To pick up where we left off, last time we started talking about equipment. I can’t emphasize the importance of having the right tools. If you’re considering the possibility of starting up your own Columbus digital t-shirt printing company, then a good place to start would be to count the cost. Lesson one, in creating a strategy is keeping in mind that it’s not how much money you take in as much as it is how much you spend. For example, let’s say you took in a total of $1 million dollars per month. If you’re overhead is $1 million every 30 days, then all you really did was make nothing in a very big way. You might as well have just stayed home and watched TV because it’s a lot easier and a lot less risky.
So how can you lessen that overhead? Well that’s where having the right tools come in. In most cases, the most expensive overhead of any company is generated from the employees. When you take into consideration that you pay your workers a fair wage of let’s just say $20 an hour for example, you also have to figure in that you need to match their social security and also consider carrying workman’s compensation insurance and the list goes on and on. That’s where having the right tools comes in to try and offset that.
When it comes to modern day screen printing equipment there’s a couple different options. You have what’s referred to as a manual press and an automatic press. With the automatic option, it can potentially do the work of up to three employees with just one experienced operator. This will not only drastically reduce your overhead but most likely you’re aggravation as well. Here’s what I mean by that. The equipment shows up every day and doesn’t call in sick. There’s nothing more frustrating than let’s say coming into your busy season and you’re just swamped. Things are tough enough as they are trying to meet the deadlines and then you get a text from one of your employees saying he’s not feeling well so he’s opting not to come in. Then you also have the scenario of the individual who always seems to call in sick on Mondays. To be perfectly honest, I have nothing against great employees, but the more you can remove the human element out of the equation, typically the better you’re going to be when it comes to running a small business of any kind. Another fact to consider is that machinery doesn’t require a raise because of the cost of living and it doesn’t require overtime pay. It never complains and it never gets hurt on the job. When it comes to cutting your monthly cost, I feel that automation is the answer.
Don’t forget the fact that after every job , you have to break down the Press and reclaim these screens. I’ve always considered that to be the toughest job in the shop. It’s loud and tedious and there’s also chemicals involved that shouldn’t be inhaled. Nowadays they have automated reclaimers that not only removes all the ink out of the screen but it also blasts out the emulsion where the whole process might only take 5 minutes or less. This type of machinery is not cheap, but when you weigh in all the other factors that I had mentioned earlier, it’s normally a lot less expensive and a lot less aggravation than the individual who runs it. This doesn’t just apply to screen printing equipment, but also custom embroidery as well as digital t-shirt printing applications.