New Customer Wants Custom Neck Labels/Care Inst

[alan802]

In the beginning it was a cupcake job with one print location, one color.  Now they've decided they want to put their custom labels on every shirt and I do not want to deal with this in-house.  It took a month just to find a shirt that they liked, and this customer has the potential to be big, so by adding the neck label we've essentially doubled the work and labor involved and they will be placing large orders so it's kind of a big deal.  I'm looking at it from the standpoint of the job just having 2 print locations like most of our stuff, but the large quantities and the hassle with dealing with custom labels has me wondering what I should do.  LAT had initially offered to label the shirts with the custom heat transfers but has since taken that offer off the table, and now I'm looking at maybe opening the shirt brand choice back up.  We were going to have the labels made, sent to LAT, then they would decorate that part then send the shirts to us and then boom...cupcake job, ability to knock out 5K a day if we needed to, bla bla bla.  Now we are looking at having to label the shirts, not to mention taking all of the tags off the shirts, and I'm not going to buy a label printing machine and hire 2 people to run it without seeing how this line of clothing is going to work out.  I know some would buy what they needed but we all know that for every couple of thousand of customers that walk through the door with the "next big tshirt design" only 1 of them actually sells 1000 shirts and maybe 1 in a million does anything worth buying equipment for. 

So my long-winded questions are for you shops that do custom labels for customers, do you just print it in-house, or do you get hot peel labels made and heat press them?  Does anyone have them labeled prior to arriving at your shop by the shirt manufacturer or third party?  It sure would make my life easier if they were done like we had planned originally and we would just print the design and be done with it.  And there are other things that are making this whole venture not seem so worth all the effort that I've been putting in.  The customer comes by the shop EVERY DAY, and not to be rude but I'm so busy I don't even have time to take a break to eat, much less visit and talk about things that we've already talked about a dozen times.  I can feel like they have doubts about us being able to fulfill their orders but they haven't ordered more than 80 shirts at a time up to this point and although I really think this could actually take off, I'm not so sure I want in on this since we have so much work right now we can't get everything done with 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week.  I try to tell them that the amount of work we have right now is about 3 times more than our usual workload and while I'm trying to manage a very busy shop I just don't have time to hold hands and do all the leg work in trying to get the custom label thing done and they also see that.  They've offered to help with all of that, but nothing has really been done that I can feel good about going forward.  The guy keeps asking me how we're going to print 50K shirts when his line blows up and where we're going to park the shipping containers and I just tell him we'll cross that bridge when we get there but the fact that the questions keep being asked I feel like I'm going to be doing all this work only for them to leave to a larger shop that tells them what they want to hear.  They've been through several shops already and settled on us due to the print quality, but these days you can never count on customer loyalty.

I know it's a long read, and many of you have dealt with this before and currently and I could use some good advice right about now.  Should I just screen print the labels in-house?  Or should I continue to pursue someone else doing them prior to arrival here?  Any and all options are welcomed.  Or should I just deal with the known customers and recommend another shop to them and not be so stressed out about this all the time?  I really do think this could be big due to the contacts this guy has, but the work we have to do not counting this customer is unbelievable and my plate is more than full.  If this does work out we'd have to buy another press more than likely, but how long will this last is my long-term concern.  Ok, I'm babbling now, thinking out loud and I've probably lost most of you already.  GIVE ME OPTIONS!!!!!

[ericheartsu]

In the beginning it was a cupcake job with one print location, one color.  Now they've decided they want to put their custom labels on every shirt and I do not want to deal with this in-house.  It took a month just to find a shirt that they liked, and this customer has the potential to be big, so by adding the neck label we've essentially doubled the work and labor involved and they will be placing large orders so it's kind of a big deal.  I'm looking at it from the standpoint of the job just having 2 print locations like most of our stuff, but the large quantities and the hassle with dealing with custom labels has me wondering what I should do.  LAT had initially offered to label the shirts with the custom heat transfers but has since taken that offer off the table, and now I'm looking at maybe opening the shirt brand choice back up.  We were going to have the labels made, sent to LAT, then they would decorate that part then send the shirts to us and then boom...cupcake job, ability to knock out 5K a day if we needed to, bla bla bla.  Now we are looking at having to label the shirts, not to mention taking all of the tags off the shirts, and I'm not going to buy a label printing machine and hire 2 people to run it without seeing how this line of clothing is going to work out.  I know some would buy what they needed but we all know that for every couple of thousand of customers that walk through the door with the "next big tshirt design" only 1 of them actually sells 1000 shirts and maybe 1 in a million does anything worth buying equipment for. 

