# What does it take to make a living in DTG printing?



## ROYAL SAVAGE (Feb 18, 2009)

I recently received a phone call from someone that that found me thru T-ShirtForum.com The guy told me that he was looking for information on the DTG market to see if he could make a living at DTG printing. We generally don't share a lot of personal information in forums but we might be able to paint a more accurate picture of what is required to make a living at direct-to-garment printing in general terms. Below are the types of questions that the caller was interested in. In typical T-ShirtForum.com style I’m sure everyone has something to share!

*Were you a t-shirt printer / embroiderer prior to purchasing your first DTG equipment?*


*What skills do you need to start a DTG printing business (ie. art, business, computer, printing)?*


*What is a typical investment for getting started?*


*How long did it take to become proficient at creating good quality prints on a consistent basis?*


*What skills did you develop along the way?*


*How many high quality images can be printed in one day?*


*How many DTG machines do you need to print enough shirts to make a full time living?*


*How many employees do you need to print enough DTG shirts to make a full time living?*


*How much space is required to set-up an efficient DTG operation including production, admin, shipping and receiving?*

*What is the best part of the DTG printing business?*

*What is the worst part of the DTG printing business? *

*What do you wish you had known before getting into the DTG industry?*


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

see if he could make a living at DTG printing.

I guess you first have to define what 'make a living' means in terms of income. 


*Were you a t-shirt printer / embroiderer prior to purchasing your first DTG equipment?*
NO. we spent a year outsourcing everything and then we did inkjet transfers and dyesub for a few months and then emb/dtg purchase all at the same time. 


*What skills do you need to start a DTG printing business (ie. art, business, computer, printing)?*
I would say art is probably the biggest followed by how to use the graphics programs like ai and corel. 


*What is a typical investment for getting started?*
that is not an easy question to answer. if you are serious plan on $100K or more. you can get the tabletops used from around 5K or build your own for less but if you want real production you should look at the bigger units or multiple tabletops


*How long did it take to become proficient at creating good quality prints on a consistent basis?*
not very long. you learn little tricks along the way but there is enough body of knowledge out there now you can pretty much learn everything you need in a weekend and the rest is really practice. 


*What skills did you develop along the way?*
how to cuss a lot  other than that, using the art programs and getting the art ready for print. 


*How many high quality images can be printed in one day?*
that depends on your machine and its volume along with the size of the graphic. 


*How many DTG machines do you need to print enough shirts to make a full time living?*
that depends on your machine and its volume along with the size of the graphic. 


*How many employees do you need to print enough DTG shirts to make a full time living?*
that depends on your machine and its volume along with the size of the graphic. 


*How much space is required to set-up an efficient DTG operation including production, admin, shipping and receiving?*
depending on your machine size and if you have a showroom, you can do it in as little as 300/sqft or as much as you need. 


*What is the best part of the DTG printing business?*
you can do a single print at a low cogs, full color prints without doing color separations, no cleanup really afterwards. 


*What is the worst part of the DTG printing business? *
single prints cost you a lot in time and are really not worth it unless you get other business from it. cost of ink is high, volume is low unless you have a really fast machine (translation: more money invested), the machines are temperamental and require a controlled environment and even then they are temperamental, high amount of labor in maintenance. 


*What do you wish you had known before getting into the DTG industry?*
how much i would make with apparel vinyl and plastisol transfers over dtg. if i had gone that route first i never would have done dtg.


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

I seriously doubt that even 25% of those who purchase a DTG make a 'living wage' from it.


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## ROYAL SAVAGE (Feb 18, 2009)

charles95405 said:


> I seriously doubt that even 25% of those who purchase a DTG make a 'living wage' from it.


Thats a scarey statement. I personally know that the circle I run in has people doing good numbers. High sixes and up to seven figures in billings.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

i am with charles. the product is oversold at the lower end and without volume, which is hard to do on a tabletop, you can never really do well with it.


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## TPrintDesigner (Sep 16, 2007)

ROYAL SAVAGE said:


> Thats a scarey statement. I personally know that the circle I run in has people doing good numbers. High sixes and up to seven figures in billings.


Forget turnover, what about the net profit? Are these guys just DTG or do they also run it alongside other decoration methods like screen and embroidery?

