Custom Apparel Startups

Inspired by the Harvard Business Review. It's important to understand your stages of growth and when you are transitioning to a new stage. If you don't take specific actions while in each stage, you will get stuck (or worse regress). Stage 1: Existence This stage is all about the big question.. Can you get customers and deliver a product? Do I have the ability to get started financially? And do you have the money to sustain your business before break even During this stage of your business, you are heavily involved in every aspect. You may even be the entire business yourself. The main goal of this stage is making sure the business can exist and making it to stage 2! Stage 2: Survival This stage is all about financial survival. You know you CAN be a business. You know you CAN get customers. You know you CAN deliver the product. But... can you do it profitably? Can you generate enough cash-flow to break even? Including repair, maintenance, and replacement of equipment and supplies? Can you generate enough income compared to your costs to stay afloat? During this stage, you may actually significantly grow in size. You may have employees and achieve some record breaking sales for yourself. Many of you will stay here - some on purpose. This is the business that provides a "salary" or pays for the owner's lifestyle, but never goes beyond that. This may be satisfying personally, but it's very vulnerable. However, you must grow in profitability to get to stage 3. Stage 3: Traditional "Success" Getting to this stage means you have some economic health. You are profitable (meaning the business is putting money in the bank after paying you.) This is a place you can stay in indefinitely. Your business is making money. The owners are getting paid. You are stable enough to handle changes in the market, emergencies and financial setbacks. This differs from stage 2 where you are 'just making it.' Now you have a solid business with a growing bank account. This is the stage where you have some professional staff coming on board (or outsourcing.) You will most likely have employees dedicated to certain tasks (accounting, sales, production, etc.) During this stage you can go one of 2 ways: 1. Disengagement - You have the opportunity to walk away from certain aspects and know the job will get done. You can choose to only work in the aspects you desire. Maybe you just want to sell or manage staff, or run equipment. This is the 'dream' stage. You can do exactly what you want with the business, and leave all the things you hate to employees. 2. Growth - Now that you are profitable and have a business that can leverage that power. Do you risk it and shoot higher? You can take your profits and dive into a new endeavor. You can use your business's credibility to borrow money and get into bigger business. This is the stage where you would completely step away from day-to-day operations and focus on making the business grow even more. You have staff that controls every aspect of the business so you can take things to the next level. Growth has risk though, you could take yourself back a stage if the risks you take don't work out. Now you are just back to 'surviving'. On another hand, if you don't look for some level of growth you could be at risk of falling behind the competition. This growth can take you to stage 4. Stage 4: Take-Off If you have chosen 'growth' then the stage you want to hit is right here. The focus of this stage is to have financial growth including income and profitability. You are no longer focused on what's happening in your supply chain, but what's happening with financials. In order to get to this stage and succeed you must master delegation. You will have to continue to add levels of management to watch over each part of the business (as needed.) You and your team will have to manage cash and staff with precision. The business can really make it to the big leagues here, but without managing people and money, it can crash too. You can grow HUGE or you can fail miserably. If you make it you enter stage 5. Stage 5: Resource Maturity Your business has the ability to get into detailed operational and strategic planning. Your management is mature and very experienced. You have systems in place from sales to production that are well developed. Learn more about this stage by reading the HBR article. Here are some factors that determine success or failure and moving through the stages: Business factors: Financial resources - cash and borrowing power Personnel resources - quality and number of people. Levels of staff and management. System resources - the systems you have in place to keep the business performing at peak. Business resources - customer relations, market share, supplier relations, distribution process Owner factors: Owner has personal and business goals / dreams Owners abilities to do the important jobs in running the business... marketing, sales, production, delivery Owners managerial

Here's a GUARANTEE: You're wasting your time doing either one of these 5 things, or every close it. You don't realize how much of your time is being wasted. As a business owner, your time is the most valuable thing in the company. How you use this time absolutely affects your business growth and how much money you will make. You set on a journey to live a dream, don't waste time getting there. Let's go through some wasters and winners! Solving a Problem using Google Waster: Youtube, searching, forums and Facebook to try and resolve a machine issue. Winner: Contact support FIRST. You may find your answer online, you also might not and make things worse. Waster: Searching all over for 'how to do XYZ in photoshop Winner: If an art project is out of your reach, pay to get it done right. Waster: Filing business / tax paperwork when you have no clue what to do Winner: Get a CPA or use an online service. Its not too much money and it will be done RIGHT. Catering to needy clients Waster: Being at the beck and call of needy clients The 80/20 rule is true - 80% of your actual sales come from about 20% of your customers - and they're NOT needy Winner: Help them understand your time is valuable too. e.g. "I have a meeting at 1 pm, I will address your issue after" Waster: Dropping everything to fix a problem Winner: How urgent is it? Does it matter if you wait an hour, till after lunch, or tomorrow? TIP: Read the 4 Hour Work Week Your BAD at Something. But you do it Anyway Waster: You cannot digitize well. So you try, sew out, try sew out, try sew out Winner: Hire a digitizing company to get it done right. If you want to learn to digitize do it outside of business time. like 'nightschool' Waster: You are an introvert and generally unlikeable... then you try to handle customer service Winner: Hire someone to help you out. Talk to customers, handle problems etc. Waster: You get a scary legal letter, then try to look up the laws. (or ask on facebook) Winner: Send it to your attorney who will know exactly what to do. Another book: EMyth by Michael Gerber You Can't Find Anything Waster: Piles of boxes of shirts. Finding a "small" takes 5 minutes Winner: Get creative with storage. Shelves, racks etc. You can even find used stuff like this on facebook or ebay. Waster: No CRM, No Customer database. You will find yourself searching through emails and texts to find what you quoted someone Winner: Use a CRM or other database to keep track of customers info and details. Waster: No process from orders in to orders out. Winner: Have an exact thought out process for your orders. This should include not only the method but the set up of your space. Penny Pinching Waster: Jamming vinyl designs or transfer designs so close, it takes 5 minutes just to cut them out. Winner: Don't worry about saving $0.50 in materials. If you get the job done faster that means you can do more to make $$. Waster: Always price shopping supplies that cost almost nothing. e.g. thread Winner: Buy from somewhere you trust and is consistent. Your inventory and results are easier to manage. Waster: Trying to save money with lower quality materials. Winner: Use quality supplies and apparel. Your customers will like it, they work better and overall you win. You've got the opportunity to achieve and exceed your dreams in front of you. Don't waste time getting caught up in the details of things that won't help you achieve your dream. Litmus Test: Whenever you are doing something that takes a long time. Ask yourself. "Is this task going to help me achieve my goals?" - if it's not, don't do it!

Thinking like a big business is going to change the way you act and run your business. This change is going to allow you to adapt to changes & reach your growth goals. What thinking like a big business can do for YOUR Business What does it mean to ‘think like a big business.’ This means you are planning things out, standardizing practices, preparing for troubled waters, documenting everything and adopting SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) for essentially everything. Think Strategically Often times small business just think job-to-job. When is my next order, when it is due, etc. Often times the thinking strategically is left out. You have to think with your long term and short term goals in mind with every decision. Some decisions today are really frustrating to make, but you know its one you have to make for a long term win. e.g. We just did an experiment with cheap vs premium digitizing service. Basically $10 vs $100. Spoiler: the cheap digitizing had 10k more stitches, took 20 min longer to sew out and had a bunch of thread breaks…. PLUS.. looked terrible. Thinking small might have you say, “let me just get the job done and move on. This is only a $600 job, how can I spend $100 on digitizing” – THINKING BIG would say. This job is for the Fire Chief. If I make this look amazing and impress the Chief, i could land a ton more business from the Fire Dept, in addition to the notoriety that my embroidery business does the work for the county fire dept. Use Technology Whenever possible use software and hardware to make your job easier and more efficient. Investing in something that streamlines your shop means you are going to produce orders more productively and streamlined. Delivery faster, less mistakes = more satisfied customers. e.g. investing in a all-in-one hooper means you hoop faster and more accurate. Using a CRM for managing customers means you won’t forget to follow up. Using your phone calendar means you won’t forget to show up for appointments. Maintenance SOPs Your equipment won’t maintain itself. You need to create standard operating procedures for keeping your equipment clean, maintained and up to date. Well oiled machines perform well (literally and figuratively). This means writing down and posting SOPs for your equipment including (but not limited to): – Pre-Job preparation – Post-job clean up – Daily maintenance – Weekly maintenance – etc etc. e.g. Have you ever noticed in a bathroom they have posted the times to clean and sign off on who did it? You should do the same thing. Have a maintenance sign off form. Even if you do it 100% yourself. Supply SOPs There are two things you need to do when it comes to supplies. Maintain proper inventory Project quantities needed for the future This is how a retail store runs. They are consistently counting whats on hand and creating projections for what they will need in the future. A grocery store knows that pumpkin spice is going to fly off the shelf Sept-Nov. Compared to selling almost none during the spring. This is how you need to run your shop. If you know you are going to use a ton of white vinyl in Sept.. stock up early so you don’t run out. Make Brand Based Decisions In previous episodes, we have discussed the personality of your business. The look and feel of your business should match in all of your customer facing property and collateral. In other words, your website, facebook page, invoices, quotes and emails should all feel like your brand and your business. Know your Expenses A big business knows every expense and how to categorize them. If you aren’t tracking your expenses diligently, you could be running yourself into debt and out of business. R&D should always be on your mind You should always be researching the industry and thinking about the next big thing for your business. Having the knowledge means when the timing is right, you will know when to jump on an opportunity. Also, be sure you know how to use your equipment to all its abilities. Don’t know how to embroider caps? Spend time each week practising. Big businesses are always looking forward and are educated about the industry. Knowledge is power. Treat Big Businesses as Equals When you have the opportunity to land a big account, be sure to pursue the opportunity as a big business would. What are some things a big business might do differently: – Their decisions are multi-dimensional – Be sure to properly qualify them before quoting them. Do they have certain quality standards? Why are they changing vendors? is a low price more important than a premium garment? – They may not move quickly – Be sure to understand their pace. Find out their timeline and be sure to stick with it. – The person you speak to might not make the decisions – Find out how the decision is being made so you can better deliver value to them. – They want to partner with good businesses – If you are thinking and acting like a big business, it will get noticed. You look like someone who will be a tru

