The American Screen Printing Association Certified Screen Printer (CSP) online exam has had over 3,000 participants since its launch last year.

Many have successfully passed the exam and have obtained the ASPA Certified Screen Printer Certificate of Achievement to display in their shop or office. Displaying the Certificate of Achievement can build customer confidence to those with whom you do business. Screen printers who pass the exam also have the right to display the Certified Screen Printer logo on their website.

ASPA (CSP) screen printer certification, along with our specialized training programs can also be useful in securing employment in the screen printing industry. Our basic screen printing training program coupled with the CSP examination provides a graduate with a Certificate of Achievement and Letter of Introduction for Employment. Presenting the certificate demonstrating screen printing knowledge to a prospective employer maybe helpful in landing a job.

The Certified Screen Printer (CSP) exam was developed for the purpose of providing recognition to screen printers who have demonstrated their competency and knowledge in the craft of screen printing.  The online exam is free.
 

THE FOUR ELEMENTS OF PRICE SETTING

(1) Cost of materials 
(2) Cost of labor
(3) Cost of overhead
(4) What the market will bear

These are the primary elements to price setting.  Determine these items on a per unit basis and you can establish a pricing formula for most every product that you sell.

COST OF MATERIALS

Let's go over the first piece of the pricing puzzle–the cost of materials.  This is fairly easy. Let's use t-shirts as an example.  How much do you pay per shirt for your blanks?  How much is the cost of shipping to receive the shirts from your vendor?  And lastly, how many shirts do want to allocate for misprints or returns? 

For this example, we'll use an order of (50) t-shirts with a (1) color screen print on (1) side of the shirt. Let's say you're using a $2.50 blank t-shirt. Based on current commercial shipping rates, it'll cost you around .40 per shirt for shipping (depending your location.)
Let's say you expect a misprint (or other defect) of 1 out of every 100 shirts for a cost of .025 (let's round it up to 3 cents).  So we have $2.50 + .40 + .03 = $2.93 for the cost of materials. 

COST OF LABOR

Next is the cost of labor.  Is it only you or do you have employees?  In this example, let's say you are the only employee.  What is a satisfactory hourly wage?  $25, $35, $50 or $75 an hour?  Let's say you want to make $50 per hour.  While this may seem to be a decent wage (by most people's standards), you must understand that you want to be able to make enough money to be able to put some of it back into your business and cover your “overhead” costs.  Let's assume that you can do the pre-production (writing up the order, artwork, shirt ordering, screen making, etc.) and the printing of (50) shirts in one hour. Using our $50 per hour labor rate, that will add .50 to our shirt cost.  We're now up to $3.43 per shirt.

COST OF OVERHEAD

 Every month you have to pay an electric bill, insurance, a payment on your equipment, etc. in order to operate your business.  This is the cost of overhead.  Because the variables will be different for almost every t-shirt printing business, we can only use an estimate for our overhead example.  But before we do, here are some examples of “overhead” to consider. 

●    Rent
●    Telephone service
●    Fax service
●    Internet access
●    Insurance
●    Taxes
●    Depreciation
●    Equipment
●    Supplies (ink, emulsion, etc.)
●    Advertising
●    Postage
●    Electric
●    Gas/Propane/Oil for heating
●    Vehicle(s)
●    Fuel
●    Accounting
●    Legal fees

As you can see, overhead can add a significant cost to doing business because of the numerous expenses involved. Think of overhead as an “expensive employee.”  For our example, our “expensive employee” will make as much as you do–$50 per hour.  So let's add another .50 per shirt. 

So what are we up to so far?  $2.93 (cost of materials) + .50 (cost of labor)  + .50 (cost of overhead)  = $3.93 per shirt.  Look's like a good price so far.  But read on…

WHAT PRICE “WILL THE MARKET BEAR?”

Although mathematical exercises are useful for determining your prices, no business operates in a vacuum. The ugly word “competition” must always be considered. Because the marketplace will almost always have influence on your prices (unless you are fortunate enough to have no competition), take a survey of your competitors.  Are your prices in line with theirs?  Are your prices significantly lower or higher than most of your competition?  If so, why is that? 

One important thing to remember is never copy your competitor's prices or always “underprice” the competition, as you do not know what their cost of doing business is.  Or worse, your competitor may be using “idiot pricing” — which is simply pricing they dreamed up with no thought whatsoever to their cost of doing business.

