[diana13t]

I emailed the following design to a lady in charge of purchasing stuff for a large high school PTA Store. I was trying to sell it as a decal but she wants it on caps. I'll have to create a new design to fit on the caps (which is no big deal), but she was asking me the following questions:

1. What kind of caps I would use?
2. What is the minimum order?
3. What would the price be?

Of course they want to sell them at the school store to raise money.

I have no idea what to tell her. For the first question I usually order my caps form Otto Cap or BroderBros, so I can tell her she can pick the cap if she'd like. But so far, I've only done embroidery on them.

I have no idea what to tell her the minimum order is. With Otto Cap I know she'd have to order in increments of 12, but I don't know if I should have a minimum from me?

Should I then give her a retail price and a discount % based on number purchased? If so, can you please give me some ideas for your price breakdowns? Also, what would you normally retail a rhinestone cap for?

I really want to get in with this High School, it is a HUGE 5 A school out in the Hill Country and I could make some big bucks with them. So I definitely want to get my foot in the door.

Thanks for all your help.
Di

 

[lizziemaxine]

First, think about who will be buying these caps. With rhinestones it probably isn't going to be the guys. So, what styles of caps do the ladies like? Probably going to be an unstructured cap so it will be a smaller area available for the design. Do you have a cap press? I'm not sure that you can use a regular heat press to do caps.

 

[diana13t]

I do have a cap press.

 

[leapoffaith]

I'm working with two schools right now. I'm new at this, and trying to figure it out myself. The problem is that schools and PTAs are buying product to sell to raise money. So they want wholesale prices. With rhinestones it's hard to sell them to the PTA as cheaply as they want them, and still make a decent profit yourself. I'm not sure it's worth it? So far I've just made it the price that makes it worth it for me, and I've gotten one yes, one maybe (waiting for another meeting) and told "no thanks" on two. So, I don't know.....

Even when I give them the price that makes it "worth it" to me, it's still not close to the price I've been getting on single sales off of my website. Of course, this is 50+ sales at once, rather than one. So that makes up for part of the loss of higher price.

I just don't want to work as hard as it takes to make 50+ shirts and hardly make any money off of the order.

One place that told me no wanted the school name on the front and each kid's name in rhinestones personalized on the back. When they told me no, they said they found someone who would do it for $10 if they provided the shirts! I am not going to design, cut, and press personalized names on 50 different shirts, PLUS the front design for $10! I don't even want to compete with that. I'm sorry, I'm kind of getting off of your caps subject.

Let me know if you figure out a good way to do it. I'll be interested to keep an eye on this thread and see what suggestions you get.

BTW, your design looks GREAT!

 

[CyberSultan]

Leap, we have been working with schools for a few years now and we do share about 50% of the profits with the schools we work with. These schools order quite a bit at a time, so we do make money. Besides helping the schools and the children with these fund-raising activities, you will find that you get great exposure from your products being out there and seen by so many people. Parents of these school children are often involved with sports teams, clubs, churches, etc. and will inquire as to where to get the awesome products that they are seeing. That opens up great opportunities to sell your products to those individuals and organizations with a higher profit margin. Also, you will find that PTAs and schools often talk with other PTAs and schools about fund-raising and those recommendations can go a long way.

 

[Buechee]

Not sure of the cap to use. That's up to you. I would go with a good brand, top notch. The order should be no less than 5 caps and charge about $25 per hat and drop the price when they buy more than 5.