Prices - Flat or Per Thousand

congrats...you're officially the cheapest digitizer i've seen in the 20 years i've been digitizing.

Kind of on the same idea as this thread.... knowing another thread has covered this but that was a while ago and maybe new thoughts will emerge? Whether your pricing is by the stitchcount or more critical by the thousand:

What is your thought on clients that STACK designs to get multiples out of one order?

For us is more evident with a 10,000 stitch ceiling... so you could stack multiple designs to achieve 10k.

what do you think about this?

It is all fun and games until only PART of the original file (meaning they separated them) comes back for an edit. Ha. I make the edit on the original and send the entire file back to them for them to separate. oops.

i've never had that happen! i don't charge by stitch count tho...

we have had the same flat rate for 15 years now for designs up to 10,000 stitches. ($35) What HAS changed is what we charge for those designs over 10,000... those have gone down. so what we would have charged 75.00 for would today be 55.00 or less. But those are totally based on complexity. We still do designs every day that are 85-110.00. So even though years ago we, as an industry, got decimated by the "low cost" offshore digitizers we have kept busy with clients who think digitizing is NOT an area to look for cost cutting if the quality is there. nor do they penny pinch with thread, backing, needles, etc... THOSE are what enable them to beat their competition who IS trying to squeeze every nickle out of all of those because they lose focus that QUALITY is the top thing that matters in the grand scheme.

I think a digitizer to be good HAS to know how to sew designs.... while we do not actually sew out our everyday digitizing files we still continue to sew other things.. look at all the framed art in my gallery.. so we understand the differences in operator ability and machine par. To me that is important. And many of those are way more complicated than anything you will see on a typical hat or left chest application!

If I were an embroidery shop/distributor looking for a new digitizing source... and quality was IMPORTANT to me.. not just "good enough to receive payment" then I would ask the prospective new digitizer to do at least 2 designs for me... I would pay them of course but I would also pay for them to send me the sewouts physically. I would pick 2 designs that we have had problems with or that our client just did not like. I would not expect free as it benefits ME more than anyone so why not pay? *I will argue this point if anyone wants to

Ok, so if the sewouts are good/ great/ excellent.. (hopefully) but I personally cannot match that on my machines....Well now I know at least the digitizer knows what they are doing so the issue is on my end. I have just removed them as the "bad guy" now the only question is, will they work with me to help me achieve something similar on my end.

This takes away, from day one... is it the digitizer's fault or the embroiderer's fault? If you / your embroider cannot achieve it yet we can... well.

We do not do direct deposit... only cc or check for the terms clients.... On a cc we can easily refund if necessary, no reason ever for a chargeback. and on the checks they have had at least 30 days so the design should be acceptable.

What do you do if a client just , for whatever reason, wants their money back?

Maybe true in some cases Steve but not always. I am new enough and trying to learn my own skills but often either don't have time to deal with the multiple sew outs I know it will take my lower skills or the designs might be too complicated for me to feel comfortable tackling so I buy about half of my work at this point. I have used you Steve on a couple of occasions and your price and turn around time are really great the problem is that I also bought the exact same design from two others. I did this on about a dozen designs over the last 8 month. I figured I need to learn the fine details and wanted to compare the process different folks use so am willing to invest some extra money to help me learn. I'm not bashing you Steve but your quick and cheap did not sew as nice or as smooth as the more expensive designs. Guess where I buy mine now? An extra $15-$25 per design is small potatoes on a design I'm going to do for years to come. You might work that into your business model. Maybe $10 for the cheap quickie and an uncharge for more effort on your part? I don't know the answer for you.

also remember, the digitizer makes their money ONE time.... the distributor and/or embroiderer makes their money each and every time the design is ordered! sometimes for YEARS. Mark up on goods sold, embroidery prices, etc. and many pass the initial digitizing cost to their clients... but even if they do not... read above. The point being make the first order the best quality you can to help you to get repeat orders, digitizing cost is not the thing to haggle over... nor is quality thread or quality operator wages... those only help you gain repeat business and word of mouth advertising... (the best there is!)