Welcome to CAS Mini-Cast! These short tips, tricks and messages from the hosts of the Custom Apparel Podcasts are all about snack-sized, useful action items you can apply to your business right away. Here’s the things you should take a look at: Privacy Statement Contact Info Correct Product Descriptions Ordering Information Up to Date Test Your Contact Form Check Your Phone Message Is Your Auto Response Correct Out of Stock or Discontinued Item All The Download Links Work Check Every Page on Mobile Are All Menu Links Working

GREAT graphics are extremely important to your business. They save you time, money and make you look good. Poor quality graphics hinders everything in your business. How good graphics and digitizing makes a difference: Save time Better graphics are more efficient for your equipment (Thread breaks and # stitches) ACTUAL design time - The time YOU spend working on art vs other tasks. Cost in materials Less mistakes - every bad print, sew out, etc wastes supplies. Paper, Toner, Ink, shirts Less Supplies used - Better designs are more efficient. Less ink and toner Avoid tech support issues Your equipment outputs as good as the art you put in it. 25-75% of support requests are art issues It's not how cheap you can get it, it's how much money you can make with that graphic. 3 Options for Graphic Arts You do it Hire in house Farm it out You do it - Why would you do it yourself? You love it It's WHY you got into the business You have super high standards (artists are never happy) It's PART of your messaging Hire in house - Why would you hire an artist? You can't do it High standards adjacent Live input - turn around time Messaging & Branding - You describe your business as being the artists. Farm it out You can't and/or don't want to Cash flow - Only paying for that work, when it is paid for already Scalability - When business is slow, don't pay for art. When it's busy, get all your art done. Focus on sales - Don't spend time trying to figure the art out, spend it on making money. Case for Outsourcing - Why WE like it. 5 designs in a day or 10 in a day - not scalable You hate it You're a maker, not a graphic designer YOU just can't do every kind of art well - good at a genre, corporate vs fun you can't afford, nor do you need a full-time graphics person How many designs/digitizing do you actually DO per month and will that pay for a person. Doing the Art is NOT making you money - spend that time on sales, marketing, learning Also, Check out https://coldesi.com/

Picture this... close your eyes... (not if driving) You pull up to your beach hotel for a vacation. As you pull up you notice the big palm trees, flowers and a big driveway to pull up to a grand entrance. As you arrive, someone is there to greet you and open your door. You enter into the lobby and smell the fresh scent of flowers with a hint of mint. You are guided to your room and when you walk in there are fresh flowers, some water and drinks on ice. Throughout your stay you get doors held for you, chocolates put on your pillow and smiles everywhere. How would you rate this hotel vs the EXACT same hotel without all the extras and fluff? This is exactly what creating a memorable customer experience is all about. Give your customers an experience that sets you apart from everyone else: They will like you more They will remember you They will perceive your product as being of higher value (more $$ for you) According to a study done by Oracle: Customer experience impacts willingness to be loyal Customers will switch brands due to poor experience Customer is willing to pay for a better experience Simply put, happy customers remain loyal. The way to create MORE happy customers is through creating a great experience for them. Ways to improve your customers' experience Create your vision Write down a vision statement for how your customers should feel when they interact with your business Example: We want our customers to feel like their order is important no matter how big it is. That it's not just about us taking orders, but creating custom apparel that exceeds their expectations and inspires them. Deliver on-time, every-time with stellar results. Know your customer What is your niche? If they are urban, cool and trendy then match your style to that type of person. They might want to be able to communicate via text message and more likely to choose apparel that's less 'common'. If your customer is a parent of an elementary school student. They are probably very busy and would like email updates or text alerts on how their order is being processed. Create a 'persona' for your customer. Describe your customer narrowed down to 1 or 2 people. Example: Our ideal customer is a parent of 2 kids. They are very involved in their child's school. They both work full time and cherish their family time. They aren't interested in poor quality apparel but want their children to look great for pictures and be comfortable at school. Become emotionally connected You have to know how your customers emotionally. What makes them happy? What would disappoint them? What is important to them? Example: If you know your customers are really busy, then empathize that with them during conversations. Go the extra mile to save them time, or make it very easy for them. Maybe you deliver to homes or deliver to the school. Package up apparel with tags/notes so they can easily find them at the school. Go the extra mile when possible. If the customer mentioned they have been so busy they don't even have time for breakfast, you can put a note in their order with a breakfast protein bar. "Enjoy this the next time you are too busy to cook breakfast" Always ask for feedback... then act on it! Send a follow-up email/survey to ask how the order went. Ask during the process if they feel good about anything. If you have an upset customer, use it as a learning experience. what could you have done better/different in hindsight. Building a customer experience plan Initial contact How do you greet them? How do you let them know all you have to offer? How will you make them feel welcome Quote Stage Make sure quote is clear and communicated well. Deliver in a way that is good for them. email a pdf? in person meeting? Purchase Stage Do you accept payment in a way that is good for them? Paypal? Credit card? apple pay? cash? Terms? Fulfillment How will communicate order status? Package the products to look nice. fold, bag, box Any finishing touches? notes, stickers, chachkies, free gifts Post sale Thank you message Make sure they were happy Ask for a review or survey In addition to this, one of the most important things you cannot miss is having a plan for when you make a mistake. What will you do when you order the wrong color shirts or forget to order the 2XL Shirts, or you are going to be a day late on delivery. It will happen so have a plan! Customers have a ton of options and are empowered to make the choice of who they will do business with. Be sure the experience you deliver is the best for YOUR customer.

Since you are running through this series, you are going to stumble upon sales opportunities. It's important to do 2 things when an opportunity arises: Recognize the potential for opportunity Take actions when the opportunity is presented. So how would you go about doing this? Let's jump into some ways to recognize a potential customer and how you could take the next step into getting them closer to being another satisfied customer. Look for visual clues: They stop at your booth or eyeball the shirt you're wearing They are wearing custom branded apparel - like for a business Facial expression when you show them what you do Come by your shop/booth or visit more than once They are obviously IN your niche market target wearing cheer, business logo, bicycle shorts They're USING promotional products Listen for verbal clues: Oh yea we always get custom shirts made Where do you get them now? What could they do better for you? Do you customize ............ hats, bags,etc Discuss all the things you offer and suggest things they should get I've thought about doing this Great, let me show you the benefits and how it's affordable Do you have a storefront? Why do you ask? is there something you are looking for? I customize anything Do you have a business card? Why do you ask? is there something you are looking for? - Let me get your info too Do you have Facebook / Insta etc? Of course. I am always curious why people have an interest to follow. Interested in seeing samples or reviews? Converting Conversation Starters: In Person It looks like you get custom shirts done, where do you get that? I see you bought some custom apparel before - I'd like to chat about a little higher quality option, okay? A lot of businesses like yours give away swag/wear custom t-shirts I've got a bunch of clients in [insert niche], can I show you a few examples? I was in a [insert their business] the other day and it looked like they were doing great selling t-shirts - have you thought about that? People always stop and look at that design. What size are you? Converting to the Sale: In Person I'd love to show you what I can do - how about if I make you one? It sounds like you do a lot of different things - I'd love to be a part of that. Why don't you make a small mixed order now and let's see how they do? While you look around - how about if I make you one of these? They're only $____ Why don't you hire me to do that logo/shirt/design a little better? I'm sure you'll be happier with it I love that design too - do you want me to wrap it up or have it delivered? I'm sure you'll be happier with the work I do - why don't you place a small order now, then if you like them we can discuss a larger one? On the phone Can I save you some shopping time? I'm going to do a great job at a great price - I promise you'll be happy with the results. Why don't you just let me take the order now and I'll get started? I've got time in production schedule tomorrow or Friday - can I put your job in one of those time slots? You'll be happy with the price detail I'm sure - when do you need me to deliver the shirts? I'm about to start a big job - if you place the order now I can probably get it done beforehand? is Tuesday delivery in your time frame? Next Steps: Write down some of these converting phrases and make them your own Practice them [corny, but necessary] Use them - and keep track of when you don't. See if your sales improve!

