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screen printing => General Screen Printing => Topic started by: Nation03 on June 25, 2014, 07:20:28 PM
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Business has been growing somewhat steadily over the years, not as much as I would like it to grow but much of that is do to the fact that I run my shop part time. It looks like I'll be taking the leap at running my shop full time within 6 months or so. Depending on my financial situation, I was thinking it was time to pull the trigger on an auto, but I wanted to get an idea of how many shirts/garments were some of you guys printing per year on average before you decided it was time for an automatic?
Hopefully this is the right section for this thread, I wasn't sure if it was relative enough for the Equipment section.
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I can not answer your questions, however, I will give you more...Is the amount of time you are putting in taking away from your life?......How many orders are you doing that could be contracted out?...Are you using hired labor that can be reduced or eliminated with an automatic..Sometimes just based on the answer to the 3rd question it can be worth it to upgrade....
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I can not answer your questions, however, I will give you more...Is the amount of time you are putting in taking away from your life?......How many orders are you doing that could be contracted out?...Are you using hired labor that can be reduced or eliminated with an automatic..Sometimes just based on the answer to the 3rd question it can be worth it to upgrade....
I entertained the thought of contracting orders out, but I prefer to be hands on with the orders I take. Also, as most of you already know, everyone needs their shirts yesterday. I need to be in control of the production in order to keep up with the crazies out there. I live in the NYC metro area so there are pretty much only crazy people around here, always in a rush. I'm not using hired labor, just a one man band. Printing manually over the last 7-8 years. I just turned 25 and my body feels twice that.
I work at another shop at the moment and my boss wants me to handle all of his production by 2015 so that will be about 3-4 times the volume I'm doing on my own right now. I think even a small auto can help me manage the production better and hopefully free up more time for me to focus on growing the business.
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Kiddo I wish I had your vision back in my twenties, pushing the old 50 now, but to answer your question when we went auto we pick up over flow work from other shops and larger orders did start to come in. I can't say this is true for everyone that goes auto, but it will sure cut your work load and give you more time to sell or do art, and not spending all your time manual printing. I don't think there is any magic to this biz but just good ole hard work and planing, and finding that market you can attack, rule #1 just about anyone can print a T-shirt, but it takes a lot to run a business.
Darryl
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one thing i'll say about auto printing, is you can never have enough screens and or squeegees/floodbars
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I never had a set number of shirts being produced for me to go auto. It was all about what my body was telling me. And when I would print 150 shirts and be sore the rest of the day, I figured it was telling me it was time to get an auto.
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It was my first order of 600pcs. 6-col. in August that made my mind up for me. Damn near killed me humping them out in 110F heat. Saved up a deposit, got a loan approval from my bank, and starting shopping. The real kicker was needing a bigger shop to put the auto in.
Never looked back, one of the best decisions I made.
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Once we went through a few orders that took us through nights of printing that's when we new we needed an auto. Then of course right when we got it we started getting crazy busy, went to full time on that auto along with a bit on the manual as well.
We were at 12 hour days on that auto + half-full time on our manual just a bit ago and now have a second much larger and faster auto and we have been maxed out on both autos since it was installed.
As soon as you can justify the expense is probably the time to pull the trigger. You will save on labor and will be able to price larger jobs lower but be more profitable. Save your hands/arms too especially if you are a puller.
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we bought our auto after we had a few 100 shirt orders coming in regularly.. of course ours is a beater, but, it gets the job done and makes us a lot of $$$
Best decision we ever made, and has made the larger orders nearly a walk in the park.
we now offer contract printing at quite reasonable rates to a few promo companies around town. The profits on the last order we printed would have nearly paid for it.
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It really was all based on time. By the 4th year we were printing 12hr. days 7 days a week and it about killed me. Same thing is happening right now with our auto and 1 manual. Seems like when we make a adjustment and get more shirts done pre day twice as many shirts show up. Sucky part is that it's easier to train on the auto so I'm still stuck printing long days on the manual.
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Too damn many for too long! Now our auto can't keep up and we need a second. Snap up whatever you can and go from there. The older machines are a pain but will teach you much.
Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk
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Thanks for all the reply's. I figured there was no magic number. I feel like going auto is the way to go.
I considered buying used. I see plenty of deals on Javelins and Freedoms, but to be honest I'd rather buy new. I should be able to put a large down payment on a Diamondback C or S, I was also considering a Javelin Pro with Choppers. I've leased equipment through Geneva Capital before and they said there is a repeat customer discount so if the payments are low enough, I'm pretty sure I can justify the cost of the auto, even if I'm only printing on it 3 days a week.
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Thanks for all the reply's. I figured there was no magic number. I feel like going auto is the way to go.
I considered buying used. I see plenty of deals on Javelins and Freedoms, but to be honest I'd rather buy new. I should be able to put a large down payment on a Diamondback C or S, I was also considering a Javelin Pro with Choppers. I've leased equipment through Geneva Capital before and they said there is a repeat customer discount so if the payments are low enough, I'm pretty sure I can justify the cost of the auto, even if I'm only printing on it 3 days a week.
I look at it this way. If you can afford the payment for an auto with the profit you make right now printing manually, then you need an automatic press. I probably still print less than most on here, maybe twice a week for 2.5hrs each, and I would absolutely do it the same if I had to choose again. You make your press payment in the first 30 minutes of running the auto, done.
I would look for a used piece of equipment, find a LOCAL bank with a real person who decides on your loan acceptance, and put 20% down.
