Friday, February 05, 2010

How to Start a Custom Embroidery Business


How to Start a T-Shirt Embroidery Business

Overview
The market for custom embroidered T-shirts and sportswear is strong. According to Impressions, the decorated apparel industry trade magazine, the industry is recession-resilient. With a commercial embroidery machine and a strong marketing plan, you can start a successful embroidered T-shirt business. You can fill custom orders, and also create your own line of designs.
Step 1
Purchase an embroidery machine. Choose from leading brands such as Tajima or Barudan, known for their reliability. Attend an industry trade show to see the variety of machines offered and to try them. Check on the ISS trade show nearest you (see Resources for a link). Decide whether to buy a single head machine, or one with multiple sewing heads.
Step 2
Set up your shop in a garage, spare room or small commercial space, with an eye towards keeping overhead low. File a business name at your county courthouse and open a business checking account. Consider purchasing liability insurance for your business. Practice with your embroidery machine, loading it with digitized designs, placing T-shirts in the clamp, loading thread and sewing.
Step 3
Create a price list for your embroidered T-shirt services, and include sweatshirt, sportshirts, caps and the range of imprinted sportswear. Components of pricing are cost of blank shirt, 50% markup on the blank shirt, and embroidery charge. A run of 100 T-shirts with a small design could be billed at two to three dollars per shirt for the embroidery charge.
Step 4
Target your market for custom embroidery services, for example restaurants or schools. Compile a list of potential customers for embroidered T-shirts. Contact potential customers via phone and personal visit. Market your services with postcard mailings, blogs, a website, order forms, and business cards. Craft a simple message with a call to action: "Custom Embroidered T-Shirts, top quality at great rates, call now for a quote."
Step 5
Write a detailed work order when a client places an order, have the client sign it and pay half the fee up front. Produce a sample for the client to OK prior to production. Upon sample approval, produce the job. Collect the balance of the fee from the client when they pick up the job. Extend payment terms such as "net due in 30 days" to trustworthy clients.

Have a look at Impressions, the trade magazine for the imprinted sportswear industry. This is a link to their embroidery page.

This article was written for an online client who rejected it. I admit I'm not an embrloidery technician (I'm a screen printer), but I have sold and produced at least $25,000 worth of embroidered hats and shirts in my career.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

I think step 3 on your list is really important. I started selling custom embroidery pieces but didn't have a price list. People were always trying to negotiate prices with me. I finally composed a set price list and my business has been running much more smoothly. http://www.moboenterprises.com

JPG innovaation said...

Nice information with good content. Keep share this kind of posts.
embroidery digitizing usa

Unknown said...


embroidery digitizing in usa

embroidery digitizing usa

embroidery digitizing

Rishishah said...

Hello My Friend! Thank You for this Post I would like to tell you that write Above post is awesome, excellent written and include almost all important info about Embroidery Digitizing Services and Embroidery Digitizer.Expressdigitising Providieng All The Kindy Of Digitizing Services

Julia Robert said...

Very Good work mate. Thanks for sharing the ideas and step by step guide on starting custom embroidery digitizing business. I like your overview on this. Thanks.

James David said...

Great and nice concept its really good its too good about design logos.
logo digitizing

Nathan Bradley said...

The content you shared with us through this article is really helpful and it contains the rare information which we can't easily found. Wonderful. I must say that you are extremely talented in the field of embroidery and digitizing. Thanks for sharing.
Megri Digitizing

cheap digitizing said...

nice article, it is very helpful for me. i really appreciate your efforts. this is interesting to read and very clearly explained the ideas. I must say that you are extremely talented in the field of embroidery and digitizing. Thanks for sharing.

Zoe said...

Nice information with good content. Keep share this kind of posts.
farmhouse christmas pillow covers
hallmark christmas ornaments

Lucy Carter said...

Style Apparel is just one of the most demanding and prospering business sectors around the globeCustom Embroidery Digitizing

Ali said...

Looking for the best quality custom embroidery digitizing service
product embroidery digitizing
at unbeatable price and guaranteed quality? you know that there are a lot of embroidery files like DST, PES, EMB etc. As like convert AI to DST, you can also convert AI to PES embroidery file here Embroidery Digitizing
. Our best digitizing team can provide quality assurance with the money back guarantee. So, feel free to Contact Us Embroidery Digitizing contact now for your embroidery digitizing at the beatable price.

product vector art
Clipart vectoriel - Zdigitizing
Numérisation de broderie - Numérisation de logo Clipart vectoriel - Zdigitizing
Numérisation de broderie - Numérisation de logo
arte vectorial de producto
digitalización de bordado de productos
prodotto arte vettoriale
digitalizzazione dei prodotti

Cosmetics UK said...

Mostly dry hands are caused by environmental conditions..
Read More!
How to Heal Drying and Cracking Hands

embroidery digitizing said...

Hello Dear, I'm Daniel and I'm the owner of the website Falcon Digitizing. We provide the best embroidery digitizing services at the very best rates so if you are interested then kindly visit my website to get more information about my company.

EMdigitizer said...

EMDigitizer has been providing premium quality embroidery digitizing service for embroidery digitized by experienced digitizers.