Is the digitizing industry in the West doomed?

Robert Young · December 6th, 2011, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by widners

They just want to fallback on that relationship and service experience and quality that they have always had vs researching and testing new people.

Having worked for a large promotional products company before I can agree totally with this point that you bring up... seemed like the only time we cared about looking to cut costs was whenever a new manager showed up. lol

They get used to a system and the fear of changing or messing something up is greater than their desire to save money until something happens I guess.

Flint54 · December 6th, 2011, 02:50 PM

There are both advantages and disadvantages to a Global Economy. Those in a low cost of living area that have the ability to take advantage of this will always fair much better than someone in a higher cost area. Lets also take into consideration how many foreign digitizers are probably running legal software but more than likely they are illegally using it on a network server in order to have numerous individuals using the same software.

Also, how many Businesses here actually fully own their software and/or equipment vs. how many have it on a lease or in a loan? For too many years the market has allowed too many individuals to obtain financing on speculative business plans etc. These individuals need to charge high rates in order to pay their bills. I was taught at a very early age that if I wanted to start a business then I would need to start small, start smart by not owing anyone anything the day my doors opened. Once established then look into expanding and growing but not at the expense of going into the hole. Be smart and be your own financier for improvements in your business.

I look at it this way, if I cannot see fit to scrimp and save to finance my own business why should some company see fit to finance me? Sure it may be tough, you may still need to keep your day job and burn the midnight oil but if you can't do that what will keep you going in the future if your business hits a downturn and you don't want to put in the extra hard work.

It's a real gut check, not an easy road to riches.

inkman996 · December 6th, 2011, 03:00 PM

The one good thing about the current economic climate is that it shakes the trees up and the ones that should not be in this business all fall out, as you said above mainly the ones that took advantage of the easy credit, with out credit and customer support they are the first to go. Us that are financially sound and have solid customer base have weathered the economic climate just fine, in fact business grew and new equipment has been purchased.

Robert Young · December 7th, 2011, 11:14 AM

I agree Inkman996. Seems the economy here changed immediately at the start of 2007. It was a game to see if we could cut expenses as fast as revenue fell and we were fortunate enough to have empty lines of credit and relationships with actual bankers that helped us through the worse of it. Here it is nearly the start of 2012 and we are seeing the ordercount on a definite upward tick. In the past 5 years many have shut their doors.

nametags · December 7th, 2011, 12:11 PM

Mr Young and inkman996, I would be sincerely interested in what level of the business that both of you are in. There's so many variables that it would take too long to list all of the possibilities, maybe corporate owned or independent would be two of the basic groups.

Mr. Young has been around for some time as I've read in his posts, but I haven't read about inkman, or possibly overlooked his info. Nothing too personal of course, just wondering, in general.

The reason I ask, is that you both draw from your experiences, and seem to have been around when the market was much smaller than today, 15-20 years, and watched it expand to it's present state. And while we must learn from our history, we must plan our future on past history lessons. That said, as the internet became more widely used from the 90's into the 21st century, particularly the promo item and decorated apparel market, it obviously opened it up to inexperienced new operators, that lacked any overall experience at all, and basically used the "full faith and credit" of any available lendor willing to risk their borrowing all the money to start their business and throwing caution and business sense to the wind.

I guess I'm somewhat in that boat, new and inexperienced, except that I am totally liquid in my venture. My goal is to learn as much as possible about the industry before I retire, and then have something to keep us going with our business when we decide to retire. Maybe not as much as a livable income, but rather something to keep us busy, make enough money to pay for traveling to shows and such as many are in good travel locations, and provide a service and product for customers on the smaller end of the business, such as 6-18 items for embroidery or small transfer orders or the smaller promo item orders. We want to expand our services to DTG as well as cutting also. And who knows what future equipment developments will come out in the next decade!

Keeping our personal goal in mind, and in line with the thread topic, the new and lower cost digitizing industry that is in place now is completely in line with our business model. Lower priced digitizing, good quality digitizing (it's out there, and we've found several), and more small operators such as myself with the same end result in mind. I could say it reminds me of the earlier days when the farm co-op's were formed,,,small business supporting small business.

