[chinoquinteros]

I believe I lost a customer because of the price a quoted, Customer needed 45-50 shirts with designs on front rather large and back. one color ink only and on neon green shirt. The price I quote was $8 ea. shirt
Normally I charge $8 for white shirts and $10 for color ones.
Was I too expensive?
He claim to have somebody that makes 3 color shirts for $5.80 a shirt, and he was expecting to be charged $5 for one color.
I'm new at pricing, I've been making shirts as a hobby for my kids and friends, but also like to be profitable if I do it for somebody else.
Any suggestions on how to price right?

 

[wonubee]

I'm currently only a garage printer with hope to some day take things to the next level and quit my crappy day job and print shirts full time. I'm not the most experienced but I will offer my 2 cents.

First off there seems to always be someone who charges less.

Many customers will try to get you to come down in your price as a matter of their personal business practices.

I need to charge a decent amount of money for the service I am trying to offer in order for it to be worth my time an effort.

Charge what you feel you need to in order to make a good profit and if the customer says no than he says no.
If I can come down a bit and I feel it might give me future business than I will but so far when I have done that and the customer does return they expect the same thing next time even if my original quote was on the low side.

If he can get them so much cheaper some where else then why isn't he. I'd say let him go and he'll be happy and you won't have to work for $8 an hour.

I just did a one color job for a friend mind you and it was black ink on a white shirt, two sides, 50 shirts. I charged $7.50 ea. I felt I was giving her a deal and would have charged at least $8 to the general public. So I think your price is very reasonable, at least for where I live.

Seriously just explain it to him. Tell him that you do good work and that you stand behind it. Tell him that repeat orders get a break on set up fees or something. If he wants to save a few bucks let him go to the other guy. $5 for one color maybe if he's going to order 100 shirts.

Just my 2 cents

 

[foot print]

I say stick to your guns...I go back and forth daily on my prices (in my head ) I live in San Diego and i have seen ads on CL for screens printers offering as low as $3.50 per shirt but when you read the fine print there is always a catch, art must be print ready, print can't be larger that 8x10 white heavy cotton t-shirts (printers choice)the list goes on and on. I borrowed this quote from one of our fellow forum member. "quality isn't cheap and cheap isn't quatlity"

 

[Viper Graphics]

(He claim to have somebody that makes 3 color shirts for $5.80 a shirt, and he was expecting to be charged $5 for one color.)

So why was he going to you for the shirts?

My 2 cents, I'll work for free before cheap.....my charges on that would have been about 8.00 also depending on the brand, size of shirts and customer pickup/deliver (no shipping). Only you can decide what your time and product is worth, what you need to make to be/stay in business....otherwise your in an expensive time consuming hobby....been there ...done that....
By the way, once you agree to do cheap...you have a helluva time to dig out of that gutter (maybe bad choice of words but I'm not a diplomat!)....good luck.
By the way, I'm a garage printer as well as the other poster. I DO include my shop/garage expenses, rent per sq ft. utilities, home office etc...

 

[in2infinity]

I've been in business for about 15 years and my favorite saying is ...

When it comes to your order you can have any 2 of the following ... low price, fast turn, or high quality. You can't have all three.

I've had people call me and say they can get XYZ done for 20% less then my material costs on the same job. I tell them ... "You're getting a sweet deal". If they're willing to listen I also explain that the person that gave that quote has to be cutting corners somewhere. We don't do that.... and thats why if you call us back in a year to reorder, we'll be here. Don't be surprised if your cheap guy isn't.

Bottom line, price to make money and be competitive. You won't win them all, but there are some you really don't want anyways.

 

[vil3nr0b]

I don't think 8 dollars is a bad price at all. We print out of our garage and charge 10-14 with custom design included.

Warren Buffet said it best..
"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get."

 

[poker]

This happened to us today. We presented a 1 color vinyl based shirt to a school and they came back saying they've worked with a person who has given the 3 color designs for $5 a shirt. Live and learn....

 

[mnhim001]

I am a garage printer and hope to one day quit my day job as well.

