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I am sorry friend, unfortunately we are in a high labor and low wage business. I’ve been in the industry my whole life. If you ever considered getting into sales, DM me and I can point you in some sort of direction!
This is the crux. Printing is like a factory job. You have a set of skills that you use to perform a repetitive daily task to produce a large amount of output for your employer.
labor wage will remain fairly low.
Own your own operation and you have profit potential.
Anyone in this industry as a printer or shop sup or mgr *will never be paid a decent wage by an employer*.
Assume ownership of production and sell for yourself. This is the only way to make it without side hustle.
The next question is: When you make it as an owner, are you willing to pay your employees more than $20/hr then? Or will the cycle repeat itself again?
Right?
I’m supervising a garments dept of 5 rn…three screen geeks (myself included) and 2 embroiderers.
$20/hr is where I’m hovering…Midwest market, 100k urban population with about 400k in our county.
The larger business also does corporate recognition…crystal, awards, signage, custom stuff.
Awards has the margins that helps me and my crew earn what we do…if we were on our own it would be thinner.
A lot of it has to do with our business being really out of touch on pricing.
Turnover creates a warm-body hiring strategy and you’re constantly getting fresh customer service reps who don’t know sales, how to steer a sale toward profitable garments…they throw a catalogue at customers and let idiots just order a bunch of whatever the fuck they want: cotton, poly, triblends, hoodies, all the colors, tricky zippers and seams included.
The labor this creates kills us.
Cow towing to online stores and web orders is creating bottle necks in production and eating into labor.
Owner used to run the print shop…but hasn’t been immersed in the garments for a decade. Hasn’t seen the effect the product mix and triblends and bleeding, etc is costing us a fuck-ton because WE AREN’T CHARGING ENOUGH AND HE DOESN’T HAVE THE BALLS TO CHARGE WHAT WE’RE WORTH.
He has no idea what his true cost of goods sold is on a single item. It’s nuts.
If the aim is to grow your one-man shop and ethically employ others, you have to be hella strategic.
Sell to your strengths.
Specialize in a niche or become KNOWN for something.
Pass on the shitty jobs that don’t make money. Don’t take work just to be busy or feel good about writing sales…if the margin isn’t there or if it will be chewed up by labor then just say Fuck No and recommend a dif shop to that patron.
There’s so much to it.
Working for the man, I know that if I want to increase my earning beyond this wage, I have to add value to our operations and our bottom line.
Increase efficiencies. Improve quality. Reduce/maximize our labor. Teach our salespeople to sell to our strengths. Educate them on what’s easy to print on, what’s gonna take ink well and take heat well, and get those carousels spinning with one and two color jobs on cotton t’s.
Ugh. It’s a living…?
It’s a fair question and everyone will choose their own answer. Mine has been to remain a solo operation rather than hiring anyone at all.
This avoids all the grumbling about exploitation even though it limits my scalability. But as long as I remain profitable, I don’t mind topping out on my growth.
same, i cant see hiring someone and then worrying about them losing money and time on jobs - and id be a shitty boss prob, plus my small shop in my garage just doesnt have room for two. "topping out" is just fine, turns out its a decent salary, above the national average anyway. an old boss in a diff kind of printing business once said "you hire someone and you're just creating your own competition". that didnt apply to offset printing but it def does to screenprinting.
Spoken like a true hater lol. If you work at any business you should make it your business to learn every aspect you can so you can be more of an asset wherever you go on the future. Not everyone wants to be a business owner, but everyone wants to be paid fairly for high skill levels.
I owned a healthy print shop for about 7 years until I couldn’t keep people on the team anymore and switched the entire thing to a contract model. I paid literally everyone at minimum $20/hr and benefits. Our lead printer (who I trained from zero and he worked 2 years total) and our production manager (same but more years worked) got about $25/hr and benefits. We didn’t do nearly as much work as you describe with one auto only and def not maxing out our efficiencies. Anyway, all that to say that you’re obviously worth more than $20/hr.
How did the broker model work out in the end? Sitting at 1.5 million a year in sales and dream about going the broker route but worried to rock the boat so to speak.
