[jeron]

Hey guys,

I have a excel spreadsheet that I use to price out jobs with. It has a place for me to add screen cost, number of screens, ink cost per print, labor rate, time to print per shirt, cost of shirt, etc.

Basically I plug in how many screens(colors), and all the info and down at the bottom it gives me a chart that has different quantities starting from 1 piece up to 250 pieces and a custom line that I can type in the quantity and get the price also.

What are the breaks you guys use for quantity. Because the way I'm doing it now there are none. Meaning the cost per item is simply cost to produce plus markup divided by quantity. So it might be $50 for 1 shirt and $6 per shirt for 250 but at 3000 pieces it's still ends up being roughly $6 per shirt because at a certain point the cost can't go lower unless I give a price break... if all that made sense

Do you normally give price breaks for certain quantities, or am I doing it right. If I'm doing it right, how do people do it lower? Like there is a place in my area that says $2.75 per shirt but that's for 1000 pieces on white one color. But I would be minimum $6.

I know I'm new and probably haven't got pricing down yet but $3.25 lower without some sort of price break, like cutting profit in half at a certain quantity, seems impossible to me.. I don't mind being higher because I know they are bigger, established, get blanks cheaper, got their costs down, run automatics, etc. But if I'm higher because I should be giving a price break I feel like I need to address that

Thanks for any help you have on helping me figure this out!!!

 

[PatWibble]

Don't get too bogged down with margin, remember that total earning- the cash in your claw- is most important.
High pricing for short runs reflects the time it takes to make a screen, set up and reclaim afterwards.
Remember that unlike the other garment decoration methods screen printing is a form of mass production and your price should reflect that.
In this digital era that is a point that is often overlooked.
A good printer with a conveyor drier can hand print up to 150 one colour prints per hour. That guy down the road can burn, set up, print and reclaim in one day. Assuming that he is making $1 a shirt, he has earned a grand in a day! If hes got an auto he can be home in time for lunch.

Think like a retailer. A 500% mark up would be nice, but if no one is walking through the door its kinda pointless. Provided you are making a good unit profit and shifting some merchandise then the overheads will take care of themselves.
Its what is in the register at closing time that counts. When your printing your earning!
Your going to spend the best part of an hour producing transparency, screen,setting up and reclaiming. The longer you can keep the screen on the press the better.

Firstly decide on the minimum spend you will accept to get your squeegee wet(!). Say approx. $100 - any less and you would be better off using another method.

Set some clear price points to entice custom..

Try 12 white shirts with one colour print for $8, 24 for $7, 48 for $6, 72 for $5, 144 for $4, 288 for $3. As volume increases than the price only needs to drop in 10c increments.
Don't forget the upgrades - charge more for additional colours or coloured garments.

If if you have spare capacity or business is slow offer free screens, or free extra colour or even a free upgrade to a coloured shirt.

Being from the UK, I don't know the exact cost of a shirt in the US but if you work on an estimated cost of a Gildan 5000 an a bit of ink as being $1.50 then look at the examples below;

It will take almost an hour (total time) to print 12 shirts, giving 12 x $6.50 gross profit ($78/ hr)
It will take 2 hours (total) to print 144 shirts, giving 144 x $2.50. Thats $360 ($180/ hr)
It will take 3 hours (total) to print 288 shirts, 288 x $1.50. Thats $432 gross ( £144/hr)

Sure the hourly return drops, but who is to say if you'd have got the job if you charged more? Its still a good mornings work!

Within reason keep that damn press spinning.

Remember, screen printing is primarily mass production. There are plenty of other methods for short run production.