How much revenue off 1 Singlehead

Robert Young · June 14th, 2012, 10:00 AM

Hi,

What do you think is a reasonable amount of money.. per week, per month, whatever, that a person with a singlehead should be able to make? A single person who is doing the selling and the sewing. Just a general mix of products, nothing fancy, just hats, shirts, bags, towels, etc....

Thoughts please? Thank you.

GraphicDisorder · June 14th, 2012, 12:34 PM

Not a lot if they have to handle sales/proofing/and the digitizing (a lot of time will be ate up here if you care about what you put out/etc.

Let's say a 15,000 stitch file, you run it at around 750 stitches per minute. Let's say your machine never stops and you never run out a bobbin and it runs back to back to back with out problems. So you make 3pcs per hour at best. We also have to assume the person is doing the selling/hooping/digitizing/etc while the machine is running (which wont be easy). So lets say you get $1 per 1000 stitches (this would be way more than I charge). You make $45 per hour, $360 a day. Minus labor, material, machine payment, taxes, rent/mortgage, power, etc. This all really assumes the same file running all day as well. If you change out files, each item this will eat up a lot of time with calling in the file, tracing, checking/changing threads/etc.

Sure if you had files with a bunch less stitches this would up your volume but probably decrease your revenue per item as well.

Robert Young · June 15th, 2012, 08:53 AM

Those numbers are obviously "pie in the sky", so what is a realistic number? I know this is what the salespeople are telling these folks... but from experience could people chime in here and tell how much you really made? I mean if you had the chance to sit down with someone who is considering believing all the hype and getting a shiny new machine thinking they are going to make quite a good living, what would you tell them?
Can they? or should they look at it as more of a hobby, or building a foundation to later buy more heads to make it an actual career?
I just can't help but remember so many of our digitizing clients who got a machine with the best of intentions only a year or less later to see the machine sitting in the garage collecting dust.... too hard, too much a learning curve, didn't make any money, got bored with it, etc...

drdoct · June 15th, 2012, 09:44 AM

IF you could get enough business to keep the machine running. That's the problem. I don't see how people can pay payments on a new 1 head machine and make any money. I'm able to make mine work because I paid cash for a used machine and only use it part time. But it's paid off several times over. The problem is that there's no steady business for me. I'll get a good dump of 50 shirts that need a logo and I'll get a nice $250 off it then it will be dead. Then I'll get a mom who wants their girl's shirts to all have their name on them and I'll make $70 off a few. Then come private school time I'll have a backlog and end up with about $500 worth of business.

The problem is that if you are doing the high dollar fru fru appliques and Mom business then not only does it take forever in the editing/digitizing part, but appliques are ridiculously time consuming. I couldn't imagine trying to make a living off a 1 head machine at all. Then if you decide that you really want the machine running you'll have to compete with a multi head shop and do production type work. Problem is that you do 1 and that shop will put out 100 to your 1. Production work on a single head machine is grueling and in the end you don't win. So why do I have a single head machine?

I don't have to make payments off my work. I don't have to view my time as billable. The way I view my time is that if I make $1/hr it's still $1/hr more than i would make watching television. But I also vinyl cut, heat press, and screen print too. Compared to those 3, embroidery is the slow painful money maker. Heat press is the easiest.

How much money could a shop make? I figure a real world figure would be about $1500-$2000. But that's hustling to make sales and getting business for the machine. If you're in an area with people like me then it's even lower. And most areas are full of people with PR type machines trying to make payments on them. Not to mention a lot of dry cleaner type places do it too. It's a pretty saturated market.

How's that for doom and gloom?

GraphicDisorder · June 15th, 2012, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert Young

Those numbers are obviously "pie in the sky", so what is a realistic number? I know this is what the salespeople are telling these folks... but from experience could people chime in here and tell how much you really made? I mean if you had the chance to sit down with someone who is considering believing all the hype and getting a shiny new machine thinking they are going to make quite a good living, what would you tell them?
Can they? or should they look at it as more of a hobby, or building a foundation to later buy more heads to make it an actual career?
I just can't help but remember so many of our digitizing clients who got a machine with the best of intentions only a year or less later to see the machine sitting in the garage collecting dust.... too hard, too much a learning curve, didn't make any money, got bored with it, etc...

I think the numbers I gave are in line if you have someone that hustles and needs a job/check like they need air. But yes a lot of people don't approach work like that.

