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Sawgrass Offers Sublimation Business Advice

January 29, 2018

Sawgrass, Charleston, S.C., offers advice for boosting sublimation business profits.

Jimmy Lamb, manager of education, Sawgrass, says success can be found in maximizing production efficiency and setting prices that compete with market demands.

“One of the simplest things a product decorator can do to boost profits is to take a more realistic and complete view at the total cost of running their business and then set profitable prices,” Lamb says. “Something I hear often is how dye-sublimation printing businesses want to save money on ink, but these same businesses rarely include overhead when calculating total production costs. The reality is that making production as fast and efficient as possible saves considerably more money than reducing the cost of ink.”

Other tips that sublimators can use to boost profit margins and make more money include:


1. Focus on the Right Costs: Many decorators focus only on ink, paper and substrate costs when determining how much is spent on production. This calculation leaves out all the overhead costs, including rent, power, insurance, phone, website, email, advertising, marketing collateral, chamber and professional association fees, etc. A more accurate calculation of production costs should include all the anticipated overhead costs for the year, including a desired paycheck for yourself. Overhead costs and your salary should be allocated proportionately to the price of your products to ensure profitability. If prices are too high after overhead and salary are factored in, then focus on reducing overhead costs or focus on increasing production so the cost allocation is smaller.

2. Cutting is Not the Answer: An expense of several hundred dollars may seem like a great place to cut costs. But the reality is that reducing ink costs makes a negligible impact on profit margins given the small amount of ink that actually is used to decorate an individual product.

3. Never Discount Quality: You get what you pay for in sublimation. Trying to cut ink costs results in reduced quality. This results in three-fold danger. First, you run the risk of damaging your printer when you choose inks that are not made specifically for it. Second, the chances of producing prints with banding, stray-ink spots and other unintended imaging are much greater, causing rework, wasted materials and lost time — all of which cost you money. Third, people will pay more for excellent images. When using lower-quality ink, you risk producing prints that don’t meet customer expectations and you can’t charge as much for products.

4. Save with Efficiency: Sublimation is a “create-print-press” process, with the printing and pressing only taking an average of two minutes. Artwork creation and file preparation take the most time within sublimation jobs. Estimate how many minutes it would take you to complete the create, print, press process to come up with a true cost of your product.

5. Forget the Old Formula: The rule of thumb for most retailers is to multiply cost by two or three to ensure profit. With sublimation, however, this formula can leave a lot of money on the table because the cost of production is often many more times less than the price the market will bear.

Learn more about maximizing sublimation profits with two free webinars about the true cost of sublimation printing, hosted by Lamb on Jan. 30. Click here to register. — J.L.


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