RUSH ORDER FEE
RUSH ORDER FEE
If you do add to cart AND MARK CHECKBOX ON CHECKOUT SCREEN- you will not receive the service. Rush Fee is 20% of your order total in cart!
What are rush charges?
A rush charge is a specific charge that you add to your order to compensate for work that you have to do in a very short period of time.
This is not overtime. It is a rush charge and it is important to understand the difference.
Why should I charge rush fees?
Other than getting more money which is always nice, the obvious reason why most Screen or DTF Printing and Embroidery companies ask more money for rush orders, are to cover direct cost such as additional labor and incoming shipping cost.
In some cases your printshop may nor incur these additional charges, and then you think you should not charge the rush fee since, in any event, you would not have had any work for that day. This can lead to a very negative and costly trend.
It may be true that you don’t have any direct costs, but there are other factors to consider, and some of them do result in indirect costs.
Below are 5 reasons why your custom apparel company, should charge for rush orders (And yes, direct costs is one of them)
Reason #1: The additional direct cost of rush orders.
Direct costs are always a fact. These are tangible costs that immediately affect the money you will have in your bank account, after paying them.
Direct costs are normally in the form of overtime, express shipping Maybe there are additional express charges, that you have to pay your vendor for rushing the shirts to you.
These costs are real and directly impacts your cash flow and they need to be passed on to your customer. Shipping and overtime are normally the biggest of them all. If you do your own heat pressing or embroidery from home, then don’t dismiss the overtime amount. Your time is valuable too. You could have pumped out some profitable quotes or do some social media marketing in that time.
Direct costs are the most obvious reason why your printshop should charge for rush orders, and most companies find that to be the only reason why they can justify charging more.
Reason #2: Rush work can conflict with other jobs.
Taking on rush orders can conflict with other work. Planning production is not always easy and having a full time scheduling person to move jobs around will eventually become a reality, if you take on too many rush orders.
Even with scheduling software you will need a human being to intervene. You will need to accommodate and plan around these rush orders. This person may need to make some tough choices, like moving other orders to a later date, maybe even calling other customers with orders, that are not event driven, and come up with some trumped-up reason to postpone their work.
If you cannot postpone some orders, you will have to revert back to overtime. In some cases if the pressure is too high you may even forget about a less critical job and upset another customer when delivering their order late.
Remember screen printing, DTF printing and embroidery, is a “production line of surprises”. There are torn screens, needle breaks and, who knows what can happen next. This could mean that the rush orders that you are interjecting into production, may take much longer than initially anticipated, and subsequently affect the turn around time on orders that you already had in production. This can come at a huge price and therefore you need to make provision for these additional costs.
Reason #3: Rush orders and your opportunity costs
Opportunity costs is the cost of choosing not to take the next best choice.
“Because by definition they are unseen, opportunity costs can be easily overlooked.” – Investopedia
Opportunity costs are something that people often underestimate, but it it’s real. If you quoted on a job with a tight margin, and now it becomes a rush order you won’t be able to take on other more profitable jobs.
If you don’t add a rush charge then the suddenly there is a cost of opportunity. Now you may not have any other orders lined up right now, but in the future you may have, or a sudden surprise order may pop up.
The added rush charges over time will or could compensate for loss of future opportunities.
Reason #4: The risk of making mistakes.
Like anything in life when adding pressure, you are more prone to making mistakes, especial in the screen printing and embroidery industry, where we have so many variables to contend with. Drying or burning screens too fast so they are not properly hardened is just one of many examples I can think of. But you get it. Rush orders increases our risk of making costly mistakes and there is no doubt about that. Just think back to some of the mistakes you made on orders, because you were rushed. We all get flustered, even veteran printers do.
Even if the print job seems easy, a simple mistake could cost you thousands of dollars. It is important to do a good job, and this may lead to overtime if you plan and do things properly. You need to accommodate for potential mistakes on rush orders.
Another thing to consider. Let’s say you are doing a direct to garment printing job. it is unlikely that you will order extra shirts in the event of a spoiled print. If for some reason you have a spoiled print and need to order another shirt, you cannot order the replacement shirt using standard shipping. You will need to overnight the shipment or order extra shirts in advance which you would not have done if it was a standard order.
When doing rush orders you need to make provision for every contingency, and that comes at a higher cost.
Reason #5: Setting a precedent.
If you really don’t see the need to charge for a rush job, remember you are setting a precedent. Once you grow your business and you are in a situation where the direct cost of doing rush orders impact you cash flow even more, it will be so much harder to start charging your existing customers for rush orders. This could really upset them. It is important that customers understand you are not Kinkos and in order to deliver an outstanding print or embroidery job, takes time, effort and meticulous planning. Don’t fall into that trap. It’s the very same reason, when raising kids, that your No stays No (Unless you’re totally not fair ha ha ha)
I was a little thrown off for the rush order fee, I was confused because it won’t let you continue until you click that you want the rush order fee.. I’ve never had to choose the rush order fee anywhere else.