Now my real advice...don't buy a single head. Period. Our first machine was a single head, we made money with it but in no way would it have supported a business on its own, we did a ton of other services to make that work. We still use it for sure, but I now have 11 total embroidery heads and its the last machine we fill with something. Today knowing what I know now? I wouldn't buy less than a 2 or 4 head. Starting out, I would probably try to buy 2 x 2 heads (separate machines), so you can run 2 different things at once, and as many as 4 pcs at the same time. Now you can realize some profit on that type of thing.

We used to run our 2 and 1 head 7 days a week, nearly 365 days a year often 10-14hrs a day to keep up. Now with a 11 heads and 2 operators we can run them sometimes just a few days week and do way more volume in less time with a ton more profit per hour. There are days that in 4hrs I probably have done more work than my 1 head could do in a week. So food for thought.

Buy used when you can. Stick with the big 3 IMO. Tajima, Baruaden, and SWF. Make sure to get a full size embroidery machine as well. 450x500mm or bigger is a ideal embroidery area for a full size machine.

inkman996 · June 15th, 2012, 11:04 AM

A single head is a fantastic thing to have for shops with multi head machines.

The single head itself will not make you money directly its purpose is to handle the large backs, short hat runs, and of course sew outs.

Indirectly it is making you money by not tying up the multiheads which in turn make the real money for you.

With todays tech tho you can daisy chain single heads all day long so it has more potential than in the past.

This whole convo tho is about commercial businesses no need to mention in your bed room machines making you $20 a day, I am sure there are some out there but that is not the spirit of the OP's question.

inkman996 · June 15th, 2012, 11:07 AM

Also to add one should consider the wear and tear a multi head machine must endure if you use it for single pc orders and sew outs, there is many moving parts that operate on all heads whether they are turned on or not.

sydney.fedesna · June 15th, 2012, 01:53 PM

Robert,

Obviously you know my situation, but I felt like I could add a little more here. A single-head was all I could afford as I was not willing to take out a huge loan just to get started. It is in my home, so I can embroider whenever I feel like it, and also do not have to pay rent for a retail/warehouse space at this point in time. Basically, right now, I have 20 hours in my day where I can work if need be. I am still working P/T to have a little money coming in. Of course, having a military spouse that is currently stationed somewhere else gives me infinite free time...My business is obviously still in the infant stages, and orders are sporadic at times, but at least I am not worried about trying to make a machine payment and pay rent that I cannot afford at this point. I also have a contract embroiderer lined up that uses the same digitizer and runs Barudans, so he has already agreed to take on any orders that I cannot handle. He gave me his prices upfront, so I know how much mark-up I can add to make a little bit of money. But as we have discussed, my heart is really in the niche equestrian market and making things to sell, not doing logo work....my next machine will actually probably be another single head, 9-needle that I can take with me to shows. Just my two cents

sydney.fedesna · June 15th, 2012, 01:54 PM

Also, I must say for the record, that my Barudan rep NEVER made any promises or tried to sugar-coat things for me about getting a single-head machine.

minimalist · June 15th, 2012, 05:51 PM

In a perfect world, $2880 gross. Figure on 32K stitches per hour @ .75 cents using an 8 hour day/20 day month. Then subtract 25% for time involved taking orders (probably close to 40% {2304 gross}). Of course this is a gross figure based upon being busy all day every day. Now subtract your expenses (this is where it gets ugly) and when that is deducted your hourly labor rate surfaces. I'd be willing to bet it's about 8-9 bucks an hour or 4-5 if you have high dollar rent.

Embroidery was supposed to be all about selling the item embroidered. You can buy "wholesale" from any number of sources who's prices are double what walsmart sells it for and then try to convince the customer of the value of embroidered goods. You can also take the direct to china route and spend all your money stocking up on things to embroider that are not what you specified but hey, in china it's not right, just about right.

I'm not sure I understand the embroidery business model. You buy a machine, software, and all the assorted items you need to run the machine. Then you spend countless hours learning how to use it. For your 30K investment in all the above now you get to sell to the public for 5-6 bucks for a name on a shirt and they think that's too much. For less than $30 buy a bucket and a squeegee and charge small businesses $6 to clean a window that takes less than 5 minutes to clean. When tax time comes and you have an embroidery business, your business and personal property tax get assessed at 2-3% of the value of the machine ($500/year based upon 20K at 2.5% assessment). With the window washing example above, 0.75 cents.

Difficult to maintain a positive attitude......