The best approach to determine your pricing is use mathematical analysis for your operation and then see where you stand in the marketplace and adjust if necessary. If you are significantly higher, figure out how to lower your production costs.  If you are fortunate enough to be significantly lower, either raise your prices for a better profit or position yourself as the pricing “market leader” and see if you realize an attendant increase in sales.   

MAKING A PROFIT

Your primary reason for being in business should be to make a profit. Although t-shirt printing is a fun and a creative way to make a living, you have to pay your bills and make plans to retire some day. 

So let's talk a little about profits.  The prices that we have come up with so far have not included a profit.  We have only covered the cost of the blanks, labor expense, and the overhead.  So what about profits?  If you think your $50 per hour labor rate is your profit, that type of thinking will get you in a “no-growth” situation because you are only “working for wages.” If you want to succeed and grow your business, you must factor in “profits.”

What is a “reasonable” profit to make?  A “reasonable profit” is whatever the market will bear!  If the cost of doing business in your shop is very low compared to the competition because you are a single employee operation or you're home-based, you may enjoy a significant profit margin. Use this to your advantage and make as much as you can! This is how you will grow your business or be able to sock away large sums for your retirement.  Once you begin to expand (if that is your goal) by adding more equipment, employees, etc. you will not enjoy the profit margin that you previously had. Take full advantage of significant profit making while you can.

Back to our price setting sample.  So far, we are up to $3.93 per shirt.  Let's say you want to make a 30% profit, certainly a “reasonable” amount.  That will add $1.18 to the price of shirt, making the final selling price $5.11.  Will this price be acceptable in the marketplace?  I think so.  But would it work everywhere?  Maybe, maybe not.  The key to setting prices is “do your homework, then test the waters.”

SUMMARY

As you can see, setting prices is not just as simple as adding up some numbers.  It would be nice if it were that easy.  This author's recommendation on setting prices is to read as much information as you can on the subject and analyze the marketplace carefully. Become an expert on knowing your costs and determine how to operate your shop as efficiently as possible. Monitor your competition’s pricing and keep constant track of your overhead costs. 

Your goal should be to become as profitable as possible and yet still be able to maintain a balanced lifestyle for yourself.

For more information on this very important subject, the U.S. Small Business Administration offers tutorials on this subject and many other useful topics. It can be found here:  http://www.sba.gov/

The content of this article is an excerpt from the ASPA training course The Secrets of Printing T-Shirts and How to Make Big Money!

Who can use our training?

If you currently offer in-house screen printing training, you’ll find our certification program to be an excellent addition to your training efforts. Our screen printer certification program is useful for training new and existing employees in your screen printing shop, high school vocational programs, disadvantaged youth, inmate training and rehabilitation programs, adult worker retraining and more.

Our screen printer certification program is ideal for :

• training new and existing employees in your screen printing shop
• screen printing vocational training
• worker retraining programs
• displaced worker training,
• disadvantaged youth training
• vo-tech screen printing
• inner city youth and gang prevention training programs
• at-risk youth training
• screen printing training in correctional institutions
• rehabilitation training programs
• prison inmate training programs
• rehabilitation training for incarcerated individuals

What’s in the program?

Our screen printer certification program consists of 5 elements:

1. The ASPA Certified Screen Printer (CSP) competency examination.
2. ASPA Certified Screen Printer (CSP) Study Guide which prepares the individual for the CSP exam.
3. ASPA Certificate of Achievement.  Awarded to each individual who passes the CSP examination.
4. A Letter of Introduction from ASPA to prospective employers to help individuals secure employment.
5. How to Get a Job in Screen Printing CD

Funding

The American Screen Printing Association screen printer certification program may be eligible for funding from foundations, government, and/or private sources.  

How much does it cost?

The cost of our certification program is $50 per individual.

How does it work?

ASPA will supply the CSP Exam and Study Guide to each individual at your school or facility. Each person is treated as an individual and their competency examination is reviewed and graded by our staff. Those who successfully pass the examination will receive the Certificate of Achievement and Letter of Introduction for Employment (optional). Our goal is to help individuals succeed in the screen printing industry and/or obtain gainful employment in the field of screen printing.

