Digitizer Advice

AllEmbroidery

Hi,

I am in need of urgent advice. We were using inhouse digitizer till now.

But due to decreasing orders, now we want to outsource digitizing and reduce costs.

We will have 10 or 10+ orders per week to outsource.

I have tried Steve (gnizitigid@gmail.com) and taken 4 trial orders, work seems ok but prices are $10 per design which seems high for us. Is any one using Steve, how he is for doing business.

Can you advice me any digitizer which charges less because we really want to decrease digitizing costs.

If you can advice me any good digitizer with less costs, that will be great.

karensemb

www.karensdigitizing.com is my website. I charge more than the overseas digitizers but you get quality service and I only speak english, so no communication problems.
I have 10 years experience in the embroidery industry. First 5 years, worked at an embroidery business located in Waco, TX. Last 5 years, owned my own business. Have worked with embroidery machines such as: SWF and Barudan. You can also contact me at for questions or quote on digitizing or embroidery.

Thanks,
Karen Castillo
Karen's Embroidery & Digitizing

gameday

We have been using Steve exclusive for the past 6 months and I can not put into words how happy we are and our customers.

Steve has very quick turn around times, I have never had to wait more then 12 hours for the artwork to come back. We have also had no problems with the work we receive and if our customer request any changes, Steve is very quick to resolve any changes.

Steve is very easy to communicate with and quick to responsed to emails.

We are a small shop that has gotten very busy and Steve has help out so much that we don't have to worry about spending hours digitizing. We can focus on going out and get new accounts and doing screen printing.

Dollar for dollar I think Steve is worth working with.

Good luck to you.

Michael Raatz
GAMEDAY Sports Apparel

xxyybeth

$10 Digitizing Fee per design, Wow!
After reading same, if $10 designs sew out correctly, digitizer followed directions well and there is not undue time spent going back and forth to get what you initially requested, then I don't know how could you possible beat the price comparing to In-House cost of Apples-To-Apples.
In House Costs include:
Either you and/or your Employee's timethe
Cost of Digitizing, Image, Graphic Software and on going upgrade fees.
Shop Over head costs, etc.
I just don't see how In-House could be less expensive or any other digitizer for that matter.
After reading this String, I know I am wasting my time doing my own digitizing, I could not begin to compete with $10. Does this $10 Digitizer do a Test Sew Out or do you work for the Digitizer, do the Test Sew Out, then have to contact Digitizer for Fixes to correct design, to get what you initially requested, do another test sew out, etc. until you get what you initially asked for?
Let me know, if later is not the case, then I Give Up doing my own ditizing, I'd be crazy not to pay $10 to get what takes hours, sometime a day or more.
Perhaps, these $10 are just simple lettering?
What does a Complex design cost?
What does a Jacket Back Cost?
Is there fee then based on Stitch Count, not complexity, Quality?
Wow, $10, I can't believe that.

speedyartwork

Good digitizing takes time, so make sure you are getting great quality and you are not compromising quality for cheaper digitizing cost. Sew out from digitizer definitely saves time. If you are an embroidery production house, then productivity matters. Outsourcing digitizing definitely will save time and cost compared to in-house digitizing. You also need consistency to maintain quality - and therefore not switch often between providers. Good communication and WYSIWYG are important. Wasted time is wasted money.

-Shaun
Speed4Designs / Artwork Services - Digitizing & Vectorizing
www.speed4designs.com

877.568.7787

AllEmbroidery

I will email you to make sure and get more information, after that i will decide about going with Steve, However i liked his 4 trial orders and somewhat prices as well.


Thanks for your input, as i said, i faced no or little issue in designs and they were fine.

I was quoted $10 for all design like complex design etc and $20 for Jacket Back designs by Steve. No fee for Stitch Count, not complexity, Quality

But still i want to spend 20% less as quoted by him, because i think 10 designs are lot to any digitizer.......Please send me PM if any other digitizer ready to do work in less costs.

nametags

I've used Steve many times. He does good work. He's dependable, and his designs are good. Sure I've had some edits and changes, who doesn't. He's fast on turnaround as well.

I also use a couple of other digitizers, as everyone should have 2 or 3 they use. Never keep all your eggs in one basket. We don't ask digitizers to only work for one embroiderer, so they shouldn't expect ALL of anyones business. I also use Brent, "harleydude",,,and he's done a fantastic job too.

I've paid $20 and $25 for designs that were terrible even with 2 or 3 edits. No more though, those people are on my "not" list. So it's not at all about price. Or the fanciness of the web page either.

And, while communication is vastly important, communication doesn't matter if the design continues to be bad. It only takes one or two designs to see how it plays out for me, no matter where they're from. As far as non-US digitizers, if I send a design back for a change or edit, and they don't understand what I want after 2 tries, I'm done with them.

While most times you get what you pay for, if someone is wanting to get their name out with good feedback, that's the way to do it. Volume instead of per item profit.

IF the initial poster thinks $10 is too high, what do you think it should be then? Seriously? One poster above mentioned jacket backs. The price for doing jacket backs is even more broad than standard digitizing. Again, I've paid $20-$25 for jacket backs that were great, and I've paid $50 and $75 for ones that were terrible and got my money back.

I don't like paying per thousand stitches. It's too easy manipulate. And, the complexity issue is something that's in the eye of the digitizer. What's complex to one, may not be to another. Skill level and experience have more to do with it in my experience.

Overhead, that's part of the business. If you try to make back 100% of everything in each job, you'll soon be without business from anyone. That's true in digitizing, and any other business. It's like calculating the price for electricity and thread break.

Sew outs,,,,sure they're nice. But how much are you going to charge me to do a sew out, if any, and how much of that is included in your price. If you do one, and it still comes back for changes or edits, the sew out didn't help. If not, and I do the sew out, then I have to wait for the edit change anyway.

In my opinion, every time I log on here it seems I see a new digitizer. That's fine. But, if you question anyone's ability or skills, the best way to find out is give up a few bucks, give them a try, and then you'll know. I just hope my business continues to grow so I'll have a problem with too many digitizing jobs to do! LOL

And, lastly, I don't digitize past the lettering program that came with my machine. Based on the training and understanding of what is involved, and knowing there's folks out there that are good at it and do it for a very reasonable price, I won't start digitizing either.

inkman996

What is $10 to you? Don't you charge your customer for that with mark up? ten bucks is squat I would and do pay much much higher than that for quality work.

Lets go back a decade or so when it was as high as $20 per thousand stitches no matter the stitch count, hell it used to be even higher than that.

davidoakeas

I do not think you will get any less that $10 prices per designs, thats the best prices as i think. As you said u taken 4 trials designs and they are fine, than go with Steve....he has got good reviews by members

widners

If that is how you care about your customers then so be it. I for one can't make retail type sales charging $20 per thousand stitches for digitizing. Just because I am not paying it doesn't mean it isn't important. You think your customers want to pay that high of a fee?

Lets say I charge $5 per thousand, if you have a 10k stitch design that is $50. If you have a customer that only wants 12 caps how well is a $50 digitizing fee going to go over? I have done custom caps in much smaller orders also.

I guess if you only deal with orders of hundreds of pieces that digitizing prices becomes less relevant.

It is the same way with all the expenses in your embroidery business also. To use your thought process,,, Why not always buy the most expensive machine, thread, backing, topping, shirts, building, vehicles, gas, cards, advertising, etc.? You are going to pass the cost on to the customer anyway...