When you're running your own embroidery or digitizing business you may be doing an array of jobs with varying levels of difficulty. So how do you come up with a price for your embroidery? In this article we'll look at all the factors to consider when charging your customers.

What should influence my quote?

Everyone has different circumstances and like any business decision, you need to consider your own needs as well as the prevailing industry prices. Ask yourself:

• Do I have any competitors near by?
• What are their basic charges?
• Is the job urgent?
• How quickly can I do the job?
• How big is the job?
• If a large job, is it practical for me to do or should I outsource it?
• Is it a job I  have had little experience with (potentially difficult) or is it a simple job?
• Am I supplying the garments or items to be embroidered? Or is the customer? Are they of reasonable quality?
• Will I be digitizing the designs or will the customer provide them?
• Do I need to have artwork digitized elsewhere (outsourced)?
• Am I likely to get ongoing work from this customer?

There are quite a few variables to consider but with experience you'll learn to assess the above in a matter of moments when quoting.

Why will customer's choose my service?

There are multiple factors that might influence a customer to accept or reject your quotation. These usually have nothing to do with the job at hand or your ability to complete it. Ask yourself:

• Does the customer like me? (Sometimes people just don't gel together!)
• When I invite customers into my sewing/embroidery room, what is their first impression?
• Does my work environment look organized?
• Has a competitor quoted lower than I'm prepared to go?
• Am I quoting too low?

Don't take on work simply because it's there. It must be profitable for you to do it. Of course if this continually happens then you may need to review your charges.

Hot Sale 9 Needle 6 Head Normal Speed Refurbished Embroidery Machine

What should I charge?

Quoting based on stitch count

A very common way to price your embroidery is to use the stitch-count of the design to be embroidered. Charging a price for every 1,000 stitches can give you a scalable starting point. Typically the cost per 1,000 stitches can vary from as little as 50 cents to $4.00 depending on the size of the design, the number of colour changes and the number of garments to be embroidered. Usually as the number or size of the stitch count increases the cost per 1,000 stitches goes down.

Quoting based on time

Another option is to consider the actual hours involved in the job at hand. With this method, you simply need to set an hourly rate that meets your requirements. This figure should include a portion to help cover your overheads as well as the hourly profit you wish to make. Both methods can be rather unbalanced sometimes. For example, using an hourly rate on jobs with a high stitch count really takes less time for you. The machine continues to stitch while you are free to attend to other tasks.

By contrast, charging by stitch count for small embroidery designs on garments that are problematic to hoop can work against you. Having said that I still prefer to use the stitch count method but I base it on a sliding scale as shown in the table on the following page.

Factoring in your equipment

Remember, the investment in your embroidery equipment is a cost and should be factored into your quotes regardless of what method of quoting you choose. If you are considering a serious home-based business then we do recommend consulting with your accountant to ensure you don't miss out on many of the tax benefits you can legitimately claim. Your accountant will in most cases be able to help you establish a true picture of your business overheads.

Of course, the greatest thing about a home-based embroidery business is that the overheads are incredibly low with little to no rent and in most cases no other wages to pay. Remember, this is your advantage and gives you the ability to have a competitive yet very profitable embroidery business.

Running a successful home-based embroidery business with one or more home embroidery machines is simply hard work. The limitations and the lack of efficiency will almost certainly make you lose interest and possibly money. Sadly, we have seen many people give up on their home-based embroidery business because they were led to believe it could be easily done on a home embroidery machine. On the bright side however, we have helped hundreds of home embroiderers around Australia move up to a Brother PR multi-needle machine. Many are now earning a nice income while doing the embroidery they love!