How To Price Screen Printing To Customers For BETTER Profits

Learning how to price a screen printing job for customers to achieve better profits is not a very hard thing to do.  People who want to or are in this business already just have to know the costs involved in the screen printing job, and I intend to show them how to through this post.

How do screen printers set prices on screen printing jobs?  Screen printing operators use this formula: (Garment Price * Garment Markup) + (Printing Fee – Quantity Discount) = Price Per Garment.

Markups are set based on the type of garment used.  These markups will cover for the administrative costs of purchasing, processing, and inventory storage.

Better screen printing profits can be realized once you understand the requirements of the specific printing job.  You can set your price for the job by adjusting your garment markups and playing with the printing options necessary to complete the order.

What Are The Three Types Of Garments And Their Expected Markups?

The first type of garment is basic.  A basic t-shirt can be marked up to 100% of their purchase. 

The second and third types are middle-tier (hoodies, long-sleeved t-shirt) and premium (jackets, coats) items.  As it takes more time and effort to print on these products.

Middle-tier and premium t-shirts should have lower markups compared to basic t-shirts.  A 50% markup is feasible and the blank garment alone.

Reason for this discrepancy is that you are still making more money on a per unit basis.  The costs of items belonging to these types are substantially higher than that of a basic one.

I always have to account for the risk of spoiled items, because it is unexpected and will happen.  Higher priced ones simply cost more.

Factors To Consider In Screen Printing Costs

Let us say that you have a client who comes to you asking to have his company’s single color logo printed on a plain white t-shirt.

You will have to sit down and go through the following things needed to complete the job.

1. Print locations
2. Ink colors
3. Flashing
4. Automatic or manual printing

Print locations can be associated with the number of times a t-shirt had to be mounted onto a printing press.  This could be the front, back, sleeve or left chest screen print areas.

If this client wants to have a design printed on the front of the t-shirt and on the sleeve, you will have to mount the t-shirt twice.  This has to be priced properly.  A good number will be 150% of the standard price of a single location.

The number of ink colors needs to have tier level pricing where the additional cost percentage increases as the number of colors increases.

You may consider having a standard price for the first 3 colors used on the t-shirt and then a 5% increase in each color quantity added up to 6 colors.  Afterward, a 10%  increment on each color quantity added can be set up to the maximum quantity, which depends on the number of arms you have on your screen press.

Do consider this suggested pricing table:

Working with inks a not easy and the more ink used leads to complications in the job.  It can lead to more chances of a misprint raising the level of spoilage during your print job.

However, it can be profitable since many customers prefer lots of colors.  They want striking ones and they want color contrasts.

Flashing is used in between printing stages to quickly dry the ink while the t-shirt is still on the press.  The t-shirt has to be moved under the flash dryer which is the heating element.

Flashing requires more ink, more screens and more time for the operator to flash each color before the next one is stroked onto the t-shirt.

It is advisable to add 1-2 colors to the ink color printing scheme to account for this work.

Please see this link showing pricing which is taking into account what we have discussed so far.

Manual t-shirt printing processes would demand a higher cost due to the salaries given to your staff on a regular basis.  If your shop is using an automatic press, then you can spread the costs here.

Quality of Artwork Pricing

We are talking here about the quality of the artwork received from the client.  It is important to have a clear copy of this requirement.

The client needs to provide us with a workable copy of the design that can be transferred so that a workable logo can be developed.

Depending on the design being printed, the artwork would have to be in the correct file format.  Those being a raster image like a photo can only be reduced from the original size and not enlarged.  The other being a vector image which is a file that has no problems being enlarged while retaining clarity.

Screen printing operators are wise to set a standard pricing scheme for this task.  There should be three levels: easy, normal and difficult.

For easy level, the artwork is readily viewed and transferred.  You may even opt to give a discount since no complex preparatory work is needed to get the t-shirt printing job started.

For the normal level, this involves a couple of revisions to the artwork, no more.

Let’s say that this client now wants a 3-color design to appear on his t-shirt logo from the original single color request.

After receiving the revised artwork showing the design in green, yellow, violet, and red colors, he wants changes to be made.  He would like to change the artwork in yellow color to be green instead.

It would be wise to set a tier price scheme for this.  The number of revisions would have to be limited to 2 instances.  Anything above this would have to treated as an extra color in the ink pricing scheme.

This client will now pay extra if he again asks for another revision of the artwork.

Clients, who are really difficult in terms of their expectations or are simply are hard to please, have to be charged a premium of at least 10% on top of the total price.

Going back to our scenario, this client is now demanding that his logo is superimposed on the corporate logo of his old company.  There are sure to be patent violations because of this.

These clients are wasting your valuable time and they should pay for this unwarranted request.

When To Give Discounts On T-Shirts

Use discounts judiciously and sparingly as much as possible.  They are cutting into the profit margin of your screen printing jobs.

Having said that, there are tradeoffs that will be beneficial to your screen printing business.

Weigh giving these discounts based on the quality of the clientele you are dealing with it.  Also, consider the volume of the t-shirt screen printing job order being received.

Good clients who stayed loyal and have placed regular orders should be rewarded appropriately.  They also could be customers who have steadily put in word of mouth advertisements for your business.  You get to print more t-shirts because of this.

Other types of clients that are worth giving discounts too are local governments, youth sporting leagues, churches, and schools.  Aside from the expected bad press to be obtained when these accounts are lost, the t-shirt printing product exposure your work will get from these institutions is myriad and priceless.

I always say volume t-shirt printing discounts should be considered for clients who are among your biggest.  There is a good chance that your rivals are just waiting for a chance to nab these same clients right under your nose.  They would not hesitate a moment’s notice to lower their t-shirt screen printing prices so that they can steal this big client of yours.

Related Questions

Is screen printing business a good business?

It can be a profitable one if you can produce designs that your target audience is looking for.  Your business can be a partner towards imparting inspiring and positive messages to society.  T-shirts can be a medium to help promote niche hobbies, pets, occupations, sports as well as many others things people are interested in.

How does screen printing work?

Screen printing is a technique where ink is transferred onto a substrate through a mesh screen.  Except in the spots where the stencil blocks the ink from passing through.