Now that you have gotten someone's email address. what do you do next? We have compiled a list of 4 very important emails you should be sending ... and WHY. We will go through what the emails mean, why you would send them and some methods for delivery. Email 1: Intro/Welcome After someone gets on your email list, the basic first email should be an introduction. This would include: Delivering information you promised (if you promised something.. like a free download or coupon) Thanking them for visiting you, purchasing, signing up. How to contact you in the future A very brief summary of who you are and/or what you do. Links to your website, socials, etc Email 2: New Product This is an email that goes out to your list in a batch and blast. This is to gather interest and catch attention. You might send out things like: There is a new style of shirts you like from Fruit of the Loom you think works great with your decorating method. You just added an Avance embroidery machine or DigitalHeat FX Printer or Compress UV Printer. You never offered hats before and now you do. You have an online store and have new designs that came out. The frequency of the above email depends on your store. If you mainly do customized apparel, you may only announce things with the season. e.g. long sleeve apparel for the winter, or sports based on their season. If you sell designs online, and they update weekly. You probably should send an email every week with new designs. Email 3: Sales/Promos/Events The only way your customers will know if you have a sale, promo or event is if you tell them. Examples of these emails: You are offering a promo buy 10 shirts get a customized hat free Your apparel supplier has specific shirts on sale and you can pass on that savings to customers (save 10% on all XYZ brand shirt orders the next 2 weeks ) You have free shipping offer on your website this week BOGO offer Your business has a booth at the Jazz, Fishing and Noodling Expo You are having a grand opening for your store. Bring your kids to make shirts event at your store with pizza Email 4: Infotainment This is entertaining your customers with information. Educational content they will want to read or watch. This could be: How to wash apparel for the best life of shirt video Do's and Don't of picking sizes for shirts How to properly design a t-shirt How to manage a fundraising event for shirts at your school Watch me make 100 hats and how yours could be next. The above emails are generally a batch and blast type of email. Meaning that as the idea comes together you email your list. You can easily plan some of these out (like events). Others might happen on the fly (your apparel supplier offers a flash sale). Lastly, you will put some of these into an automation. Meaning "when the person signs up for the list, they get the intro email" Don't get caught up in making your emails look like they came from a Fortune 500 company. Also, make sure they don't look like they were put together sloppily. Two styles beginners can do: Graphics and Text: Heading text Main image Body Text Link Text Only: Personal letter signed by you Call to action to click a link, reply or call in

You’ve selected your target market – Episode 101 – and you’ve put a marketing and advertising plan in place – Episode 102 – but tied up into both of those things, and something that will absolutely make a difference in your long term success is Lead Capture. Simply put: How do you get people’s information so you can market to them? What do you do with that information.. so you can market to them? But first, YOU have to embrace the reason you want to collect people’s name email address. It’s so you can email them. Why do YOU want to email them? So you’ll be more successful and make more money. Because you understand that email marketing is what drives a huge amount of retail success. Look at your own email inbox and think about how often that’s inspired you to buy something. Why do THEY want you to email them? Because they’ll save money. (Sale) They’ll learn about the latest products/options (exclusivity, prestige). So they won’t forget.. something. (Holidays/Gifts/Occasions) Gut Check: Go back to your email inbox and find the most recent 3 marketing emails from a business you recognize – why did you sign up for those lists? It will be the same for your customers. With that in mind – let’s talk about ways to capture prospect information: The How – Using your Marketing and Advertising methods from the last podcast to send them: On your website: Website Pop up Alert Bars Contact Page Off your website: Facebook Leads Chat bot Onsite signup sheet Local Event Sign up In Store Sign up Sign up customers manually But WHY are they signing up? Offering a Lead Magnet Coupon Limited time offer (freebie) Free Design Guide Win something How to…. Guide to picking apparel for business How to get the best deal on event t-shirts How to not get ripped off on custom t-shirts T-shirt sizing guide for custom apparel Reasons why customers sign up … aka newsletter To keep in touch Learn about new apparel coming out Specials, offers, discounts Reminders to do things…. e.g. back to school are you ready? The key to it all: The key to building a good list is having people who want your emails. That doesn’t mean they love every email you send every time. It means that they want to remain on your list and don’t want to unsubscribe. When your email is relevant in subject matter or timing, they react. E.g. You don’t open every email from Home Depot, but you are thinking of remodelling your kitchen, and an email comes out about how to pick paint colors. You may have deleted the past 3 emails, but you didn’t delete yourself from the list because you still liked getting them. This is what you want from your customers and potential customers. Build a list of people who like getting your emails. When the email and timing is right, it will cause them to take action!

In this CAS Podcast episode, you will learn how to advertise and market to your niche. Episode 17 https://customapparelstartups.com/episode-17-know-numbers-value-customer/ LTV spreadsheet is a lead magnet. Intro Knowing your numbers Episode 17 we're going to cover the very basics Actually Marketing and Advertising you have a niche, how do you reach them First, we'll divide between reaching them locally or online, then we'll discuss ways to reach them in each. Off-line Marketing and Advertising + Local Customers: Number 1 Goal of this is that everyone in your niche, in your area, knows who you are and what you do. Networking in the niche - including events Where what you do - all the time Actual Sales - Active Word of Mouth Like approaching the owner of an archery range/store Visiting your niche directly - if you sell to hair salons, for example Advertising locally In Print Facebook Marketplace Craigslist Local FB Groups and Meetups Online Advertising Free: GoogleMyBusiness Facebook Page/Group Marketing Facebook Dos and Don'ts https://customapparelstartups.com/episode-26-facebook-business-dos-donts-facebook/ Getting Found Online: https://customapparelstartups.com/episode-19-getting-found-online/ Instagram Growing FAST Images are King Searchable # are great for niches Paid: Google Ads - paid search is hard and can be expensive because you're competing with big sellers Facebook ads can be a big win Platform Ads: Etsy Promoted Listings Amazon Ads Listings in local group sites / boards e.g. Florida Fishermen's Forum

This is Part 1 of ”t-shirt business marketing plan” series and we talk about how to pick a niche that is going to be successful for your custom t-shirt business. The action steps we share apply for people who are just getting started or are already in business and want to learn how to take advantage of other profitable niches and grow their business. What is niching down? Outdoor Life Hunting Bow Hunting Female Bow Hunting Deer Bowhunting Geographical Bow Hunting: FB – multiple groups with 5-10k+ Reddit – 15k+ Instagram – 1.6 million posts Outdoor Life: Fishing Freshwater Fishing Noodling Noodling: Youtube – numerous accounts with 100k + subscribers and videos with 100k views. Instagram – 37k posts with # Facebook – largest on FB 1400 – ding against the idea Reddit – no subreddit How do you know it’s a good niche: -Passionate community Big enough to support you Not over-served You have some affinity for (best if you’re a “member” but you definitely can’t hate it) Have money to spend Search online e.g. hashtag Where do you find that information: Facebook Groups – search the large Market and look at Group Memberships and posts per day. Meetup.com and look at membership to Market Groups in different areas Conventions and Markets Reddit Instagram Exercise: Big to Small Choosing your Niche – follow the logic down from Outdoor themes to Competition fly fishing or something What to do once you choose: Determine the vibe of the Group? Environmental Aggressive Political Funny Write down what gets the most attention Been there – Tournaments, places Tools – all about the equipment Mavens – who does everyone follow Create Stock Designs to test Participate Ask for feedback “Hey all, working on some new shirt designs. -Which do you like best?” Share images if appropriate. like an Instagram hashtag or –Facebook group or Reddit post

Top 10 CAS Podcast episodes: Episode 76 – How to Build Your Online Store – The Right Way! Episode 87 – What to Do When Bad Things Happen Episode 83 – Insights From The Apparel Geek – Monty Mims From Sanmar Episode 86 – What Success Looks Like in DTG Printing and More! Episode 85 – 12 Steps to Grow Your Home Based Business Episode 73 – Copyrights and Trademarks in the Custom T-Shirt Business Episode 81 – Today’s Best Marketing Opportunity FACEBOOK With Manuel Suarez [Facebook Blueprint Certified] Episode 84 – Good Better Best (Sales Strategy) Episode 82 – Lessons Your Kids Can Teach You About Owning a Business Episode 90 – Your Cricut Based Business Next Steps We've got over what the most popular of our previous 99 episodes have been - but here are the ones that we think are the most IMPORTANT. The ones that are most valuable and we wish all of you would listen too. Mark S.'s most important episodes: Episode 67 – How to Add $$ to Every Sale Episode 68 - Re-Upselling | Making the Most of Current Customers Episode 69 – The Science of Upselling | The Best Ways to Talk to Your Customers Episode 29 – Make More Money Next Month – Creating Active Word of Mouth Episode 30 – Make More Money Next Month – Small Business Phone Skills Episode 31 – Make More Money Next Month – Using Email for Profit Episode 86 – What Success Looks Like in DTG Printing and More! Episode 73 – Copyrights and Trademarks in the Custom T-Shirt Business Episode 96 – Beat The Competition: Evaluating The Competitor Episode 97 – Beat The Competition: Rebranding, Restructuring or Reinvesting Episode 98 – Beat The Competition: Turn Competitors To Partners Episode 82 – Lessons Your Kids Can Teach You About Owning a Business Episode 78 – 4 Steps to Hiring Your First Salesperson Episode 72 – Profit FIRST! Interview With Mike Michalowicz

In this CAS Podcast episode, we share 9 important things on how to be an amazing business person. If you follow them it can massively improve your business like never before! First in – Last out As your business is growing, it’s all you. You put in the time to get things done. You make sure every order is perfect. You ensure every customer is happy. You make sure all the bills are made. You know your staff is doing the job. You’re on pace for goals. Relationship building expert Your employees want to work for you. Your customers like giving you money. Your vendors want a long relationship with you. Your partners see value in you. Crisis Management Adept Know how to handle an upset customer Prepared to work through financial issues Have a plan for equipment downtime Inventory management problems Working through staffing problems Financial Acumen Ability to make a good judgement on financial decisions Know what you have coming in and out Having knowledge of cash-flow Making quality quick decisions that have a big impact Flexibly Minded Your business is going to change You will have to roll with the punches Maybe you aren’t doing something the best way Learn from mentors and friends Thirst for new connections Network with potential partners Sometimes just help people Build relationships because you never know where they will go Hunger to learn Take the time to learn things you don’t know If you are going to add on a new service, do research Before you hire someone to do something, understand the jargon Handles Competition Don’t fear competition Don’t fold every time Be as aggressive as you feel good about Understand and research them Internally Motivated You have to want to do it Hunger to get up and make things better If you are going to think, think big