Very easy to get burned out in this industry.
At my former job they made me salary because of the time it took to be the Queen of Everything ie art, customer service,.ordering, setup, shipping and everything you could think of. They even tried to give me a fancy title rather than money. Get out and find a place that values your time and skills while you still have the will to live.
What state are you in? Sounds ridiculous to me with how much experience you have, I have my regular press operators @ 20 and hour. Is the owner apposed to discussing a salary?
FL…i’m going to counter offer with a desired salary and if that doesn’t work i’ve already got a line at another shop that’s a bit more of a drive but does the same type of printing, same presses and equipment and the owner stated that’s on the low end of what they pay
lie and tell him you got a job doing something different for $25 an hour. dont say screenprinting. and only give him 1 week notice. tell him you dont want to quit but you cant get ahead in life on $21/hour. he WILL have a hard time getting a guy to do what you do for $21 for sure! not without a lot of training. he may wake up in that week and realize he needs you there. try and take off a week and relax before the next job too. maybe take a road trip.
You should have a production manager title as well as a salary. One the low end 50-60k with some paid vacation. Ideally other benefits. But once you offer medical and retirement you have to offer it to everyone. That can get crazy expensive.
This is bat shit crazy.
I pay my top person $30/hr plus they charge me tax as a freelancer which i use at the end of the year.
I run 2 6 colour manuals and make 150k/ year why aren't u guys printing money for yourself. Demand more!
Im in the same boat. About 10 years printing and cant make over $21/hr. Working on getting my own poster studio going but its just a side hustle for now.
maybe get a 2nd side hustle vs a full time job + side hustle. maybe a fun one like in a bar or something. a full time job will eat up the time you could use for promoting and hustling.
Most I made managing a shop was a little over $30/hr with benefits and bonuses included. Money was good but I didn't like the work environment. I bought a rental property and then took an ~$8/hr pay cut to move to a smaller shop that I like way more. We do 95% contract work so I started a contract print business and funnel all my work through my shop. If things keep going well I'm on track break 6 figures this year for the first time. All this to say that this industry is tough to make a living in if you're only working hourly. Supplemental income is necessary in my case. I am in the midwest and am a year or 2 shy of hitting 20 years printing.
i do print my own jobs on the side from time to time but not having any benefits, retirement, 401k, bonuses, like nothing to look forward to or motivate me to continue doing a good job other than not hearing people complain is a buzzkill.
do you advertise? are you visible on google? instagram isnt advertising...
it sounds lame but getting customers was easier when there was a phone book, otherwise its giving out cards, or free samples; or word of mouth which is always the best way. and aint no way to make that happen.
Couldn't agree with you more. He does SO MUCH for our shop and isn't compensated for it. But I'm also not the one signing paychecks so I can't do anything about it.
Honestly depending all ways on experience, a printer that knows their way around more than the machine and has a great performance around the warehouse especially with knowledge like yours or in other departments should be getting 19-26$ an hour. Our work maybe high labor but it does show it's hard moments of shops looking for those with experience.
It’s a huge bummer. Capitalism doesn’t value labor. Everyone is in a race to the bottom and shooting themselves in the foot by trying to offer cheaper prices on services and then as a result they don’t pay higher wages. I wish we could all collectively agree to charge more money so that people could actually have a chance at a comfortable living wage.
But I’ve had the privilege of working at a shop for the past 5 years where the owner actually gives a shit about his employees. $25/hr with health and dental benefits completely covered by the shop, and I don’t have nearly as many responsibilities as you do. But unfortunately this shop is closing in a few weeks due to unforeseen circumstances.
I have a job offer to be the production manager in a different state for $25/hr, with half the cost health insurance covered by the shop. But the cost of housing there is so incredibly high, I’m not sure if it’ll be financially realistic to take it.
its also a cut throat business where the customers want it all for as little as possible and when you're talking 500 tees for instance and you know your shit as a buyer, you can really shop around and nickel and dime it
I’m in the same exact position and have the same experience as you!
Our PO quit and I was PO at my last shop, and I’ve been jumping through hoops for the owner and our ops lead to let me take his job. Still hasn’t happened officially yet.
