Branching into the Embroidery Business from other parts of the Industry

I was talking to friend in the promotional business the other day and we were discussing how several of the local promotional products companies in the area have sold their embroidery machines. You see, back about 3 years ago, they decided to take everything in house instead of contracting their embroidery out. Problem was, they didn’t understand or know the embroidery business, they just knew the promotional business. They mistakenly thought that all there was to it was to buy the commercial multi-head machine, plug the designs and shirts into it, hire a machine operator and Voila!

Now, 3 years later, I’m not surprised to hear that they’ve sold the machines and are going back to contracting out their embroidery….in essence, leaving the embroidery to the professionals. If they had asked me (which they did not) I could have saved them 3 years of money and irritation not to mention retaining a few customers they probably lost in the process.

You see, a successful commercial embroidery company is a full time endeavor; just ask anyone who has reached this point. It’s a skill and acquiring the expertise to make it profitable takes much, much more than the funds to buy the machine and hire an operator. Companies that work in related industries have a tendency to say to themselves, “How hard can it be?” because the professional embroiderers and digitizers make it look easy from the outside. Once they “go there”, they realize not only the work involved but the creative skill it takes and the technical knowledge needed and they suddenly get why the cost of a good embroiderer and/or digitizer is what it is.

The companies that are able to add in-house machine embroidery services to their other offerings, and make it work, understand production and are often printers, screen printers and related.

If you’re thinking about adding in-house embroidery to your list of offered services, do your homework, do the math; you might decide that the phone numbers of a good embroiderer and a good digitizer will be more profitable for you than purchasing your own machine…..and when you figure that out, call me! I’ll take very good care of you!
NeedleUp Digitizing LLC – 303-287-6633.