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Auto from day one 32 ys ago
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Me and my wife decided to get an auto when we an order came in that was 4350 pcs 5 colors each. It took 2 weeks to get half of them done working all day because we were dealing with customers as well. We decided no matter how tired we were that we would just suck it up and finish the other 1/2 of the order. About 2 days before we finished we got another order for 3800 pcs. As soon as the second order came in I called the banker.
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Way less shirts than most id say. Probably a few hundred a week.
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If I were just starting a screen printing business I'd buy an auto from the start. A cheap older model auto beats pulling a squeegee any day of the week, even though some of those older autos are a PITA like Zoo said. I know many start this business with the least amount of capital possible and then save and upgrade a little bit at a time, but the first time you print 100 4 color black shirts, tight registration on the manual you'll be asking yourself why you didn't get a loan for 10K for a crappy auto.
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If I were just starting a screen printing business I'd buy an auto from the start. A cheap older model auto beats pulling a squeegee any day of the week, even though some of those older autos are a PITA like Zoo said. I know many start this business with the least amount of capital possible and then save and upgrade a little bit at a time, but the first time you print 100 4 color black shirts, tight registration on the manual you'll be asking yourself why you didn't get a loan for 10K for a crappy auto.
Exactly what I tell people now that ask me. I would start with a auto if I did it all again. People that try to pretend there is a massive learning curve on a auto are trying to scare people IMO. It's harder to teach someone to print manually IMO.
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What are the payments like on a auto? I've been printing manny for too long and now I'm working a "real" job on top which sucks.
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We never purchased a manual press, went for the auto. Still so not have a manual.
Chris
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I learned how to print on an auto and when I started to print on the manual everything was so easy. I just mimicked the auto as best I could and everything went fine and I never had to "learn" how to print manually. I know I'm lucky that I've never really had to but I'd never print more than a 2 color job on the manual of any size, it's simply many times faster/better/easier on the auto. We use our manual for 1 color jobs under 48 pieces but only if the auto is full and we need to, which is maybe a couple jobs a week. If we do have to put a multi-colored job on the manual I'm the only one that will touch it and I HATE HATE doing it, it really makes no sense if you can any way possible print it on the auto. I know people will disagree with me but I've got a good bit of experience on a great auto that makes everything really easy. I can see some guys who are trying to print tough jobs on older, no-tech machines that don't do anything very well, but I bet you'd have to pry someone off of any newer style auto to print manually.
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I don't agree with buying an auto too prematurely.
I recently bought one and for me it was a good time, after 4 years in business with one other printer and a graphic designer/admin and importantly solid client base and contracts that warrant one.
A manual shop is less pressure. Financially anyway.
Small rent, equipment probably paid for outright, in a small workshop... Or if needs be a garage.
When buying an auto...as I recently discovered, there's alsorts that goes with it.
You have to find a shop big enough to fit it, a decent lease so you don't have to move it. Pay a crap load for the correct power fit out if it doesn't have it, compressor, after cooler and the rest... It's a fair amount of moolaaahh.
With An employee and a second manual press, you can have as them on a casual basis and reduce hours to cut outgoings if needs be while establishing yourself as a business and making a name for yourself without the pressure of big bills. Makes it much more fun and enjoyable.
That's my opinion anyway. I had x2 manual press spinning for 30-40 hours a week for over a year before considering the need for an auto... But crap. They are super cool. It's a robot!
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Agreed. I started on autos.
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We started out as a manual/embroidery shop. Printing manually was 8 hours a day easily but just that so we stuck with that. Then we had the opportunity for a 125k 2 sided job for AT&T. We bought a brand new Javelin and printed our asses off for months, as much as it sucked it paid for the auto with just one job and we never looked back. Thing is once you start upgrading your equipment people notice and bigger and better jobs come your way. Since we have gone from 6 color to eight color, we have printed so many more 6-7 colors jobs than we ever even seen in the past.
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I agree with you all... Running an auto textile press for a couple of years after being in flat stock screen printing taught me a shitload about printing textiles. But I learnt a lot more in terms of business and marketing when committing full time on manual press and without the added stress of auto repayments or potentially the drama of a dud second hand auto in a big shop with big outgoings and no solid income.
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I don't agree with buying an auto too prematurely.
Any time saved with an auto versus a manual can be used to "sell".....Those extra sales can generate enough to pay for the upgrade....Now having said that, many screen printers I run into locally (and elsewhere), do not like to sell so I can get orders that they miss....That does not mean they do not like to take orders....What I mean is they do not want to hit the pavement and knock on doors....They run with a "built it and they will come" motto....
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For me it was the 12-14 hour days, 7 days a week, for almost 4 months that told me it was time. Granted, all those hours were not spent at the press but the production was definitely the slowest part. A steady stream of 200-600 pc, 4 to 6 color orders was physically killing me. I told the wife that we either needed to get an auto or get out of the business. I was growing to hate printing. After the new shop was built and the new equipment installed it was like a whole new journey.
You will know when it is time...
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I don't agree with buying an auto too prematurely.
Any time saved with an auto versus a manual can be used to "sell".....Those extra sales can generate enough to pay for the upgrade....Now having said that, many screen printers I run into locally (and elsewhere), do not like to sell so I can get orders that they miss....That does not mean they do not like to take orders....What I mean is they do not want to hit the pavement and knock on doors....They run with a "built it and they will come" motto....
Valid point.
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What are the payments like on a auto? I've been printing manny for too long and now I'm working a "real" job on top which sucks.
Less than 1 day of running a press half speed and you can pay for its cost......easily.