DSF

Hey,

I'm after some advice please.

Does anyone have any advice on how to speed up tshirt printing process? I know it's a bit of a random question but I don't seem to have enough time to keep up with orders?

I know I should be happy with that but it's beginning to stress me out lol. I'm actually having to turn orders away which I never thought I would do after this short period of time.

If anyone has any ideas on how I can streamline the process (be it small or big) and are willing to share then please let me know. I maybe doing something fundamentally wrong. I think my method is the same as everyone else, maybe I need to upgrade my equipment? I am using a cameo 3 for vinyl cutting, MDP flex Vinyl (will be changing to Xpres soon) and standard heat press. My designs usually incorporate 2 colours of vinyl which is adding to my production time.

I hope this all makes sense..
Thanks

What is your method?

what quantities? look at print and cut

Faster cutter with rolls of vinyl may help. I use a Graphtec.

Without knowing how many garment per hour you doing now, it will be hard to say.
But, larger cutter that can take larger roll is one of the best ideas. If you print so many that you need to turn jobs away, I presume you earn enough money to be able to upgrade your cutter? Also if you print same designs most of the time then try to pre cut and weed them in advance. Alternatively "employ" someone from family to help you out with most time consuming tasks like weeding.

put your prices up!
If you are getting over 65% of the jobs you quote for ... your prices are too low!
many people would think 50% is a better number

You need a full size cutter, and use 500mm vinyl, cut weeded and pressed 21 T shirts in a morning yesterday, front and back print including time out for walking the dog, putting the washing out and normal tasks that having a "from home" business entail, . Cut it all, Weed it all, sort t shirt sizes - I always work Big to small so once you have pressed them they stack with the biggest at the bottom, then pack them and send the and invoice them.

To do that many shirts would take me all day! My design has 5 words (4 words in white & 1 in gold). These are cut individually from vinyl which is time consuming.I have to position 4 on the front and 1 on the back. Lining the design up on the t-shirt is again, very time consuming. Is there anything you can recommend to speed up this process? I line them up by eye and using a normal ruler. Yesterday I read an article on the 'tee square it' for £30 it seems a bit steep but it's worth it if saving me time. I've had another batch of orders which I am struggling with but do not want to keep turning orders down.
I also discovered plastisol transfers yesterday on YouTube and was impressed by them, would this be a cost effective method to reduce my processing time as I can purchase these in bulk and have them ready for when orders come in?

it does depend on quantity. if you are getting more than a hundred transfers try j and a international or golden finishes. does depend on design, colour sizes, application. when we do simple stuff over 250 we buy in transfers.

Are they as durable as vinyl? A concern I had was contacting a printer who also sold t-shirts as you are really giving them your design, what's going to stop them from using it themselves?