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.
2 comments ↓
While at a local flea market I noticed a vender selling screened shirts, 3 for for $10. I don’t think they were the ones printing these shirts. This breaks down to $3.33 each. Some one must be printing these at maybe $1.50 per shirt (including the shirt). I’m no rocket scientist but there seems to be a very low profit margin going on here.
He’s probably purchasing overstocked goods. Depending on how many you buy you can get them pretty cheaply. He’s probably not paying very much at all for the shirts.
If we assume he’s using good business practices he’s charging three times what he has in them which is about $1.00 per shirt. And setting the price at $10.00 per three ensures that he’ll move more stock, and get more profit per sale.
If, on the other hand, he’s paying someone to print his shirts and selling them for $3 bucks a piece, that means that there’s about $1 play room for profit split between he in the printer assuming all the shirts are white, and were purchased wholesale.
That sounds about right for the typical contract screen printer.
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