Inkjet Garment Printing - Screen Printing University

Class Series Pricing 102 - What can I make with a Digital Printer?

Many peopel ask the same question - how much can I expect to make with a digital garment printer? One of the biggest things that will affect your pricing is going to be how fast your machine can be set up and how many shirts per hour it can produce. This is ultimately the factor that affects everything we do in business - production rates.

In the graphic below we will take a look at some of these factors and see how much we can make based on a standard setup time of 5 minutes per job (getting the graphics loaded, sent to the printer and loading the shirt) and then actual print time and curing times, the actual cost of the garment, the labor per shirt, the ink cost and a lease payment on a per shirt basis, as well as the number of hours per day you can keep the machine running.

Let's take a quick look at the graph below.

So, what we have going here you can see that based on the retail pricing structure presented for the Quantities of shirts the average price per quantity range (the average of the from and to quantities for the shirts) is most profitable in the 2-3 range through the 19-24 shirt range. That is where these machines really flourish is on the smaller quantities in full color that screen printing can't touch because it would be cost prohibitive.

Second this is factoring in only 4 production hours per day and all your costs except for overhead like utilities and rent. You can see that this new technology can be very profitable if you have the ability to get the jobs in and run the machine.

The other thing is that we are basing the production rates off of only 1 shirt produced every 90 seconds. Some machines have a better production rate and can produce a shirt about every 60 seconds. Assuming the design is smaller you might even be able to get more shirts per hour than expected. If this was the case, and you were able to produce more than 45 shirt per hour you could end up making a lot more money.

That's why we are excited about this technology. Not only can it allow you to do some incredible printing with awesome looking graphics, but you can make some good money at the same time (which is more fun!).

Class dismissed!

SPREADSHEET NOW AVAILABLE FOR THIS CLASS

We have finally got this spreadsheet uploaded and you can now play with the numbers to see where you need to be to make what you want to make. Just click on the link below.

We have modified it slightly to make it more usable. So, please feel free to make suggestions or what you think about it. (Or if I did something wrong calculation wise!)

You can change any of the Yellow cells as well as the Retail Pricing in the Light Orange for the Quantity Ranges. Let us know what you think.

http://www.direct2shirt.com/spreadsheets/retailpricinganalysis.xls

New to this so please forgive my stupidity.
Trying to figure out how to price shirts. Looked through the spreadsheat got a base idea, but my questions are::::
how do I price out for a small left chest and lets say a large back imprint?
I don't want to be outa the ball park and charge too much but don't want to give it away.
Also dark shirts or shirts that need a white base, how do you price these without seeing the logo?
Is it better to charge per square inch - expecially on darks? If so what is the average per square inch?
Should I use the price list from my contract screen printer as a guide? And if so how do I do it - they charge per color?
Soooooo lost when it comes to this.
Any help would be so greatly appreciated!!!!
Promolady

Wow, this is actually a loaded question. First rule of thumb you need to make enough to cover your expenses.

Second, you need to make enough to make a profit after paying yourself.

Third - NEVER use your contractor's pricing list or anyone elses to generate your pricing unless you are using to guage the market - even then if you pricing can't cover your expenses - don't get into it!

There are a thousand schools of thought on pricing. Here's another article that slightly covers this a little better. http://www.inkjetgarmentprinters.com/fo ... mer&t=1893

A small left chest compared to a big back imprint - the smaller will take less time and ink (usually) so you would charge slightly less for that. However, your pricing is going to be based on your business model. What are you trying to do and accomplish and to what end user are you targeting?

Know your Expenses. Know your Competition. Know Your Market.

That's my mantra on pricing. Don't be the least expensive. Don't be the most expensive. But be the best!

1. it is not immoral to make money
2. charge the highest price possible but low enough to get the job
3. know your competition
4. deliver value
5. know your expenses, all your exenses, not just your material costs

never take a loss on a job unless you are using it to get more work at a profit (very dangerous)