Impressions - February 2017 - 47

Separate the print and pretreatment
processes. Performing the latter as soon
as the shipment arrives, then hanging
the garments to dry, can maximize
production efficiency.

guy. Charging low-ball prices often does more harm than good.
Rather, set a standard and charge accordingly.
If you low-ball a bid, the customer will assume it to be the
regular price. If a production mistake occurs, requiring you to
discount or purchase replacement garments, you will have no
margin. In a worst-case scenario, you could even end up paying
out of pocket to do the job.
Set a standard; analyze printing costs and set a profit-margin
guideline. If the job costs $5.50 to print, including the shirt,
say you will charge no less than 100%. If the customer wants
them printed quickly, charge a rush fee. Are low minimums
preferred? Charge a minimum-order fee. Do you have to create
or manipulate art? Charge an art fee.This leaves you room for
time, resources, errors and discounting, if necessary.
It's easier to set a standard price and sell your service rather
than low-ball a bid, leave money on the table or risk paying out
of pocket to complete a job.
Maximize Production Efficiency
I love the old adage, "Work smarter not harder." It is so easy
to perform and repeat processes in garment decoration.Think
strategically about workflow and how to speed up the process.
First, try to keep your DTG printer running; don't let the
print head sit idle. Once a print is complete, have another shirt
ready to put on the platen for production.
Pretreating can be slow and the heat press can act as a bottleneck
in the process. Separate the print and pretreatment processes. In
fact, pretreating in advance allows shirts to be printed and dried
without interruption. It's frustrating to dry a wet, printed shirt
while a wet, pretreated shirt is drying on the press.
These techniques will work in any print shop. It sometimes
takes years to learn the finer points, but they should be written
into your company's "Constitution" to ensure maximum profits
each time you print. 

ImmedIate Pretreatment
I've always found it helpful to pretreat garments as soon as they arrive
from your supplier. Have your staff open the shipment and count the
garments against the order.
Pretreat and mark the shirts, then hang them to dry. Following these steps
eliminates the common problem of discovering an incorrect shipment
just before printing starts. Try to avoid these last-minute, unexpected
issues by maximizing efficiency and advance print preparation.

Don't waste expensive
time and resources
doing unnecessary
work. If your customer
is happy, complete the
job, thank him for his
business and move on.

John LeDrew is the DTG director for Melco Intl. He has worked professionally in
garment decoration since 2006, managing accounts and overseeing production
for some of the world's largest brands and retailers. For more information or to
comment on this article, contact John via LinkedIn.
FEBRUARY 2017

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Impressions - February 2017

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