R2K Posted June 10, 2010 Report Share Posted June 10, 2010 I am thinking abt starting a Tshirt printing service inour shop what are the cost involved in this services.....including garments....the equipments......can this service give steady profit ........what abt the profit margin ......if anyone got any ideas please share Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nash Posted June 10, 2010 Report Share Posted June 10, 2010 Yes R2K profit is very good i`m doing 20 stag night t shirts at £10.00 each with an iron picture on the front and "ROBBO`s STAG Do" on the back with customers own t shirts which were bought from the PRIMARK STORE which is next door to me at £2.00 each. i use my epson ink jet printer for the transfer and a robo craft cutter for the text and a flat bed press. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philspectrum Posted June 10, 2010 Report Share Posted June 10, 2010 I LOVE personalising T's etc 1 hour service has no direct competition. Do it well or not at all. IMHO inkjet is for short term gain, long term loss..... Invest in laser Transfere and cut vinyl plus sublimation mugs. Full setup under £3k should pay for itself in under 6 months at our level of business would pay for itself in well under a month. I swear by The Magic Touch. Their stuff is great, but the tecnichal support is Awesome! You need experts at the end of the phone for when your client brings in some quwirky item to print on. Learning curve is steep but capital investment is low. Go on the magic touch free training, and refere to their online videos. T shirts are brill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nash Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 i use inkjet for one day usage ie. stag nights and hen do`s but then if the customer wants quality t shirts i use Xpress t shirts and dye sub them and with vinyl text and charge a much higher premium price Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christina Rose Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 its an additional revenue and add on service with digital printing . equipment cost is very less. more i have seen made in china machines and which gives affordable quality. we also doing printing on crystals and key chains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nash Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 C.R. would you provide more info on crystal printing? and Hey you`re very young Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Dave Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 Nash, Here's a link to a company in the US that supplies the equipment & supplies to make those Photo Crystals. http://www.rplsupplies.com/crystal/production.htm ( at the top of this page it has their company logo, under that it says "Crystal Keepsakes" - to the right of this title, it says "Products", "Production Items", "Package Deal" click those links.) I'm sure you'll find a company in the UK that offers these same items. It's basically a UV Box with special UV glues on "regular" crystal. Not the Laser Engraved stuff. You print on a clear transparency with an inkjet printer, and apply the transparency to a clear crystal with special glue an put it in the UV box for a few minutes, trim off the excess and box it up. Pretty neat. We offer the products, but don't produce in-house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R2K Posted June 11, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 i can see that the investment is very low considering the other machines i own.......but do u guys get enough job to pay off for the setup in <2 months time i have many ppl asking for this service but i am not sure that they will take it for the price range u were suggesting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Dave Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 R2K, It took us over 2 years to pay for our T-Shirt kit (heat press/printer/CIS/Artanium Inks) and the supplies (T-shirts/tiles/coasters/keychains/dog tags,etc) to have us "break even", then we ran out of ink..., and again we are back in the hole for $800 for more ink, and the cycle continues, but that's us. Talk to Philspectrum, and you'll have a completely different answer. His shop will break even in a couple of weeks for sure. For us, it's just another line-item on our "long tail"... like the crystals. We don't sell 99% photolab prints, and 1% "other stuff", now it's maybe 20% prints, 40% studio photos, and everything else for the other 40%. and the volume in sales of "other stuff" is slowly growing as word gets out to the buying public... key word (for us anyway) is SLOWLY. But, a couple of big jobs, and the "kit" will pay off much faster. We had a couple of big jobs this year, and now we're WAY in the black, and a lot more people come to us now for "cheap" photo t-shirts for funerals, way better looking & quality than single color silk screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nash Posted June 12, 2010 Report Share Posted June 12, 2010 Thanks Big Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philspectrum Posted June 12, 2010 Report Share Posted June 12, 2010 I have looked at these crystal keepsakes ......... IMHO they are an alternative to a good old framed print, - and sadly we don't sell as many of those as we used to ......... If you have a studio, and are looking to increase your average sale value I am sure they are a great addition, but then so are photo placemats, or sub prints onto metal plaques et al..... I personally don't like them, and I have questions about their long term colour fastness ..... and I find it really difficult to sell a product that I don't personally believe in, - so I don't bother. We do do a lot of button badges thou! They can be a bit time consuming, but it is quite easy to sell 20 or so for hen nights, birthday parties etc. Equipement cost is under £400, and should pay for itself in under 6 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R2K Posted June 14, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2010 R2K, It took us over 2 years to pay for our T-Shirt kit (heat press/printer/CIS/Artanium Inks) and the supplies (T-shirts/tiles/coasters/keychains/dog tags,etc) to have us "break even", then we ran out of ink..., and again we are back in the hole for $800 for more ink, and the cycle continues, but that's us. Talk to Philspectrum, and you'll have a completely different answer. His shop will break even in a couple of weeks for sure. For us, it's just another line-item on our "long tail"... like the crystals. We don't sell 99% photolab prints, and 1% "other stuff", now it's maybe 20% prints, 40% studio photos, and everything else for the other 40%. and the volume in sales of "other stuff" is slowly growing as word gets out to the buying public... key word (for us anyway) is SLOWLY. But, a couple of big jobs, and the "kit" will pay off much faster. We had a couple of big jobs this year, and now we're WAY in the black, and a lot more people come to us now for "cheap" photo t-shirts for funerals, way better looking & quality than single color silk screen. 