Know Your DTF Crossover Before You Print Your First Shirt
This plan walks through starting a contract screen printing business: a real production setup runs $5,000 to $15,000, and setup fees typically run $15 to $35 per screen per color. It covers the DTF crossover calculation that decides whether an order under 24-50 pieces should be screen printed or run as a direct-to-film transfer, the CPSIA lead and phthalate rules that apply the moment you print youth sizes, and the wastewater pretreatment question you need to settle with your local sewer authority before you ever wash a screen.
$27 · instant download, no shipping
Get the Plan — $27Secure checkout, instant email delivery of the PDF.
Built From Real Numbers
The plan is built around the numbers in this guide: target margins of 30 to 50 percent, a true internal screen cost of $25 to $45 once film, emulsion, exposure and washout are counted, and a per-shirt pricing table running from $15–$22 for a dozen shirts down to $8–$12 at fifty pieces.
It also walks through the DTF crossover worksheet, the CPSIA youth-order checklist, and the job quote calculator included in the guide, so you can price every order — from a twelve-shirt order to a two-hundred-piece school account — with a real number instead of a guess.
What's Inside
- Job quote calculator: garment cost, setup, labor and waste allowance worked into a quote floor
- DTF crossover worksheet to find the exact order size where screens beat DTF
- Youth order CPSIA compliance checklist for lead, phthalates and testing documentation
- Production quality log for tracking cure tests and rejects job by job
- Equipment cost tiers from a $1,750 hobby setup to a $30,000–$80,000 automatic press
- Wastewater and hazardous-waste guidance for screen reclamation and disposal
- A 90-day launch plan built around contacting organizations that reorder shirts every year