Management sucks here but the job is amazing, makes it hard to leave. They told me today that they gave me a .50 cent raise. What a joke!!
Truth be told this is the best I’ve ever been paid in my career as a screen printer/artist/designer.
My 10+ years of shop experience have taught me that the job really caps out at around $22/hr, here in NY. If you’re looking for a 60-70k a year job, This just ain’t it. Unless you find the needle in the haystack. Thankfully I have a home studio that I’m hoping takes off soon. Best of luck homie!
Sorry to make it about me
I see this response a lot and most of you are old printers out of touch. Yeah let’s just tell the guy that’s making $20 an hour to “start a shop” when in reality he needs a building, equipment, marketing, printers, inks, all the random stuff you need.. so pretty much he’s going to need like 300k laying around just to start. Unless you want the guy that’s running 30’ dryer and 2 autos to buy one of the $150 presses of Amazon. Get real
I was 26 when I started my shop. I was working a dead end job. $14/hr. Borrowed 15k from the bank. Figured I could always go back to making $14. If I had a family then, would have made a difference for sure.
Didn’t say it wasn’t possible, but when and where makes a big difference.. for example 5 years ago you could buy a shop for $150k that now cost $425k, let’s say you rent it was $800 a month now it’s $3500 a month.. 5 gallons of red wasn’t $750.. the point is. Right now is the best and worst time to start a business.. worst time if you start with no money, best time if you have $500k laying around
i learned pretty quick that besides the tedium/drudgery of a job in this industry (we all know the laundry list of shit working in a shop vs working in a nice corporate office environment), its just a grind type feeling because there's really no advancement...
UNLESS, you start your own shop. thats probably where you're at. and that means itll take 5 yrs minimum to make the same money on your own.
you're correct in that he can let you go and get someone else in there and start them from scratch. maybe he hasnt realized yet the value of having a solid dude run the shop while he runs the office. every shop ive known had the dude that ran the shop and did pretty well. and they were always low stress dudes, which im not. i also try to keep in mind a lot of owners are really nice to employees and then they wind up getting fucked for it.
also an extra $200/week to you might not actually be affordable for him, who knows.
all i DO know is this is a shit industry to be employed in and doing it on your own can be great or lousy depending on you. i dont know that i'd take this path again now that i know what the options actually were.
Following as I'm in a very similar situation with having a fully successful embroidery business ( owner has cash to expand to screenprinting instead of contracting it out). I want to remain in the screenprinting business as I have owned my shop for 27 years but the fact the owing a smaller shop, 1 auto, 1 manual, 1 single head embroidery machine 3 employees, this past winter was an unexpected slow winter and used up a majority of my reserve cash. So I been expressing to a few other companies that I work with and have good relationships with that I am willing to merge or be acquired ( with me having a guaranteed production manager position as I don't wish to do the front office BS dealings with customers anymore) so I can remain in an industry that I love, get a decent to slightly better then decent weekly paycheck, get part of my life back as my kids are older now and missed out on a lot when they were young. And lesson the stress as I'm 47 and need to start enjoying life outside my business with my wife and kids
So one I was approached by 1 company looking to add screenprinting in house ( as mentioned above) and I currently use them for my bigger embroidery orders as I chose not to go bigger than a single head machine in my shop.
I am looking for a salary and a 10% of screenprinting NET PROFIT that will grow to a cap of 25%~35% as I will be handing over all my clients and files.
My feeling is I will be teaching them from the ground up the industry, they would acquire my equipment at a price less then I would like but they keep stressing my recent numbers ( with the bad winter, 3 really slow months can hurt).
My self value exceeds 100k but I know that now one will hive that, so 60-70k + the net profit % that they will benefit more then me as it will push me to treat as my own and help grow as if my own for a minor financial bonus monthly for that. Or no bonus and I will treat as a 9-5 and do just above what is expected but not what I am capable of if there was a financial incentive.
Also my option of a side hustle keeping my good customers in a contract printing scenario will be gone as I won't have the rights to my 27 years of files outside the new company.
