Every print shop owner hits a wall where grinding longer hours stops fixing operational headaches. You pull late nights pulling squeegees, quoting custom jobs, and reclaiming screens, yet your bank account does not reflect the grit you pour into your work. Learning how to run a profitable screen print shop comes down to moving past gut feelings, streamlining your prep processes, and setting up a clean business strategy that protects your sanity and your profit margins.
At Ryonet's 2026 Open House event, industry leaders gathered for The Future of Screen Printing expert panel to tackle these exact challenges. Moderated by Brandon Schmunk from Ryonet, the discussion featured seasoned shop owners and industry experts including Ryan Moor (Ryonet Founder and CEO), Dylan Gilligan (Upstate Merch and Shirt Show), Nate Travers (Rendered.co), Kevin Kauth (Saati), John Magee (Avient), Christina Haines (Bella + Canvas), and Rob Welch (ROQ.US). Audience members and shop owners from across the country joined in, sharing real lessons straight from their own shop floors.
Check out the full video below to catch the complete discussion. Read on as we break down these operational strategies with deeper context to help you build a stronger, more resilient print shop.
Stop Running Your Shop on Gut Feelings
When you start out, success feels simple. If there is cash in the bank account on Friday, you figure it was a solid week. Running by the seat of your pants works fine when you print for local bands or close friends out of a garage. Once your order volume expands and you bring on crew members, guessing creates constant anxiety and hides serious financial leaks. Learning how to run a profitable screen print shop requires shifting away from guesses toward real operational numbers, documented systems, and a firm handle on your monthly break-even targets.
Setting up clear operational systems gives your production crew the blueprint they need to run smoothly without depending on you for every minor decision. When shop knowledge lives entirely in your head, every unexpected bump in production brings work to a halt. Documenting routine tasks turns daily habits into reliable systems that keep your production line moving forward consistently.
Creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) might sound like corporate bureaucracy to an independent printer, but documentation gives you true operational freedom. When every step of your workflow lives strictly in your head, you remain the bottleneck in your own business. Nate from Rendered.co broke down how documenting simple daily routines gave his growing team a reliable foundation for consistent output.
"One of the things that surprised me the most was how easy it was to go from operating seat of your pants...to actually writing down the processes that we did...Starting out with writing down like, 'What is our opening procedure?'...What do you do when you turn on the lights, turn on the machines, things like that...Getting into that mindset and starting that path was really what progressed us forward pretty quickly..."
Nate Travers, Rendered.co
Documenting your processes also lays the groundwork for accurate job pricing. Without clear SOPs in the darkroom, chemical usage fluctuates on every single job, making it impossible to calculate true production costs. Kevin from Saati pointed out how standardizing screen prep gives you total control over screen fees.
"Standard operating procedures, as you guys had mentioned, is one of the things as you grow you implement...Because a lot of shops that I will go into, you can go back into the screen room and they are doing something different all the time...Without an SOP, you do not know how much your screen costs, every single screen. By really dialing in to know, 'This is how we do everything, this is how much emulsion is on a screen, this is how much your emulsion costs, and this is how much reclaim chemistry it costs to do one screen,' you can calculate your exact costs. Without knowing those numbers, you have no idea what to be charging your customers for screen fees."
Kevin Kauth, Saati
Once daily tasks and darkroom costs are documented, taking control of your financial baseline becomes the next logical step. Knowing your exact costs prevents hidden leaks from quietly eating your monthly margins. Many shop owners work relentlessly through busy seasons only to realize profits disappeared into unmonitored software subscriptions, unnecessary shop supply orders, or inaccurate job quotes.
"I went 15 years by the seat of my pants. I never looked at numbers...Me and my buddies started the shop back in 2009ish, and every year sales were up...I just saw if there was money in the bank account and was like, 'Cool, we are good'...And then something happened a couple years ago where it was COVID and our entire industry got shook up...The first thing I thought of was like, 'Oh, I should probably know my numbers.'...I started tracking all my expenses and found I had like 10 Adobe subscriptions...So going through all those numbers, now I actually know and I do not have that stress or anxiety every night when I go to bed."
Dylan Gilligan, Upstate Merch
Tracking expenses is only half the battle. Managing cash flow throughout seasonal shifts keeps your shop stable when busy summer months transition into quiet winter quarters. Dylan warned against taking on major debt during peak season rushes without planning for off-season overhead.