After listening to the past two episodes you might find you have a few competitors that are clearly going to be long term struggles for you. They might have a great formula down for business practice, production, sales, pricing, etc. These competitors might be right in your vertical market or maybe is a market close to yours. You may sell spirit wear, and they focus on sports uniforms. You might deal with dance, and they deal with ice skating. You may sell corporate wear, and they do as well but offer a different decoration method. Screen printing vs embroidery. Either way, they are here to stay and you might have to go head to head with them on some sales. What else can you do? Turn your competitor into a partner So first why should you? Aren't they the enemy!? It makes you look like a good company/person If you and your competition are friendly, customers will trust you are a good business/person. "Oh, yea... Marco from The Print Shop. Yea I know him, we have worked together on projects..." If you are friendly with Marco, he is less likely to be hostile towards your business. Respect you / your staff / your customers. People outlast business You never know what will happen with Marco and his business. Maybe he will call you up to sell you his business one day. Maybe he will downsize and ask if you are looking for an employee, he has a great person for you. Maybe his embroidery equipment will die and will outsource to you. It puts customers #1 You want to get 500 shirts with 1 color as cheap as possible. Let me send you over to Jackie's shop. she can do this fast and cheap. Competition becomes a friendly challenge vs a war You are like sports competitors that practice and compete, but after the game you can go out to eat together. What are the things you can do together? Refer business when it should be You don't have an engraving machine, they do. Send the customer that way Outsource Customer wants hats, shirts, bags and engraved glass awards You do all the rest. Take the order for the awards. Your new partner sells the award to you at a discounted rate so you can mark it up. Partner up at events If there is a local event, make one big booth together. Pool resources and agree on the specific products you will show off. If you get leads / sign ups... split them up. Create an economy of scale Do you both stock the same caps? Order them together and save $$ for qty discounts. Enter a new market together You both have wanted to get into the restaurant uniform business. Partner together to maximize potential This is great if you are both small, and have a large business that's hard to go up against. Join forces. How do you get started? Make the first move Call them, email them, visit them Compliment their business Tell them you want to work together Advise you want to join forces to improve each other Have some of your strengths ready to share (especially you researched them and it compliments their weakness) Attend events Go to events where your competition will be & meet them Refer them business in an obvious way Call them and say. Hi this is Marc from MM Embroidery. I have a customer here who needs 20 awards made. I've been hearing you are the shop to go to. I am going to send him your way, his name is Jose. Once you do this... follow up with another call or email. Tell them you'd like to work on doing this together more often. Share struggles with them Maybe a huge plant closed down and you know all the apparel businesses are suffering. Come at them with this and say, I'd love to work together on getting our business back up. We surveyed 100 business owners and 80% are currently doing this. There will be times you get burned and times you make out like a bandit. Keep your guard up while also opening up a friendly relationship. The more you do it, the better you will get.

After listening to Episode 96 you should have a great insight on your competition. Chances are there are many custom apparel shops in your area, but only a few seem to be direct competition. Holding tight to your business structure and running a great business should put you on the path to leading the pack. These include: Mastering your craft Having awesome customer service Delivering orders correctly and on time Balancing the right price for the right product Have a solid sales / marketing plan The above are essential to leading the pack of your competition. If you are lacking in any of the above, spend the time and effort to take things to the next level. (you can try listening to more podcasts first, as we cover all of these topics) However, sometimes it's not that simple. What happens when the competition is so much better at all of the above? For example, imagine you own a small donut shop. You make some delicious glazed donuts and people line up every morning to get their coffee and breakfast. One day a new donut shop opens up. They: Are in a parking lot easier to get into Have brand new automated machines which means less staff cooking, and more to serve customers They have new coffee equipment that lets them whip up lattes at 2x the speed They are priced better because everything is less work for the staff And.. you tried the donuts.... they are really good. How do you compete with this? You notice your line is shorter and profits are down. You cant lower pricing, you can't serve customers as fast. This story can be true of any business, how do you handle if your market seems saturated or the competition in your niche is beating you across the board What's next? You have some choices to make that involve: Rebranding, Restructuring or Reinvesting Rebranding - This involves changing the look and feel of your company. It can involve a complete name and style change, or just an overall look to help appeal to your demographic. Reasons to Rebrand: You are selling to too tight of a vertical / niche market and need to expand Only selling spirit wear but want to open up to corporate Only selling ladies dance apparel and want to offer sports apparel too Your message and business don't match Your company is Tampa Embroidery - but now you offer UV printing and t-shirt transfers (in fact that might even be more than 1/2 your business) When people are looking for you, they might make assumptions about what you do. Your style / name / message seem dated in a sea of modern competition Which one of these granola bars would you buy for kids Restructuring - This is when you change the way your business operates. It can involve any facet of the business. Reasons to Restructure: Need to improve sales force More sales people, or new sales people, or ANY sales people Production methods are inefficient Alter the flow of production, tracking of orders, etc Removing product offering You might offer engraving, but the machine is old, slow and you aren't making much profits Changing pricing structure Focus on pricing that brings in larger (or smaller) orders Going ONline - or focusing locally Reinvesting - Putting more money into your business to revamp it. Taking from profits and putting back into the business for the sake of growth / maintaining business. Reasons to reinvest: You've got old equipment that doesn't perform. Slow machine Breaks down Quality of the product is down You've got old technology You are using a transfer style that was in its peak in the 90s You are still loading embroidery jobs with tapes Your computer is running windows 98 You don't have anything new to offer or different than the competition Obviously, we are a bit biased because we are in the machine business, but we hear about companies reinvesting consistently. The results are amazing. We have embroidery companies who see the value in offering UV prints. We have companies running a 20 year old embroidery business than realize no one local is offering bling. Reinvesting is one of the ways long standing companies stay on top. Bringing in new technology and new structured for the business to outpace the competition. Be sure to build a plan and make changes like the mentioned above after you've determined one or all of these are necessary to win.

Another store has opened up or YOU are the new store. Business is slow and you really feel its because of that competition. Their prices are too low, or they seem to draw in all the big accounts. Whatever it is, you suspect it's them and they are holding you back from success. Here is the catch.. how do you really know? What evidence do you have? In this episode, we are going to take a dive into your competition to figure out a few things. Are they actually taking business from you? Are you competing in the same market, for the same customers? Are they targeting your business/customers? A step by step guide to answering the above and more. Step 1 - Identification This step is crucial. You may have an idea who your competition is, but it's important to dig deep and find out all of your potential competitors. The shop down the street with the big sign might feel like your biggest competition, when in fact they don't deal within your niche. So it's important to dig deep. Online - Google, Bing, FB, Instagram, Linked in - These are the big 5 to start searching for competition. What keywords do your customers find YOU with? For example, if you search Custom T-Shirts Your City - who shows up? Ask your customers- Talk to local business owners that do buy from you.. and those that don't but own custom apparel. Hit the streets - Go to places where your customers go and look for signs of competition. Ball games, local businesses, events. Ask THEM where they got their gear. Step 2 - Look at their marketing/branding. Check out their facebook account, ads they run, website, store location. This is going to help you determine what customers they attract and how they get the business. Use this to build a profile for each competitor. Write it down! What is their brand personality? Do they spend a lot in ads? Do they appear to have a sales team? What type of customer do they attract? (corporate, sports, schools, etc) Step 3 - Shop them Become their customer or shop with them acting like you will be. Check out their pricing and their process and answer the following: What is their price for: 1 offs, 10 shirts, 100 shirts, hats, etc Do they charge for set up, digitizing, art, etc Do they require a deposit? What is their delivery time? What shirts do they use? What technology do they use? (DTG, embroidery, screen, etc) Look at their online reviews Step 4 - Compare and Contrast Create a spreadsheet and start with you. Take all of your research and compile it into something easy to read and evaluate. What you will do with this data is : Determine who toughest competitors will be Determine where you shine See room in the market for new technology or niches Find out if someone even competes with you at all Help you figure out the next steps. In the next episode, we are going to discuss if you need to work on any rebranding, restructuring or reinvesting. Now that you know about your competition you know a few things. Is the competition real or is it you aren't doing well enough drumming up business in your nice. Are you competing way to close in a tough market and need to make changes If you were to make changes... what might they be?

