Immediately followingthe question "How Much Money Can I Make? The prices for direct-to-garment(DTG) printing that the new custom t-shirt shop can charge is the next questionit asks itself. You can determine the price of your goods in part by looking atwhat is known as the "market price" for those goods. Simply put, thismeans that you evaluate your prices about those of other businesses operatingin the same region or market. Within the context of Cost Pricing, "youwill be responsible for defining the cost of your wholesale blankt-shirt."
Because the ring-spuncotton yarn woven into a tighter fabric is less "fuzzy," you will beable to achieve a smooth and even image. And if you look closely at thepicture, you'll notice that although the color of both shirts is"black," the hue is very different from one another. Printing onlightweight shirts can be done with ease using DTG. And with the RICOH Ri 1000RIP software, you will know exactly how much ink you are using down to the verylast penny.
The typical cost ofprinting on a white shirt is anywhere from 10 cents to 20 cents worth of ink.The printer only needs to make one pass over the shirt to apply all of thecolors (CMYK). Because of this, very little ink is wasted, and the printingprocess can be completed in a very short amount of time. When determining thecost of DTG printed t-shirts, one of the most important aspects to take intoaccount is the color of the garment.
Putting on lightweightshirts is as simple as they appear. Because of this, very little ink is wasted,and the printing process itself takes virtually no time. Some customers maycome to you with graphics that are already "print ready" and don'tneed any adjustments before being loaded into the RIP software. Whendetermining the cost of DTG printed t-shirts, the garment color is one of themost important factors to take into consideration. Other important factorsinclude the cost of white and labor.
Even though this is agood starting point for determining whether or not there is potential for aprofit in the business, they are still a long way from being able to determinewhat the cost of that finished and delivered garment entails. However,considering that the majority of new direct-to-garment or custom t-shirtprinting businesses begin in a garage or home office, and taking intoconsideration that the new Viper2 DTG printer can fit through a standard door,not splitting the gas bill won't make a significant difference in the overallcost of running the business.
You are only able toprint a certain amount of shirts in a single 8-hour shift when using DTGbecause the production speed is set in stone, and the printing process is moretime-consuming than screen printing. The question "How should I price mycustom printed t-shirts?" is one of the first business decisions that newpurchasers of DTG equipment will need to make. Naturally, they factor in thecosts associated with the chosen method of clothing decoration rather than applyingink directly to the garments.
As a result, onemethod that is recommended for developing your DTG printing price per t-shirtis, to begin with, market prices and then compare them to cost prices.Specifically, this method is recommended for developing your price. It is muchmore practical for a screen printer to receive five large orders to achieve itsROI than it is to receive one hundred small orders.
This is because a goodSOP and good print management software are both required for this. Contractprinting is for higher volumes and is sold to online retailers, website owners,legitimate resellers, and store owners rather than the general public.Generally speaking, the general public cannot purchase contract printing. It isimportant to carry out routine cleaning cycles, clean the print heads daily,ensure that the capping station is kept moist overnight, clean the squeegee,and so on.
Becausedirect-to-garment (DTG) printing is more expensive, it is preferable tocomplete 50 smaller orders with unique artwork rather than five larger orderswhose designs are straightforward.
The majority ofpeople, when considering getting into the custom t-shirt, embroidery, bling, orheat transfer business, estimate the amount of money they could make by doing soas follows:
T-shirt retail priceof $25.00 minus the cost of the shirt itself, which is $4.50, plus the cost ofdirect-to-garment printing ink, which is $1.50 equals a profit of $19.00
Naturally, they takeinto account the costs associated with the apparel decorating method that theyhave chosen in place of direct-to-garment ink. It is also possible that thesubstance in question is an ink for screen printing or rhinestone transfermaterial.
They are still a longway from understanding what factors contribute to the price of a finished anddelivered garment, even though this is a good starting point for determiningwhether or not there is the potential to make a profit from the business.However, only YOU can determine what your actual costs will be. While manyequipment vendors, including ColDesi, produce simple ROI calculations based onspecific equipment and the costs of creating specific designs, only YOU candetermine what those costs will be.
In this example, we'llbe using Direct to Garment Printing, also known as DTG printing; however, youshould apply these same concepts to whatever kind of custom t-shirt businessyou end up starting.
Direct-to-Garment hasa few advantages over the other technologies, which we will point out here sothat you will know to calculate them differently if you're pursuing a screenprinting business for example Garment has a lower minimum order quantity thanother technologies.
There are no initialsetup fees because a DTG printer is a computer peripheral the same way that aninkjet printer is. That means that if a customer provides you with artwork, allyou need to do to print it onto a t-shirt is open the file in your RIP softwareand print it (you may not want to). Producing the screens themselves is anadditional step required for screen printing, which adds a significantfinancial burden to the process. Because you'll need to spend the timeconverting an image into the appropriate kind of file, you'll need to charge adigitizing fee for each job that involves rhinestones or embroidery. In thesame vein, you'll need to charge a digitizing fee for each job that involvesrhinestones or embroidery.
There are no orderminimums—with direct-to-garment printers, there is no difference betweenproducing one shirt and producing fifty shirts. Minimum orders could be a partof your business plan, but they are completely optional.
When you screen printa custom design onto a t-shirt, the number of colors you create determines howmany screens you need to create to print the design. Color doesn't matter.Because of this, full color is significantly more expensive. Although there isa price difference depending on the quantity of DTG ink that is used, thisvariable does not significantly affect the overall cost of your project.Similar considerations must be made when working with rhinestones, however,because certain colors can cost A LOT more than others. For example, a rose-coloreddesign may have an associated cost that is twice as high as a cost associatedwith a blue design.
Now that we've gottenthat disclaimer out of the way, let's take a look at some of the"Hidden" Costs that don't typically make it into the calculations ofthe business owner who sells customized t-shirts.