Impressions - March 2020 - 46

and press, for a total production time of 36
minutes. However, you need to do logo
work, which will take another 15 minutes.
At the end of the production cycle, you will
need to wrap and box the plaques, which
will take about 15 minutes.The total job
time is 66 minutes. At an hourly cost of
$30, the cost to produce the entire job is
$33. Divide that by 12 to reveal that each
plaque costs $2.75 to create (not including
the substrate).

UNIQUE SELLS
The beauty of sublimation is that you easily can create so many cool products with a high level of
perceived value. The key is to take advantage of the available tools.
Too many decorators simply process orders exactly as dictated by the customer. Though this
sounds like good customer service, you may be losing money because of the customer's lack of
knowledge and imagination.
Using high-energy graphics, inspiring layouts and cool products, you can turn ordinary orders
into extraordinary ones, which accomplishes three important objectives: higher margins,
larger-volume orders and increased sales from repeat orders.

Discounting by Volume
Everyone expects a lower price when buying a larger volume of goods. However,
you can't offer a discount unless you can
produce larger orders for a lower rate.
Producing one item potentially would
require separate pre- and post-production for each design, which translates into
downtime. If it took 15 minutes of pre-production, three minutes of true production
and 15 minutes of post-production, you
would spend 33 minutes to produce a single item. At $30 per hour, the per-piece
cost is $16.50.
On the other hand, producing six items
with the same image would require 15
minutes of pre-production, 18 minutes of
true production and 15 minutes of postproduction for a total of 48 minutes.The
total job cost is $24, which equals $4 per
piece.
This simple example shows that when
you produce larger quantities, the perpiece production cost drops because of
increased efficiency.You can lower that
cost even more by focusing on reducing
pre- and post-production times.
In addition, with sublimation, you sometimes can produce more than one piece
during a single cycle, depending on the
item's size.
You must analyze the production process when generating baseline costs and
translating that into volume discounts.
However, if you play with numbers and
variables, you can figure out basic pricing.
Understand your customers' needs, then
look for unique products that can fulfill
them.A good marketing plan will go a long
way toward increasing a product's perceived
value in a given marketplace - and that
will translate into higher margins. 

Everyone expects a lower price
when buying a larger volume
of goods, but you can't offer a
discount unless you can produce
larger orders for a lower rate.
Sublimation usually is constant
in terms of production time.

Award-winning author and international speaker
Jimmy Lamb has more than 25 years of apparel
decoration experience. He currently is manager of
communications for Sawgrass Technologies, Charleston, S.C. For more information or to comment on this
article, email Jimmy at jlamb@sawgrassink.com.
P.46

I M P R E S S I O N S M A G . C O M MARCH 2020

44-46_IMP_0320_TMD_Sublimation 46

2/19/20 9:00 AM

http://www.IMPRESSIONSMAG.COM

Impressions - March 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Impressions - March 2020