I don't think that western digitizing is doomed, it's just going to have to have a gut check with the rest of the world, and the industry.

Hope this made sense to you,,,it did as I typed it. I hope I got my point across.

inkman996 · December 7th, 2011, 02:03 PM

As for me I have been in the industry for over 15 years, both on production side and supplies and equipment side.

I have personally seen the industry change mightily and can with out a doubt attest to the internet being the game changer. I am not against foreign digitizers what so ever just the fact that it is unequal between the west and east in so far as cost of living and rampant piracy. A lot here ignore the software piracy issue mainly because they them selves never had to go out and spend many thousands of dollars on software required to do what can either be bought dirt cheap today or hacked. IWhat i would love to see is the digitizing fees balance out between the two hemispheres and people can then go back to choosing a quality digitizer over a cheaper one.

Sports47 · December 9th, 2011, 04:01 PM

I'm new here and found this site while looking for digitizing software. Just last week I paid $70. to a company to digitize artwork provided to me by my customer. The stitch count about 14,000. I had used the company once before in the Spring and took advantage of their "1st Design Free Promotion". The company I used is located in the US but I never thought to ask if the actual work was done here or offshore. Regardless, I thought it was a reasonable price and they did a nice job.

nametags · December 12th, 2011, 06:45 PM

I'm sorry, but $70 for a 14k design is high,,,,was it a huge volume customer order or a small one, say 25 items or less, if you don't mind me asking. Did the digitizer quote a price to you before you agreed, or did you just tell them to do it and pay whatever.

Could you elaborate on the design and specifics compared to the digitizing costs?

Did you just charge the customer the $70,,,,or absorb it into the sale?

Maybe I'm totally spoiled,,,,,

Robert Young · December 13th, 2011, 09:10 AM

Well if it is doomed it definitely is NOT doomed right now! We have just had our busiest week in all of 2011 and 2010! We do not advertise and our website is not optimized. I think the only way you would hear about us is through word of mouth. And I am NOT the easiest digitizer to work with, self admittedly... I do not believe the customer is always right but I do believe as long as I do the best I know how to that things will work out.... There are still plenty of clients out there, embroiderers and distributors alike that do not value price over whatever other value they perceive we offer. Hopefully those values are real and they know we appreciate their work.
There is one major difference I am seeing this year compared to EVERY year since 2006... and that is the number of jacket backs being ordered. I chart lots of aspects of our business... x bar and R charts, anything I found useful from our ISO9000 training years ago... and this year we are seeing an abnormally high volume of jacket backs so early in the season... Usually we get the most concentration of back logos at the end of Feb and throughout March... but this Nov we had more then all of last season combined!!
I suggest companies are finally starting to spend their promotional dollars again. Small companies that have weathered the economic storm so far are seeing the value in embroidered products again and large companies are finally having budgets for items and it is the time of year for them to spend it or lose it in next year's budget.
So for now the digitizing industry in the West seems to be on the uptick and I think that is GREAT news for 2012!
Your thoughts?

nametags · December 13th, 2011, 03:03 PM

I agree Robert, with as far as being busy. My single machine has stayed busy since Halloween. And, for me, the sweat shirts and hoodies have tripled. Blankets have been a big thing for me this fall, and I have orders for christmas for all of them. School logo (local) with embroidery is also doing well,,,,instead of the screened T shirts from last year.

A tire store and bank ordered from me, and said "they wanted to give their employees something that would help them every day, and still advertise their logo,,,,hence the fleece.

I wonder if companies have the promo dollars, or, instead of giving the previous bonus' and other things, they're giving these type items instead,,,,and using the economy as an excuse to keep their cash. In our area, local business owners keep as much as they can for themselves, and only give what they have to to their employees. But we're very rural,,,so that may have something to do with it.

And, as long as you have your clientel that keeps you going, that's all that matters. We'll all find our niche', and go from there.