You know how many stitches are in the design. Do you know how much you made on the order?
That’s where Marshall Atkinson and I went in the second episode of his new podcast, How Do I…? I was honored to be his guest. We talked about the costs that are easy to miss, why your own time counts, and how to make a better pricing decision before you give your next quote.
Think about two orders with the same logo. One is a straightforward reorder. The other is a small run on a garment that takes extra care to hoop, and the customer needs it by Friday. Same stitch count. How much more of your time and shop schedule does that second order take? Does your quote reflect that?
That’s why at NNEP, we help embroidery and apparel decoration professionals look at five things every time they PRICE an order:
- [P] Production Cost — What does it cost your shop to do the job?
- [R] Real Labor — How much time goes into it, from the first email to the last box? Count your own time, too.
- [I] Intended Profit — How much do you want the business to earn from the order?
- [C] Capacity Pressure — What will it take to fit the order into your schedule?
- [E] End Customer Value — What does the finished order help the customer do?
Don’t quote stitches. PRICE the order.
While you’re waiting for the episode, pull up one order you’ve already finished. Use the free Job Profitability Worksheet to add up what you charged and what the job cost. Then ask yourself: If this customer called tomorrow to place the same order, would I quote it the same way?
Once you’ve looked at that one job, take the free NNEP Pricing Diagnostic to get an overall score for your shop’s pricing system. Then sign up for your free copy of State of Embroidery Pricing 2026 and see where other shops in the study ran into trouble.
Get the worksheet, take the Diagnostic, and sign up for the report
“How Do I Price Embroidery for Profit?” is coming soon wherever you listen to podcasts. I’ll add the episode link here when it’s live.
Jennifer Cox
President, NNEP
