Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Commercial Embroidery

I was over at The Stitchery this morning for quick pass by before I took the monkeys to school. MB has a nice little post about doing custom embroidery on shirt pockets. WITHOUT taking the pocket off. First off, I assumed that the only way to do was to take the pocket off. Second, I had not really thought of how much you have to consider in designing the final product. It's not as if you can do a test run, right?

I see how Gigi has made a business out of having a room of custom machines and I often wonder if it would be worth it to buy one or even two machines and set myself up in business. Of course, this would have to wait until the DH retires ... I am not sure how those machines would hold up to one military move, let alone 2 or 3 left till he retires! things to ponder, how many do you need to make it worth your while? Where do you start? Hats? T shirts and sweatshirts? Are smaller runs (thinking 20 or less) worth doing? My son's Scouts would love custom T's but can't afford them at large commercial prices. Would a small business like MB's or (maybe mine) be able to balance the line between affordability and profit? I am not sure it could ...

Oh well, at least I have a few years more to ponder this before I have to decide. Pilot man has at least 5 more years left before he hangs up his uniform. And let's not get into the discussion about where we will settle down after. That is for another day, I think! That battle still rages on ...

1 comment:

  1. Mary Beth's business is a lot larger than mine! Speaking for myself, I do small orders but there isn't much profit in it. You make your money on the large orders - the small ones in between keep things running and hopefully lead to larger orders. If you don't have a lot of competition it can be fun and profitable. Sadly, I have a lot of new competitors in my area and they are literally killing my business by putting out bids below wholesale in order to lure customers. Wanna buy a 6-head embroidery machine? ;-)

    ReplyDelete

Please feel free to leave hints, tips and tricks that apply to the post.