A few more details…

If you currently offer screen printing vocational training, you’ll find our program to be an excellent addition. If you feel that your in-house screen printing training is inadequate, ASPA offers several screen printing training courses in video and cd format.

Get started now!

If you would like to purchase our screen printer certification program as an individual, please click here.

For group and school training, please contact ASPA to learn more.

One thing most businesses would like to obtain are lucrative orders from the government. When most people think of “government orders” they typically think of the federal government.

Getting orders from the federal government can be very difficult due to the mountain of paperwork and other bureaucratic obstacles that are in place. An often overlooked type of government work is obtaining contracts from your local or state governments. For the purpose of this article we have limited our discussion to securing local government work.

You will find that most townships, cities, and county governments may have a need for the products that you offer. You often see local workers wearing custom printed safety shirts, jackets, hats, vests, sweatshirts and more. While there is a certain amount of politics involved in obtaining local government orders it is much easier than trying to secure work at the state or federal level. A visit to your local government office or sending them a letter of inquiry will often get you on the right track to obtaining local government contracts for the products and services that you offer.

At the very local level, such as townships or small municipalities, you may find that these jobs are awarded in a no bid method and may be yours simply for the asking. It is important to note that local governments like to keep things “local” and will often only award contacts accordingly.

Obtaining government work isn't always the arcane process that most people think. Start “locally” and be on your way to getting your share of local government work.

Let's take a look at the facts. Most screen printers start off servicing their local community. The vast majority of these orders typically call for simple one or two color prints, where screen printing is a more cost effective solution. In addition, the cash outlay to start a small t-shirt screen printing shop is significantly lower than the cost necessary to buy digital printing equipment. And the demand for full color printing on apparel, where digital printing would be most applicable, is quite limited for the type of orders you will most likely get in your local community.

Another consideration is the learning curve for going digital. You will find that for digital printing, the computer based technical skills required are not insignificant. By contrast, learning the basic essentials of screen printing is not difficult and employees can be easily trained.

Digital printing certainly has it uses. If you are just starting out in the screen printing business wait until you see the types of orders you are receiving. It would be wise to take a cautious approach to making any large investment on digital equipment. We recommend if and when you receive an order that requires full color printing, that you farm these orders out to contract printers who have digital printing equipment. By taking this type of approach, you will be able to determine if the demand justifies the cost of investing in digital printing equipment.

Don't let anyone tell you that screen printing is going to become a thing of the past—they are wrong. Screen printing is a craft that will always be needed. It is a cost effective printing solution and has a well established industry for providing the equipment, supplies and knowledge base.

Always remember this important rule: Never take on a job that exceeds your skill level. In good times or bad, most of us in the screen printing business are eager to take on new work. In bad times especially finding new jobs is often difficult.

Because of this we are sometimes more willing to consider print jobs that are outside of our level of experience. This can lead to problems. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned printer, always consider carefully the ramifications of accepting any kind of work that you have never done before.

If you take on a job and the results are less than than the customers expects or you can not produce the order on time (while you try to figure it out), it can be costly to you in more ways than one. The customer will not only be unhappy with you but will most likely give bad word of mouth about your business and your lack of ability. It is also likely that you will not recover the cost of the poorly printed product.

A common example is when a customer supplies the goods that they want you to print. You may have never printed on that type of substrate before, have no experience with the ink, mesh counts, curing times, or special printing techniques that will be required.

The best way to avoid the “lack of experience” printing problem is to offer the customer the willingness to take on the job based on doing some test prints. In this instance, advise your customer that this is not the type of job that you do regularly. As a safe guard only accept the job if the test printing was successful. If you are unfamiliar with a particular type of printing, do some research first. Be sure to give yourself ample time for your research and test printing and to be able to work out any difficulties that you may encounter. It is also recommended in most instances that you charge your customer for your time and effort for doing the test printing, even if you are not going to take on the job.

This important rule applies to any type of screen printing job that you have never done before. The rule is test, test, test. Be sure you can print it before you agree to take on the job.

Once you have invested in an employee's training, it is always in your best interest to retain an employee rather than have to replace one.Along with paying them a decent livable wage, there are a few little or no cost perks that you a offer that will keep most employees happy.

