This business has lured you in, like it did me, with dreams of cascading profit margins and high-artistic value locked forever onto a screen-printed tee. Of course by now you may have learned that, Continue reading →

We’ve all been in a price bidding war with a local or even national competitor. You’ve crunched the costs of labor and materials, to eek out every penny. You’ve trimmed enough fat to see bones, and still make a profit. You’re bid is submitted. (For me it was 1,000 white one color shirts. My final bid was a blood-letting $3.75 per shirt – shirt included). The shirts had to be Jerzees 29M. My cost per case was $.85 per shirt. I was beaten by a friend who bid $1.05 per shirt. He made about $.20 per shirt, or $200 for a one man operation using a flash heater to cure the shirts. It took him about four days.

That’s just cutthroat business right? More power to him?

Normally, I would say yes, but then here’s where the line gets blurry. He’s a contract screen printer who is new to the business, and may not be aware of the damage he’s doing, not only to his competitors, but also to himself.

It was always my understanding that, with contract screen printing, you are essentially the printer for other companies and/or designers who want to sell t-shirts without the hassle of having a printer. (And we screen printers are a big hassle; a collage of mental disorder and deteriorated personal awareness on a frightening level.)

Why did he bid on the job in the first place? Furthermore, why on God’s green Earth did bid contract screen printing prices – And LOW contract prices at that??

I asked him.

“That’s my price for 1,000 shirts dude.”

I bit my tongue.

“Did any of the guys you print for bid on the job?”

“Not that I know of.”

“You aren’t sure?”

“I think *** Printing did. But I’m not sure.”

“What do you charge them, just out of curiosity.”

“$.60 per shirt at 1,000…” Then it donned on him. “Sh*t.”

Contract Screen Printing, or Retail Screen Printing? Choose one and stick with it. If you decide to do both, have two separate price lists for retail and contract printing. In my opinion it is unethical to offer contract prices to retail customers, if you also give those prices to other companies. My friend was low balling against his own clients who depend on him to help them get the job done. I don’t know if this is illegal, but it’s for sure unethical. Worse, you virtually guarantee that the market price in your area will drop to skeletal prices, especially if some other moron decides to start competing with you for pennies, and if you aren’t very careful about cost analysis, i.e. how much it costs you to stay in business every month, you may find yourself out of business, fast.

Contract Screen Printing Must Be A B2B (Business to Business) affair.

We’re all in this for the money, well OK, some of us are just stupid enough, and/or damaged enough to actually enjoy printing, but that’s not the case. None of us can do it without the money. You’re contract customers depend on you to give them the ability to sell excellent product at a reasonable cost. They also have a reasonable expectation that they do not have to compete with you. It’s a partnership, and if you sell to average customers at the contract price, in my opinion you ruin what should be a very lucrative market for everyone, including you. If you want to be an ultra low retailer that’s fine. At least then everyone understands what, and whom they are dealing with. At the same time, remember that charging too little is one of the biggest destroyers of new business.

Also, one of the benefits of being a contractor your prices are low, but you can count on sheer volume to keep the lights turned on. This also gives you the security of being able to print for several different vendors. So when times are slow, even if your respective clients are struggling a bit, you will still be doing pretty well.

In other words, if you’re a contractor protect your market. Deal with retail and contract opportunities differently. Remember, retail customers, even on the low end of the spectrum expect to pay, at least $4-15 (0r more) per shirt depending on volume, color, inks, shirt style etc., Wouldn’t you much rather make $6-7 per shirt on a hundred shirt order, as opposed to $.60?

If you said “no” then welcome to the club. Your brain is already damaged, as is the case with most screeners. Your only hope now is to take a drill and bore a small hole into the base of your skull to relieve the swelling.

Every Thursday I take a two hour break from screen printing, and the world of printing all together, when I get to help my church reach out to kids in our after school, Good News Club. For two hours I am not worried about screen printing, coating screens, paying for equipment, meeting my financial obligations. All I’m worried about is showing kids the love of my Savior.