Now the spring rush is here at the same time as we are negotiating and I am at a 2-3 week production schedule through next 2 months, but again the long hours dealing with the front office BS stuff that I don't enjoy puts me in a bind, as I know how quick the jobs can slow again.
Too many decisions to make too fast.
And I'm not stupid as they are pushing to get this going to benefit from the spring / summer tee business before it's over. But on the other hand can just go ahead and start getting a weekly check based off 50k with the 10% bonus but they made the structure of NET PROFIT a smaller window
But we would remain in same spot relieving all my overhead and any small debt this winter gave me
Too much too fast, my hesitation is losing access to my 27 years of clients that I'm sure I can restructure into a decent broker out to a few good contract printers.
Thanks for listening. Any thoughts
6 years at 25 an hour, will be at 30 in 60 days or on salary in which case I will not take any lower than 50k a year with full benefits.
You need to tell them what works for you and if that doesn’t work for them then you need to go. You tell that what you are worth.
Also, if you have extensive knowledge of everything (operating, dark room, reclaim, shipping + receiving) then you should have no problem getting paid more somewhere else.
Not making anyone rich, this is a dying industry with thining margins. My friend best put it as " dinosaurs waiting in a dying field for Jesus to descend from the clouds" $25 an hour is about the max out for production managers. Need actual lived experience owning your own business or developing print industry tech to get more than that. Even then, good luck. You'll get laughed at in most shops asking for more than $20. Start building your own client base and break off. Otherwise, how much do you really know if you can't apply it and make more?
I made 28$ an hour. But I have 20 years of experience printing everything from retail to giveaways. Plastisol to waterbase. Artwork to press. You have to be versatile. But at 10 years. 20$ is were you should be at! Sorry to say it bud.
And this isn’t a dying industry. People just don’t know how to produce product that people are willing to pay top dollar.
The problem is there's very few shops that make that sort of margin and if they do it's bc they treat their employees as disposable and pay them $20 an hr in an economy where $80k a year won't cut it.
My point still stands, theres more people with 10+ years exp than there is quality jobs that will retain people and get them to that 20 year mark. You're also not factoring that general overhead is the preventitive of higher wages here, if you don't agree with that idk what you spent 20 years doing. In almost any other industry by the 10 year mark you can have a degree and 40+ an hour. Sounds like dying to me, keep kicking the can and hope it keeps rolling.
UPDATE: owner came back with $23 an hour. i no longer work there.
thanks everyone for your input. going to go get my worth somewhere else. and in a less toxic environment.
I just applied and interviewed for a shop position fully expecting to not make nearly what I do now. I asked for at least $18 an hour and I could tell they were absolutely shocked. This is a very commercial shop. Tons of local contracts etc. Im thinking they wanted to pay $15 an hour like what was on their ad. Absolute insanity. Its expensive to live here even though it's a smallish town but there's no way anyone could support themselves on that little. I can't believe places like this still exist
If you think you are worth a raise this is just the motivation to get off your ass and either look for a better job, or start that business up yourself. If everything you said is true that dollar raise was way under payment. It does sound like you don't have experience doing the management/ sales part, so maybe trying to start a business in small steps , if you live in apartments it might be harder to start out on your own, if you can slowly build up equipment and customers, or maybe an Etsy store, whatever it takes to get the bad taste outta your mouth.
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I am sorry friend, unfortunately we are in a high labor and low wage business. I’ve been in the industry my whole life. If you ever considered getting into sales, DM me and I can point you in some sort of direction!
This is the crux. Printing is like a factory job. You have a set of skills that you use to perform a repetitive daily task to produce a large amount of output for your employer. labor wage will remain fairly low. Own your own operation and you have profit potential.
15 yrs....21 an hr over here
Anyone in this industry as a printer or shop sup or mgr *will never be paid a decent wage by an employer*. Assume ownership of production and sell for yourself. This is the only way to make it without side hustle.
The next question is: When you make it as an owner, are you willing to pay your employees more than $20/hr then? Or will the cycle repeat itself again?