One method that has been used with success are “Free Lunch Fridays”. Being in the t-shirt printing business, there are many  local businesses that have a need for your services, one of which are restaurants. Consider offering free custom printed t-shirts to a local pizza shop, sandwich shop or restaurant in exchange for a certain amount of “free” food to be delivered to your screen printing shop every Friday.

I don't know about you but most people love free food and will especially look forward to a day when they do not have to pack a lunch.

Another perk to consider offering around holidays is to give your employees a gift certificate for a free turkey or ham for Thanksgiving or Christmas. This also can be done as a trade with a local supermarket.

A third and low cost perk to offer employees to give them misprinted shirts. If giving away the shirts will not present a conflict with customers, let your employees pick over the misprints. Having to buy clothes cost money and your employees will appreciate getting free clothing for themselves and their families.

The time and investment you made in training your employees is certainly worth the small amount that you will spend in providing them with these low cost, high value perks.

While there is certainly no argument that a college education has value, one must now question whether the cost of obtaining that education is worth it. Attending even a public college for four years can spiral into an expense of up to $100,000. And there is certainly no guarantee that when you graduate you will obtain a job in your field of study. Moreover, colleges today produce more graduates than there are jobs to be filled. Unemployment for young people, and this includes college graduates, is at a record high. In addition, when you finish college, you will typically be saddled with a huge debt that you will be paying back for many years to come. Don't get us wrong, if you just finished medical school or are the son of a senator, the value of your college education will most likely pay off.

Let's now compare investing in yourself and starting your own t-shirt printing business. If you do your planning carefully and follow a well prepared business plan, you will find that you will be able to start a reasonably well equipped t-shirt screen printing business for under $10,000. If you work at your business diligently, it should begin to pay off right away. You will not only be earning money but you will have the ability to extinguish your start up cost from the start.

Here are some facts & figures to consider about earnings potential by owning your own T-shirt printing business. The average white t-shirt costs less than $1.00. By printing that shirt with just one imprint color and selling it to your customer for just $6.00 your profit is about $5.00 per shirt. A typical manual screen printing press can easily produce 100-200 single color prints per hour. An average order for a small business or club is 36 shirts. A 36 shirt order at a profit of $5 per shirt would yield $180.00. Not bad for an hour's work. If you print just one of these orders per day, you would earn around $900.00 per week.

Do the math and calculate what you could make if you were printing several orders per day. In addition to the huge profit potential of the shirt printing business, you can often work at home and spend more time with your family. Additionally, there are significant tax advantages to owning your own small business.

Most wealthy people in this country became wealthy by owning their own business. Being an entrepreneur is certainly not risk free. However, being an employee who happens to have a college degree, is usually not the way to financial security. With determination, hard work and a belief in yourself, you will find it to be more fulfilling, both financially and spiritually to own your own business.

For more information on starting your own T-shirt printing business visit: Secrets of Printing T-Shirts course.

You will often be presented with what will appear to be an extraordinarily profitable order, based on one or more of the following scenarios:

(a) A gigantic sized order that may be beyond the capacity of your print shop.

(b) An order with a nearly impossible production deadline.

(c) An unusually complex print, e.g. three or more print locations on the garment.

Often orders such as these can appear to be a very lucrative cash cow but require careful consideration before acceptance. Let's examine each one in detail…

(a) The gigantic order: More often than not  you will be approached by parties seeking an unusually large order for custom t-shirts. Typically, these “customers” are not presenting a legitimate order but rather trying to find out how low you are willing to go on your pricing. But once in a great while you will be presented with a customer who is serious and has the means to place such an order. With regard to whether or not you should “try to take on this order”, consider the following practicalities.

Do I have enough credit or cash on hand necessary to obtain the blanks to fulfill the order? Do I have the staff in place to produce the order? Is my equipment capability sufficient ? And lastly, if something should go horribly wrong with the order, would this order have the possibility to sink my business?

(b) The Rush Order: Rush orders can be fantastically profitable and if you are in the right place at the right time you can make out very well. The danger with rush orders is that they allow very little margin for error. If the shirts or inks do not come in on time, you are in trouble. If an unexpected power failure or equipment breakdown should occur you are in trouble. If some of your key staff calls in sick, you are in trouble. While rush orders can be very tempting because of their huge profit possibilities, weigh the positives versus the negatives carefully.