Wordpress makes up a huge portion of websites... way more than you would expect. About 25% of all websites are built on the WordPress CMS (content management system) What is Wordpress? Wordpress is an online website creation tool. It allows you to create and post web pages and blog posts without needing to know any code. AKA a Content Management System Who should use Wordpress? -You want to build a website with limitless possibilities that can be altered or changed to your personal preferences at any time. -You aren't sure if you want an eCommerce store -You are considering posting articles/blog posts -You'd like to manage your own pages/blog posts without knowing code. -You don't want to pay the huge fees and maintenance costs of custom coding an entire site. What are the downsides? Wordpress will require some maintenance. You are going to have to update the websites software regularly. When doing updates, there is a risk you can 'break' something. So have help handy. How to build your first website with Wordpress Step 1 - Pick a place to search and purchase your domain -There are plenty of places to register and purchase your domain name. It's actually a bit more like leasing it... you have to continue to renew it or you lose it. -We will focus on two for the podcast for reasons explained later BlueHost.com Godaddy.com -Once you are here begin to check if the domain you want is available. The #1 you should go for first is yourbusinessname.com If that is not available, consider other options: Yourbusinessname.net Yourbusinessname.co youtbusinessname.biz yourbusinessnameonline.com -If you have a very common name, you may have to get creative. Just make sure its something that makes sense and your customers can find easily. -Purchase the rights to the domain now... this should be about $15 a year. (buy more years, save more money) Step 2 - Get your Hosting set up -Hosting is essentially where the data for your store will live. -Godaddy and Bluehost both have 'Wordpress Hosting" - this means its all set up for a WordPress page. You don't have to hire a web developer to set it up for you. -Choose your plan - monthly or annual fee (usually about $80-150/yr) -Essentially the lowest cost option is probably enough to get you started. -Look at the list and see if upgrades make sense to you. -If you aren't sure call the company and tell them about your site, they will advise the right plan. -Here's where you also get your business email address - you can get Google suite or Office online with a domain email for $5-$15/month. Step 3 - Initial Site Set up -This step will be easy if you used Godaddy or BlueHost. In a few clicks they complete all the steps for you. Step 4 - Picking a Theme / Template -The theme is the overall look and design of your site that has been pre-build by a developer. These are going to be from Free up to $100. -Going with a prebuild theme is one of the benefits of WordPress. A lot of the work to set the site up is done, you just fill in the blanks. -Under THEMES in your Wordpress Dashboard you will see an option to add new themes. You can search from tens of thousands of themes. -Free themes are tempting, but they are free for a reason. Paid themes usually come with tech support and have more options. -You can also check out Themeforest.net - this is a marketplace for themes. They are known for having great themes for a reasonable price. $50 will usually buy you a very good quality theme. Step 5 - Install and Set up your theme -Installing is easy, its right under that ad theme area of the WordPress dashboard. There are 100 youtube videos on how to do this. -Once installed follow their instructions/documentation to the T! Start at step one and finish at the end. The theme has this set up for a reason. Step 6 - Begin customizing -Now that your site and theme are set up, you can begin to add your own text, images, menus and posts. TIPS: -When uploading images make sure they are the right size. e.g too small will look BAD. Here are examples of sizes -Small image within text / Logo 150-300 pixels wide -Large featured image - 500 - 1000 pixels wide -Background image - 1500 - 3000 pixels wide -If the page/post doesn't look like it should in the theme, contact support for the theme. Include screenshots and they can tell you if you missed a step. -Work on one thing at a time - don't try to build the entire site in a night. -Basic frame should be -Home Page -Contact Page -About Page Should you hire help? -If you are struggling with some of the above steps, you might want to hire some help to get the job done. You can find WordPress experts for a fairly low price on places like upwork.com or fivrr.com. -Hire someone to help you with customizing, designing and getting things right. Since you are working with a WordPress theme, you likely aren't going to have to pay a ton. -When hiring someone go to USERS in your WordPress dashboard. There you can give them a login, that you can later revoke if you no

You can create amazing marketing content. Creating an effective marketing plan is the goal of all entrepreneurs, but the execution is often lacking. In this episode of the CAS podcast, we are helping you get set up to create a successful marketing campaign. As a custom apparel business owner, your success in marketing not only depends on having good ideas, but also executing those ideas to make sure you have measurable success. Stage 1: Make a Plan Define your Brand - what is your business personality? One exercise would be selecting 3 words that describe how you want to be seen to your customers. Examples: Professional - Funny - Masculine - Feminine - Edgy - Witty - Artistic - Soothing - Rustic - Retro - Mature - Jolly - Glamorous - Graceful - Rebellious - Youthful - Urban - Country - Vintage - Active - Intense - Lush - Inspiring - Religious - Hip - Fun - Timeless - Contemporary - Casual - Athletic - Classic Do you have a plan/strategy for what this marketing will do? Specifically. What is your GOAL Brand awareness Sell a particular item Drive people to your event Get people to buy from your website what kind of customers will you bring in? What is your audience? What is a number of customers and revenue you want to gain? Where do you want to deliver your message? Facebook Google Search Print Local Advertising Organic Search Boards/Newsletters/Hand-Outs Outbound Sales - Knocking doors What will the message be? Coupon / Promo Let people know your business exists Offer free consultation Advertise specific designs / styles Does this align with your brand? Be sure your marketing aligns with your business personality. Is your message and delivery method lined up? Consider your message and if it makes sense. If you have edgy/rebellious brand... it might not work well with a message designed for making corporate apparel. If your brand is feminine and glamorous ... marketing to a soccer team might not work as well. Location matters too Local youth sports.. bulletin boards / Hand Outs, YES Paid Google search .. NO Skater t-shirts - Facebook, YES Church bulletin board, NO What is your Goal? Set a number of sales, revenue earned, number of new customers. Essentially answer the question.. "If i can earn $X then I would do this marketing again" Stage 2: Set Up Creative Do you need art? Images? pictures? Video? How will they get done? What are the specs? CTA What do you want your prospect to do? Visit website, call you, attend an event. Offer What is the specific offer? Why are they going to follow through with your CTA? Coupon, deal, special, freebie Shareable Get the best bang for your buck. Make it shareable... website, social, email sign up, Facebook page like, etc. Stage 3: Create Sketch it out Briefly sketch it out on paper/computer. What will it look like? is it just text? Have an idea of what your marketing content will look like. a concept. Well Designed Your art should meet requirements of ad needs. Always overshoot on quality, you don't want poor quality in your design, art, pics, etc. Don't DIY if not in your skillset Matching pieces Be sure your images, colors, fonts and word styling all match. If your images look casual, be sure your wording/brand is. If it feels corporate, don't wear flip flops in the video Free of Typos and poor grammar Stage 4: Execute / Test Usually this is a stage where you take your first shot (or shots) and see how it works out. You aren't always looking for a massive win, but signs that this is the right direction. If you plan to advertise in every local park for sports apparel, start with one and see how it works. If you plan to advertise on Facebook, start with a couple of ads with different offers or images and a small budget. Once you see its working, bump up the budget. Step 5: Revamp or Scale Up Two things may have happened here: Marketing landed somewhere between terrible failure and below your goal. If this is the case, revamp your ideas. Try something different. Try a different offer or goal. SUCCESS - if this happened don't mess with it! Spend more, scale it up, and keep an eye on it until it reaches max potential.

Small business owners ask a ton of questions, a lot of great ones too. Yet, there are a handful of really important questions that rarely get asked about marketing. We have put together the most important marketing questions you should be asking to help drive your business towards your dreams. Here are the questions you should be asking: What’s the best marketing for my business? Understanding your options How much should I spend? Should I do it myself? Should I be Email marketing? What KIND of website do I need? If any! before asking “How should i build my website?” What should I be doing on social media? Is what “Bob” does right for my business? How do I LEARN ABOUT MARKETING? Types of marketing we discuss: Internet marketing SEO Social Media Print Search Engine – PPC Video Relationship Marketing Having a plan for marketing and knowing what you are talking about sets your business up for success. Be sure to listen to the rest of the episodes to learn all you can about marketing and setting your business up for success.

Why should you validate your new products? You should know if your new product meets a few standard criteria. You want to be able to: make money with it, understand the market, know the competition and understand the business of this new product. If you jump on something because it's an impulsive idea, you might find out it's not what you expected. So HOW do you validate a new idea or product? The steps are simple and deliberate. 1. Who is the target market? This is defining who will purchase this product from you. Is it new mothers, motorcycle crews, adult recreational sports players, etc HOW: Attend events where these people go. Visit their stores. Get to know the industry. takes notes on everything you can learn. Age, gender, interests, style, income, etc 2. What are the problems, wants and needs in this market? Understand the personality and lifestyle this market of people live in. Are they very busy or retired? Do they have a lot of disposable income? Do they prefer a certain style of apparel? If you understand the market, you can bring things to them that will solve problems or fulfill desires. HOW: Survey people, brainstorm with people who know the industry. Observe them. 3. How big is the potential for this market? If you want to focus on a fishing market, and you live in the desert, you probably won't have a lot of customers. So how many people would purchase your products, what is the potential for your business. HOW: How many people are in this market? How many businesses, or leagues, or population. Try to get actual stats where you can. Ask people, look online, etc 4. Who are the competitors? You should know your competition. This doesn’t mean be discouraged by them, but know what they offer and how they do it. HOW: Ask people and search online. Shop them (or have a friend shop them). Get to know their offering 5. What are they missing Do they not offer short runs or same-day delivery. Do they only offer cotton or only polyester. Do they only offer it in embroidery or screen printed or single colors? HOW: See #4 and compare it to #2 6. How exciting is the solution and whats the demand? Is offering what your competition does not going to lead to sales? profits? Your competition might not offer cowboy hats with softball team logos on it… but how many people are going to play softball in a cowboy hat? HOW: Survey, interview people, ask in FB groups. Once you have gone through understanding these… you can make an educated decision and determine if your new idea is valid and worth your time, money and energy.

In this episode we have put together a formula to follow step-by-step that WILL get you more customers through the power of networking. This formula combines working hard, being personable and a little touch of psychology to give you that extra edge. Here are the steps to making money with networking: Attend Social Events Meetup.com Local Business & Commerce Groups Events for kids where parents socialize (Kids B-day parties) Church events Go with intent to meet people (not to sell) In discussion ask what someone else does first Show interest in them. The more likely they are a prospect, the more you talk about them. You can pitch your ideas or business later. Mention what you do, and see how they react. (they may ask you to talk about it) Having cards is important, GETTING cards is more important. You have control of making contact, rather than waiting. You can archive people into your contacts Write notes on cards whenever possible No card is even a great excuse to contact people (actually I don’t have any cards with me, but I’ll email you and you can add me to your contacts… I can even mail you a few with more info about my company) Contact them ASAP. If they discussed business or a referral, you are in. Contact them and discuss the business or proposal Otherwise next steps are….. Drop a quick email or social media contention Let them know it was a pleasure to meet them Be POSITIVE about something View their website, store or social account and genuinely compliment something “I just went to your Instagram feed and love your pictures, so creative” “I ended up checking out your website, wow love the design” “I googled your company and saw 100 5 star reviews on google WOW” or….Compliment something about your conversation I love your idea about….. It was really interesting discussing… I didn’t know ….. could be so interesting. Follow up with a “by the way” email Wait a handful of days and follow up again. This time ask for something “Hi…. I was thinking about our convo at…… have you considered getting custom apparel for your business. “Hi….. you mentioned you know a lot of small business owners… is there anyone you can introduce me to that might need my services” “Hey, I was wondering. I am trying to grow my business. could I make you a custom shirt for your business and you tell me what you think? If you love them… you could buy more…. or refer me to some other people” ” I am trying to meet more business owners to help grow my business, (since I make t-shirts) are there any other groups or people you can intro me to. I am trying to build my network” Keep engaged with them Don’t let your relationship end there. Keep on the edge of their minds so when they need apparel or can refer someone you know them. TIPS: Follow them on social… like, comment, share Refer them business. If you know someone who needs their product or service…… send them their way and make sure they know who sent them. Leave them a review online.. “just met ……. these are the type of people you want to do business with 5 stars” Return to those social events and be sure to say hi to them. Even if you are mingling with others. Using the above formula will help you build a large network of people who are business associates. Never forget to keep in contact, even if just every few months. Always remember to refer business whenever possible. TIP: If you are looking to build a network of associates, be sure to have a good way to keep track of them. Using a CRM is a good idea, can add notes, and access mobile.

