What is True Shop Hourly Burden?
Technical definition, shop floor implications, and pricing strategies for commercial apparel decorators.
The exact monetary cost required to keep a print and embroidery shop open and operational for one billable hour of machine production, factoring all fixed overhead and loaded wages.
Deep Dive & Practical Application
Most decorators make the mistake of pricing jobs using simple garment blank markups, ignoring the fixed costs of keeping machines running.
True Shop Hourly Burden calculates the sum of all monthly fixed overhead (facility rent, 3-phase electricity, air compressor power, equipment leases, software subscriptions, insurance, and marketing) plus fully loaded operator wages (hourly wage + payroll taxes + benefits).
This total monthly cost is divided by realistic billable production hours (factoring a 70%–75% efficiency rate) to yield the exact dollar-per-hour baseline cost before profit.
Shop Floor & Profitability Impact
Pricing below your True Shop Hourly Burden guarantees that the more jobs your shop prints, the more money you lose. Knowing this number protects your bottom line on every quote.
The Print Life Shop Operations & Pricing Operating System
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