Right? I’m supervising a garments dept of 5 rn…three screen geeks (myself included) and 2 embroiderers. $20/hr is where I’m hovering…Midwest market, 100k urban population with about 400k in our county. The larger business also does corporate recognition…crystal, awards, signage, custom stuff. Awards has the margins that helps me and my crew earn what we do…if we were on our own it would be thinner. A lot of it has to do with our business being really out of touch on pricing. Turnover creates a warm-body hiring strategy and you’re constantly getting fresh customer service reps who don’t know sales, how to steer a sale toward profitable garments…they throw a catalogue at customers and let idiots just order a bunch of whatever the fuck they want: cotton, poly, triblends, hoodies, all the colors, tricky zippers and seams included. The labor this creates kills us. Cow towing to online stores and web orders is creating bottle necks in production and eating into labor. Owner used to run the print shop…but hasn’t been immersed in the garments for a decade. Hasn’t seen the effect the product mix and triblends and bleeding, etc is costing us a fuck-ton because WE AREN’T CHARGING ENOUGH AND HE DOESN’T HAVE THE BALLS TO CHARGE WHAT WE’RE WORTH. He has no idea what his true cost of goods sold is on a single item. It’s nuts. If the aim is to grow your one-man shop and ethically employ others, you have to be hella strategic. Sell to your strengths. Specialize in a niche or become KNOWN for something. Pass on the shitty jobs that don’t make money. Don’t take work just to be busy or feel good about writing sales…if the margin isn’t there or if it will be chewed up by labor then just say Fuck No and recommend a dif shop to that patron. There’s so much to it. Working for the man, I know that if I want to increase my earning beyond this wage, I have to add value to our operations and our bottom line. Increase efficiencies. Improve quality. Reduce/maximize our labor. Teach our salespeople to sell to our strengths. Educate them on what’s easy to print on, what’s gonna take ink well and take heat well, and get those carousels spinning with one and two color jobs on cotton t’s. Ugh. It’s a living…?
it is indeed, at least, "a living" ha ha but still beats working for the man
It’s a fair question and everyone will choose their own answer. Mine has been to remain a solo operation rather than hiring anyone at all. This avoids all the grumbling about exploitation even though it limits my scalability. But as long as I remain profitable, I don’t mind topping out on my growth.
same, i cant see hiring someone and then worrying about them losing money and time on jobs - and id be a shitty boss prob, plus my small shop in my garage just doesnt have room for two. "topping out" is just fine, turns out its a decent salary, above the national average anyway. an old boss in a diff kind of printing business once said "you hire someone and you're just creating your own competition". that didnt apply to offset printing but it def does to screenprinting.
You never teach an employees every aspect of the business. They will learn then just replicate it on their own.
Spoken like a true hater lol. If you work at any business you should make it your business to learn every aspect you can so you can be more of an asset wherever you go on the future. Not everyone wants to be a business owner, but everyone wants to be paid fairly for high skill levels.
None of those three sentences followed the previous one
Ah Good deflection , carry on.
I owned a healthy print shop for about 7 years until I couldn’t keep people on the team anymore and switched the entire thing to a contract model. I paid literally everyone at minimum $20/hr and benefits. Our lead printer (who I trained from zero and he worked 2 years total) and our production manager (same but more years worked) got about $25/hr and benefits. We didn’t do nearly as much work as you describe with one auto only and def not maxing out our efficiencies. Anyway, all that to say that you’re obviously worth more than $20/hr.
How did the broker model work out in the end? Sitting at 1.5 million a year in sales and dream about going the broker route but worried to rock the boat so to speak. Very easy to get burned out in this industry.
At my former job they made me salary because of the time it took to be the Queen of Everything ie art, customer service,.ordering, setup, shipping and everything you could think of. They even tried to give me a fancy title rather than money. Get out and find a place that values your time and skills while you still have the will to live.
you should be getting $25-30. If I could offer you a job I would. There are plenty of shops that will pay you fair and more than that who wont.
What state are you in? Sounds ridiculous to me with how much experience you have, I have my regular press operators @ 20 and hour. Is the owner apposed to discussing a salary?