I've talked to many people with DTG printers and very few can hand on heart say it earns them a decent living. Most talk to me about the frustrations of the business.


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## ROYAL SAVAGE (Feb 18, 2009)

TPrintDesigner said:


> Forget turnover, what about the net profit? Are these guys just DTG or do they also run it alongside other decoration methods like screen and embroidery?
> 
> I've talked to many people with DTG printers and very few can hand on heart say it earns them a decent living. Most talk to me about the frustrations of the business.


Most of us making a living are using bigger machines. We're not doing the one off tee deal. THere is a whole other side to this industry.


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

if you have a heavy duty printer...brother 782 or kornit AND have a store front AND have a customer base AND you have other business...like embroidery, transfers/screen printing you can make money and I know three that are doing sort of well...but I know about 8 that are not. Like Mark says..the machines are oversold at shows..people buy after getting DTG printing...

I have long urged prospective buyers to figure the profit they expect to make per shirt..and see how many shirts that will take just to pay for the machine..never mind any profit..

I do have a DTG...bought a used refurb unit at decent price and I have a store front...but I sure don't expect it to make a living for me. I do heat press vinyl, signs, embroidery, inkjet/laser transfers and sublimation...


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## ROYAL SAVAGE (Feb 18, 2009)

charles95405 said:


> if you have a heavy duty printer...brother 782 or kornit AND have a store front AND have a customer base AND you have other business...like embroidery, transfers/screen printing you can make money and I know three that are doing sort of well...but I know about 8 that are not. Like Mark says..the machines are oversold at shows..people buy after getting DTG printing...
> 
> I have long urged prospective buyers to figure the profit they expect to make per shirt..and see how many shirts that will take just to pay for the machine..never mind any profit..
> 
> I do have a DTG...bought a used refurb unit at decent price and I have a store front...but I sure don't expect it to make a living for me. I do heat press vinyl, signs, embroidery, inkjet/laser transfers and sublimation...


You're tight Charles. If you have the other mediums for decorating in your shop you can use DTG as a great compliment to screen and embroidery. The table tops can't make big numbers as you said. I know the Brother 742 but never worked with one. I've only seen it at the shows. If you have the right customers you _can_ do thousands of units per week. That's why we use the heavier duty machines. The whole sales process is too confusing for most people. The industry is so new for most people.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

There are 2 DTG machines in my area sitting idle because they simply could not generate enough volume to make it worthwhile to keep them in service.....You have to have a "marketing machine" to keep one of these making money.....


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## brice (Mar 10, 2010)

What does it take to make a living in DTG? Screen printing or anything related to this business? 

A rich relative paying you an allowance.


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## Don-ColDesi (Oct 18, 2006)

There is some very good advice in the post preceding mine. Probably the most important is that you cannot expect a single direct to garment printer to feed the family - unless you have a really small family  or you have a marketing machine put in place. 

No one should expect to make a serious living using one machine of any kind (except for maybe an automatic rhinestone machine) in this industry. The majority of direct to garment printers sell fro $15-20,000, the average single head embroidery machine costs maybe $10-15,000. Most folks don't ecpect to make a full blown living with just a single head, so why would it be realistic to think you could make a living with just a single direct to garment printer?

Now, that being said - I just spent two days with a client who has two DTG Vipers, a pretreatment machine & five heat presses. We did two jobs that could have been knocked out by one operator in under a day of labor (about 5-6 hours total). The first job grossed a little over $350 and took about two hours on two Vipers (two sided, 36 options for fronts & 4 different (light) shirt colors, every back ws custom) and the second was 14 shirts on black one sided that grossed a bit over $160 (used one Viper) - shirts were provided by the customer for the first job and shirts were provided by the printer for the second. Net billable for an 8 hour day with just these two jobs - $510. Cost of ink, pretreatment and shirts used for the black shirt job - about $75. This leaves $435 to cover labor, shop supplies and utilities - call it $120 labor ($15/hr) and $20 for shop supplies & utilities. This nets out $290 profit on the machines in one day (with room in there do do at least one more moderate sized job). If the larger job would have been done with one printer and 3 heat press it would have added maybe 1-1.5 hours more to the process - so still under the 8 hour day for your employee. $290 per day times even two days a week = $580 a week in profit, cost of a similar equipment setup - roughly 27,000 (1 printer, pretreatment machine, extra platen system, 3 heat presses). This comes out to about $520 per week to cover the full investment in the first year. 

