09/07/2026
How does a small business price their shirts?
I get asked that a lot, so let’s break down a real order and see what it actually costs us — and what YOENSO actually makes.
These shirts were part of a 32-shirt order.
We charged $19 each.
32 × $19 = $608 revenue
MATERIALS
The blank shirts cost us $3 each:
32 × $3 = $96
The ink and film for these prints were around $1.95 per shirt:
32 × $1.95 = $62.40
We also had 5 misprints that cost us around another $9.75 in ink and film.
So:
$96 shirts
* $62.40 prints
* $9.75 mistakes
= $168.15 in materials
That leaves:
$608 - $168.15 = $439.85
Or $13.75 per shirt.
But that’s not what we made.
We still have to account for the machines.
MACHINE TIME ISN’T FREE
We have around $10,000 invested in our apparel printing equipment.
Electricity is actually a pretty small part of the machine cost.
The bigger costs are the machines themselves, maintenance, cleaning, wear, repairs, print-head risk and eventually replacing the equipment.
For our own numbers, we’re going to value apparel machine time at about $15 per operating hour.
This order took approximately:
3 hours of printer time
and
3.5 hours of heat press time
That’s about 6.5 machine-hours.
6.5 × $15 = $97.50 in machine cost
Now let’s do the math again:
$608 revenue
* $168.15 materials and misprints
* $97.50 machine cost
= $342.35 left for YOENSO
Divide that by the 32 shirts:
YOENSO made about $10.70 per shirt.
But there’s one more really important number.
OUR TIME
One person spent about 3 hours printing.
Then two of us spent about 3.5 hours each pressing.
That’s:
3 hours printing
* 7 hours pressing
= 10 person-hours
We don’t have employees doing this work, so we didn’t actually have to write someone a paycheck for those 10 hours.
That means the $342.35 stays with YOENSO.
But our time still has value.
$342.35 ÷ 10 hours = $34.24 per hour
So on this particular order, after materials, mistakes and an allowance for the machines, YOENSO made about:
$10.70 per shirt
or
$34.24 for every hour we spent producing them.
And that’s before general business overhead and taxes.
Is that enough?
For us, on this order, yes.
We like making this stuff.
We’re also creating photos and video content while we’re doing it, so the work has value to us beyond the $19 shirt.
This was also part of a larger order that included other products and services, and it’s a customer we hope to have a lasting relationship with.
But if I had employees doing those same 10 hours of work, the math would be completely different.
And that’s the point of this post.
A small business can’t look at a $3 blank shirt, sell it for $19 and say:
“I made $16.”
We didn’t make $16.
On this job, after the shirt, printing materials, mistakes and machine costs, YOENSO kept about $10.70 per shirt before general overhead and taxes. (Luckily we don’t have a separate rent for the business since we make it at home, but we had to spend money on creating the working area.)
And it took us 10 hours of work to do it.
That’s why a single custom shirt costs more than a bulk order.
That’s why graphic design may cost extra.
And that’s why small businesses need to know more than just what their materials cost.
You need to know what your machines cost you per hour.
You need to know what your mistakes cost.
And most importantly, you need to know what you are actually making per hour.
Being busy and making money are not necessarily the same thing.
Now - let’s make something together!
Made in Conway by YOENSO
*Corrected Post: after review of costs, we had used the price for multiple shirt prints and not just one, so we adjusted the math.
