We enjoy delighting first-time customers. We take pride when customers come back to us to reorder or to discuss new ideas. But we are thrilled when a customer returns to us after having tried another vendor and then discovered that service is not the same everywhere. We recently had a customer call us with a problem. She had used us …
“Really Cheap Shirts”
We bid regularly for embroidery and screen printing jobs. We win about as many bids as we lose. That tells us that we are pricing our work competitively. We are comfortable with that position. The bids we know we don’t win are the ones where someone was looking for “really cheap shirts” to begin with. We operate on the same …
What is “stitch count” and how does it impact a logo design?
Stitch count is a big factor to consider with your embroidery design. Most embroiderers will include 5,000-8,000 stitches in the prices quoted, as this tends to capture most logos. Each additional 1,000 stitches may cost a little more, but you should not necessarily shrink from the additional stitching. More stitching generally means you have a more intricate design. Rendering a …
Would you like to talk to someone who does quality work?
A business partner of ours won for us the the opportunity to bid for a local firm’s logo wear by asking, “Would you like to talk to someone who does quality work?” It’s commonly accepted that a customer may reasonably expect any two of the following three options from a vendor: 1) quick 2) quality 3) inexpensive Customers often chase …
Why choose a smaller embroidery and/or screen printing shop?
You should consider smaller embroidery and screen printing shops when quality and service matter to you. Larger shops focus on larger clients. They’ll take smaller clients, but they’ll often subcontract the smaller work to smaller embroidery shops. So now you have no idea who is doing your work, and just how much leverage do you have with the large vendor …
Mixing Media
For an interesting look, try mixing media. We have a client for whom we provided hooded sweatshirts that were embroidered on the front and screen printed on the back. This allows for that professional look when facing a client, while advertising the business on a larger scale on the back of the garment.
Reason #5 why most embroiderers do not want to deal with a garment you bring to them:
Profit margin. When you buy a shirt from your local retailer, your local retailer captures the profit margin from wholesale pricing to retail pricing. Your embroiderer (and screen printer) can purchase garments at wholesale pricing too and would like to capture that margin themselves. They will prioritize jobs that allow them to do so because…that’s good business.
Reason #4 why most embroiderers do not want to deal with a garment you bring to them:
Consumption of time. There is a limit of how much people will spend to embroider a garment. Embroiderers need to use their time efficiently to make their operation profitable, or else they will not be around the following year. Running around and meeting up with a client to pass, inspect, learn a new garment, and taking care to avoid damaging …
Reason #3 why most embroiderers do not want to deal with a garment you bring to them
Suitability of the garment itself. I had a client present to us fleece jackets that she purchased from a warehouse store. She was very proud of her success in finding a cheap deal on these jackets. What she did not consider was that there was decorative piping running vertically through the left chest area where she wanted her logo placed. …
Reason #2 why most embroiderers do not want to deal with a garment you bring to them
I’ll summarize it this way: new vs. used clothing. Some customers will bring used clothing and ask that something be embroidered upon it. An embroidery machine is an expensive of capital equipment. Proper maintenance is required. New (clean) clothing is free of any lingering dirt or detergent powder that can damage the equipment. If you let a mechanic put used …