Embroidery Shop Quote Calculator · guide
Short answer: charge the price at which the job's real cost, including the clock time it ties up your machine and you, still leaves your target margin, and never less than a minimum charge. A price per 1000 stitches is a fair shorthand for a long run and a money-loser for a short one. Here is the arithmetic, with made-up shop numbers.
A shop with a 2-head machine rated at 650 stitches a minute, really running at 75% of that, gets a job for 24 left-chest logos: 7,500 stitches, 4 thread colors, polos that cost $4.50 each, and a $25 digitizing fee. Hooping takes 1.5 minutes a piece, job setup 15 minutes plus 2 minutes per color, a thread change 8 seconds. Labor is $20 an hour, machine overhead $10 an hour, thread and backing $0.10 per 1000 stitches.
At $1.00 per 1000 stitches the same job is $7.50 of decoration plus the $4.50 polo, $12.00 a piece, $288.00 for 24. That covers the $275.21 cost by $12.79, a 4.4% margin and $23.09 an hour. Cut the order to 12 pieces and the same rule collects $144.00 against a cost of $155.86, a loss of $11.86: digitizing and setup did not shrink with the order. The rule only stays above cost from 20 pieces up, and it stays under a $35 an hour floor right up to 250.
| Pieces | Per piece | Quote | Flat $1.00 rule profit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | $21.65 | $259.80 | -$11.86 |
| 24 | $19.12 | $458.88 | $12.79 |
| 48 | $17.85 | $856.80 | $62.09 |
| 100 | $17.19 | $1,719.00 | $168.89 |
| 250 | $16.83 | $4,207.50 | $476.96 |
The price falls fastest at the start (12% from 12 to 24 pieces) and flattens, because after digitizing and setup are spread out the cost per piece is mostly garment, thread and run time.
On a one- or two-piece order, setup and digitizing are most of the cost and the margin math gives a price nobody will pay. A minimum order charge fixes that, but only if it is above your cost at that size. The Embroidery Shop Quote Calculator lists the quantities at which your minimum, rather than your margin, sets the price, and the quantity from which the margin takes over.
Enter the price the customer offered per piece and the calculator works out your effective hourly rate at that price and compares it with the lowest rate you will accept. Below the floor it tells you the price that reaches it; below zero, where the job does not even pay for garments, thread and overhead, it says pass.
Enough that the job covers its garments, thread, the clock time it ties up you and the machine, and digitizing, and still leaves your target margin. A price per 1000 stitches is only a starting point; the same logo costs far more per piece at 12 pieces than at 250 because setup and digitizing are paid once.
It is a fair rule for a long run and a poor one for a short run. It ignores digitizing, job setup, color setup, thread changes and hooping, so below a certain quantity it sells under cost. Work out that quantity for your own machine before you trust the rule.
Yes, whenever setup and digitizing can outweigh the margin on a tiny order. The calculator shows the quantities at which your minimum, rather than your margin, sets the price, and the quantity from which the margin takes over.
Whatever you need to make the shop worth running. The effective hourly rate is what is left per clock hour after garments, thread, overhead and digitizing are paid, so compare it with the lowest rate you would accept and counter any job that falls short.