Names on hats, prices?

[KNC Designs]

Had a customer say he would let us charge $2.50 each for names to be put on the backs of his hats. These where hats from china that he would supply,so I lost the hat sale as well only charging $2.50 for the names. I handed him his hats back. Just curious what some of you charge for names on hats , we usually charge between $5.00 and $8.00 depending on what it is going on size etc.

[Rod or Sharon]

If we didn't make anything on the sale of the caps (how many are we talking about?) nor any other embroidery, I would charge somewhere between $5 to $8 as well. We usually charge $7.50 up to 6,ooo stitches and $1 per 1,000 stitches after that. If we don't sell them the garment, we raise that to $8.50 starting fee. Others on the group start at $10.00 and go up from there. Kind of depends on your area and the going rate.
Sharon

[Body Cover]

you haven't told us how many there are?
it depends if your hungry or not? if you need the work, I would do names all day for $2.50 you have no money out in product and are working on his dime.
but, make sure he knows if there are any mistakes on supplied garments, the risk is his, and they won't be replaced or reimbursed.

if you set the names up and hoop fast, I think $2.50 would be OK, I wouldn't make the name much bigger than .35 or.25 and keep the density around 4 or 4.5 to keep your turn time fast, and I wouldn't try to trim between letters either.
if you need to get a perm. sharpie that matches the hat and dot the jump stitches.

Sometimes this thinking isn't going to work if quality and high profit margins is the most important thing to you. WE take quality as a high priority but also keeping the machines running and trying to balance speed, and price without completely sacrificing the quality. the saying
"you can have it fast, cheap or good... Pick any two" really rings true these days.

Just my 2 cents
Ron

[Wayne]

When I embroidery the front of the cap, sell the cap and put a name on the back (12 or more) I would charge 1.50 to 2.00 extra for the name.
For someone to bring me one or two caps for just the name I would charge $5.00 each.

[Gabi Kat]

Don't forget the set-up fee. Also hooping the back and sewing takes just as much time as the front. So "letting" you charge only $2.50 per hat I would have told him to send them back to China for the additional embroidery.

[Body Cover]

I thought I should clarify, I run a screenprint shop that makes up 85% of my sales, and embroidery isn't my livelihood like it is for some others on the list. Granted it is important but we can afford to do things less expensively than others sometimes because of the other income that comes in.
Others aren't that lucky, this is the same reason that big shops can walk all over small ones on price. While your doing your 2 jobs for the day they are pushing out 30 or 40. You make the money in quantity, that being said, the quality that is put out can be less than a small shop that puts the extra attention into all the fine details.

I didn't want it to come off like we don't care about quality or that big shops don't either, or that small shops only care about the quality and charge higher prices to compensate. each shop out here is as unique as the people that run them.
Everyone works with what they are most comfortable with and that makes every answer the "Right answer" Hope that sheds a little more light on my response.
Ron

[Steve]

I usually don't do customer issued items anymore. I have done Chinese made caps before and they are the worst quality as well as very difficult to embroider because the material was so thin. I tell everyone that the garment must be new for sanitary reasons. My parents used to have people bring in thier 'favorite jacket' that was all greasy so I only do new items. Dirty items get hoops dirty for next garment. I charge $5.00/piece for customer issued goods plus the embroidery. $5.00 for first names and $7.50 for first and last name.

[KNC Designs]

Thanks for all of the input,sorry I forgot the quantity it was for 125 hats. His comment was that he was paying for names what he paid for the whole hat. I had to explain to him about chinese hats and the quantity usually involved to get the price down. I did not see the need to drop my price to get the job, let someone else do names for that. Besides we only have 1 head if I had 2 I might have gone for it, but oh well.

[signman]

With only one head, you would be lucky to do 6-8 hats an hour. Maybe if you could do the backs with a speedclamp system it would go faster...but otherwise you are looking at a gross of only $15-$20 per hour. For those of us with a single head, that doesn't cover overhead or if you have to pay an employee...you are losing money. Those shops with a couple heads can do it, but I'm one that would also charge a minimum of $4 if WE supply the item, $5 to $10 if the customer supplies it.(depends on item and quantity) Also, as an independant ad specialty rep-EVERY company that does hats (China, Vietnam, wherever they come from) WILL ALSO DO THE BACKS for a price-and I would bet your customer didn't want to pay THEIR price to have it done and wanted you to do it for less. Or, as someone mentioned-he needed an individual name on every hat and they wouldn't do it!
Stand firm-you know what it takes to pay your bills! Once you start throwing out low prices it can come back to haunt you-everyone will want the low prices and you will never have a chance to make money!

[Laurie]

We have a flat rate for names of $7.50
We charge a min. of $7.00 per emdroidery up 6999 stitches. Then it is an additional $1.00 per thousand stitches. We also charge a hooping fee of $3.00 per item for ALL items not purchased through us.
(that is when my co worker remembers to charge it - I stitched out 20 shirts this morning for nada! :/)

You have to make it woorth you time, especially with hats!!

Good Luck!
Laurie

[The Embroidery Authority - OLD]

What you should ask yourself is:
Given your current situation, how much money could the machines make you in the same amount of time it would take you to put the names on the back of the caps..... "COMPLETE"!! Meaning from start to finish taking into consideration that a chinese cap may take longer to get the file to sew out nice since it's a cheaper quality fabric.
1) If you charge the same amount for the job that you could make doing other work, then that's a fair price for YOU to charge.
2) If you don't have any other work currently and are sitting around waiting for work.... charge the highest amount he's willing to pay. 3) If you really don't want the work (say you're too busy or he's simply arrogant), then over price it big time and he'll either go away or pay your price and you'll gladly do the job for the extra profit.
What you don't want to do is tell this customer your current situation. If he knows you need the work, then he'll fight you for a cheap price.
If he finds someone else, that just means he's bogging down your competition with cheap work which could potentially send other beneficial work to your door.