Embroiders! How much to you charge?
 

A lady at our church asked me to machine embroider 14 names on fabric tags, aprox. 2.5" by 4.5" She has the fabric and ribbon. I will be doing the embroidery and making the 14 tags. They are for her daughter and dance group's gym bag. The bags are all alike so need name tags on them. I have never charged but I do embroider lot of names on things for my grandchildren and my labels for all of my quilts. I have a Brother Innovis sewing/embroidery machine so it is not a professional one. I know I can do this quite easily but what would one charge?

Thank you!!!

call and embroidery store and ask them how much they charge then go a little below that price. There's a place around here that charges a minimum of $14 so I charged $12 to do monogramming

What is the reasoning for charging less than the "embroidery store"? Just because you have a Brother Inovis does not mean you are not professional. Your time, equipment, thread and stabilizer cost the same or more the the "professional". As a licensed business, they would get those items at a much lower price as opposed to what we "regular" people pay.
Figure out what your thread, stabilizer, and other supplies cost. Add a dollar amount for your time---do not short change yourself---and feel confident in your price. Sometimes those "do-it-for-a-discount-because-so-and-so-asked-for-a-discount-because-whatever-excuse-they-think-of". Turns into a big pain in the butt and you end up spending money instead of making money.

Once you start charging for services, people who do NOT quilt will want everything exactly perfect.

I used to be a professional embroider (caskets). we had a flat rate, no matter the amt of stitches.
15 yrs ago, we used to charge by the stitch count. .01/per stitch. + set up fees.

I see no reason to charge less than a "professional" shop either. Let them shop it. It could turn into a headache.

One of the reasons a "professional" shop needs to charge more is because they are working in a building other than their own house and need overhead allowances. An embroiderer working from their own house would have less overhead because because part of the building is being used as living space.

I used to work for a Viking Dealer and we charged $15.00 to embroider names on Christmas stockings

Isn't the standard $1.00 per thousand stitches? That should cover stabilizer & thread. Extra charges for digitizing something special like logo. Sometimes you do have to use common sense in pricing, tho. I recently did an antique car on the back of son's denim jacket....it was over 48,000 stitches. I don't think anyone would want to pay $48.00 for that! Many designs can be 100.000 plus stitches. Hmmm..no embroidery I can think of would be worth 100 thousand dollars! So common sense comes into play here

100,000 stitches @ $.01 per stitch comes to $1,000........

Your machine is top of the line first of all. Secondly, the professionals will tell you (most of them) the only reason to have a multi needle one is for when you are doing lots of emborider, like for a business. Don't let your machine sell you short. The main thing is, you have a service and someone who can't do this service needs your work. doesn't matter the machine as long as you can do it. I agree to call around and I also see why the one person charges a little less, because the business is paying taxes, etc on what she makes. Most of us who do small jobs don't. If nothing else you might find some embroidery stores and call them and ask if anyone there embroiders for customers and if so, find out what their fee it. Remember its your time, your thread, which can cost more than the fabric plus you have to set it up and do the stabilizer, etc, it can add up there. Don't sell your self short. I'd do one, show it to the customer and make sure that's what she wants before doing all of them. Then make sure to get a deposit for a portion just incase she changes her mind, tell her no refunds for changing her mind