Images_Digital_Edition_April_2020

M any embroiderers who consider digitising start off with a skewed idea of what bringing digitising in-house will do for their business. Frankly, the most frequent reason I hear for moving to in-house digitising is the least logical: if your reason for digitising in-house is ‘I don’t want to pay for files’, you probably don’t have enough reason to digitise. Digitising is a craft I recommend to any lover of machine embroidery, but it’s not always the quickest path to profit. Those learning to digitise simply to ‘get out of paying for it’ should evaluate the opportunity costs carefully. For solo entrepreneurs and microbusinesses, in particular, time spent working on digitising is time that could be spent on marketing, production, development, or other facets of their businesses. This can represent a significant cost, even without considering the direct costs of software and training. The right reasons While I whisper a word of caution to would-be digitisers who just want to ditch outsourcing costs, there are solid arguments for bringing digitising in-house. Digitising unquestionably adds capability and capacity to your This patch set was produced for US TV medical drama, The Night Shift. For TV and movie clients, digitising gives you the ability to respond quickly and provide assistance with interpreting art accurately into embroidery. When you have clients that work on tight schedules and have time-sensitive jobs as a rule (the shooting schedules of these clients, for example), having in-house, skilled digitising might make your shop the natural, or preferred, choice Not all shops will want to embark on in-house digitising; if price is the only driver, consider the costs of outfitting and compensating a digitiser, as well as the opportunity costs for either taking on the task, losing a current employee’s time to the work, or the time spent bringing in and training a digitiser to work with your team before you take the plunge. It can definitely be worthwhile, but shouldn’t be taken on without consideration of the learning curve and the time it takes to get the work done well shop, but the following benefits boost your marketable value. Selling on these differentiators can bolster your bottom line much more than discontinuing payments to your outside digitiser. ■ Responsiveness Being able to digitise quickly and make rapid changes in response to a shift in design direction or technical demands is critical for shops advertising both consultancy and quick turnarounds. The ability to facilitate discussion between a skilled digitiser and the customer adds tremendous value because qualified consultation combined with fast output and alterations attracts creative, professional customers that must have work done well and quickly. These customers are frequently willing to pay for the privilege. ■ Production control Serving customers who have high expectations regarding quality and style of execution requires tight control of every aspect of the design process. Being able to create and control The design on the left has thousands more stitches and six more colour changes than the design on the right, despite the final pieces looking very much the same. The more production- minded file results in a time-saving equal to four additional production runs in an eight-hour day. Digitisers with an operator mindset can make a major difference to productivity over time www.images-magazine.com 46 images APRIL 2020 To digitise, or not to digitise Erich Campbell drills down into the real reasons you should digitise in-house. (Spoiler alert: the cost of outsourcing isn’t one of them)