# What's a better choice to start own business with manual or dtg?



## teo527 (Jan 25, 2013)

I was recently let go from a shop I worked at nearly for 12yrs. While I worked there for that long, I also worked at another shop for a year. One thing that both shops have taught me is I would rather do things myself versus the two environments I found myself in. 
So I'm wondering if it would be wiser to start out manually printing or would it be wiser to see if I'm able to go the dtg route to start? Both has the positive and negatives. Initially I'm leaning toward dtg, but I'm also a newbie to doing business on my own and would like the advice of some business owners out there already.


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## electricgraffix (Jan 25, 2013)

Personally I can tell you the easiest way to make money is by moving volume. DTG is cool, but its so slow when compared to a press. If you do the math, 200 shirts a day for a profit of $5 each (1000 bucks), versus 20 shirts a day with a profit of 6-8 each (160 bucks), you are making 6 times the money with the manual press. Given that location, client base, and design style could change your prices, and your demand.

DTG and inkjet printers do not hold there value well, because a new model is coming out monthly, and its tech. Manual presses have more or less stayed the same for a long time, and you can sell them for a good amount of money to reclaim your investment later down the road. Nobody wants to buy a used DTG with a junked up print head, and software that runs on ancient OS (ten years down the road). Personally, I would buy a manual press, and if you do well bring in a DTG later for specialty jobs and diversification.


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## tcrowder (Apr 27, 2006)

What were you doing at the other shops DTG or screening? Do you have clients lined up to support a 15k DTG printer. Are you going after the high school sports program business, or are you going after the custom walk in business? There are a lot of questions to consider prior to investing a huge amount of money on equipment you may not be able to keep busy.


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## CCClothing (Apr 1, 2011)

Dtg is more for the customn1-10 t-shirts clients. It all depends on the client base u are marketing to

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## teo527 (Jan 25, 2013)

I was screening at that other shops. I have limited experience on a dtg. My issue is what is more cost effective? If I go manual, there's more overhead other than just buying the press. squeegees, inks, screens, emulsion, exposure unit, dryer, reclaiming versus little overhead with dtg. 
The type of business I'm going after is open, but I would like to be going more in a creative direction. More like with different bands and personal groups I know. More of a detail oriented style. I don't have a lot of volume right now which does worry me about the dtg. 
I don't really want high volume jobs to begin with since I am just starting and will be doing things myself. Plus room is a factor since the amount of space I have to work in is limited. 
Again though, I want to go the more cost effective route. I know some reading this might see dtg and go why in the world would you want to start with that? I'm wondering if I would gain my investment back faster with that versus manual. And the fact that space is an issue


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## teo527 (Jan 25, 2013)

Thomas, it really matters what dtg you are looking at. I've been a big fan of the Neoflex dtg which definitely gives you room for more production and different abilities like promo printing as well


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

No need to buy anything at all.....Just go out and sell....Lots of places to outsource too.....


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## electricgraffix (Jan 25, 2013)

teo527 said:


> I was screening at that other shops. I have limited experience on a dtg. My issue is what is more cost effective? If I go manual, there's more overhead other than just buying the press. squeegees, inks, screens, emulsion, exposure unit, dryer, reclaiming versus little overhead with dtg.
> The type of business I'm going after is open, but I would like to be going more in a creative direction. More like with different bands and personal groups I know. More of a detail oriented style. I don't have a lot of volume right now which does worry me about the dtg.
> I don't really want high volume jobs to begin with since I am just starting and will be doing things myself. Plus room is a factor since the amount of space I have to work in is limited.
> Again though, I want to go the more cost effective route. I know some reading this might see dtg and go why in the world would you want to start with that? I'm wondering if I would gain my investment back faster with that versus manual. And the fact that space is an issue


I personally dont know exactly the expected head life of the current model DTG printers, or the cost per foot on the inks. I can however say that printers require more money than most people think. I have owned several large format printers in the past (given, a little different than DTG) and can say that my ink usaging is high, even while it is hibernating (weekends, vacations, etc) Thats because it has to 'spit' inks to keep the heads from gumming up. If you are planning on printing every now and then, then avoid the DTG. They are designed to be run all the time, to prevent clogged heads. If you turn it off an walk away from it for a month, then you come back with your ink gone and heads that require work to clean out, or worse change out. They can be very problematic. if you are looking to be like a mall kiosk, or a small shop with alot of random passer-bys, then its an awesome tool! However, if it will be a peice that you dont even know if you will be able to keep it running everyday, than a 15k printer is not a good business idea. and take it from me, be VERY careful looking at used models. I will never buy a used printer again. They always need repairs, or head replacements. Besides, you could buy decent press equipment, a complete shop, for the price of a good brand DTG printer. Have you thought about simply being a print shop but outsourcing your work? It worked for me for a long time. Do the design work, and send it of for printing. Then you just reap the profits.


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## Screenanator (Feb 14, 2007)

When the shop down the street from us opened they did a lot of DTG.....Everyone flocked to their colorful designs....we were a little bummed...then all of the sudden ALL of them came back...DTG is cool but it's still a "new" technology....and the DTG garments cant stand up to silk screening for durability and color over the long haul. 
Also...we print events on site.....screen printing out of a big trailer.....at the same event a guy had a DTG printer offering pics of guys race cars....sweet...cool...awesome....We printed the official event T-shirt.....at the end of the day we pocketed 15.230.00 he pocketed around 800.00 he said with a grin....til I showed him 3 monet bags stuffed with cash...and he said he had to give refunds because he couldn't finish the orders before racers left. Thats not good business...Stick to what you know.....


