I scrapped my screen printing equipment just over a year ago in favor of DTG printing. In that time, I've found that you need the flexibility to offer both. What I did was to approach a large screen printer in the area about his contract pricing, he also offers embroidery and sign making, so I offer those services to my customers as well.
Now, when a customer approaches me with a job, I evaluate if I am better off printing it for them by DTG or contracting the job out to the screen printer. Sometimes, I will order plastisol transfers and press them myself (usually for numbers or kids' shirts). I am able to price all of the screen printing jobs to the point where I make $3-$4 per shirt without doing any of the actual work. If the customer art is something that I can handle, then I do it myself and bill accordingly. If I can't I just pass it along to the screen printer's art department.
The factors that I use are number of colors, color of shirt, and time that the customer needs it in.
As a manual screen printer I was unable to compete with the big automatic press operators, so now I just use their pricing to my advantage.
Now, when a customer approaches me with a job, I evaluate if I am better off printing it for them by DTG or contracting the job out to the screen printer. Sometimes, I will order plastisol transfers and press them myself (usually for numbers or kids' shirts). I am able to price all of the screen printing jobs to the point where I make $3-$4 per shirt without doing any of the actual work. If the customer art is something that I can handle, then I do it myself and bill accordingly. If I can't I just pass it along to the screen printer's art department.
The factors that I use are number of colors, color of shirt, and time that the customer needs it in.
As a manual screen printer I was unable to compete with the big automatic press operators, so now I just use their pricing to my advantage.
