Every quote starts from a blank sheet
Each job gets priced from scratch or from a copy of an old quote. Garment, positions, stitch count, colours and quantity are all worked out again by hand, which is slow and gives a different answer each time.
Slow, inconsistent quoting
Every quote gets rebuilt from scratch. And margin leaks out of each one.
Quoting decorated goods should be quick, and it's where a lot of print and embroidery businesses lose margin without noticing. The garment, the positions, the setup charge, the quantity and the turnaround all get worked out again by hand, so the price depends on who's quoting and how busy they are. You end up with slow answers, prices that don't match from one customer to the next, and a quote to order conversion rate you can't explain.
The symptoms
The signs.
Quotes are built in a spreadsheet by one person, and only they know how it works
Setup charges and screen setup get forgotten on repeat orders
Quantity breaks are applied differently depending on who's quoting
Customer-supplied garments get priced as if you'd supplied them, with no handling charge
There's no record of why a price was given, so nobody can defend it when the customer pushes back
Slow turnaround loses jobs to whoever answers first, and you can't see what your quote to order conversion is
Why it happens01 02 03 04
Where this actually comes from
Most versions of this problem trace back to the same handful of causes. Knowing which one you have changes what fixing it costs.
The pricing rules live in someone's head
Per-position pricing, the digitising charge, the minimum order quantity and the rush or express surcharge are all rules. Rules that aren't written down get applied differently by everyone who quotes.
The costs behind the price are out of date
Blank prices, thread, ink and labour move, and the quote sheet doesn't. Margin leaks quietly on jobs that looked fine when the price went out.
Quotes and orders live in different places
The quote sits in an email or a spreadsheet and the order sits in the system, with nothing linking the two. You can't see which quotes turned into orders, or why the others didn't.
How I help
What happens when you call
I start by sitting with whoever does the quoting and watching a few real quotes get built, from the enquiry to the price going out. I write down every rule being applied, including the ones nobody's ever said out loud, and check them against your actual costs so you can see where margin is leaking and which jobs are being under-priced. Then you get a plain list of what to fix: a rate card everyone quotes from, setup and digitising charges that always get added, and a way to record why each price was given. Some of that is a tidy-up of what you already have, and some of it may need a quoting tool built around how you price. I'll tell you which. It all starts with a Clarity Audit.
The first call is free.
The first call is free. 60 minutes. No sales pitch, just a direct conversation about your situation.
- One day on site
- Written report in 5 days
- 3× Clarity Guarantee
- No vendor agenda
Common questions01 02 03 04
Quoting questions I get asked
How should we price customer-supplied garments?
Price the decoration on its own line, and add a handling charge for receiving, checking and storing the garments, set by your own costs. Agree in writing that you can't be held responsible for faults in the blanks, and allow for spoilage, because you can't replace a customer's garment at your own blank price. Ask for a small overage on the quantity so one misprint doesn't stop the order. If you price it as though you'd supplied the garment and just knock the blank cost off, the handling and the risk are still yours and the margin goes with them.
Should setup charges be on every order?
Yes, and that includes repeats. A screen setup or a digitising charge pays for real work, either preparing screens or turning artwork into a stitch file. On a repeat, charge it if screens have been reclaimed or the design has to be reloaded, and waive or reduce it only as a recorded decision. Some businesses fold a small setup cost into the unit price on low-volume jobs. Whichever way you do it, decide the rule once and apply it every time.
How many price breaks should we have?
As few as you can explain in a sentence. Most businesses end up with a handful of bands, where the price per item drops as the quantity goes up, and the first band starts at your minimum order quantity. Set each quantity break by your own costs, at the point where setup stops dominating the job and the production run gets more efficient. Too many bands invite haggling at the edges and slow the quote down. Use the same bands across product families unless a real cost difference says otherwise.
How do we speed up quoting?
Write your pricing rules down once, then quote from them every time. That means a rate card for garments, per-position pricing for each decoration method, your setup and digitising charges, quantity breaks, and a rush or express surcharge for short turnaround. Once the rules exist, a spreadsheet template or quoting software for printers built around your own pricing can produce a price in minutes. Record the reason for any exception. That also lets you track quote to order conversion, so you can see which quotes win and which don't.
Operational audit
A structured one-day audit that watches how quotes really get built, finds where setup charges and margin leak, and separates quick fixes from bigger projects.
See how it works