"People jump right in to like, 'Well, I need to own an auto. I need to do this.'...And then they go out and get a loan for $200,000 that they cannot pay on...People also make these decisions in a bubble in the summertime when they are super busy, and then a month later they have no work...You do not want to burn all your cash all summer long and then have no cash flow in the end...We need to plan ahead for the future."
Dylan Gilligan, Upstate Merch
Understanding your daily shop overhead and calculating what you actually make per hour provides an immediate reality check on shop health. John shared how tracking daily operational overhead helps shop owners clarify their long-term business goals.
"As a single owner operator, the first thing you need to know is how much does it cost you to operate your shop per day, meaning the rent, whatever the overhead is. And then after the profit, what did you end up paying yourself per hour? That is the big indicator...Something has to change here. I could make more at McDonald's. Why am I doing this? Am I doing this to own a shop, grow a shop, or buy the property the shop is in? Those are just those early questions to figure out."
John Magee, Avient
Tracking metrics behind closed doors leaves your production team in the dark. Bringing those numbers out onto the shop floor bridges the gap between ownership goals and daily crew execution. When operators see production targets in real time, they gain a clear standard for pace and output.
To keep everyone aligned, Ryan highlighted the impact of visible scoreboards on the shop floor. When press operators, darkroom techs, and the shipping team know the target impressions per hour and daily shipping goals, they actively drive shop performance.
"Your SOPs are like your...playbook. Those are your SOPs. The numbers of the scoreboard, they will tell you if your SOPs are working or not...If you have a team of people and they are not a part of the numbers, so they do not know where they come from...it does not change how they approach their work every day."
Ryan Moor, Founder and CEO of Ryonet
Simplifying your shop metrics down to two visual indicators can completely turn around shop floor productivity. Ryan shared how a simple whiteboard tracking system helped a high-volume shop remove bottlenecks and hit their daily target numbers.
"The most impressive number story I have is when we helped Liquid Graphics incorporate two shops. So they took 23 presses, took it down to 15 presses...And when they plugged the presses in...the first day they printed 6,500 shirts, the second day 4,800 shirts, and the third day 5,000 shirts. Josh, the owner, called me...Our VP of Operations, Jim Rice...went down and put two whiteboards up. Whiteboard number one was how many shirts did we print today...and what is the backlog. Whiteboard number two was what got in the way, what is our issues list...He spent six weeks there...having standup meetings, and by the end of six weeks, they were printing 75,000 shirts a day and they were caught up with the backlog. And that was just from measuring those two things."
Ryan Moor, Founder and CEO of Ryonet
Linking daily production targets directly to your break-even number removes financial surprises. Every team member sees how their press speed directly impacts shop stability, making decisions about upgrading equipment or adding labor straightforward.
RELATED READ: 3 Signs You're Ready for an Automatic Press
Fix Your Screen Room Before Buying Another Press
A frequent setback for growing shops is assuming a new automatic press solves capacity issues. Your press only runs as fast as your screen room feeds it. If press operators waste forty-five minutes dialing in micro registration, taping pinholes, or waiting on wet screens, high-capacity machinery sits still. Real efficiency comes from clearing darkroom bottlenecks so your presses stay spinning.
Every minute a press sits static drains money. Rob pointed out how small layout inefficiencies compound over time. Walking back and forth between film printers, exposure units, and wash booths burns precious production hours every single week.
"The time that the machine is not moving, when it is not turning, is costing me money...The faster I can get that machine set up, turning the job off press, out the door, and invoiced, the more profitable I am...You have got to look at how far you are traveling from where the film room is to the actual exposure unit area."
Rob Welch, ROQ.US
Calculating the true return on investment for darkroom equipment requires looking at setup time savings rather than screen volume alone. John broke down how evaluating press setup downtime justifies upgrading to Computer-to-Screen technology.
"When my shop got to the point where we had to consider going from film to CTS, the CTS machine to replace film was $110,000 at that time. How do I justify that? Immediately, most of the sales reps asked how many screens I burned a day. That was not where I was going to gain my profit back. It was the time and setup. The time that the machine is not moving, when it is not turning, is costing me money...The faster I can get that machine set up, turning the job off press, out the door, and invoiced, the more profitable I am."