If you are the owner/operator you are paying yourself that $15 plus the profit which now translates into another $120 a day in income - making it $410 per day "profit". You now need to plug in your needed profit & desired ROI to determine how much printing you need to do daily/weekly/monthly to make it work. A business plan, real world projections and, as mentinoed in previous posts - the ability to work well with your graphics program - can make direct to garment printing very viable.

I understand that this model may not fit every application, however, it is a very real application - I witnessed it myself. Add to this scenario the fact that the same employee could be running an embroidery machine (up to a four head), rhinestone machine or vinyl cutter doing CADCut lettering at the same time with little or no impact on productivity and it makes even more sense.


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## TPrintDesigner (Sep 16, 2007)

Maybe going slightly of topic here but I've got DTG, multihead embroidery, Versacamm you name it and the biggest ROI out of everything has to be a $1000 Roland Camm1 and a heatpress. It paid for itself in four weeks and has been running trouble free for 5 years


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## ROYAL SAVAGE (Feb 18, 2009)

Don-ColDesi said:


> There is some very good advice in the post preceding mine. Probably the most important is that you cannot expect a single direct to garment printer to feed the family - unless you have a really small family  or you have a marketing machine put in place.
> 
> No one should expect to make a serious living using one machine of any kind (except for maybe an automatic rhinestone machine) in this industry. The majority of direct to garment printers sell fro $15-20,000, the average single head embroidery machine costs maybe $10-15,000. Most folks don't ecpect to make a full blown living with just a single head, so why would it be realistic to think you could make a living with just a single direct to garment printer?
> 
> ...


Sounds like some serious multi tasking going on


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## Don-ColDesi (Oct 18, 2006)

ROYAL SAVAGE said:


> Sounds like some serious multi tasking going on


Not really, the Viper can handle two standard size or four smaller shirts/images at a time. Once you start printing it can take 10-12 minutes for the shirts to emerge ready to be pressed. That down time can be used to operate a second machine (DTG, vinyl cutter, embroidery machine, etc.).


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## stevegamble (Apr 14, 2010)

I opened a storefront 2 years ago for sports goods.
ventured into GX24 and vinyl (was sucessfull) so bought sublimation printer and laser to add sports awards, BIG ROI quickly. so started sublimating white poly tee's... went pretty good except people get tired of me always pushing white for full colour prints.


Bought 1 head TFMX Tajima BEST ROI ever.

I make $400 gross profits on my slowest day with this thing.
I am doing 160 golf shirts today with left sleeve 2400 stitch logo. $38.00 each with wholesale of $20.80
17.20 x 160 = 2752.00 (- thread backing)and this will take me 2 days at 7 hours per day 10am to 5pm.
That is a good day with my one head.
On a slow day, I may do a few of this or that, but this machine runs everyday over the last 12 months.

I Can easily work 6 hours a day and make myself a 75,000.00 year salary off this machine.
without trying. (after all expenses).
I still outsource 50% of our orders because we are too busy to keep up with 2 people and 1 head.
Anyone who walks in here will see why in a instant.
The sports 100.00 jackets with free logo make me $55 every 20 minutes. $7 to add a 2 minute name to sleeve. 
I bought it with Zero knowledge of embroidery, and Zero advertising.

But when I started selling sports apparel, my embroidery bill quickly rose to $10k month and that is when I said I will spend 20K on my own machine for samples and low runs.
I did not expect to make a lot, but we are doing well with it.

I sharpen skates in here and people come in and see it and ask, hey can you do this or that for us..
and viola.

I though DTG Might be the same as we venture into this, and hoped for $400 ++ gross profit per day? easy.
and.
Our next quest from their is Versacamn or Mimaki print cut.
I just don't like how it feels on tee shirts in the samples.
Buy we are starting to outsource a lot of banners and decals and the quality is inconsistant and deadlines get missed.. so gotta buy our own equipment.