2 years seems to be long time to regain a investment....mine is also same as urs with like 50% studio photography 20% copyshop services 20 % printing and rest in misc stuff seems like i have to go around asking for the price range in which other shops are selling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philspectrum Posted June 14, 2010 Report Share Posted June 14, 2010 My advice is to go for small volume corporate gifts, ...... runs of say 10off are a much nicer sell than heaps of 1 offs to private individuals. This applies to much of both the fat and the thin end of the loooooong tail! P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R2K Posted June 15, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 ^^ phil.....how do u manage to sell that much amount of t shirts that u can regain the money invested on the setup within a month. are u selling it as wholesale......i mean to some kinda big garment stores or something Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philspectrum Posted June 15, 2010 Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 WE only sell to end users, there is no margin if somone wants to add their own markup. Set out your stall, make it look pretty, provide lots of ideas, offer excellent service, do free samples if you smell big orders, be helpful, blah blah blah! we moved shop in early april, we had a week in may when we took over 6k just personalising T's, dropped back a bit now, but nice margins. pre x mas we expect to do upto 50 mugs a day, all in an hour or less P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridge Posted June 15, 2010 Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 "50 mugs a day"..? Why are you closing..? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Dave Posted June 15, 2010 Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 Ridge: He moved shop, not closed. Philspectrum: re:photo crystals: I had a sales person in the yesterday pawning a new product called Digital Ice Prints.com - basically dye-sub onto glass, but they had a $100K buy in if you want to produce in-house. Much nicer than the transparency onto crystal, but way too expensive. After some research it's part of an MLM and something to avoid, but a nice looking product. Uses white inks and has a "patented" vacuum seal heat press. Interesting concept & product, but too rich for my blood.... They might sell on a per-item basis, but we would have a hard time selling even a single 5x7 for $45. Drop it and it's broken forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R2K Posted June 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2010 WE only sell to end users, there is no margin if somone wants to add their own markup. Set out your stall, make it look pretty, provide lots of ideas, offer excellent service, do free samples if you smell big orders, be helpful, blah blah blah! we moved shop in early april, we had a week in may when we took over 6k just personalising T's, dropped back a bit now, but nice margins. pre x mas we expect to do upto 50 mugs a day, all in an hour or less P congrats......good to know that some ppl are doing so well even in this hard times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R2K Posted June 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2010 "50 mugs a day"..? Why are you closing..? when did he say that?? ??) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philspectrum Posted June 16, 2010 Report Share Posted June 16, 2010 my lease is up at Spectrum, and I just don't feel like another 10 years ......... perhaps you know what i mean ? I opened Logobear, - my personalisation business a couple of years ago as an exit strategy, and chose this area as it doesn't have direct competition from the multiples. 10 years ago I was proud to say I had the best minilab in the world !!!! - I couldn't say that anymore about a minilab, - But I can about my 1 hour t-shirt print shop ! Also, - i want to rediscover that there is more to life than work. No! - i cannot afford to retire, - probably EVER, - but i do want time to look at the sky and wonder why ....... and discover what else i might be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lakhdarim Posted June 16, 2010 Report Share Posted June 16, 2010 Hi.What equipment do we need to start a T-shirt , mug printing business and is China a good place to buy the equipment from as they have very good offers for heat press and other accessories?is their stuff reliable?Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philspectrum Posted June 18, 2010 Report Share Posted June 18, 2010 I cannot say if stuff from china is any good ...... do you believe that the cheapest cameras can take photos as good as more expensive models ? In business i don't want to muck about, I want to get it right, first time every time. Wasted time is worse than waste product, and that is bad enough ! I have found product, training, and support from The Magic Touch to be second to none. Yesterday we 'only' did 13 mugs, (all one-offs - for fathers day) we can do them without thinking, absolutely beautiful results, first time, every time! I am happy to make them with the customer watching because i am that confident. how do you want to spend your time ? I would never dream of buying cheap chineese stuff from ebay, even thou it may be ok, coz I just want to get on with selling, and production must invisibly take care of itself in the background. buy cheap, buy twice ..... I receive no commision eveny time I recommend The Magic Touch, - but I don't know anyone who regrets buying from them ! P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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