# What % of total event sales to customer makes good busines sense?



## artswear (Jun 20, 2011)

Has anyone had experience with supplying (and therefore, investing in) the entire inventory of decorated apparel for a particular customer's event, setting up and selling at the event, where the arrangement is that the customer will be given a percentage of the total sales at that event? 

If so, I am wondering what that percentage should be? When I work this out on paper and use a random # such as 20%, it seems like I would have to sell at least half of the items just to break even. Now, if I sell more, that's great and I make out, but there are no guarantees and I am wondering if this is too risky of an arrangment and is, in reality, more a benefit to the customer than to myself?


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## Printmark (Sep 25, 2011)

I'm always very cautious when it comes to speculative sales. I much prefer and always push for the "event" to purchase the product and let them the risk.

However, I have done events like you mentioned, and have made money on about half of them. All in All I'm about break even, so for me, its not really worth the time and effort anymore. A losing event really isn't much fun at all.

I've done this with Screen Printed shirts and also by taking our Brother GT541 along and try the print on demand. Even with the DTG Printer, you have to pre-print shirts because during busy spurts it's just not fast enough to keep up with sales. I'll never forget the first time I took the DTG (and a digital camera) thinking Hey.. we could even add their picture on the shirts.. what a nightmare of an idea that was!... People loved it but, way way to slow and most people that would have purchased a shirt ended up just leaving the line.

When possible, if the event has a history (like an annual event would have), always try to obtain the prior years sales numbers. It is no guarentee they will happen again, but it is a good starting point. Also try to work out some type of arrangement on overruns. Present you speculative quantity to the "event" and if they feel your numbers are close, then ask them to purchase the overrun at 50% of your sale price. Most of the time I found they will accept this.

Another good idea (when possible) is try not to put a date on the shirt, that way if it doesn't sell, they may be able to try and move them again next year.

The whole Idea is to leave the event with zero shirts left over, so don't worry to much about losing sales on those last few.. you can always take orders from those that missed out.

Printmark


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## Printmark (Sep 25, 2011)

Oops.. forgot to answer your question.

The answer is ... the lowest percentage they will accept. When I had to offer, I usually kept it in a dollar amount instead ofa percentage.. like $2.00 for every garment I sell. Easy to figure out at the end of the day.

Printmark


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## artswear (Jun 20, 2011)

Printmark, thanks for your input, all very good suggestions. I was worried that on paper it looked like a break even situation and your response indicates that may be a reality. I like your idea of having the event buy back the extras at the end of the day and that would make sense for a one time event. However, in this case I will be travellling to the next event (13 in all) put on by this same organization so would it make more sense for me to hang on to the extras to use at the next go round?

I am also concerned about the cost of travelling to the event, set up, and spending the entire weekend there. How do I factor that cost in as well? Do I charge a flat rate for that? And if I need help running the booth and have to pay someone to assist, that's also eating into my profit. If my client is getting 10-20% of sales and that amounts to $100-$200 as an example, why would they pay me for my time as well...they would be losing money at that point.

Hmm, this seems like a no win situation on my end, but I do know of at least one company that successfully operates this way. Unfortunately, they were unwilling to offer any advice.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

I know a few companies that travel from event to event, pay up to 40% of sales and still make a pile of money doing it.....Having said that, some events are better than others....And sometimes when you are starting out, it is hard to predict which is which......

I have done events in the past.....Some 1 off shows, others were a season series of games and others were weekend tournaments.....I have paid from 7% to 30%.....Sometimes I did very well and other times I lost money....

Is it possible to use transfers for some items?....I use them often and decorate on site to lessen the likelihood of left over stock.....Also, so you have enough margin to absorb some leftovers?....


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## artswear (Jun 20, 2011)

Royster13, Wow, 40% of sales and still make a profit? That's impressive, their markup must be quite high to be doing well with that arrangement and/or, they are doing high volume sales? That's inspiring and gives food for thought that it can be done. 

