Rush fees for embroidery orders: how much to charge and how to say it

Charge a rush fee as a percentage of the order with a dollar minimum, so a rushed dozen hats costs more to rush than one hat, and a single small piece still pays you enough to be worth rearranging your week. My rush fee starts at $50, and that number is a floor, not a place to start haggling.

This guide is about the rush fee itself: the number, the math, and the words. If you are still working out what your normal turnaround should be, start with embroidery turnaround times, because a rush only means something once you have a standard window to rush past.

How much do shops charge for a rush embroidery order?

Published numbers mostly land between about 15 and 50 percent of the order, and the faster the turnaround, the higher the percentage.

DTLA Print publishes four rush tiers that apply across its decoration methods, embroidery included: 27.5 percent for 8 to 10 business days, 35 percent for 5 to 8, 47.5 percent for 3 to 5, and 50 percent for 1 to 3. Pulse Merch says rush fees usually run a flat premium or roughly 15 to 30 percent of the base order.

Smaller embroidery shops often use a flat charge instead. Stitch and Print Designs lists its embroidery rush charge at $65 minimum per order, for next day up to five days. Christian's Craft sells a $10 rush fee that moves an order to the front and a $25 next-day fee, both added alongside the item.

So there is no single right number. What those examples share is that the rush is a separate, named charge the customer chooses, and the shop decided the price before anyone asked.

Why a percentage works better than one flat fee

A flat fee is wrong at both ends of your order sizes.

My caps are $32. A $50 rush on one cap is more than the cap itself, and that is fine, because one cap still has to be hooped, stitched, and trimmed ahead of work that was paid for first. That is what the $50 floor protects.

Now picture a team order of twelve of those caps, $384 before any rush. A flat $50 rush on that order is about 13 percent, and twelve caps pushed to the front of the line move a lot more of your week than one cap does. The disruption grows with the order, so the fee should too.

The fix is to use both numbers and charge whichever is bigger:

Rush fee = the percentage of the order, or the minimum, whichever is more.

At 50 percent with a $50 minimum, the single cap pays the $50 minimum and the twelve caps pay $192. Pick your own percentage from the ranges above. Use a higher one for a truly fast turnaround and a lower one for a job that only needs to move up a few days.

What should the rush fee be calculated on?

The whole order total before the rush line, meaning the garments, stitching, hooping, and any setup fee. The setup fee belongs in the base because a rushed design can mean a rushed digitizer too, and that can cost extra. My digitizer's price list says rush fees can be applied to its work.

Keep shipping out of it. A faster shipping method is a separate cost the customer pays for separately, and Pulse Merch treats it the same way. If you rush the stitching and the customer wants overnight shipping too, that is two lines.

What counts as a rush?

Anything that needs to be finished before your current booking window. If you are booking about two weeks out and someone needs it in nine days, that is a rush, even though nine days sounds like plenty of time to them.

Two things follow from that.

First, the line moves with your schedule. In a slow week, the same nine-day request might fit inside your window without pushing anyone back, and then it is not a rush. In October it almost certainly is.

Second, a rush is measured against paid work already waiting. I stitch in the order payments came in. A rush means someone else's order moves back, and the fee is what pays for that.

How to say it to the customer

I never ask a customer "when do you need it by?" Asking invites a date, and a date I never agreed to turns into a promise. Instead I state the lead time as a plain fact:

I'm booking about two weeks out right now.

Then I stop. Most people are fine with that, and the ones who have an event come back with it on their own.

When they do, the answer names the date and the price in one message:

I can have it ready by Friday the 9th with a rush, which adds $50. Otherwise it goes on the schedule at about two weeks.

That is the whole script. There is no apology in it and no explanation of why rushes cost money. The customer gets a clear choice, and either answer works for you.

A few things to keep out of that message:

• "I'll try." If you cannot promise the date, do not take the rush fee. A rush fee is a payment for a guaranteed date.
• Negotiating down. If you drop the rush price the first time someone pushes, every customer after them learns to push. My $50 is a floor for exactly that reason.
• A free rush for a regular. A loyal customer who needs something fast is still asking you to move someone else's order. Charge it and thank them for coming back.

When should you say no to a rush?

When you cannot make the date without breaking a promise you already made. A rush fee buys a spot ahead of the line, not a longer day for you on top of a full queue.

Cap how many rushes you take in a week. One rush is a disruption you get paid for. Four in the same week means your normal turnaround was wrong, and the fix is to raise your published window, not to keep charging rush fees on what is now your regular pace.

Also say no when the order is not ready to rush. A rush clock that starts before the customer has approved the design, chosen every thread color, and paid is a clock you will run out of. Collect payment first, the same as any other order, and see deposits and payment policies for how I handle that.

Should small orders pay a rush fee too?

Yes. Small orders are exactly why the minimum exists. A one-name tote needs the same hooping, the same thread change, and the same spot in the line as a bigger piece, and the rush fee is about the spot in the line.

This works the same way as a minimum order. If you are unsure about pricing single pieces at all, minimum orders and one-piece pricing walks through the $20 floor I use.

How to put a rush fee on the quote

Give it its own line, named plainly. A rush that shows up as a line called "Rush turnaround" reads as a service the customer chose. The same dollars hidden inside a higher piece price look like padding if they ever compare quotes.

In Broidry, the rush lives on your rate card on the Pricing & settings page as two numbers: "Rush charge," a percent of the order, and "Rush minimum," the least a rush ever costs. Whichever is bigger is what gets charged, and the quote says which one it was. New shops start at 50 percent with a $50 minimum, and you can change either one.

When a customer orders from your shop page, the order form shows how far out you are booking. If they pick a date inside that window, the form tells them it would be a rush order and shows your rush charge, and they tick a box to ask for the rush before they can send the order. That order comes to you already marked as a rush, so the rush line starts on in your quote and you decide whether to keep it. When you build a quote yourself, there is a "Rush order" switch.

For how the rush line fits with stitching, hooping, and blanks, see how to price machine embroidery, and to test your numbers on a real order, use the embroidery pricing calculator.

The short version

Charge a rush as a percentage of the order with a dollar minimum, and charge whichever is more. Mine starts at $50 and does not go lower. Base it on everything but shipping. Call it a rush anytime the date falls inside your booking window, state your lead time instead of asking for their date, and give the customer the date and the price in one message. Take only the rushes you can actually make, and get paid before the rush clock starts.