Contract with business

[Linus]

Hello all,
I didn't know where to post this, so I'll start here. We were recently approached by a manager from a local department store to do some monogramming and embroidery in their store. Questions of payment came up and I was curious how to charge for such an event. I know there are many posts with a per 1000 stitch charge and I was curious if anyone recommended the same idea? Another idea was going on a per item or per hour basis. I am inclined to go with a per 1000 stitch, but want to ask for what's fair for us and them. They will be advertising us and we can drop cards, so its a good deal, but I want to make sure I have covered my bases.

Thanks in advance,
Linus

[Wishes]

If you are doing names on things you might consider a set price no matter if the name is Stephanie or Matt. It would be easier than trying to figure it out on the spot. I would set one or two fonts and not give them lots of choices however. Just a thought.
Margaret

[signman]

do they want you to move your machine into their store for 'on site' embroidery? If they do-then it's not worth it-you won't be able to do your own contract work. If not-then I misunderstood your question.
If they just want you to do contract 'monogramming' then you have to find out how much are they going to mark up the price to pass on to the customer. They may already have a 'retail' amount-perhaps $5.00 or so...which means they expect YOU to do the work for them at $3 or less. I have all kinds of catalogs from companies offering 'customization' on their products and some charge 'per letter', some per name. However-it will take you exactly the same amount of time and materials (backing, solvy, etc.) to do 'Matt' as it will take to do 'Stephanie', but you can see twice as many letters. Look at the back of some of the football teams on TV now...there are some LONG names there.
Perhaps you should have a stepped price- one price for up to 6 letters, 10 letters, etc. because what happens if you offer 'one price for all' and you get someone that wants 'Tanika Bonita Mabuta Harrison' (please, not meaning to offend anyone but it is like that recurring character on Mad Tv...yet I see names like this starting to pop up in engraving trophies I do-hyphenated multi names). So you have to keep that in mind.
Personally-we charge $5 minimum no matter what-because of the time just for hooping and setting up. As Margaret also mentions-limit the font selection to a few easy/standard ones.
Check out LL Bean, Lands End, companies like that. They have short lists of what is available.

[Linus]

signman,
I apologize, but why do you say its not worth it to do onsite embroidery? Just curious. Our situation is we are a new home-business and we were approached by the manager. My thoughts were: they are advertising us, our name will be associated with theirs, we will get some much needed exposure and we can reap the secondary sale too. I know I am looking at it from a "dang it sounds sexy so go for it", so that's why I am asking the questions.
Thanks,
Linus

[Mr. Sew & Sew]

I'll jump in here because I had a similar situation. Had just started out with 2 XTs and a local business wanted to have us move a machine there to do their monograms and logo work. To me it didn't make sense because of two reasons 1) I would have to be there when the shop was open because I'm not trusting someone else with the machine and 2) I couldn't do any other work while the machine was there.

If they just contract out the work to you and you can do it from your home or shop, then that's a different ball of wax. I do that with a few local businesses. I don't care about the exposure other than the fact that they display my cards/flyers and are happy to tell people who does their embroidery work.

Also, echoing what Roland said - you MUST charge what you think is a fair price. I've turned down a lot of work when people say "we've already decided to charge X so you have to charge us 75% of X". No way. I have a sign over my machines that says "We're not running a charity here". It's a business and you need to run it like that. Granted I do work for my church at near cost and will help out Scouts and other organizations, but for the corporate world, I'm a capitalist.

To give up control of a machine - no way.

Just my opinion
Tom Dauria
Mr Sew & Sew

[signman]

There was a big discussion months ago-someone was asked to take their machine to a fair or expo or something. I'd say 75% or more replies said 'don't do it'.
#1- moving your machine. It's a multi person job-cannot be done every day-and you won't have it at home to do night or weekend work
#2-every time you move it-risk of damage-dropping, bending, pushing needle head out of whack
#3-who's going to insure YOUR machine-them or you? Will your insurance cover it?
#4-security-is it in a locked room or out in view of customers? What happens when you aren't there? Can anyone else mess with it?
#5-can you get access to it when the store is closed?
#6-what happens if you have a big order of your own customer to do-and store customer walks up and says I want this hat NOW...or are you off in a back room just doing whatever the store sells as someone sticks it through the window at you. Again-you are in the middle of a big order-and the store has ONE piece to do for a customer-not the right thread color up, wrong hoop, or you are doing hats and need to switch hoops.
#7-it's been figured out by many of us-when your machine is running-you need to TAKE IN over $40 PER HOUR to pay for the upkeep, lease, supplies, insurance, and some profit. Can you afford to sit there day after day and do 'maybe' 5 or 6 shirt names in an hour because each one is different, different shirt, different hoop, different name and still make your $40 PER HOUR? No, you can't.
Can you do it at HOME if the store brings you all the pieces each afternoon to do overnite and they pick up the next morning?
Yes, if you don't have a life.
If you have your 'own' little storefront-separate entrance, separate keys, so you can come and go whenever you want but you are still 'associated' with the store-then that can be beneficial. But if you are working 'for' the store-they will expect you to drop everything to take care of THEIR customer immediately. It takes 20 minutes or more to switch from hats to speedframe or hoops...then what do you do? You have 10 hats left to fill YOUR order...maybe an hour and a half to make the deadline for your customer. Dan's Dynamite Discount Depot has a customer buying a shirt and wants his kid's name on it-NOW...
and you are going to charge DDDD only $3.00 to do it. Are you going to drop everything, change to hoop, do the shirt, get $3, and blow the deadline on your $500 hat order?
Okay...you say you can buy a second machine and have one at the store and one at home so you can run orders at home. Then who's minding the store?
Other Amaya owners like me have been asked to bring our machies to the Chamber of Commerce Home Show or something like it-and guaranteed we will be doing all the shirts and hats at the show for everyone...but no word about who pays the 4 guys and a truck to take it apart, deliver and setup, then bring it home again. And they smash it into the steel door frame on the way in-who pays the Tech his $300 to run out and fix it? So I haven't heard of anyone taking that offer!
Think long and hard about it.....

[Dorothy Compton]

Early on in my business (2003) I was contacted by a rep from I think Calvin Klein. They wanted to do a monogram event at the local Macy's. My contract was to be there for 4 hours for which they would pay me $400. It didn't matter how many monograms I did. For this event I actually took my home machine--everything would be a single color and it would be easier to transport. I have taken my Amaya to a local business showcase (loaded into my minivan with the help of my husband and father). It's doable.

Dorothy Compton, Owner
Bee Embroidered
www.BeeEmbroidered.com
(916) 635-7467

[Rod or Sharon]

And don't forget , if you split your machines up, you will need a second set of Dongles/security keys for each machine and that is big $$$$$$$$$.

Rod

[Chris]

Having just moved my machine from Washington State to North Dakota there is no way I would take it any place for anyone. There are just to many things that can go wrong. I spent days readjusting after the move so she would run properly again. I had even contacted Melco on how to properly crate it and pack it for the move and things still shifted in the move.

Chris

[signman]

There are some horror stories that Rod and others have mentioned about Amaya users buying used/reconditioned machines-and having them delivered totally useless-and this is on professional moving trucks! Just not worth the risk, Maybe a table top model for limited monogramming is fine...didn't Melco just announce a new small model?
But the big ones? Hard enough keeping them running in the shop just standing in one place all the time...I hate to think what would happen moving them around.