School uniform embroidery can easily become pretty expensive if you’re not savvy when making purchases for it. Everybody wants to cut costs where they can and tighten their purse strings, don’t they? Well, there are various ways you can make great savings when sourcing your uniform.
Outsourcing your uniform from a third party supplier can result in your costs adding up quickly – especially if you’re a private school with unique uniforms that aren’t replicated very often. School uniform embroidery can be made much cheaper with the investment of a commercial embroidery machine. Sure, at first it’s a big investment but you’ll reap the long-term rewards over time.
This post will outline the main ways that you can save money when shopping for materials and producing your own school uniform embroidery.
We’ll cover:
Bulk Buy From Third Parties
One of the best ways to ensure that you’re always creating your school uniform embroidery in the most cost-efficient manner is to bulk buy from your third parties. Although costs can stack up when outsourcing if you buy in large quantities the cost will more than likely reduce per unit.
Especially for less common items of uniform too. For example, a lot of private schools tend to wear caps or formal shorts. As these aren’t very common with the majority of schools in the UK, the price per unit may tend to be more expensive than regular trousers. But if you buy in bulk, you can easily reduce this price point.
After all, providing that you never run out of pupils, you’re always going to need uniforms. So, why not stock up on materials and save yourself a considerable amount of money? Not only is it cost-effective, but it’s also good practice to always have more material in stock than what you’re forecasted to need.
But why? Well, there are various busy periods over the academic year and you can’t always predict just how busy you’re going to be. By having more material than you need, you’re always prepared for any unexpected rush you didn’t see coming. That way, you don’t have to turn parents away and leave them disgruntled that they can’t get their children’s uniform sorted.
Control Your Own Design and Machine Run Time
One cost that a lot of people will forget to factor in when sourcing their school uniform embroidery is the overheads and man-hours that go into their orders. Plus, when outsourcing, you can never determine the actual cost of these. Whereas, if you run your own machine, you can control the run time at your own leisure and take full control of costs.
If you have busy periods, it’s better to keep your embroidery machine running all day churning out as many orders as possible. Rather than spreading them out over the course of a few days, you’ll incur fewer costs if you get them out of the way in as few runs as possible. You can control the run time of your own machine, therefore, you can control the cost of each order and uniform processed.
Each school will have its own crest that portrays a proud history. Depending on how complex your crest or logo is the price will vary – the more complex, the more expensive. One way that you can cap the price of your design is that you can consult a digital designer. They’ll make the design and send you the digital file, ready for use for all your orders.
That way, you’ll have the crest yourself and won’t have to pay extra to have it added to your uniform orders each time. Instead, you’ll be able to use the file as many times as you like and add it to whatever garment you need to.
Take Control of Your Own Supply Chain
One of the best ways to ensure that you never overpay for school uniform embroidery again is to always make sure that you shop around. If you don’t, you run the risk of paying over the odds and not sourcing your materials for as cheap as possible.
Don’t be fooled by the price point though – just because a material is cheaper than another, doesn’t automatically make it a better deal. And vice versa too, the more expensive products don’t make them the best products out there. When selecting your products you need to consider quality, durability and style along with price point.
If you feel like a supplier is quoting you a price that is too high or unfair, don’t hesitate to challenge them. Especially if you’re making a bulk order, you might find that your supplier will give you a little bit of leeway and that you’re able to negotiate a cheaper price point. Albeit, you don’t want to be too unreasonable and end up tarnishing your relationship with them.
When selling your school uniform embroidery yourself you obviously negotiate the price. So, it’s completely up to you to determine how much profit you’d like to make on your products. Be careful though, set your prices too high and you won’t attract the custom that you desire. However, set your prices too low and you won’t be maximising the potential profit you could earn.
Creating Your Own School Uniform Embroidery Will Save You Money
Although it may not seem like it first up, investing in an embroidery machine will actually save you money in the long-term. But you need to make sure that you purchase the right one that suits your school. It’s a big decision to make, so you shouldn’t take it lightly.
Luckily for you, we’ve put together a guide that compares single-head and multi-head machines to help you make a decision. From the benefits of each machine to how they can help drive your production levels forwards, it’s all in there to help. Download your free copy today.