Robert I am just "small potatoes" here. A lot of the digitizing I get asked to do is for the mommy at home with a single needle machine and no software. I'm sure some of them think it is as easy as pressing one or two keys and "voila" the design is done. When they hear that they are going to be charged for the digitizing, then it is suddenly not so urgent. :) If it interests me I may still do the design - which is then kept in a "Potential Customer" file in the computer.
Company work usually comes to me through a third party, when I do both the digitizing and the embroidery - and payment is then made when the order is collected.
The only time I have had to send money back was when a client double paid by mistake.
I send a picture of my stitchout of their design, and they can let me know if something looks wrong. I have had to educate some about the use of stabilizers though! :)

I think digitizing should be charged by complexity and not just by stitch count. I have yet to understand how someone can live off the $10.00 and $15.00 flat rates. They must have a really kick a$$ auto digitize program. I have Wilcom e3 and the auto digitize sucks. I have yet to figure out how to use it without taking longer to fix the design than freehanding my own. Copy and pasting segments off other designs helps to speed things up in some cases. My biggest hurdle is the artistic element in the complex designs. Do you want a flat boring patch of thread on your shirt or something that says "Hey, look at me"?

I agree. Have been using a guy for 12 year never have to worry about what it going to look like.

i know because i ran a sew out of every design i did for about 10 years (probably about 9,000 designs) and by the end of that 10-ish years, it kind of became a waste of time because they stitched out great on the first shot. "good enough" is never good enough! i aim for perfection, on the first try, every single design. i rarely have a customer come back for edits...and when they do its usually because they want an extra color change or resized a bit, etc. my designs have to be great, because i guarantee every one of them. if the customer isn't happy its 100% money back.

its true that not every machine or every head will stitch the design exactly the same, but i make the design the best it can be to try to compensate for that as much as possible. if a customer is having trouble with a design i ask them to send me a quick pic of it, and its usually an issue with tensions.

Hi Dear,

Build your confidence with my embroidery digitizing service.

For more info:
http://owndigitizing.blogspot.com

Hi,

I am **************************.com We are professional custom embroidery digitizing service company who provide high quality embroidery digitizing tape on flat rate pricing for home and industrial embroidery.

We are specialized in:

Chest.
Hat, Puff, 3D.
Badges.
Patches.
Jacket back.
Appliques.
Photo images etc

Also below is our flat rate pricing offer just for you:

Left-Chest/Cap design @ $15 only (Unlimited stitches).
Complicated Left-Chest/Cap Design @ $20 only (Unlimited stitches).
Standard Jacket-Back @ $30 only (Unlimited stitches).
Complicated Jacket-Back @ $40 only (Unlimited stitches).
Vector Art Service @ $20-$30 only (Depends on the complexity).

Why send us your designs?

Quality as you need it.
Experienced digitizers.
Friendly and coperative customer support.
Assign a digitizer exclusively to our regular customers.
No additional charges even for rush orders.
Proficiency in 3D puff, applique, small letterings and sequence designs.
Reliable turnaround time of 5-7 hours.

Custom Embroidery Digitizers
(512) 800 8014
support@**************************.com
[url]www.**************************.com[/url]

Hi,

I am a professional custom embroidery digitizing service company who provide high quality embroidery digitizing tape on flat rate pricing for home and industrial embroidery.

We are specialized in:

Chest.
Hat, Puff, 3D.
Badges.
Patches.
Jacket back.
Appliques.
Photo images etc

Also below is our flat rate pricing offer just for you:

Left-Chest/Cap design @ $15 only (Unlimited stitches).
Complicated Left-Chest/Cap Design @ $20 only (Unlimited stitches).
Standard Jacket-Back @ $30 only (Unlimited stitches).
Complicated Jacket-Back @ $40 only (Unlimited stitches).
Vector Art Service @ $20-$30 only (Depends on the complexity).

Why send us your designs?

Quality as you need it.
Experienced digitizers.
Friendly and coperative customer support.
Assign a digitizer exclusively to our regular customers.
No additional charges even for rush orders.
Proficiency in 3D puff, applique, small letterings and sequence designs.
Reliable turnaround time of 5-7 hours.

Sales/Support
Custom Embroidery Digitizers
512-800-8014
**************************@gmail.com

I don't like the concept of charging for stitches as it is too easy for the unscrupulous to pad the design with unnecessary stitches.
I also digitize and take pride in a design that runs efficiently with the lowest stitch count I can manage. Personally I charge on complexity. I have a minimum charge which covers the majority of work that comes in. I get a picture from the client, give them a quote, wait for the money to be deposited in my account, then do their work.
I also don't do free designs. (I think you are way too generous. :) ) They can look at my portfolio or ask other clients about my work.
Just my take on things. I am in another country - so what works here may not work so well for you.