I normally charge $8 a shirt. I have seen on CL for $3 per shirt, and another customer said I was charging him too much cuz he found another guy to do it for $5. I told him that I couldn't beat that price and he stuck with me anyways. Maybe he was bluffing and I called his bluff.

 

[Ranger West]

Stick to your price list. Everyone wants a break on the price but if you need to make $8 per shirt then charge that. We have lost jobs because we were to high but then the come to us and now it is a rush job as the other guys will not print for them without them paying for the whole job up front. A lot of the cheap printers in our area have gone under as they could not make it. Cheap only works if the quantity is up there so you can afford to make a small amount on each shirt times 1000 equals real money

 

[mnhim001]

The guy doing it for $3 a shirt had no minimum and didn't care how many colors he was printing. He was probably able to do that because its done a DTG.

But don't fall into the low baller category because we all are trying to make a buck, and killing the competition with lower prices is not the way to do it. Keep it at $8 or whatever you feel the price is reasonable.

Consider the cost for everything, your time, your films, screens, ink, electricity, water, time you spent buying the shirts, tweaking the design, employees.

 

[Skinbus]

I believe I lost a customer because of the price a quoted, Customer needed 45-50 shirts with designs on front rather large and back. one color ink only and on neon green shirt. The price I quote was $8 ea. shirt
Normally I charge $8 for white shirts and $10 for color ones.
Was I too expensive?
He claim to have somebody that makes 3 color shirts for $5.80 a shirt, and he was expecting to be charged $5 for one color.
I'm new at pricing, I've been making shirts as a hobby for my kids and friends, but also like to be profitable if I do it for somebody else.
Any suggestions on how to price right?

If they can get it cheaper, let em! Just charge what you think your work is worth. $8 is a steal for a 2 sided design!

 

[IYFGraphics]

The guy doing it for $3 a shirt had no minimum and didn't care how many colors he was printing. He was probably able to do that because its done a DTG.

Doubtful it was a quote from a DTG printer for $3, I wouldn't even turn my DTG on for less that $10 a shirt and that's just basic black ink on a light shirt, full color on a dark shirt is gonna cost $15 per unless were talking a couple hundred shirts.

JMHO

 

[binki]

I once had a fundraiser to do and I had to make money at this thing. One of the components was to sell soda. We purchased the soda for 25c and traditionally we sold them for 50c but I had an idea. Since it was a captive audience (there all day and we were the only food and drink provider) I wanted to sell the soda for $1. Not only would we only need to sell 1/3 of the amount as in the past to make the same profit we didn't have the outlay of cash for the inventory and we made 200% more on each sale.

Even without the captive audience the lesson here is you need to sell less units if your price is higher. At some point it is too high but 5 bux for 50 shirts (100 impressions) is too low.

 

[mcraatz]

This happened to us today. We presented a 1 color vinyl based shirt to a school and they came back saying they've worked with a person who has given the 3 color designs for $5 a shirt. Live and learn....

How many shirts did the school want and what color shirts?

 

[crazycat]

I believe I lost a customer because of the price a quoted, Customer needed 45-50 shirts with designs on front rather large and back. one color ink only and on neon green shirt. The price I quote was $8 ea. shirt
Normally I charge $8 for white shirts and $10 for color ones.
Was I too expensive?
He claim to have somebody that makes 3 color shirts for $5.80 a shirt, and he was expecting to be charged $5 for one color.
I'm new at pricing, I've been making shirts as a hobby for my kids and friends, but also like to be profitable if I do it for somebody else.
Any suggestions on how to price right?

I think your prices are right on target, if he can get them done cheaper tell him to have a nice day. I will not lose money to make a sale, I offer quanity discounts, but those discounts still provide me with an acceptable margin per shirt.

 

[mikelmorgan]

My price sheets comes to &8.26. This includes everything including tax. I'm covered up. If they come for price they will leave for price.

 

[poker]

How many shirts did the school want and what color shirts?

We didn't get all the details of this past order.

On a good note, the school principal chose not to pursue creating t-shirts for their carnival. She felt she was rushing it. We ended up embellishing 10 shirts for security and 20 aprons for the carnival booths.

Persistence saved the deal....