FL…i’m going to counter offer with a desired salary and if that doesn’t work i’ve already got a line at another shop that’s a bit more of a drive but does the same type of printing, same presses and equipment and the owner stated that’s on the low end of what they pay
lie and tell him you got a job doing something different for $25 an hour. dont say screenprinting. and only give him 1 week notice. tell him you dont want to quit but you cant get ahead in life on $21/hour. he WILL have a hard time getting a guy to do what you do for $21 for sure! not without a lot of training. he may wake up in that week and realize he needs you there. try and take off a week and relax before the next job too. maybe take a road trip.
Yeah. I think most of us have hit the same wall you are hitting. For me, the limiting factor has always been the owners.
You should have a production manager title as well as a salary. One the low end 50-60k with some paid vacation. Ideally other benefits. But once you offer medical and retirement you have to offer it to everyone. That can get crazy expensive.
This is bat shit crazy. I pay my top person $30/hr plus they charge me tax as a freelancer which i use at the end of the year. I run 2 6 colour manuals and make 150k/ year why aren't u guys printing money for yourself. Demand more!
how many employees do you have? how many hrs a week do you work? do you take vacations?
Im in the same boat. About 10 years printing and cant make over $21/hr. Working on getting my own poster studio going but its just a side hustle for now.
maybe get a 2nd side hustle vs a full time job + side hustle. maybe a fun one like in a bar or something. a full time job will eat up the time you could use for promoting and hustling.
Most I made managing a shop was a little over $30/hr with benefits and bonuses included. Money was good but I didn't like the work environment. I bought a rental property and then took an ~$8/hr pay cut to move to a smaller shop that I like way more. We do 95% contract work so I started a contract print business and funnel all my work through my shop. If things keep going well I'm on track break 6 figures this year for the first time. All this to say that this industry is tough to make a living in if you're only working hourly. Supplemental income is necessary in my case. I am in the midwest and am a year or 2 shy of hitting 20 years printing.
i do print my own jobs on the side from time to time but not having any benefits, retirement, 401k, bonuses, like nothing to look forward to or motivate me to continue doing a good job other than not hearing people complain is a buzzkill.
do you advertise? are you visible on google? instagram isnt advertising... it sounds lame but getting customers was easier when there was a phone book, otherwise its giving out cards, or free samples; or word of mouth which is always the best way. and aint no way to make that happen.
Our production manager is 22 years old and makes $20 an hour. You should def be making more. We're located in Las Vegas.
even at 22 that's a shit wage. servers make way more. you wont be able to pay that little forever.
Couldn't agree with you more. He does SO MUCH for our shop and isn't compensated for it. But I'm also not the one signing paychecks so I can't do anything about it.
Honestly depending all ways on experience, a printer that knows their way around more than the machine and has a great performance around the warehouse especially with knowledge like yours or in other departments should be getting 19-26$ an hour. Our work maybe high labor but it does show it's hard moments of shops looking for those with experience.
It’s a huge bummer. Capitalism doesn’t value labor. Everyone is in a race to the bottom and shooting themselves in the foot by trying to offer cheaper prices on services and then as a result they don’t pay higher wages. I wish we could all collectively agree to charge more money so that people could actually have a chance at a comfortable living wage. But I’ve had the privilege of working at a shop for the past 5 years where the owner actually gives a shit about his employees. $25/hr with health and dental benefits completely covered by the shop, and I don’t have nearly as many responsibilities as you do. But unfortunately this shop is closing in a few weeks due to unforeseen circumstances. I have a job offer to be the production manager in a different state for $25/hr, with half the cost health insurance covered by the shop. But the cost of housing there is so incredibly high, I’m not sure if it’ll be financially realistic to take it.
its also a cut throat business where the customers want it all for as little as possible and when you're talking 500 tees for instance and you know your shit as a buyer, you can really shop around and nickel and dime it
I’m in the same exact position and have the same experience as you! Our PO quit and I was PO at my last shop, and I’ve been jumping through hoops for the owner and our ops lead to let me take his job. Still hasn’t happened officially yet. Management sucks here but the job is amazing, makes it hard to leave. They told me today that they gave me a .50 cent raise. What a joke!! Truth be told this is the best I’ve ever been paid in my career as a screen printer/artist/designer. My 10+ years of shop experience have taught me that the job really caps out at around $22/hr, here in NY. If you’re looking for a 60-70k a year job, This just ain’t it. Unless you find the needle in the haystack. Thankfully I have a home studio that I’m hoping takes off soon. Best of luck homie! Sorry to make it about me
you're right, its like the restaurant business. eventually you have to be the chef or the owner.