This will be a series of 10 events, every weekend in the spring, with fashion conscious females (mostly) attending. If this event is successful, it may go national and I could be the sole garment provider. The offer to get involved with this kind of came along prior to me starting the business, so I am approaching this a bit backwards, but I saw an opportunity and seized the moment. In the beginning I was not planning to bring my press and produce in real time, but if it seems like that would work out better as far as inventory/profit goes, then I will certainly give it a try.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

The 40% one is a well established national championship which runs over 2 weekends, has a over 75 years of history and over 200,000 in attendance....T-Shirts were 25.00+ and some of the polos were close to 100.00....Vendors bid every few years to continue selling at the event....Most events will not be like this.....More typical is setting up at a weekend sports tournament and giving 10% or 15% to the group hosting the event....

The event you are talking about will be hard to figure out....So it could payoff big or you could crash and burn....And as far as becoming the sole garment supplier, well I would not count on that..The more profitable it becomes, the more likely the organizers will bid it out for a higher and higher cut each year....And at some point they may even insist on a guarantee...So the vendor takes all the risk and the organizer makes most of the money....


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## ringocat22 (Jan 19, 2011)

I recently learned the hard way how tricky these situations can be. We were contacted by a local youth football league recently. They wanted us to print shirts for the league, sell them at the games, and then give them a percentage of the sales. Never having done this type of thing before, I saw it as a good opportunity to reinforce my company as a contributor to the community, get the word out to new people, and make a profit.

Mistakes I made:
1. *Not having a written contract with the league up front.* We were told at the beginning that we should be at the Saturday games for the first four weeks, and Monday games if we could be there. As it turned out, parents and coaches were told by the league that we would be at ALL games, leading to many misunderstandings. Make sure you have a written contract so that everyone knows the expectations up front.

2. *Believing the past sales numbers without documentation.* I was told by the league president that most parents would be buying shirts for their kids as well as themselves. I was not told that the kids are divided into teams based on their economic status, and that all the 'privileged' kids end up on one team. Result? We had several reprint orders on one team, and 3 boxes of pre-printed unsold shirts from the other four teams. Get the numbers first, and don't pre-print unless the organization pays for it.

*3. Using screen printing instead of heat transfers.* Instead of pre-printing shirts for each team, with the idea of selling them at the games, I should have taken orders at the games, and then filled those orders with heat transfers. Even though I would have needed to order a minimum of each team's design, it would have cut our time radically for the "one more shirt" orders. 

I made a bunch of poor decisions on this job, but I learned a lot. We still managed to break even by selling additional items like blankets and jackets that we could embroider with no minimums. I got a couple of promotional products orders out of the deal as well, and gained a few new customers by meeting parents with small businesses of their own. However, I will definitely have a much different plan the next time an opportunity like this comes around. 

Make sure you have a clear plan first. Good luck on this one, I hope it works out to be profitable for you.


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## artswear (Jun 20, 2011)

ringocat22, thank you so much for sharing your experience. I have given thought to having a contract and after reading your post I will look more seriously into it. The problem is this is a family friend who is just starting their business and so I offered to help out, so it makes it a bit awkward to be asking for contracts and the like. But business is business and so I have to protect myself. 

Since this is a new start up, there are no past numbers to work from, and no crystal ball either, lol. I am looking at this as an opportunity for growth as you indicated to be the case for you. My aim is to make new contacts, give out lots of business cards, show my work. If I can get a couple of jobs from it, then it may be worth the effort, and the investment can be put in the advertising cost column.

May I ask if you accepted credit card orders at the event? If so, was it necessary or could you have gotten by with cash sales?

Thanks again for sharing your experience.


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## ringocat22 (Jan 19, 2011)

I did accept credit cards. I use Square (https://squareup.com/) and my iPhone. It's super easy, works anywhere you can get a 3g signal, and the payments come from Square very quickly. Plus, customers think it's the COOLEST THING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD to just sign their name with a finger. 

Seriously, if you have an iPhone, get Square. They send you a free card reader, and I've actually gotten business from customers based entirely on the fact that I have this cool little gadget. I highly recommend it if you have a smart phone.


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