As a digitizer what do you use to determine your pricing?
Stitch count?
Level of Complexity/Time it would take?
Your location and what your local market will bear?
Your own cost of living, meaning you want to make X and determine how many designs you can actually handle.. so purely math?
Competition?
Our pricing has been the same since 2001 for all designs under 10,000 stitches. Back then the average left chest/hat hovered around 5000 stitches, so we felt offering a 10,000 limit would be beneficial.
Well, now the average is closer to 9000! Meaning clients are digitizing themselves the simple designs and primarily using us for the more involved designs. I like that, the more they can control their own world the better I feel. Plus the more involved can be more fun to do.
Of course before 2006 we were stressed over all the offshore pricing... 1.00 etc. but after 2007-8 lots of clients went wherever they could find a better deal of course... but then the cheaper started raising their prices. Over time I believe it will balance out more.
This is NOT an advertisement just wanted to point out you CAN charge according to whichever method you want and there are still plenty of clients for each price point.
Again, how to you choose your pricing?
thanks!
Modern Embroidery Designer
volant-tech.com
volantfineart.com
Re: T4 What determines your pricing?
i charge by complexity/the amount of time i estimate the time will take to do. 20 years ago almost everybody was charging by stitch count, but that never made sense to me. i can create 100,000 stitches with a couple of clicks....or on a smaller design there are so many ways to jack up the stitch count with a slightly small stitch length, or tighter underlay, etc. so i've always priced the same way. i did lower my prices a bit a couple of years ago, but not by much. i've discovered that most of the people that are looking for the rock bottom dollar designs really don't care much about the quality of embroidery they're putting out....and that's not the kind of customer i'm targeting anyway.
i believe what you charge should reflect the quality of service that you're providing. that said, i think customer service is just as important as a quality product. so i never charge for minor edits, or a rush fee, and sometimes even send freebies if i know they're personal designs for my long-time customers, etc. i like happy customers. some of them have turned out to be great friends. i went do the wilcom class with a customer that i've had since 2000. it was so nice meeting her in person!
digitizing...since 1996. dixiedesigns.net
Re: T4 What determines your pricing?
come on... tell us.
a wise friend once told me... share everything. 90percent will not follow it or copy it... 5 will try and not succeed... 5 will ... GREAT! competition is great.
Modern Embroidery Designer
volant-tech.com
volantfineart.com
Re: T4 What determines your pricing?
I have a minimum that I charge for up to 5000 stitches and then a "per thousand" add-on. (In South Africa I have a different amount that I use compared to that generally talked about in various forums - because in the USA you would just laugh at how little the amounts convert to. :P)
If I have a rush job from a regular client and they apologize for the short notice it (usually) stays the same. Rush job from new client becomes more. If I have a rush job and a pushy client it may become even more!!! (My machine - my rules. I don't mind giving out telephone numbers of other embroiderers.)
Difficult hooping = higher cost.
I am not in a shop-front situation and I want to enjoy what I do while still making a reasonable profit.
Re: T4 What determines your pricing?
Ah - I was talking embroidering the item. (I must learn to "read the question")
But digitizing charges are similar.
I have a minimum digitizing rate, and then would charge more for complexity. I don't believe in charging per stitch as I want to keep the stitches to a minimum in a design.
Re: T4 What determines your pricing?
Your pricing for either digitizing or embroidery sounds fair and balanced to me. We do the same, or try to. If the design is super simple but happens to have a large rectangle of fill making the stitchcount very high.... we would only charge for the level of difficulty, not the stitchcount.
Modern Embroidery Designer
volant-tech.com
volantfineart.com