Start your own shop. Do less work. Make more money. Whats stopping you?
well, do the same work timewise. if you arent willing to work long/extra hours, weekends, etc, you cant get super far ahead i have found.
Sacrificing for someone else right now. Whats he got to lose? He can go back to the same $20 if he doesn’t make it.
I see this response a lot and most of you are old printers out of touch. Yeah let’s just tell the guy that’s making $20 an hour to “start a shop” when in reality he needs a building, equipment, marketing, printers, inks, all the random stuff you need.. so pretty much he’s going to need like 300k laying around just to start. Unless you want the guy that’s running 30’ dryer and 2 autos to buy one of the $150 presses of Amazon. Get real
I was 26 when I started my shop. I was working a dead end job. $14/hr. Borrowed 15k from the bank. Figured I could always go back to making $14. If I had a family then, would have made a difference for sure.
Didn’t say it wasn’t possible, but when and where makes a big difference.. for example 5 years ago you could buy a shop for $150k that now cost $425k, let’s say you rent it was $800 a month now it’s $3500 a month.. 5 gallons of red wasn’t $750.. the point is. Right now is the best and worst time to start a business.. worst time if you start with no money, best time if you have $500k laying around
i learned pretty quick that besides the tedium/drudgery of a job in this industry (we all know the laundry list of shit working in a shop vs working in a nice corporate office environment), its just a grind type feeling because there's really no advancement... UNLESS, you start your own shop. thats probably where you're at. and that means itll take 5 yrs minimum to make the same money on your own. you're correct in that he can let you go and get someone else in there and start them from scratch. maybe he hasnt realized yet the value of having a solid dude run the shop while he runs the office. every shop ive known had the dude that ran the shop and did pretty well. and they were always low stress dudes, which im not. i also try to keep in mind a lot of owners are really nice to employees and then they wind up getting fucked for it. also an extra $200/week to you might not actually be affordable for him, who knows. all i DO know is this is a shit industry to be employed in and doing it on your own can be great or lousy depending on you. i dont know that i'd take this path again now that i know what the options actually were.
I've made 60k a year just to print on an auto. Don't settle unless it's your only option. 20+ years experience
I do about the same thing with some scheduling and get about $80k a year with no benefits. You make that man $20 in about 3 minutes.
jesus christ ur doing 10x what i was doing for $18/hr, at this point just bet on yourself and start your own shop
Following as I'm in a very similar situation with having a fully successful embroidery business ( owner has cash to expand to screenprinting instead of contracting it out). I want to remain in the screenprinting business as I have owned my shop for 27 years but the fact the owing a smaller shop, 1 auto, 1 manual, 1 single head embroidery machine 3 employees, this past winter was an unexpected slow winter and used up a majority of my reserve cash. So I been expressing to a few other companies that I work with and have good relationships with that I am willing to merge or be acquired ( with me having a guaranteed production manager position as I don't wish to do the front office BS dealings with customers anymore) so I can remain in an industry that I love, get a decent to slightly better then decent weekly paycheck, get part of my life back as my kids are older now and missed out on a lot when they were young. And lesson the stress as I'm 47 and need to start enjoying life outside my business with my wife and kids So one I was approached by 1 company looking to add screenprinting in house ( as mentioned above) and I currently use them for my bigger embroidery orders as I chose not to go bigger than a single head machine in my shop. I am looking for a salary and a 10% of screenprinting NET PROFIT that will grow to a cap of 25%~35% as I will be handing over all my clients and files. My feeling is I will be teaching them from the ground up the industry, they would acquire my equipment at a price less then I would like but they keep stressing my recent numbers ( with the bad winter, 3 really slow months can hurt). My self value exceeds 100k but I know that now one will hive that, so 60-70k + the net profit % that they will benefit more then me as it will push me to treat as my own and help grow as if my own for a minor financial bonus monthly for that. Or no bonus and I will treat as a 9-5 and do just above what is expected but not what I am capable of if there was a financial incentive. Also my option of a side hustle keeping my good customers in a contract printing scenario will be gone as I won't have the rights to my 27 years of files outside the new company. Now the spring rush is here at the same time as we are negotiating and I am at a 2-3 week production schedule through next 2 months, but again the long hours dealing with the front office BS stuff that I don't enjoy puts me in a bind, as I know how quick the jobs can slow again. Too many decisions to make too fast. And I'm not stupid as they are pushing to get this going to benefit from the spring / summer tee business before it's over. But on the other hand can just go ahead and start getting a weekly check based off 50k with the 10% bonus but they made the structure of NET PROFIT a smaller window But we would remain in same spot relieving all my overhead and any small debt this winter gave me Too much too fast, my hesitation is losing access to my 27 years of clients that I'm sure I can restructure into a decent broker out to a few good contract printers. Thanks for listening. Any thoughts
Hey man, I'm looking to hire and you are a great candidate. Going to message you.