Two things here to discuss... mommy at home.. to me that is the future! the large shops have mostly gone.. so you are in the right place at the right time to me. second... you actually do a sewout ? to me I have found I can do an amazing sewout... but if my client cannot what is the point? I still have to edit for THEIR ability.. their machine, their thread, their needles, etc. years ago we stopped doing sewouts because our clients were not interested in investing the time and resources to provide the same quality to their clients... GOOD ENOUGH became the unspoken norm.

I don't agree... if you charge more you will attract a different type of client. Would you rather have 10 clients at 10.00 each or 2 clients at 100.00 each? you can lose 80 percent of your clients and make TWICE the money of your 10. do the math.. it does not have to be this dramatic... but the concept is the same. I know , I live it.

AMEN! to me, whether its fact or not...when i get an email that says designs are $10, my first thought is "dang, they must suck!"

there are so many cheap digitizers out there, they've really cheapened the art in the last 10 years. charge what you're worth. if you're subcontracting out to india and they do your designs for $10, sure, charge $12 per design. or if your designs really aren't great, you're using pirated software, and auto-digitizing, sure $10 works. i do everything from scratch, give every design thought, and give every design as much character as possible. a design that may take some 10 minutes to do, may take me twice as long, but my time and 20 years (next month!) of expertise is worth more than that.

i've never charged by stitch count and i've been digitizing for 20 years in june. i guess it used to make sense before digitizing programs when designs were punched on tape, but doesn't make sense to me anymore. i end up having to redo designs all the time, where its obvious that the original digitizer charged by stitch count. way too much underlay, a shorter stitch length than necessary, tighter density than it needs, etc. lots of different tricks to jack up the stitch count if they try. my minimum has always been $35. people figure out that its cheaper to pay $35-$65-ish once, than it is to pay once for a cheap design then have to repay to have it done right. i have some that balk at the price, and i hear, well, so-in-so was half that price. but that's ok. some come back to have it done right, and some others just don't care that much about quality and its all about the cost.

as far as payment, customers who set up an account with a back-up credit card get net 30. if it goes over 60 days, i charge the balance to the back-up card. if its joe, from, say, joe's car wash that wants his design done and won't ever need another design, its prepaid by paypal or credit card.

i haven't had to refund a design in years and years. i think its because when i quote a design to begin with, i pull it in at actual size and can tell if there will be any problems and i let them know ahead of time if tag line lettering will need to be increased, or if the design will need to lose any detail so they aren't surprised when they get the design. i always try to give them alternatives that will work better if there are options.

i've seen a huge increase in at-home embroiderers too. most of the time its fine, but sometimes i'll get somebody that is brand new and can't get the design to stitch right. i ask them to text a pic to my email and 9 times out of 10 their tensions are way off and they haven't figured out how to adjust them yet.

i haven't done a sewout in years either. i probably did sewouts the first 10 years or so of every design i did just so i could make sure I was happy with it, but once you learn what works and what doesn't it isn't necessary. if i have a really tough one i want to see stitched, i have many customers that are now friends and will do a sewout for me. i remember probably 15 years ago, bonnie at moonlight told me she didn't do sewouts anymore and i thought that was crazy!

I understand why a digitizer wouldn't do a sewout on every job just for the reasons Robert listed. Our Barudan sews different than the Tajima, and there can be a difference between the heads on the same machine. On some designs I have a Barudan file and a Tajima file. Not to mention most of the time our po's consist of a mix of fabrics so we're walking the fine line between good enough or break up the order and edit the file to the fabric.
I must admit though, when I hear a digitizer say "We don't do sewouts anymore" are they using all the variables mentioned above to achieve their own GOOD ENOUGH? If a digitizer isn't running their own designs how do they know they are producing the best quality? Basing it off the number of edit requests only shows what the production market accepts. I run Wilcom which is touted as the best software. Since I haven't used any others I can't confirm or deny that. But I do know that it seems my version of Wilcom has it's good days and bad days. There are times some of the functions don't work right, and it seems that the "stitch processor" doesn't do a good job. Just like every program, restarting the computer seems to help. I also think some of the windows updates screw with things. I don't know. All I do know is sometimes the design will sew perfectly and the next day I can't get the simplest of anything to sew with crisp edges and even stitches.
Good enough is definitely in the eye of the beholder.