Looks like DTG is not a high ROI ?
But.. It may bring in more traffic to our storefront, and sell more embroidery.

We outsource large embroidery jobs due to difficulty finding skilled labour to run Multi heads.
We have someone run 1 head, plus customer service, plus engrave, plus.. hopefully DTG Print.


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

stevegamble said:


> Looks like DTG is not a high ROI ?


It depends on your business model. If you are trying to do volume and compete with screen printing, then no. If you are retailing your designs then it can be.

I know people who have gotten their ROI in 1 week, while others let their machines sit and never do anything with it. If you were profiting $20 per shirt x 20 shirts in the day, you've made your $400 gross. That being said, you need to have a good following and great shirts to consistently print the higher margins like this. If you have the traffic to your shop as well, you can bring in better margins like this with 1 and 2 offs.

I've said it before, but the biggest I see in this industry is pricing. Too many dtg'ers use a screen printing pricing structure.


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## stevegamble (Apr 14, 2010)

Well those 10 to 20 shirts per day is right up our alley.
But, customer go online to customInk.com and get the $13.68 shirt price for 25 shirts and, then print the sheet and walk in.. hey steve..
I like to buy and support local so can you match this price ?
..
Yea, but we offer full digital colour and free delivery..
They just want a yes or no.. So I say yes.. small profit better than no profit.
Plus, I get, hey where do you print your shirt orders ?
I'd rather they not say online.. but rather, go see russell pro shop.

I see higher margins (at this time) accepted for golf shirts, team jackets, vs tee shirts in retail.
They'll let us make $40 a jacket profit at 15 jackets per day.
But won't give up $10 profit for shirt printing to us.

DTG / Pretreat / Dryer / = larger investment than any of my other service technologies.
and.. looks like it would require the most amount of care.
But..
DTG.. is super cool, and the Volume (If right machine) could be higher per day than apparel(embroidery).

Not engraving though as we do a hundred per hour at $5 per plate engraved. High ROI , but Borrrring work.

I want to buy DTG.
I want to Love my job. (DTG.?)
I Love cool Tee shirts.

I don't want to work for $15/hr printing.. or love will be lost.


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## ROYAL SAVAGE (Feb 18, 2009)

stevegamble said:


> Well those 10 to 20 shirts per day is right up our alley.
> But, customer go online to customInk.com and get the $13.68 shirt price for 25 shirts and, then print the sheet and walk in.. hey steve..
> I like to buy and support local so can you match this price ?
> .


Sadly there is very little loyalty in this industry so the guy that says he likes to buy local and comes in with an out of town price sheet is really full of crap. If he wanted to buy local he'd just go to the local guy and place an order not take cash out of the local guys pocket. If he buys 10 shirts and pays $2.00 bucks more I guess he can't go to Burger King. Give it away you can't get it back!

Cheap people are no fun - I just told a customer RIGHT NOW LIVE the following " 
No deals on art. Those pieces need to be done in Photoshop and illustrator if you want them done right. Actually the cost is cheap at $100.00 ea . Professional services are not something we cut deals on. I tried doing this with my eye doctor today - he declined my request!


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

I've had people give me online prices. I always told them give me a valid quote with shipping and set up fees. 9 out of 10 times, their pricing was higher or about where I was.

You can't compete with online pricing as it stands, but oftentimes, the hidden fees add up.


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## ROYAL SAVAGE (Feb 18, 2009)

JeridHill said:


> I've had people give me online prices. I always told them give me a valid quote with shipping and set up fees. 9 out of 10 times, their pricing was higher or about where I was.
> 
> You can't compete with online pricing as it stands, but oftentimes, the hidden fees add up.


Hey Jerrid
I am online pricing! I just look at it like this - my printing is good - most isn't so why compete against crap. I tell people they want it cheap they should do it themselves and if they want a good machine for $16,000.00 to call you guys and if they want real heavyweight gear they should call Kornit and spend $100K plus. I even give them the phone numbers. Shuts them up fast. TIP - don't waste time with these folks - NEXT!


