How much revenue off 1 Singlehead

cmrc · June 25th, 2012, 12:37 PM

I worked for a large mail order co. that offered embroidery where I learned to run the machines was so impressed that I bought a singlehead machine and started my own business. I was able to pay off the machine within 2 years sewing part time while still holding down a full time job. So the possibility of income is all in what you want to put into it. I contacted schools and businesses that wanted the same logo on several different shirts so setup time was quick with a large run. I was able to also buy a used single head machine for business a couple years later.

Robert Young · June 25th, 2012, 01:13 PM

so it took two years to pay off a $13,000 machine and that is ok?? Is our threshold for what is acceptable to make that low? Part time or no.

cmrc · June 25th, 2012, 04:55 PM

I payed over $15,000, and never advertized it was all from word of mouth. I also live in a small community so I thought I did good.

sydney.fedesna · June 25th, 2012, 05:38 PM

Also, to CMRC's point, perhaps not every dime that was generated went towards paying off the machine....?

cmrc · June 25th, 2012, 08:06 PM

That's right I bought stock and other supplies as I have limited space so I ordered as the customer placed and order. I also constructed a room for my business.

Robert Young · June 26th, 2012, 09:48 AM

and you own the machine outright so that says something too... the next year all that would be profit even if sales did not increase!

Gilligan · June 26th, 2012, 11:39 AM

I bought a PR-650... I wish I would have bought a used multi-head in hindsight... but it was too intimidating not knowing anything about it and thinking I was going to be buying a big head ache. Live and learn I guess.

I'm not upset that I went this route as I think a single head where I am at is useful, names and one off junk. But volume suffers right now.

That said, I'm making money, hell, I'm paying a guy min-wage (for now) and still making money on that machine.

My wife's cousin brings in overalls for us and we sew logo and name for $7.50 on them... Logo is 5k stitches and name is about 1k. That's under 10 mins of sew time and one is hooped and waiting for the next one to be done so machine runs constant. We do dozens of these. So that's $45/hour... not great, but not too bad.

Then if I'm sewing a $20 (cost) polo I'm charging $15 on top of that $20... so I've just doubled that rate. Obviously it depends on stitch count and what not.

I also screwed myself and worked for about $5/hour the other day on some towels but that was lesson learned and I priced the job WAY too low. Luckily it was for some really good customers so I didn't mind "losing" money to them. I also priced it correctly on the invoice and discounted it to what I quoted them as to give myself some wiggle room if they wanted to order them again.

Hats are what kills me... not much markup and they are always large orders.

But walk-in monogramming is like $10 bucks min. It takes 2 seconds to punch out some letters and load the machine... maybe 10 mins total on the job, that's $60/hour. Granted, it's not steady... but if I didn't have the single head machine, like Mike said, I'd be tying up the machine (when I get it) that makes the big bucks for this little guy. Then it's revenue lost.

That towel job would have made decent money if I had a multi-head. It was logo and name, different name on each towel. I could have been pumping out the names on the towels with the single head while the multi-head was crushing the logos in no time.

I think that is the main problem with a single head... you still have to compete in a multi-head world. You can't price yourself per hour running a single head... you have to do it as if it was a multi-head and take your lumps. Unless you are just THAT good people won't pay 4x the rate that someone with a 4 head would charge. And I'm surrounded by shops with anywhere from a couple of 6 heads to like 144 heads total!

My machine doesn't run non-stop by any means, but I don't have to turn away clients either!

Robert Young · June 27th, 2012, 05:22 PM

Thank you Gilligan.. so what would you say the annual sales on a single head would be.. on average... not being lazy but also not working 14 hours a day?

123 embroidery · June 27th, 2012, 06:27 PM

email Joan and ask her [email address]

she started out with a single head and now also has a four head
and after 15 years of making money she is now selling her 4 head and downsizing to a couple single heads
ask someone that know what they are talking about and no reason to lie

Gilligan · June 27th, 2012, 06:39 PM

Honestly Robert I'm not one to answer this as I don't really even try to sell my embroidery work yet... what I get I take but I don't shop it around. I don't even have signs up really. We are growing and don't want to grow too fast right now. But we are gearing up for a big push forward.

It really would depend on your market. Can you get people in your door. If you think you can get the orders than do the math. You know what an average left chest stitch count is. Factor in that time (I'd say my PR-650 runs at about 450-550 ACTUAL stitches per minute, trims are SLOW) and then you can take a guess at how many pieces on average you will have orders for.

You obviously will have a wall production wise... you can only sew X stitches in a day. So if someone said I need 1000 pcs by the end of the week, it just ain't happening on that single head. But no reason you can't do 100 pcs order in a week's time. Depending what you can sell it for will depend on your profit. If you can consistently average 100 pcs a week and make $10 bucks profit per garment then you are making 1k/week. That's busting a$$ for about 8 hours a day though. This is why a 4 head can crush a single head in larger scale production. Cut your time by 1/4 or if you can sell it, increase your production/profits by 4x.

But all the heads in the world won't do you any good if you don't have the customers.

In the first 6 months I had my PR-650 I made about 2k in profit (after cost of goods/supplies). This was letting the work come to me and occasionally telling on of my computer customers "hey, you know I do embroidery work now". Nothing major, but I really didn't realize how much I was making either... it didn't feel like I was doing that much work. That was about 260 pcs sewn total. That averaged just over $7.50 a piece, but I did 170 caps in that 260.

For me it is a matter of having the equipment to be a one stop shop for some of my customers. I figure that the machine (at about 9k) will pay for itself in about 2 years. That's not great, but then again, it's not really about making a living with this machine. It's supplementing, growing and learning. I don't push this and just take the work as it comes.

I know my post are kind of all over the place but I'm trying to give you as much information and be as realistic and honest with you as possible.

My goal is to have a multi-head soon (auto screen printing first) and then I won't be afraid to take on large jobs. I think I will get a 6 head. But this single head will still see plenty of use. I'd likely run "7 heads" on any high capacity job and load the design on the single head as well as the 6 head. No matter where the thread breaks, I'm still sewing!