“When many sublimators look at the cost of making their products, they only take into account how much they spend on ink, paper, substrate and shipping. This approach impacts their businesses negatively, as overhead and labour are not factored into the equation – and this is where the bulk of the real cost of production lies,” explains Robin Kavanagh, global public relations manager for Sawgrass Ink.

She continues: “As a result, they may be setting prices too low to sustain their business and look back to cut costs in what they think is the bulk of their production expenses: ink, paper, substrates and shipping. This is a common mistake that small businesses and those new to the industry often make finding themselves in a continuous cycle of trying to keep their heads above water and stay in business.

“Alternatively, you should take a wholistic view at calculating the costs of running a sublimation business and set prices that cover all production costs to achieve a true profit on every product.”

Indeed, Sawgrass advise that, whether you have a home-based business or your own shop, your cost formula is the same: divide all the operational costs for a given period by the number of units produced during the same time period.

Kavanagh adds: “Then there are labour expenses. Even if you are a solo operation, you need to pay yourself. Your time and expertise are valuable, which is why it’s so important to establish an efficient system of sublimation production. The time spent on doing anything other than making sublimated products for sale is a missed opportunity for more revenue. Remember, it’s the product people are paying you for.

“Small and new businesses often fall in to the trap of simply looking at the percentage of profit on a single item based on the tangible costs, rather than forming an overall business strategy that looks at the big picture of all costs involved in doing business.”

She concludes: “How do you increase your efficiency? Focus on how much time is true production and how much is downtime. When the heat press is open, when you’re filling in cartridges and trying to figure out why your prints don’t look the way you want, you aren’t making money. Look at ways to trim the downtime so that print and press cycles are maximized.”

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