she went with me and got some wholesale shirts with me and kinda knows the price.

She even said the more shirts you buy the cheaper. I said yeah in silkscreen but not inkjet transfers and htv vinyl where you have to weed the lettering. Not to mention i have to design that image to each 8 person name and writing and make that boarder in photoshop and illy. I said ok ill do it for the $8.00 per shirt so it also i was driving and we settled on $16 per shirt for a total of $256 well $260 to even it off. She said there cool with that. So i have to design all this from scratch all there sending me is a photo of each bride's maid. What would yall of charged

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djque

· #15 · Aug 12, 2015

By the way I charge them $25 for setup of each color. And when they complain I show them a video of the process on how to make a screen from artwork to exposing the screen. I do state that the drying time take 24hrs. But i dont let them know its faster with my enclosure unit..i do get them that say this shop don't charge for that and i say they do but if you're buying 400 to 1k shirts you don't know cuz is add in the total price. They laught and say ok.

DedMan

· #16 · Aug 12, 2015

I think the industry standard on this kinda went out the window.
We don't do set up fees except in rare cases. Our standard pricing has set up costs included per shirt, so when we tell the customer "it's X per shirt" thats what they pay. Having it simple for the customer has gotten us a lot of business, they tend not to like "added charges".

BidsMaven

· #17 · Aug 12, 2015

We provide five levels of built-in pricing in our software. For the lowest price bids we've set the price for screens at $20, for middle price bids we've set it at $25, and for highest price bids we've set it at $30.

We offer a 30 day free trial if you want to take a look at any of the other settings for the built-in pricing. There's a link in my signature block below if you're interested in checking it out.

Ripcord

· #18 · Aug 13, 2015

djque said:
I show them a video of the process on how to make a screen from artwork to exposing the screen.

And by then you're only half done. You also need to tape the screens, set up the press, mix the inks, and get the job into registration. When all is said and done you've done at least half an hour of work and used about $5 of chemistry and emulsion per screen. The setup charge per color is entirely justified. Not only that, but in case the customer hasn't figured this out yet, as unfair as it may seem we actually do make money from this.

djque

· #19 · Aug 13, 2015

That's in there too

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