John Magee, Avient
Physical layout improvements work hand in hand with chemical consistency. Darkroom reliability requires standardized emulsion coating methods and repeatable chemistry application. Utilizing a high-performing photopolymer emulsion like Saati Textil PHU-HR Red Emulsion delivers predictable exposure times and durable stencils on every job.
Streamlining darkroom chemistry prepares your shop for equipment upgrades that maximize setup speed. Before taking on major debt for an additional automatic press, Dylan advised automating darkroom and screen prep first. Upgrading your darkroom boosts productivity across every press in the shop.
"So many people overlook the screen room, and to me that would be the first thing I would automate...automate the screen room. Get an auto-coater, that should be your first purchase, and then something like CTS or even auto-reclaim...because if you have something like CTS you have no more glass on your exposure unit, you are dealing with a lot less pinholes, a lot less registration issues on press...You save so much time in the day with registration and setups...because you had everything prepped before it even got to the press."
Dylan Gilligan, Upstate Merch
Automating screen prep protects your stencil quality from human variation. When coating thickness changes from screen to screen, exposure times become unpredictable, creating hidden re-shoot costs that slow down production. Kevin explained how auto-coating builds repeatable exposure standards.
"As far as automation goes, it is about the consistency that you are putting into things...Consistency of processes. So now you know what that screen actually is going to perform like. If you are hand coating screens, every one of those screens...is going to be a different thickness. If you are using an auto-coater, you get consistency from screen to screen. Now I know that your exposure times can be consistent as well. Because if you are hand coating screens and your stencil thickness is varying...some of your screens are going to be overexposed and some are going to be underexposed, leading you back to having to reshoot screens, which adds into more costs that people do not think about."
Kevin Kauth, Saati
This focus on prep consistency resonates with printers at every scale. Allie, a manual printer, instructor, and key member of the Ryonet Support team who helps printers troubleshoot daily, confirmed that stencil preparation remains the primary challenge across the industry.
"The hardest part about screen printing is not the printing. It is all of the prep...It is all of the paperwork, doing the numbers, all of that stuff."
Allie, Screen Printer & Ryonet Support
Starting with dense film positives printed on quality Baselayr Waterproof Film Sheets secures sharp edges and fast registration at the press. When you remove darkroom variables, setup times drop dramatically. Eliminating prep bottlenecks increases your daily job capacity without requiring additional shop floor space or extra presses.
RELATED READ: Darkroom Automation Guide: Exploring the Best Options for Screen Printers
Build Your Ideal Persona and Fire Bad Accounts
When starting out, saying no to work feels risky. You accept tiny 12-piece rush orders, unsorted customer garments, and low-margin work just to keep ink moving. Taking on bad jobs traps your shop in a high-stress cycle. Building a sustainable print business requires defining ideal client profiles, evaluating account profitability, and stepping away from customers who drain shop resources.
Shifting your client mix starts with recognizing which accounts eat up valuable production time without generating real revenue. Unsorted garment shipments, endless proof revisions, and demands for rock-bottom contract rates pull your team away from jobs that actually pay the bills.
John shared a pivotal moment in his shop history when he stopped accepting jobs from brokers who demanded low pricing while dropping off disorganized garment boxes that consumed unbilled labor hours.
"The day that I fired my first three customers was when I was really running a business...I talked to Jim and I said, 'Jim, we are losing time on these...I give you contractor pricing. I have got to make a profit off this. I print t-shirts for a living. You sell t-shirts for a living. I am not going to do it for free.'...Firing bad accounts opened up our schedule for Western wear, churches, and high-margin specialty accounts."
John Magee, Avient
Clearing low-margin jobs off your schedule creates space to target customer profiles that align with your shop's strengths. Rather than pitching to everyone, mapping out a clear profile of your target customer makes sales and marketing efforts far more effective. Christina pointed out that defining your target persona starts by looking at the garments and print jobs your team genuinely enjoys producing.
"It is easy to pick a customer, but for me, you want to figure out what your team likes to print, what you want to print, what garment do you want to print on, because then you can identify who the best customer is from that direction."
Christina Haines, Bella + Canvas
Building on that production-first focus, Nate detailed how mapping out specific details about their ideal persona transformed their brand messaging and customer acquisition.
