do you use a design for more than one client?

Robert Young · October 28th, 2011, 10:03 AM

You are an embroiderer. Someone has ordered the FORD logo from you to sew on hats. That client paid the digitizing fee. Now you have other dealerships in your area and all you have to do is keyboard in different names... do you charge your 2nd client for the FORD all over again even though it was for a different client? Do you charge them just for the keyboard lettering you added? Or do you send the entire logo to your digitizer to do from scratch?

twok4hd · October 28th, 2011, 10:52 AM

I would not send back to the digitizer and I would charge for all of it. Think of it as your own stock design. But then again, that is just me

Gilligan · October 28th, 2011, 02:09 PM

Anywhere else they would probably have to pay for it.

nametags · October 29th, 2011, 09:31 PM

Nope,,,once it's paid for, no one that may use that design will pay the "design fee" again. The first person did just because they were first. The others just happend to luck out.

Further, if I get a design from one of the web design sites, I only charge what I'm charged. If I buy it on sale for $1.99, that's what they pay.

And what I've found works even better, the first design for a customer is pro-rated into the total order, if there is enough items, and they don't even see a design fee. Example, I did a logo for a company, Beef Jerkey. They ordered 30 shirts. The design cost me $20. It was 11k stitches. I charged them $12 per design on the shirt, and there was no questions asked. Now, on re-orders, I charge them $10 as a repeat customer.

You treat them fair, they'll come back. Just like digitizers,,,,they do right by me, I'll send them business.

widners · October 29th, 2011, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nametags

They ordered 30 shirts. The design cost me $20. It was 11k stitches. I charged them $12 per design on the shirt, and there was no questions asked. Now, on re-orders, I charge them $10 as a repeat customer.

I was doing this but quickly had to move away from that model. I was losing customers because they saw my original price and saw another company would do it for $2 less or whatever it was. I had to move to charging the digitizing fees and making sure they knew ahead of time that it was a one time fee. Honestly I think since I keep my digitizing fees down that most of the time they understand this better because they see a cap at the correct price on the very first invoice and know that re-orders will be the same.

powerstitch · October 30th, 2011, 04:34 PM

The question here is.....do you use a design for more than one client?

This question is regardless of the fact what you charge for digitizing. In this case, you have 3 choices:

1. get the design digitized again for the 2nd customer (whats the point when you already have the design)
2. yes you can give the same design to the customer (charging them or not charging them is another issue)
3. refuse to take that job (then you will be the looser)

I personally believe no.2 is the way to go.
Now in regards to what and if to charge will depend on you and the situation.
There are several questions to this....some are...

1. the first customer who paid might be a loyal customer of yours for years, so do you think its fair to support a walkin customer by giving out the design for free and compete with your loyal customer? I personally wud not give it for free and wud infact charge him more than I charged my first customer. At the same time maybe even alert my first customer that you had this enquiry so they cud follow up. Remember one thing the loyal customer will appreciate your info and support you more whereas a walkin customer is just looking for the best deal in most cases so tomorrow he will probably be at your competitors.

2. if 2nd customer is committing an order of say 200 pcs, then maybe you can let go off the design charge.

3. if your machines are empty, you would rather forget the design charge and do the order even if its small

4. maybe the design is very intricate and none of your competitors have been able to achieve that effect. This situation I have gone through myself where the final customer has seen one of our samples from one agent and we noticed the other agents coming to us with our own sample to ask us to copy it exactly like the sample. Thats when you know you have an upper hand and you can charge them what you like.

these are just a few examples....every situation is different so you have to answer that question yourself at that point in time.

Hope this helps.... these are just my views though...

Gilligan · October 30th, 2011, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by widners

I was doing this but quickly had to move away from that model. I was losing customers because they saw my original price and saw another company would do it for $2 less or whatever it was. I had to move to charging the digitizing fees and making sure they knew ahead of time that it was a one time fee. Honestly I think since I keep my digitizing fees down that most of the time they understand this better because they see a cap at the correct price on the very first invoice and know that re-orders will be the same.

I'm right there with you Widners... same with screen printing. If you just work the price into the per piece price you are going to give the customer sticker shock.

Fact is consumers are stupid (not customers but consumers as a whole)... look at the price of ANYTHING on the shelf at ANY given store. Every price will end in .99. Are they really trying to be nice and save you a penny? Do you think they like entering in that .99 on every transaction? In fact registers don't have a "99" button but most do have a "00" button. They do this because consumers will say (subconsciously and sadly consciously at times) that the 13.99 item they are looking at is "13 dollars" when in reality it is "14 dollars". Sure there are a bunch of us that say "no, that's $14 bucks A-hole" but even I don't say that I paid 3.32 per gallon for gas when the sign said 3.319. Why? because if you tell someone "hey that corner store has gas at 3.32 so you should go there everyone would say "but the other place is 3.32 (when it was really 3.329) so why should I. But if you said 3.31 then they would think "Hey, I'm saving money!"

Exaggerated example but it shows what I am saying.

People compare the per piece price first and then (maybe) they will compare the setup fees.

This gets compounded if it's a small order. I had a chef bring in a couple of his coats for a 20k stitch design. If I charged him $28.50 bucks each (which is half the 25 design fee + $16 bucks) then he'd think "why am I here if I'm gonna get charged that much". Sure I could explain that he's only paying that much because it's his first time with that design blah blah blah. But why not just say 16 bucks each plus there is a one time digitizing fee of $25 bucks. Now he knows next time he only pays 16 without a sticker shock and explanation to settle him down.

Plus what happens if they come in and want a "small" change... if it requires another digitizing fee that is easier to explain than trying to charge them the digitizing fee compiled in to the piece price and explain it all over again. They may quickly decide against the change if you simply say "these changes are going to require another digitizing fee".

Ok, off my soap box now.

nametags · November 1st, 2011, 02:22 PM

To answer the question, my answer is #2,,,,yes, I will use the same design. I have used the same design (cardinals, eagles, bulldogs, etc) many times for totally different customers.