If you are listening to this, you have a Cricut or a Silhouette, basically a cutter you got for $200-$600 at a local hobby store. You make things for yourself, for friends and family. Maybe you are even making a little money here and there, or you've opened an etsy shop. You might even be fulfilling orders almost every day. What you all have in common is taking the next step to growing yourself into a better business, or maybe you might think of it as a "real" business. What are the next steps: Make it a business - Register with the state, get a resale or tax certificate, get a email address with your business name Find Blank suppliers - stop buying from Walmart Social Pages - Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn Website..... maybe? Order online? Start quoting in writing, on a form. Sales Quote excel /google sheet / apple sheet Start invoicing the same way in writing Find a way to accept credit cards. Circle pay, Paypal Treat every customer, like a customer. even friends / family. Create a price book / price sheet. Get commercial equipment Story of comparing a job from a hobby to a commercial machine Hobby Cutter: cut a 58.5in Triangle..... that is 11.5 across bottom and 23.5 up, then back 23.5 down takes. 30.5 seconds, when in fast mode on certain models, its 15.6 seconds. Graphtec Commercial does that in about 2.5 seconds. That's 6x faster on the fastest hobby cutter or 12x faster on the standard one. NOTE: Consider the size. Affordable professional cutters cut about 15-48in wide, and can track 6-16 feet. That means when you are using a hobby cutter, you are going to cut about 12" x 24" at a time. If you are cutting t-shirt designs that are a 7x7 square, you can cut 3 at a time. One over the other on a 12x24 in sheet. That is at a speed of about 2 inches per second. Compared to a commercial unit, that is not that much more $.... you can cut 2 wide and about 27 long... so essentially over 50 at a time! Also at a speed that is 12 x faster. Lets break this down into an actual job. You are doing a family vacation to a theme park. Part of their tradition is making shirts for the whole family. That's 3 brothers, and their spouses, plus 2 kits a piece. Then a couple of sisters and their spouses on the other side of the family (plus kits) That's a total of 10 adults and 10 kids. Its a 3 day trip, so they want 3 shirts each. 60 shirts total. If the design is that 7x7 how long will it take to do? Hobby cutter: 5 minutes a shirt x 60 shirts = 300 min of machine run time. Plus you have to load and reload it 30 times. That's an extra 30 minutes of loading time. 5.5 hours of your hobby machine just cranking along. Commercial cutter: at 12 times faster you are close to 45 seconds a shirt 45*60 = 45 minutes of run time on your machine, with only having to load it up 2x. Then you are ready to finally place them on the shirts. Your job goes from being done a few hours after the kids go to bed, compared to trying to stay up all night, passing out at 2am.... then waking up in the morning and doing it for another hour or two. This is quality time with your family & friends or time used to make more money / more sales. So how much did you make an hour? Lets say it takes 3 hours to press all the shirts, fold them, etc. Hobby cutter - 8.5 hours of work for 60 shirts Commercial cutter - less than 4 hours of work for 60 shirts You double the amount of money you make per hour of work! You take this extra time and market on Facebook, attend events to meet more people, spend time with your family, spend more time building up your home based business.

Welcome Christina Nicholson from https://www.mediamavenandmore.com/ First of all, let’s get the freebie here out of the way, because it’s an amazing gift from our Guest JUST for our CASPodcast listeners! It’s a course outlining her one of a kind strategy on getting free publicity for you and your business – just visit this site to register: http://www.PitchPublicityProfit.com BUT – listen to the entire podcast first. Because it’s a good one. First, we talk about how I found Christina, what that has to do with my Dad, and how I got hooked on this idea of PR. Then we’ll tell you how that relates to YOU and your business. IN your town. You’ll get some background on what makes Christina a pro at this and how she’s helped small businesses boom in the past. Then we’ll go over the 3 Simple Steps to Free Advertising Step 1: Personal Brand – become an expert Step 2: Pitching the Media Step 3: Keep Profiting off of free tv, magazine and radio spots And finally, we’ll brainstorm some custom t-shirt business free advertising opportunities. This is a GOOD one! Full of new ideas. You don’t want to miss it. Part of your homework in this episode is to review some of our recent Success Stories and think about how you could use something like this in YOUR quest for free advertising: https://coldesi.com/success-stories/

We first heard Deborah on her own podcast featuring Ford Bowers, President of SGIA – and both she and Ford provided tons of value to their listeners. So, of course we wanted to share that with YOU. Deborah runs the largest social group of Printers in the Universe (#Printerverse), hosted on LinkedIn, and has been a print customer for years. So during this episode she’s going to bring us a view from both OUTSIDE the custom apparel niche market and inside it as a consumer. This is another episode you don’t want to miss! We discuss how social relationships are one of the keys to success in the t-shirt business today and one of Deborah’s other passions Girls Who Print. Here are ALL the places where you can find Deborah online: Print Long and Prosper Deborah Corn Intergalactic Ambassador to The Printerverse https://www.printmediacentr.com/ Have You Been PEACOCKED? #ProjectPeacock Listen Long and Prosper! #PMCpodcasts https://podcasts.printmediacentr.com/ Podcasts from the Printerverse have landed! Chat Long and Prosper! #PrintChat Join us Wednesday’s at 4PM ET for #PrintChat Network Long and Prosper! LinkedIn: Print Production Professionals https://www.linkedin.com/groups/107023/ Girls Who Print #GirlsWhoPrint

Great interview with Mark Biletnikoff from https://www.contract-dtg.com/ Mark got his start with direct to garment printing as a novice in 2010 and now has both a retails space and a rapidly expanding contract t-shirt printing company. During our talk, we and Mark Biletnikoff describe his biggest failures, great successes and what he’s done to grow to 12 DTG printers, 2 screen setups, embroidery, vinyl and more... Here are just a few questions Mark Answered: In your road to becoming a successful business owner, what do you think was your biggest hurdle to overcome? How do you keep customers coming back? What was your biggest order mistake, and how did you handle it? If you knew what you know now about owning a business, what would you have done differently in the beginning? How important is the quality of the garment to your sales/customer satisfaction? What are the top 3 biggest mistakes a t-shirt shop can make? What is the most ridiculous request a customer has made? How do you handle inventory? Stock? What is the exact role of a contract printer? What would you suggest is the best way for a home-based business to find one?

What to do when something goes WRONG Your equipment will break. You will lose the internet for 3 days You will ruin the shirts Your supplier will be out of blanks, supplies, catalogs You’re going to have a bad month.. or 3 Nothing can prevent bad things from happening. And just because you have a small business or a home based business doesn’t mean you’re immune to the effects of what happens to EVERY business. Here’s what’s happened to me before: Our $10K per day shopping cart web service provider’s server went down – customers calling – no way to process orders. Power went out in our area for several days. Lose customers? You bet. Waited 3 weeks for a shipment of blank shirts to come in – they were bad. Bad workmanship. My fault, no. My business, yes. Each of these only happened once (okay, maybe twice). Let me rephrase that – they happened more than once and continue to happen occasionally. And it does really SUCK. But there’s less panic. Less lost business. Less blood pressure intervention needed because now we know what to do! That’s what this episode is about. Inspiring you to come up with a plan for WHEN SOMETHING GOES WRONG Here are some basic rules for when anything bad happens: DONT PANIC! DONT MAKE IRRATIONAL DECISIONS DO EXECUTE THE PLANS YOU HAVE IN PLACE BECAUSE YOU LISTENED TO THIS PODCAST Equipment failure Know your vendors contact info and procedures for getting help Understand what’s under warranty and what you’ll have to pay for Set aside emergency funds Have a company you know you can contract out the work too so you can still service your customers Internet is Down Make sure you have paper back up forms so you can still take phone orders Sign up for a plan with your cell phone provider so you can use your phone as a hotspot and bypass local internet You ruined shirts You’ve got to order for wasteage – especially if you are ordering something custom or that’s not showing tons in stock at your supplier Have a defined policy about this – what do you say to customers? How will you compensate them for a delay? Your Supplier is out of XYZ! Maybe a ship sank, or a factory closed or a production run failed quality control – there are lots of reasons why your supplier might not have what you need… Keep Stock of what you NEED to run your business. For most equipment, inks, toners, papers, substrates and parts there’s either no expiration date or it’s pretty far out. Don’t order this stuff just when you need it. Keep it on hand. Find an alternate product or supplier. Bad sales months happen. Keep a cash reserve Identify what financial resources (like credit cards) you can use in an emergency Listen to the how to sell more next month podcasts.