"Jen is our ideal customer and we modeled Jen after a real person...And she works at a design agency...as either a lead designer or assistant...and she is a foodie...We got kind of specific with it, up to her age and interests...Those turned into marketing direction. We started to attract those people because we knew our social media marketing needs to appeal to this person, our website needs to appeal to this person...just her specifically."
Nate Travers, Rendered.co
Evaluating account margins consistently reveals surprising patterns in where your profit originates. Ryan referenced how analyzing revenue distribution showed eighty percent of overall shop income stemmed from just five percent of the customer roster.
"After COVID, Printed Threads was down by 35% in revenue...So, we ran a Pareto report, also known as the 80/20 rule, sorting sales by customer...What we found at Printed Threads was that 80% of their revenue was coming from only 5% of their customer base...Which means to get back to where they needed to go, they only needed to add one target customer profile per month. Just one customer. This huge problem went from 'Oh my god, we are going out of business' to 'Oh, we need to find one customer per month' just by doing that."
Ryan Moor, Founder and CEO of Ryonet
Once you identify your top revenue accounts, focusing your energy on expanding those existing relationships yields far greater returns than constantly chasing cold leads. Dylan shared how shifting focus to existing accounts changed their business growth strategy.
"One thing we found is we were constantly in this rat race to get another customer, get another customer. But really we had this awesome bank of customers that already liked us and loved us and trusted us that we could go to them and say, 'Well, what else do you put your logo on?'...Whereas now I can reach out to them monthly or every couple weeks and say, 'How can I help you get more stuff?'...If you know these people are spending a lot of money with you, pay a little extra attention."
Dylan Gilligan, Upstate Merch
Retaining top-tier clients long term relies on honest communication and accountability. Christina emphasized that how your team manages mistakes and tight deadlines builds deeper customer trust than routine jobs.
"Good jobs will get you some good word of mouth, but how you respond to situations where you have messed up and you fix it and make it right, that is where the true positive word of mouth comes from...That is where we built the business on integrity...It creates long-term loyalty."
Christina Haines, Bella + Canvas
Protecting production time from poor fits preserves bandwidth to deliver great service to clients who value your craft and pay full rates.
RELATED LISTEN: Shirt Show | The Screen Printing Podcast
Stories From the Shop and Finding Your Why
Beyond numbers, target outputs, and automatic printing equipment like the ROQ E Automatic Screen Printing Package, screen printing remains grounded in craftsmanship, creativity, and community. Wrapping up the session, panelists and audience members shared what drives their work every day on press.
Mechanical engineer and inventor of the Rudy Press Juan Tapia spoke about transitioning from corporate device manufacturing into screen printing equipment design and shop ownership. His passion for equipment innovation stems directly from the hands-on magic of pulling that very first print.
"I remember the first time that I developed my screen and I printed...once I lifted the screen, I saw the ink pass through...it was like, 'What is this?'...I have spent 10 years trying to move from the engineering side to this one...It is really incredible to be here."
Juan Tapia, Printer & Rudy Press Inventor
For industry veterans like Kevin from Saati, driving the screen printing industry forward comes back to empowering shop owners through hands-on education and training.
"I think the biggest thing about this industry and what I do is being able to help customers, right? So, when I give a screen making course and then I see that same customer a year or two down the road and they tell me how much that helped them in their business and how many fewer problems they have, that is really the main reason why I enjoy doing what I do...Hearing those stories and helping their businesses grow better quality really feels good."
Kevin Kauth, Saati
That same passion for community drives educators to bring screen printing into the classroom. Local educator Josh detailed founding a student-led screen printing enterprise within his school district, turning shop production into an active learning lab for the next generation of printers.
"My why is education...being able to show up every day and to teach our students something that they can take with them for the rest of their life...we can teach them not only what to expect as an employee, but what to expect from their boss...and give them the opportunity to make mistakes and to coach them through it..."
Josh, High School Educator
Building a shop also serves as a powerful personal model for family and local community growth. Katie from Pacific Northwest Apparel Co. highlighted the motivation behind expanding her business in Tigard, Oregon.
"I love the art side...I do this for women in general. When I was born...women could not own businesses...now I do this as an example for other women that you can still own a business and as an example for my daughter."
Katie, Pacific Northwest Apparel Co.
Whether operating a single manual press in a garage or managing multiple automatic carousels in a production facility, long-term success relies on clear financial metrics, darkroom efficiency, disciplined account selection, and maintaining a strong passion for the print trade.
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