At first glance, embroidery may seem expensive, especially when it is compared to designs that are printed. I would like to share what goes into the cost of embroidery and thus determines pricing.
The costs involved in starting a professional embroidery business are quite high and the learning curve is huge. I've been sewing most of my life and had a hobby embroidered for years. I would say both things gave me a little bit of a head start, as it was not all foreign to me, however having a single-needle, flatbed, hobby embroider machine is VERY different than a 15-needle, professional machine, both in price and functionality.
Let's begin with a list of items needed:
- Business license
- Accountant
- Laptop
- Software
- Machine
- Hoops
- Stabilizer
- Threads
- Scissors/Various Sewing Tools
- Blanks (items to embroider)
- Shipping/Packing Supplies
- Label printer
- Stationery/Labels/Business Cards
- Embroidery Designs/Fonts
- Storage/Work Space
- Training
Depending on the quality of all of the above, start-up costs can vary greatly. For me, I invested just shy of €30,000 to get started with the bare minimum for the types of embroidery I want to do and the items I am interested in embroidering. It takes months to learn about how different fabrics will respond to embroidery, the proper way to stabilize and hoop different fabrics, how to use the software to create and edit designs, how to use, maintain, and fix the embroidery machine, and the best method to track everything for accounting and inventory purposes.
When pricing individual items, there are two different schools of thought. Some businesses charge by time and others charge by costs. I follow the latter formula, as I feel it's a more fair representation. Costs are determined by two things. The price of the blank (with a small markup to cover time spent ordering) is the smaller portion of the cost. The number of stitches multiplied by a monetary amount makes up a larger portion of the cost. This formula considers the time it takes to stitch out a design, along with the necessary materials, such as thread and stabilizer.
The more stitches a design has, the higher the cost of the item will be. Whenever possible, I try to select designs that have lower stitch counts. I also utilize a software to help eliminate unnecessary (hidden) stitches. These things help me to keep costs as low as possible. Thus, when you compare the same item with different designs, the prices vary due to the density of the design.
I hope this information has given you an inside look into pricing that goes into starting an embroidery business and pricing items. It's certainly not the cheapest or easiest business to run, however it has a hold of my heart. I do it with passion and joy!