I found out tonight that one of my fourth graders has a crush on me. She asked me if I was married tonight, then after I gave her an affirmative she said. “Oh.” Rather dejectedly I might add. Apparently my prized collection of old burgers which is displayed proudly across my midsection isn’t enough to deter the affections of at least one sweetheart of little girl. I’ll pray for her that her sight improves over the years.

Thankfully it’s not enough to deter my wife either. She’s already half-blind.

If you are a believer in Christ then pray for us as we undertake this massive mission. We defeated the ACLU in this state to be able to get this after school program going, and it has been a blessing to me, in more ways than I would have thought possible. More importantly, I believe God has demonstrated to us the blessing it has been to the children, and that’s what really counts.

When I was a kid I wanted to grow up and be a professional breakdancer. The only problem was that I was short, pasty white, kind of chubby, and lacking a whole lot of body rhythm. I gave up on breakdancing after losing several competitions to this other kid – Todd Baker. He could do a body wave which started in his hands, wiggled through his feet, came back up and ended in his tongue – HIS TONGUE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! How can I compete with that? Dejected, I walked away from breakdancing, and haven’t looked back. I do, however, still occasionally moonwalk around the house.

I’m quite certain that’s the same mindset that lead me into screen printing. And quite possibly nearly destroyed my efforts. I saw what everyone else around me was doing, and figured I had to do it myself. “To beat the best, you have to be the best” I’ve always heard. But in actuality, that’s the most detrimental mindset you can have.

You don’t have to be the best at anyting. In fact, you should strive for adequacy! There are only a few people in any given field of excellence who can truly be considered the best, and it’s usually in sports and or earnings reports where things are quantifiable, and not necessarily subject to the whims and objections of the final arbiter. Can anyone argue that Tiger Woods isn’t the best golfer in the world?

But in our world, the world of designs and printing. We, the new screen printers, can’t even be the best in our small markets, let alone the world. So why try? Why not strive, instead to give to the best of your abilities, and give the customer what they need, not pine and worry over what you think they deserve.

For me, I can’t be the best designer or the printer, and I don’t want to be. To my customers, I can be summed up in one word: Servant. And that is just fine with me.

Oh, and Todd? He’s fat now, and manages a furniture store. He never went on to be a pro breaker, and he couldn’t screen print a shirt to save his life.

Victory is oh so deliciously sweet.

I would like to thank Ryan Moor for his comments, and honesty recently regarding the registration problems that many have had with the R&H series of printers. He is one of the reasons I love doing business with Ryonet. You can be certain that if there’s an issue someone will clarify it, own it, and help you solve it.

My original contention was that the R&H press had consistent registration problems which seemed to stem from the fact that occasionally the screen doesn’t engage the platen correctly, thus preventing it from sliding into the registration guides. This problem was largely negated by spending extra time on the off-contact settings.

Needless to say I got raked over the coals by R&H loyalists, who, while gracious, were none to gentle about questioning my intelligence, and perhaps even the ancestorial lineage of one or more of my parents having swung from tree branches, at some point in the in the not too distant past.

Well, yours truly has been vindicated, not only in the truth of existing problems that either the customers and/or the presses possess, but also in the solution. Thanks Ryan for you excellent comment, and the video which I hope will answer a great many prayers about the problems that many have been having with the press. My solution was a lot like yours, except I made a cardboard cutout of the platens, and use that to adjust my off contact.

Here is the comment Ryan made, along with the videos which provide an excellent tutorial on how to properly adjust for off contact. Thanks for justifying exactly why I’ve always enjoyed doing business with you all of you folks at Ryonet.

I can sympathize with this blog! We’ve had experience working with hundreds of Riley Hopkins presses and we do hear about these registration problems. FORTUNATELY, its an EASY fix and with a few adjustments your press will be up and running in no time! The main problem with registration on this press is printers whom do not have their screen angles set correctly. We have a short video that shows how to fix this, Please see the video here about trouble shooting this problem. http://www.vimeo.com/1408213?pg=embed&sec=1408213 . Also there are some things that should not be touched or adjusted on the press. See this picture, it’s the center gate bolt. http://www.ryonet.com/downloads/donotadjust.jpg this is setup at the factory and if you adjust it then your registration will be problematic. If you have touched this, please contact support@ryonet.net for instructions on how to reset up your press.