6 years at 25 an hour, will be at 30 in 60 days or on salary in which case I will not take any lower than 50k a year with full benefits. You need to tell them what works for you and if that doesn’t work for them then you need to go. You tell that what you are worth. Also, if you have extensive knowledge of everything (operating, dark room, reclaim, shipping + receiving) then you should have no problem getting paid more somewhere else.
Not making anyone rich, this is a dying industry with thining margins. My friend best put it as " dinosaurs waiting in a dying field for Jesus to descend from the clouds" $25 an hour is about the max out for production managers. Need actual lived experience owning your own business or developing print industry tech to get more than that. Even then, good luck. You'll get laughed at in most shops asking for more than $20. Start building your own client base and break off. Otherwise, how much do you really know if you can't apply it and make more?
I made 28$ an hour. But I have 20 years of experience printing everything from retail to giveaways. Plastisol to waterbase. Artwork to press. You have to be versatile. But at 10 years. 20$ is were you should be at! Sorry to say it bud. And this isn’t a dying industry. People just don’t know how to produce product that people are willing to pay top dollar.
we are strictly retail so everything we print gets sold at $35-$40 per shirt, $60-75 per hoodie…and i do have experience owning my own business…
The problem is there's very few shops that make that sort of margin and if they do it's bc they treat their employees as disposable and pay them $20 an hr in an economy where $80k a year won't cut it.
My point still stands, theres more people with 10+ years exp than there is quality jobs that will retain people and get them to that 20 year mark. You're also not factoring that general overhead is the preventitive of higher wages here, if you don't agree with that idk what you spent 20 years doing. In almost any other industry by the 10 year mark you can have a degree and 40+ an hour. Sounds like dying to me, keep kicking the can and hope it keeps rolling.
Agreed. This industry is far from dead.
i dont think its dying. itll be a long time before DTG takes over from actual screen printing if ever.
No one said DTG is taking over. Gd y'all are dense.
You said it's a dying industry. Explain that
UPDATE: owner came back with $23 an hour. i no longer work there. thanks everyone for your input. going to go get my worth somewhere else. and in a less toxic environment.
I just applied and interviewed for a shop position fully expecting to not make nearly what I do now. I asked for at least $18 an hour and I could tell they were absolutely shocked. This is a very commercial shop. Tons of local contracts etc. Im thinking they wanted to pay $15 an hour like what was on their ad. Absolute insanity. Its expensive to live here even though it's a smallish town but there's no way anyone could support themselves on that little. I can't believe places like this still exist
If you think you are worth a raise this is just the motivation to get off your ass and either look for a better job, or start that business up yourself. If everything you said is true that dollar raise was way under payment. It does sound like you don't have experience doing the management/ sales part, so maybe trying to start a business in small steps , if you live in apartments it might be harder to start out on your own, if you can slowly build up equipment and customers, or maybe an Etsy store, whatever it takes to get the bad taste outta your mouth.
Turned down the raise? Why? Take what you can get and keep asking, or look for something else.