So my long-winded questions are for you shops that do custom labels for customers, do you just print it in-house, or do you get hot peel labels made and heat press them?  Does anyone have them labeled prior to arriving at your shop by the shirt manufacturer or third party?  It sure would make my life easier if they were done like we had planned originally and we would just print the design and be done with it.  And there are other things that are making this whole venture not seem so worth all the effort that I've been putting in.  The customer comes by the shop EVERY DAY, and not to be rude but I'm so busy I don't even have time to take a break to eat, much less visit and talk about things that we've already talked about a dozen times.  I can feel like they have doubts about us being able to fulfill their orders but they haven't ordered more than 80 shirts at a time up to this point and although I really think this could actually take off, I'm not so sure I want in on this since we have so much work right now we can't get everything done with 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week.  I try to tell them that the amount of work we have right now is about 3 times more than our usual workload and while I'm trying to manage a very busy shop I just don't have time to hold hands and do all the leg work in trying to get the custom label thing done and they also see that.  They've offered to help with all of that, but nothing has really been done that I can feel good about going forward.  The guy keeps asking me how we're going to print 50K shirts when his line blows up and where we're going to park the shipping containers and I just tell him we'll cross that bridge when we get there but the fact that the questions keep being asked I feel like I'm going to be doing all this work only for them to leave to a larger shop that tells them what they want to hear.  They've been through several shops already and settled on us due to the print quality, but these days you can never count on customer loyalty.

I know it's a long read, and many of you have dealt with this before and currently and I could use some good advice right about now.  Should I just screen print the labels in-house?  Or should I continue to pursue someone else doing them prior to arrival here?  Any and all options are welcomed.  Or should I just deal with the known customers and recommend another shop to them and not be so stressed out about this all the time?  I really do think this could be big due to the contacts this guy has, but the work we have to do not counting this customer is unbelievable and my plate is more than full.  If this does work out we'd have to buy another press more than likely, but how long will this last is my long-term concern.  Ok, I'm babbling now, thinking out loud and I've probably lost most of you already.  GIVE ME OPTIONS!!!!!

we do them in house, almost every day. We either do them as screen printed transfers, or with direct printing on our aspe tagger. We also will just screen them on sleeve plattens from time to time. Each method is used for a specific reason, depending on the job quality or quantity.

For 85% of our clients, we just do the labels, but the other 15% that want them, have the good supplied with their labels. Typically they are bigger companies. for instance we do alot of corporate stuff for a private brand, who works with chipotle. All of their tees come tagged with their logo.

I'd say do them in house, but we are just down the road if you need anything.

[Colin]

Alan,

What is the feasibility of creating a one color manual right next to your dryer to do the smaller runs of neck labels?  You know... just until his 50k order comes through.....

[Screen Dan]

We have basic colors in basic styles private label tagged by the dye lot...but we have been considering getting other colors and small-run styles done to maintain consistency.  I haven't made contact yet but I was referred to these guys for small and large runs:

http://www.ddilogistics.com/ApparelServices/LabelSewing.aspx

[Homer]

flip side of the coin here Al, you can't be everything to everyone. We had an opportunity fall in our lap and it was a dream print job, something we really thought we wanted.... but mathematically, it did not make sense, so we had to pass...it would have taken a serious toll on us to have produced it., and at the end of the day - it's only money. sounds to me like you are already stressed out and stretched thin..... The owners need to make this type of stuff their problem, not yours....but this is just me

[GraphicDisorder]

Logistics, if your guys are already stretched thin you'd need to add equipment or staff and maybe longer or 2nd shifts.  Is the cheddar there for all that off 1 account? What do you do when they bail?

We just went through this ourselves. Huge deal (for us). We passed on a mid/high 6 figure deal (client was also doubling in sales every month or so and who knows what it would have became). The logistics where just not there for us at this time and we'd have to add at least a press and full staff for it as well as logistics people to keep up with the coming and going of garments and such.  Just had to pass. It was a sickening feeling but was the right choice for us at the time.  I couldn't put my self under that much extra stress with what we already are dealing with daily. At some point ill chase stuff like that but for now no.

