We last touched on the fact that although state of the art screen printing equipment can be a very large investment, it’s considerably less expensive when you weigh the benefits that it offers compared to the alternative. This type of press can not only out work a manual machine but it removes much of the human element. In other words, and experienced operator can put out three to four times the amount of custom t-shirts then a conventional press. It also gives you consistency, that a manual machine is not capable of. Why not? Because every stroke of the squeegee going across the apparel is going to be consistent regarding the same speed and the same exact trajectory and squeegee angle. This is something that even the most trained operators cannot offer.
By doing the work of two or three individuals, it greatly removes much of the human element out of the process. We also mentioned that unlike the operators, the Machinery shows up every day for work and never gets hurt. It’s never late, and it never requires a bonus or a financial compensation for doing a superior job. We’re all familiar with carpal tunnel syndrome. This is a real potential problem for an operator who has to be doing that repeated movement constantly throughout the work day all year long. Eventually, this can really wear your wrists out and resulted employee downtime and a workman’s compensation insurance claim. In addition to that, when you take into account the hourly wage that you’re paying your personnel, and then add in the fact that you’re matching the Social Security on that individual along with insurance, the machinery normally is a fraction of that cost.
When it comes to acquiring the right screen printing or custom embroidery equipment, I recommend that you do your research before you go out and incur such an expensive investment. I also suggest that you consider the possibility of acquiring used opposed to new. More than not, you can typically acquire a used embroidery machine for a small fraction of what it might have cost brand new. A lot of people who want to be entrepreneurs in the Columbus Ohio area want to break in to the digital t-shirt printing industry, and they proceed to take out a huge loan before they are even certain that they’re going to be able to make a go of it. This is a huge mistake in my opinion. Why not shop for used? As long as it’s been well maintained, it’s not uncommon for a used dryer or digital printing press to perform just as well as a new one, but you can often acquire it for a fraction of the cost.
Once you develop the necessary clientele base large enough to be able to meet your overhead and pay your monthly bills along with developing the confidence needed to be assured that you can actually make it in this competitive industry, then you can go out and potentially make a more sizable investment in order to try and automate in an attempt to speed up your production.
I’m sharing this information because I feel that knowledge is of paramount importance when launching such an endeavor. Someone once mentioned that experience is the best teacher but that person was probably never a business owner. I would much rather avoid the mistakes than make my own. I say this in order to try and help you to avoid making the same mistakes that I made when I first started out. Looking back in hindsight, I wish I would have had a mentor like myself – someone with decades of experience that’s willing to share it. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for those who share an entrepreneurial spirit. I certainly hope much of what I said will be helpful to them.