Learn these 12 steps and grow your home based business: Start thinking about it and treating it like a business Evaluate your profitability Look at your equipment Define and Amplify your Niche... who do you sell to now? DO more of that.. Shirts for sales teams. Dance and Cheer. no effort into anything else Dig deeper into current customers … call to ask for more business, ask what else they do/order Then expand product lines to match where you can.... koozies, bags, promotional items Create a solid referral plan - find a way for customers to refer you, ask for referrals, give out coupon codes, etc Live Social - BNI, Chamber of commerce, charity groups, church groups, sports clubs, car clubs Go online - build a web store and get your customers visiting. pick products your "niche" might buy and push to them via email / flyers / word of mouth Partner with other businesses - you don't sell signs? partner with a sign company. award company, paper printer Hire freelancers - get people to write for your website, send emails for you, do accounting, do art (even work with your kids, spouse, etc) Expand your niche to a second market... repeat first steps

It’s surprising that something that works so well, and has for so long, is still not a common practice for the custom apparel and promotional products business. Good Better Best pricing works. It works so well that it’s still being studied today – by the organization like the Harvard Business Review in the most recent case. And that’s what inspired this Episode of the Custom Apparel Startups Podcast. What is Good, Better, Best (GBB)? It’s a strategy to offer 3 levels of products. Each containing different features and coming at a different price. “Good” being the minimum level your brand is willing to offer, “better” being an upgrade at a marginal price increase, “best” being the highest level your customer base would be willing to spend on apparel. What are the GBB approaches? Offensive plays aimed at generating new growth and revenue Defensive plays meant to counter or forestall moves by competitors Behavioral plays that draw on principles of consumer psychology. Moves away from Binary (A or B) (1 or 0)(e.g. my way or high way) “Buy / Don’t Buy” to more choices, gives the customer a sense of empowerment rather than an ultimatum. Customers tend to decide more quickly. They focus on what they want, rather than just deciding to buy How to make a GBB? – Consult apparel suppliers – Ask customers – Look at old orders – Compare to other businesses – Look at big brand online stores Get out and figure out how to add Good Better Best to your sales process!

Join us in this episode when we discuss the world of blanks, apparel, Sanmar and more with the Apparel Geek, Monty Mims. His experience in the industry will provide you insights on how to improve your business, choose the right apparel, sell to your customers better and overall improve your expertise on custom apparel blanks. Monty is a member of Decorator Relations with Sanmar. One of his many goals is to build strong relationships with the decorated apparel community and help people like you succeed. You can contact Monty at https://apparelgeek.com/ or find him on twitter @apparelgeek or Instagram @apparelnerd.

They are relentless – ever see a kid play a video game 100 times in a night to beat it. Will swing a bat outside for hours. Practice dance moves all morning. Don’t give up on your business. Creatures of habit – every night it’s bath, brush teeth, read a book, bed. Ever try to take a kid out of routine? Get them to use a different sipping cup cause theirs is dirty. Do you have daily routines for business? Resist change, but adapt quickly – you can do the same. Be conservative in your operations but when it’s time to change. Embrace it. If they want something they ask, and ask and ask – toy, stay up late, candy. Do you do this for sales / business ? They know how to be cute – ever see a kid put on those sweet eyes and stick out bottom lip? They know how to butter up their parents to get what they want. Do you know how to put on a smile and be a good face for your business? They get over things – a kid can go from crying about a broken toy to laughing and playing in 5 minutes. They don’t hold grudges. However, adults can allow a single bad event to ruin their entire day … and affect their business / sales / production. Make best friends in 5 minutes – Kid goes to a park, plays with another for 5 min. Now they are best friends. You should be personable and meet people. Remember them and be remembered. Extremely curious – if they see something new, they want to know about it. They will just watch an ant pile for 30 min. Do you strive to seek out new ideas?

In this episode, we have an energetic discussion with Manuel Suarez. Manuel is a marketer, an entrepreneur and a Facebook Blueprint certified expert. His passion for Facebook marketing is infectious and listening to this episode might just be the catalyst to you becoming a Facebook marketing expert. Several years ago he started a business, launching his own brand. Within a year, through his study and application of Social Media Advertising, it was a multi-million dollar company. He has helped his clients generate over half a billion views across different channels and millions of followers! We talk about: – Who should market on Facebook? – How hard is it to do? – What are some first steps to take? – How can you learn more? – How much money should you spend? – Is it right for you?

If you are planning to start an online store, this episode is a must listen. Don't make the fatal mistakes so many others do. This episode is your step-by-step guide filled with tips and tricks. Should you go online? If you plan to sell designs/styles that will be replicated. If you plan to sell for fashion/entertainment. If you can sell one-offs and 'extras' - company orders big order of polos and include info to "go online and buy the hoodie, jacket, sweater, etc" to all staff. Basic Steps to Opening an Online (E-commerce) Store: Research your shopping cart platform (DIY or full custom development?) Pick your Website URL (Listen to Episode 73 about trademarks) Make a plan and set a launch date Pick your online products (consider inventory) Take quality images of a product Write great product descriptions and details Set up emails for @url Get the right security to take credit cards Set up a merchant (credit card charging) account Pick a shipping plan/providing Test before you launch Plan to change things monthly / annually. Always keep up to date and remember this is your 'store' so keep it clean, it represents your company. Listen to this episode, follow these steps and success is around the corner! List of eCommerce / online store/shopping cart software: Shopify 3dcart Volusion WooCommerce Bigcommerce Magento Infusionsoft Inksoft Wix DecoNetwork BigCartel BigCommerce

Have you ever put together furniture from Ikea or Walmart? Not following the directions... and ended up having to take off 10 pieces because you missed a vital step? It's a classic human behavior... we DONT read instructions. Subaru of America Inc. has been struggling with this problem since it noticed consumer complaints about vehicle quality beginning to rise a few years ago. "We scratched our heads trying to figure out why," said Joseph Barstys, manager of customer relationships. "As we further explored why, we realized it wasn't so much that things didn't work but that customers didn't know how to work" their vehicle. In fact, it turned out, 1 in 5 calls to the Subaru call center involved a question answered in the owner's manual. Tony Sweers, the product quality engineer for Canon Information Technology Services, noted: "It appears that when a lot of people see that an 800 number is available, they find it much easier to call than to sit down and read the manual." A poll by Gadget Helpline, a tech support hotline discovered that a full sixty-four percent of men and twenty-four percent of women calling for tech support had not even bothered to read the manual. So now that we know people are very unlike to read the manual, watch the videos or take the training.... we need to make a case on why it's so important. You can literally break your machine the first hour you have it This is commercial grade equipment. They are all very powerful, very fast, very versatile.... when an embroidery machine is running at 900 stitches per minute, think of how fast that is... 15 stitches in a second. It will take you more time to "learn on your own" Our training was designed with a user experience in mind. Teaching certain things first due to their importance in the process. We make sure you learn to ride a bike before trying to ride it w/o handlebars or popping a wheelie. If you try to do it on your own you can waste a ton of time by trying to learn things out of order. Imagine it like math courses... first, you learn basic bath, then algebra, then calculus... they build on each other, on purpose. It will cost you money If you don't use equipment properly. You will ruin shirts, waste time and lose customers. It essentially happens all of the time. People who are ruining shirts and lose $$. You try to do something w/o reading instructions, you get frustrated, you waste time... and end up losing out. You are more likely to give up It's an event that happens all the time in life. If you walk into a restaurant and they don't greet you for 3 minutes... your entire meal is tainted. You judge the server more harshly, you watch the clock on the service, you judge the food more harshly. Compared to having a very nice person greet you immediately... then you are more likely to forgive the chef for forgetting to put extra olives in your food. 5. Blood pressure you are almost guaranteed to be frustrated and overwhelmed. Not getting trained can lead you to a bad start. It can lead you to frustration. It

How a small business can get the most out of content marketing: Use it to drive search to your website / FB page / Google Page, etc searching on google for Tampa t-shirt companies, embroidery, etc.... various pages that show up are FB pages. Be sure yours has images, videos, and written content. Give you credibility. Yelp and google business pages are also going to come up on the top. Write a great description of yourself. if you have a website be sure to have posts, pages, etc that will help Google know you are a local business and what you do. E.g. embroidery, t-shirt printing in Tampa, Florida. etc. Content builds trust. when you have pics, videos, articles, etc. it shows you care about your business and what you create. People need to trust you to provide the custom apparel they need. can also be proofs that you do great work. Impress people who are browsing you online. Reviews can be great content marketing too not only asking your customers to leave good reviews but also commenting when people review you. Reply to reviews whenever possible. FB, google, yelp, etc. Even if just thanking them for leaving a good review. UGC - ask your customers to create content for you. please post to my FB page with a company photo can you send me a pic of all the kids wearing the shirts? Is it ok if I post to social media and my website? interview your customers and write it up... include pics or a video. help show others what its like to work with you.