[3Deep]

We have a customer right now that's going to be a pain or one of our best, and they are looking at the same thing Al's custy is looking for....I will agree with Homer it's just money in the end and how much of a headache do you feel like taking to make it

[kingscreen]

Maybe it was lost in the lengthy post, but how many pieces is the initial order?  A low budget option is to buy a couple heat presses (cap), have the transfers made, and hire a couple temps  to press them.  Overall cheaper than adding tag printing equipemtn or additional permanent staff until necessary.  If it's 5k or less, just run them off on an auto with the sleeve plattens.  Done in a day most likely.

[Sbrem]

The orders we've had have been fairly short runs. We make our own transfers and apply them using our Hotronix cap press. For a really long run, I might source the transfers out. I like transfers because they don't bleed through to the other side, as can happen with direct printing...

Steve

[jvieira]

Maybe it was lost in the lengthy post, but how many pieces is the initial order?  A low budget option is to buy a couple heat presses (cap), have the transfers made, and hire a couple temps  to press them.  Overall cheaper than adding tag printing equipemtn or additional permanent staff until necessary.  If it's 5k or less, just run them off on an auto with the sleeve plattens.  Done in a day most likely.

I agree with kingscreen.

When we get big orders we'll try having the labels done by the brand. We only do them ourselves on smaller runs to save time. I agree you should hire 1 or 2 temps and do them in house (plastisol transfer). It's probably the most cost effective/quick way to do it.

[JBLUE]

We print them in house. Get yourself a little ASPE or one of their competitors. We like our ASPE. in a couple hours you can blow through 3k prints like nothing. Its the best 7 grand we ever spent. We run ours pretty much every. Its going to be running 12 plus hours a day here shortly with about 25k labels to run in the next few weeks. Its paid for itself on the first 20k prints we ran through it. We had two fast guys on it one day and they ran 6800 pcs in a little over 8 hours. Times that by .40  per label and there is an easy 2700 bucks for the day

[alan802]

Alan,

What is the feasibility of creating a one color manual right next to your dryer to do the smaller runs of neck labels?  You know... just until his 50k order comes through.....

I think that's the best option right now, but finding someone to actually do the work is where I'm having a tough time.  I hired two new guys, one a month ago and the other last week, and for the most part they've been great, but one of the two is having a baby soon and his wife seems to be having A LOT of issues with the pregnancy (he's missed 2 full days and parts of 5 others in the 4 weeks he's been here which seems strange but how the hell do you handle that). 

I like the idea of the mini auto but at this point I'm not ready to drop even a few thousand dollars on a press because I have zero faith that I'll find someone that would run it..besides myself of course.  I also like the idea of the transfers because I have a hat press and I think I could have a temp do the heat pressing far easier than I could have someone directly printing them on a manual or the auto tag printer. 

I should start a new thread on all the ridiculous issues we've had with hiring, firing, quitting, missing work for reasons I know you've all dealt with before.  I've had a full crew on the payroll for about 3 months, off/on out of the last 6, yet yesterday and Monday were the first two consecutive days where we've had a full crew both days in the last 6 months.  And one of my guys is out today (the baby might be coming, the baby might be coming, but only after they gave her a hefty dose of morphine and when she wakes up she'll either be going into labor or they'll release her from the hospital but either way my guy isn't going to make it in today...yes, that's what I was told via email this morning) and my other guy has his family moving in to town since he got here a few weeks before them and he's going to be out tomorrow and Friday.  I've got a request out to the temp agency for 2 temps today so hopefully that will work out so I'll at least have someone at the end of the dryer all day.

[GraphicDisorder]

 I wonder if that since down in south Texas I imagine there are a lot of jobs and many pay well or more than other areas of the country.  I wonder if your struggling with staff for those reason? Abundance of jobs and higher/similar wages in easier jobs maybe?  Just a guess as to some of your issues.

[Action1]

This looks like a good job to use our Tagless Pallets on.

http://www.actionengineering.com/Prod-23-1-4955-528/m-r-reg-style-tagless-pallet-br-16in-x-22in-br-40-64cm-x-55-88cm.htm

You can print two at a time. Print capacity - 4" x 6"

[jsheridan]

I like the idea of the mini auto but at this point I'm not ready to drop even a few thousand dollars on a press because I have zero faith that I'll find someone that would run it..besides myself of course. 

Everyone is an idiot except yourself..  That mental mindset is toxic to business growth. 


It's a number on a balance sheet that makes money, buy the machine and move on to the next issue.