(c) Multi -location prints on shirts: These are very profitable but they can be very time consuming to produce and each additional print location increases the possibility for a misprint. If you calculate your production time carefully based on the number of print locations and your production capabilities; multi-location printing can be reduced to a low risk, high profit job.

Another option available to you for high profit, high risk orders is to consider the use of contract printers. Contract screen printers will produce your order for a fixed fee and will still leave room for you to enjoy a profit. It is strongly recommended that you do not place any high risk order with any contract printer you do not have experience with. If they do not produce the order on time or any other foul-up would occur, it is going to be your reputation on the line – not theirs. Most contract printers are reputable and highly reliable. However it goes without saying- choose carefully.

In closing, always weigh all factors when deciding on whether or not to take on a particular order. Greed is a very powerful force when you are presented with possible print orders that seem unusually lucrative. Always carefully consider all the factors before you decide to take on any custom t-shirt order.

GET YOUR FACTS AND FIGURES READY All interested buyers in your business will want to see your business figures–your cash flow, annual sales, operating expenses, equipment inclusions, asking price, etc. Gather all of the documents necessary and have them ready. Take photos of your business, your equipment–everything that will be included in the sale. You will need all of this information when you start the promotion and marketing of your business.

HOW DO I SET MY ASKING PRICE? This is probably the most sought after answer by everyone selling a business. This is a tough question with no easy answer.  An old "rule of thumb" selling price "estimator" that is sometimes used is 2.5 to 3 times the cash flow.  This may be used as a "ball park" estimation but has no real scientific basis for establishing a selling price. If it is possible (and applicable for your type of business), it is better to use a "comparables" method.  If you are in a business where competitors with similar values as yours have sold recently in your area, you can compare their selling price to help establish your selling price. Using the "comps" method is popular in real estate transactions.  Seek advice of experts and take your time in setting your selling price.  Remember that the sale will almost always involve bargaining on the price, so set your price accordingly.

PROMOTE THE SALE OF YOUR BUSINESS Finding prospects is the name of the game and reaching prospects via the internet is one of the best ways today. Buyers search the internet to find out the information they want and they want to find things quickly. There are several websites that are very useful to find prospects for your business. Take a look at Ebay, BizBuySell.com,  BuyBusiness.com, and Bizilla.com. Research websites to list your business by doing an internet search for "sell your business."  If you want to restrict the sale of your business to local buyers only, look into advertising in local business newspapers and general circulation newspapers in your area.  You may also want to have your business for sale listed in commercial "real estate books" as well.  This will require that you sign up with a sales agent.  See below for details.

CAN I DO IT MYSELF OR DO I NEED A BROKER? This is a question that can best be answered by the size of your business and the amount of personal involvement that you are willing to expend. Many small businesses can often be sold by the seller alone. A large business will most likely require the services of a broker. A broker (or local real estate agency) will list your and promote business for sale for a fee.  Expect to pay anywhere from 8 to 10% of your selling price.  It is not essential that you use a broker. No matter how you how you decide to sell your business, it is recommended that you consult with a competent legal adviser for advice. Let them look over your agreement of sale and all of the important documents relating to sale of your business.

PERSISTENCE In a soft economy, it can be difficult to get your business sold.  It may be difficult and take longer, but it is not impossible. Be persistent and don't give up.  There is almost always a buyer for a profitable business. Be patient.

PROTECT YOURSELF Being careful about disclosing sensitive information about your business is very important.  Often, competitors and others may want to find out "inside" information on a business.  Protect yourself.  Screen all prospects carefully. Use a confidentiality agreement requiring non-disclosure of information and require completion and submission of a financial qualifications form to weed out spies and scammers.  Consult with a competent legal adviser to provide additional guidance on this important subject.

"PACKAGE" YOUR BUSINESS FOR ONLINE SELLING Build (or have built) a custom website to showcase your business.  Let your prospects learn about your business by just "clicking away."  Having a "business for sale" website will answer most of the questions that prospects want to know about your business. A custom "business for sale" website will save you much time by not having to answer the same questions over and over again.  

GET IT SOLD By following the guidelines above, you can make the business selling process much easier.  Consider the six "P's for selling a business: Preparation, Price, Promotion, Persistence, Protection, and Packaging. These are the keys to success. Implement them properly and get it sold!