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

ROYAL SAVAGE said:


> Hey Jerrid
> I am online pricing! I just look at it like this - my printing is good - most isn't so why compete against crap. I tell people they want it cheap they should do it themselves and if they want a good machine for $16,000.00 to call you guys and if they want real heavyweight gear they should call Kornit and spend $100K plus. I even give them the phone numbers. Shuts them up fast. TIP - don't waste time with these folks - NEXT!


I agree, I don't haggle price. I should clarify that the pricing I was talking about was in relation to screen printing, but the concept is the same. When you get down to the various pricing out there, what you see is not always what you get.


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## carlos gaitan (May 4, 2012)

hi u could make good money just make sure u buy your machine from a good compeny what ever u do do not buy from equipment zone u will regret it


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## stevegamble (Apr 14, 2010)

I think it is just when you start in the printing biz, you want to accept work to keep the white ink lines clean, wink,.. Idle machine is more problems than just revenue, it is the fear of a machine with no print work.

We get a fair amount of walk ins, but yes they do want cheap.
I have to stick with fair pricing.. and test the market.

I do not have an online store, but may add a on line shirt decorating builder to my russell pro hockey shop com and see if that gets business, google shows 160,000 hits per month.
but with no shopping carts set up yet as we are new and working on finding help with that.

I guess as a retailer you need confidence in your product and it's value.


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## Don-ColDesi (Oct 18, 2006)

I have been selling equipment, supplies, software & training to this industry for nearly 22 years and one of the most valuable lessons I have learned is about folks who only worry about price. They tend to be the most difficult to please after the sale as well. 

My guess is that folks who consistently try to beat other folks up on price do so because they do not value the service provided by the other party. If the don't value your service/time before the sale why would they do so afterwards. 

Take Royal Savage's advice and walk away from these clients. If you discount to earn their business you are failing to place value on your time - if you do this consistently your customers will follow suit and also fail to value your time. If you are not occassionaly losing business because your prices are too high - your prices are too low!


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## VTG (Dec 16, 2010)

Don-ColDesi said:


> My guess is that folks who consistently try to beat other folks up on price do so because they do not value the service provided by the other party. If the don't value your service/time before the sale why would they do so afterwards.
> 
> Take Royal Savage's advice and walk away from these clients. If you discount to earn their business you are failing to place value on your time - if you do this consistently your customers will follow suit and also fail to value your time. If you are not occasionally losing business because your prices are too high - your prices are too low!


Agree 100% !!


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## ROYAL SAVAGE (Feb 18, 2009)

Don-ColDesi said:


> I have been selling equipment, supplies, software & training to this industry for nearly 22 years and one of the most valuable lessons I have learned is about folks who only worry about price. They tend to be the most difficult to please after the sale as well.
> 
> My guess is that folks who consistently try to beat other folks up on price do so because they do not value the service provided by the other party. If the don't value your service/time before the sale why would they do so afterwards.
> 
> Take Royal Savage's advice and walk away from these clients. If you discount to earn their business you are failing to place value on your time - if you do this consistently your customers will follow suit and also fail to value your time. If you are not occassionaly losing business because your prices are too high - your prices are too low!


Hi Don
You forgot to add "and your not making the profit you should"


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## stevegamble (Apr 14, 2010)

Thank you for this advice,

When we started 2 years ago I listened to everyone.. not knowing anything.
After a year we learned a lot, had some success and so listened to very few.
After 2 years.. I have learned, to listen to people (like yourself)who have many years in the biz and have a wealth of knowledge..

One thing for us is because we supply to a few thousand kids in the local sports association, it is all non profit organizations.
The buyers are in a volunteer position, commissioned to make purchases with funds from the parents registration money and gov't grants.
So.. they come out a hero finding best price.
but.. we are also in a town (not big city) so their only a couple sports supplier to choose from.
None of which (except us) have in house embroidery or (soon) to be DTG.
we do both have a heat press with transfers and a vinyl cutter.
so..
I want to be competitive by offering More services in house... without being awarded the reputation for being the expensive place to shop.
A fine line, and I have to be a good salesperson in explaining the difference.
Hang samples on the wall of
"(our competitors 1-2 colour screen print at $12-$14)" Team set of 20)
"(our DTG full graphics print at $16-$18)" team set of 20)
(rough numbers..)

and let that ride..


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