I'm sorry for any confusion you experienced however- It does let you continue without clicking the rush box. That feature has always been optional.
Rush Order Fee Explained
Check box on check out screen - If you do add to cart- you will not receive the service. Rush Fee is 20% of your order total in cart!
What are rush charges?
A rush charge is a specific charge that you add to your order to compensate for work that you have to do in a very short period of time.
This is not overtime. It is a rush charge and it is important to understand the difference.
Why should I charge rush fees?
Other than getting more money which is always nice, the obvious reason why most Screen or DTF Printing and Embroidery companies ask more money for rush orders, are to cover direct cost such as additional labor and incoming shipping cost.
In some cases your printshop may nor incur these additional charges, and then you think you should not charge the rush fee since, in any event, you would not have had any work for that day. This can lead to a very negative and costly trend.
It may be true that you don’t have any direct costs, but there are other factors to consider, and some of them do result in indirect costs.
Below are 5 reasons why your custom apparel company, should charge for rush orders (And yes, direct costs is one of them)
Reason #1: The additional direct cost of rush orders.
Direct costs are always a fact. These are tangible costs that immediately affect the money you will have in your bank account, after paying them.
Direct costs are normally in the form of overtime, express shipping Maybe there are additional express charges, that you have to pay your vendor for rushing the shirts to you.
These costs are real and directly impacts your cash flow and they need to be passed on to your customer. Shipping and overtime are normally the biggest of them all. If you do your own heat pressing or embroidery from home, then don’t dismiss the overtime amount. Your time is valuable too. You could have pumped out some profitable quotes or do some social media marketing in that time.
Direct costs are the most obvious reason why your printshop should charge for rush orders, and most companies find that to be the only reason why they can justify charging more.
Reason #2: Rush work can conflict with other jobs.
Taking on rush orders can conflict with other work. Planning production is not always easy and having a full time scheduling person to move jobs around will eventually become a reality, if you take on too many rush orders.
Even with scheduling software you will need a human being to intervene. You will need to accommodate and plan around these rush orders. This person may need to make some tough choices, like moving other orders to a later date, maybe even calling other customers with orders, that are not event driven, and come up with some trumped-up reason to postpone their work.
If you cannot postpone some orders, you will have to revert back to overtime. In some cases if the pressure is too high you may even forget about a less critical job and upset another customer when delivering their order late.
Remember screen printing, DTF printing and embroidery, is a “production line of surprises”. There are torn screens, needle breaks and, who knows what can happen next. This could mean that the rush orders that you are interjecting into production, may take much longer than initially anticipated, and subsequently affect the turn around time on orders that you already had in production. This can come at a huge price and therefore you need to make provision for these additional costs.
Reason #3: Rush orders and your opportunity costs
Opportunity costs is the cost of choosing not to take the next best choice.
“Because by definition they are unseen, opportunity costs can be easily overlooked.” – Investopedia
Opportunity costs are something that people often underestimate, but it it’s real. If you quoted on a job with a tight margin, and now it becomes a rush order you won’t be able to take on other more profitable jobs.
If you don’t add a rush charge then the suddenly there is a cost of opportunity. Now you may not have any other orders lined up right now, but in the future you may have, or a sudden surprise order may pop up.
The added rush charges over time will or could compensate for loss of future opportunities.
Reason #4: The risk of making mistakes.
Like anything in life when adding pressure, you are more prone to making mistakes, especial in the screen printing and embroidery industry, where we have so many variables to contend with. Drying or burning screens too fast so they are not properly hardened is just one of many examples I can think of. But you get it. Rush orders increases our risk of making costly mistakes and there is no doubt about that. Just think back to some of the mistakes you made on orders, because you were rushed. We all get flustered, even veteran printers do.
Even if the print job seems easy, a simple mistake could cost you thousands of dollars. It is important to do a good job, and this may lead to overtime if you plan and do things properly. You need to accommodate for potential mistakes on rush orders.
Another thing to consider. Let’s say you are doing a direct to garment printing job. it is unlikely that you will order extra shirts in the event of a spoiled print. If for some reason you have a spoiled print and need to order another shirt, you cannot order the replacement shirt using standard shipping. You will need to overnight the shipment or order extra shirts in advance which you would not have done if it was a standard order.
When doing rush orders you need to make provision for every contingency, and that comes at a higher cost.
Reason #5: Setting a precedent.
If you really don’t see the need to charge for a rush job, remember you are setting a precedent. Once you grow your business and you are in a situation where the direct cost of doing rush orders impact you cash flow even more, it will be so much harder to start charging your existing customers for rush orders. This could really upset them. It is important that customers understand you are not Kinkos and in order to deliver an outstanding print or embroidery job, takes time, effort and meticulous planning. Don’t fall into that trap. It’s the very same reason, when raising kids, that your No stays No (Unless you’re totally not fair ha ha ha)