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## teo527 (Jan 25, 2013)

Larry, I've thought about that. Possibly to get started and a cushion before taking on additional cost. my hesitation on that would be the pricing out of it. obviously the person printing has to definitely make a profit on it and then how much do i gauge what I'm acceptable with for them getting versus what I'm getting in return, ya know?


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## electricgraffix (Jan 25, 2013)

I hear ya. We started out as a full service sign shop (billboards, vehicle wraps, banners, panel signs, channel letters, etc) Which still is what most of our income comes from. But we merged into silkscreening because we had so many customers asking if we could also order a bunch of shirts with the signs. 

I outsourced for years, and would consistantly mark up 10-15%, and still be around my local compitions bids. The trick is to get about 10 different screen printing shops that do good work, and submit bids to them. The more details you provide (as you already know, with 12 years experience) the cheaper the bid will be (set up the graphics ready to print with correct traps, overprints, and spot colors). 

Then the orders come in and you get 15% for handling the orders. The downfall, you have to be able to float the deposit for the orders (unless you take 100% down before you accept the order, but that can be hard to get from some clients unless you have a physical 'brick and mortar' store with a good name). We use ASi to find good affordable shops. It works good, but when you start getting 500-1000 shirts a week ordered you start to wonder why you dont have a silkscreen shop. At some point purchase your equipment when you are secure enough to gaurantee clients.

I completely agree with Screenanator, its cool, and people like it with the fun colors and instant results, but lets face it people go into business to make as much money as possible with the least amount of work.. therefore the DTG should be used as an additional peice of equipment to go next to your M&R manual and auto press. Unless you have 10-50 of them daisy chained, they are hard to get the pure volume needed to turn a good profit... not to mention the amount of maintanance that you eventually WILL have to do to them.


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## Sulp (Dec 7, 2010)

I'm in agreement that you should build a client base & source everything out in the beginning. The contract printing costs are really cheap out there and won't affect your margins AT ALL. Look at it this way...If you had an order for 72 pcs with a 1-color print. A contract printer might charge you ~$1.00 each at that quantity. So theres $72 plus a screen charge of $15. So your at $87 total or $1.21 per shirt. PLUS, the printer now assumes all the risk if something should go wrong in production. Thats a biggie that a lot of people don't think about. That alone is worth a big chunk of the $87 you'd be losing not doing it yourself. It also affords you the time to go out and find new business since you won't be spending time printing. So in actuality you can make A TON more money contracting out all the work because all of that production time can now be used as selling time. 

I work for a large printer and I have been in the business for 25+ years. I can run & fix print presses & embroidery machines, I've been digitizing for 15 years, and I know pre-press & artwork inside and out. BUT, if I were ever to go out on my own, I would 100% FOR SURE contract out everything and concentrate on selling & making money.


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## rlaubert (Aug 14, 2011)

I keep seeing people trying to compare Screen Printing to DTG. The only common thing about them is the t-shirt. Screen Printing is great for large quantities, simple design (vector), and minimum colors. DTG is great for short runs, bitmap graphics (pictures), multiple colors. It all comes down to your target market. I know people who do car shows that take a picture of the owner with their car, prints up a white t-shirt and sells them for $40 a piece right at the show. I would say if you want to do DTG, find some garment screen printers and partner with them. If you want to do screen printing, find some DTG printers and partner with them. That way you can have the best of both worlds and sell even more.

As for productivity, DTG on white shirts is about 40 an hour. Black shirts are about 20 an hour. So in an 8 hour day, I can do 160-320 shirts. If my business ever gets that busy, I wouldn't care about someone elses profits hehe.


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## teo527 (Jan 25, 2013)

guys, thank you for your feedback. it has definitely been quite helpful


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## NeonTees (Apr 25, 2010)

A basic manual setup with all the extra stuff can be found on Craigslist with a little patience to wait for the right one and travel a little to get it. Maybe have some work contracted out while you look. That process is reliable and most breakdowns can be easily fixed. 

Never buy used dtg. Way too much risk. Dtg breakdowns are rarely cheap to fix. And often take days. 

Backup plan for a breakdown with a manual press is to go to a local contract guy or even a friendly competitor a couple towns away. Backup plan for down dtg is usually not so easy to find a contract guy with room in the schedule at a reasonable price. 

Stick with what works with the lowest risk.


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## samking (Feb 3, 2009)

teo527 said:


> I was recently let go from a shop I worked at nearly for 12yrs. While I worked there for that long, I also worked at another shop for a year. One thing that both shops have taught me is I would rather do things myself versus the two environments I found myself in.
> So I'm wondering if it would be wiser to start out manually printing or would it be wiser to see if I'm able to go the dtg route to start? Both has the positive and negatives. Initially I'm leaning toward dtg, but I'm also a newbie to doing business on my own and would like the advice of some business owners out there already.


There are other options, other than DTG and Screenprinting, here is what I recommend, get a 11x17 inkjet printer, heat transfer paper, and a cutter/plotter and heat transfer vinyl, and you,re in business, if I had to start over that would be my choice, then grow from there.


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