Taking good pictures and video is essential to creating good content for your website, eCommerce store or social media. In this episode, we will dive into how to create great looking (and sounding) content, without having to be a professional. Tips: Use a good Camera. If you want to invest you can get a great DSLR for video and pics for under $500, however, don't underestimate the power of your smartphone, it can take amazing pictures. ( we do both!) Use good lighting. You can purchase lighting from Amazon or used on Ebay. Some directional lighting. avoid heavy shadows or TOO much light. (also phone / camera has light / exposure settings) Use a tripod - Your hand's aren't as still as you think they are, use a tripod it will help. also can get a mini tripod for a phone for under $20 Consider the background - generally white or light color background is preferred. Ironed sheet, big white paper. also consider scenes .... park, beach, wood table, trees, people Clean everything. The product, clean camera lens, lint brush garments Take test shots - upload them to a computer too so you can see them BIG... not just on little camera/phone screen. Watch out for bad audio - sometimes you don't realize audio is bad till you are all done. make sure room doesn't echo a lot, make sure people aren't talking in the background, get a directional mic if using a camera Use post-production - if you don't have experience editing photos may be a good idea to hire someone to help you clean up pics, lighting, noise, etc. Editing software - Gimp/Pshop for images, Camtasia/iMovie for video When to take pics/video: New blanks or product offerings Events you're doing Images/videos of customer jobs during and after Changes to your store/equipment

Businesscopyrightscustom apparel businesscustom t-shirt businesslawpodcasttrademarks This Episode  Mark Stephenson & Marc Vila Seth Gardenswartz  customapparelstartups.com  CAS Podcast  ColDesi You Will Learn The difference between trademarks and copy rights How you can tell if your design is probably in violation Penalties possible violating someone else’s intellectual property rights Whether or not do-it-yourself solutions will do Resources & Links Blackgarden Law Article: Finding a T-Shirt Artist Custom Apparel Startups Facebook Group Leasing Equipment Show Notes THIS is the podcast that you have all been waiting for.. finally the answers to SO MANY questions that take place on the Custom Apparel Startups Facebook Group, on Forums all over the internet and that we get asked from our customers every day: · If I change the artwork by 10% I’m fine, right? · Should I trademark my brand name? · What’s the difference between a trademark and copyright? · How much trouble can I get into copying _______ ? · Can I copyright embroidery designs too? · Is my Brand my trademark · How much does doing it the right way cost? Seth Gardenswartz from Blackgarden Law in Albuquerque, NM isn’t just any attorney.. he’s the attorney with the heart of a Marketing Guy! During this podcast you’ll hear about Seth’s early experience with big brands and marketing in retail apparel and how he applies what he learned then to his law practice now. A practice that focuses mostly on Copy Rights and Trademarks. The custom t-shirt business is fraught with opportunities for intellectual property theft. You need to know what to do to protect your designs, your logo and your rights AND you need to know what trouble YOU can get into if you take someone else’s work. Don’t take anyone’s advice except an attorneys – it could cost you your business if you do. During the program Seth talks about what he does and how he and his firm might be able to help. You can reach him at [email protected], or call 888-317-3556 .. AFTER you’ve heard this episode. PLEASE SHARE THIS EPISODE! It applies to any business and save you and your friends thousands due to a lack of information. The post Episode 73 – Copyrights and Trademarks in the Custom T-Shirt Business appeared first on Custom Apparel Startups.

Businesscustom apparel businessCustom T-ShirtMarketingpodcast This Episode  Mark Stephenson & Marc Vila Mike Michalowicz  customapparelstartups.com  CAS Podcast  ColDesi Why you’re thinking about your business and your income wrong The most important thing your accountant cannot tell you about your business The 3 Bank Accounts you HAVE to open What taking the Profit First approach can do for your business Resources & Links Mike Michalowiscz Website Buy the Profit First Book ColDesi Learning Center Leasing Equipment Show Notes Profit First is the first real innovation in the financial approach to small business since QuickBooks. That software may put accounting tools at your fingertips, it does nothing for helping you manage and really UNDERSTAND the money side of your business. We talk to people all the time about starting their custom t-shirt business. Occasionally we have hard conversations with people RUNNING them too. Conversations like: I’m not making any money selling shirts I can’t compete Put my supply order on 2 credit cards because I didn’t set aside money for supplies How can I tell if this job is profitable? Do you set aside costs for materials, electric, rent from every sale? Profit First is a book, a method, a framework that does do that – helps you really understand where your money is, where it’s going and how to generate more of it for you. During this interview with Profit First author Mike Michalowicz we’ll take you through what the profit first system is and how to apply it to the custom t-shirt business. Visit http://mikemichalowiscz.com Please visit http://customapparelstartups.com for more customer apparel startups podcasts episodes! The post Episode 72 – Profit FIRST! Interview with Mike Michalowicz appeared first on Custom Apparel Startups.

custom apparel businessCustom T-ShirtDTGMarketingpodcast This Episode  Mark Stephenson & Marc Vila Brett Wiebel and Mark Momborquette  customapparelstartups.com  CAS Podcast  ColDesi You Will Learn How a Fingernail Decorator fits into the birth of Direct to Garment Printing What the Inventor’s Mindset is and can mean to your business The history behind how this small business got BIG What the future holds for BelQuette Technologies Resources & Links Colman and Company BelQuette Inks Page BelQuette DTG Printer Press Release Digital Garment Printer FAQ ColDesi YouTube Show Notes Belquette DTG Printers have been a staple in the direct to garment printing industry from the very beginning of digital garment printing. But this episode isn’t about digital direct to garment printing – it’s about small business success and the Inventor’s Mindset. During this podcast you’ll hear Brett Wiebel and Mark Momborquette, the founders of BelQuette DTG Printers tell their story. Watch more podcasts here A story that starts with working a full-time job together in manufacturing in Cincinati, OH. Of nights and weekends spent in the basement working on their vision. A story that starts with a trip to the mall to get a little girl’s fingernails done and ends with some of the most innovative products in the custom apparel business. And we’ll discuss how building their business with an inventor’s mindset might just make your custom t-shirt or embroidery or sign business that much better. BelQuette recently joined forces with ColDesi and Colman and Company after both competing in the digital direct to garment printer space AND collaborating on projects and ideas. BelQuette is widely respected in high volume, production oriented DTG businesses and help outfit the biggest online custom t-shirt sellers in the world with equipment… but not JUST equipment! The BelQuette DTG Printer duo 2 of the very few people who actually engineer and invent new technology in this space. Their approach has always been to work with customers, watch processes and examine popular products used to make custom tees and find better ways to do it. They’ve done this in the past by inventing the first printer with modular parts for better maintenance and repair, the only really TARGETED pre treatment system… oh, and a custom fingernail printing machine.. you’ve got to listen to Mark B’s story about how that started. We discuss how Brett and Mark’s future in BelQuette Technologies means new products coming in the future and how they will continue to work with the biggest companies in the business on a variety of unique solutions. Learn more about BelQuette and ColDesi joining forces in this press release. Please visit http://customapparelstartups.com for more customer apparel startups podcasts episodes! The post Episode 71 – The Story of BelQuette and Thinking Like an Inventor appeared first on Custom Apparel Startups.

custom apparel businesscustomer serviceeventsMarketingshowsStartup Business This Episode  Mark Stephenson & Marc Vila  customapparelstartups.com  CAS Podcast  ColDesi You Will Learn What you can do BEFORE you get to the event to ensure success The secret to selling at events even if no customer show up The best way to handle 2 or more people at your booth What are tchotkes Why Mark S hates them so much Resources & Links Colman and Company Blog Success Stories ColDesi Learning Center Leasing Equipment In this episode of the CAS Podcast, learn 10 tips to get the most out of events and shows that will help you acquire new customer for your custom apparel business. These are simple yet effective techniques you can apply before, during and after events that are critically important to ensure success in the custom apparel business. Show Notes Premarketing This is a great way to bring people to meet you and pull some business in advance. Get them to commit to visiting you, picking up their order there, etc. Advertise to your customers you will be there, post to FB event pages, make your own FB event page. If there is a list of attendees or booths…. reach out to some of them as well. Refine Your 30-Second Pitch At trade shows, you really only have about 30 seconds before you lose the attention of the person you’re trying to sell to. That’s why it’s critically important to nail down your 30-second elevator pitch before you arrive at the event. An effective elevator pitch will include a short description of what your product or service is and concisely detail how it can help that individual or their business. Make Connections at the Event You are about to be surrounded by a bunch of other business owners, many of them successful. Are all of them wearing custom apparel? They should be! Be sure all of them know you, and have your info. Also sign up for their email lists, learn about them. There may be an opportunity in the future. Have a way to collect emails, get reviews, get followers, etc. This is a time to get people on your email list, get people to like you on facebook, follow you on twitter, etc. You can get creative “Like me on FB and get a coupon” or give away something for free for a follow. Have an ipad or laptop out with your email for sign up. If you have MC or CC you can have one of your forms up, or your website too. When possible, go before you attend This is an opportunity to scope out the scene, see what type of people attend. See what booths get attention. See if there are any ideas you can ‘borrow’. Have a way people can keep your info Business cards are great…. but think of something else fun too… might be worth it. Can cooler, Bottle opener, etc. Think of your audience. If its businesspeople… pens and cards. If its dog lovers, a small bag of treats with your card. If its bikers.. beard combs. People love these little giveaways… even though its mostly junk trinkets, its a reason to stick your hand out and say hello. Bundles / Upsells A “show deal” is a great way to upsell to your customers AND gives your customers an opportunity to save money. Add a hat for only XX, Buy x Get y, This is our show promo deal. order a shirt, hat, polo, tote bag normally $120 now, $99 Offer something special, not available at the show Not to delay sales, but to catch people that don’t see what they like from what you’re displaying. Tell non-buyers about a jacket or hat or something that you’re excited about that you didn’t have time to prep for the event. Get their information if they express any interest. Work the crowd Be sure to greet everyone who comes to your booth, even if you are busy. Say hello, point to cards, show email sign up, shake hands, say “i will be right with you.” Certain people can rob your time, you have to realize when someone is a “talker” .. not a “buyer.” Be friendly, wear a smile, say hello. When its slow.. step OUT of the booth… sand in front. Have literature in your hand. Even if you just say hi to people passing buy. Have a clear message of what you DO displayed as well. Then you are standing out there, people can know to stop by if interested. This helps to have fun giveaways or an event. Know what idea i like? Have a spinning wheel. People love to spin wheels. They can win anything from a coupon, a free ice cream sunday, to a 100% custom free t-shirt. etc etc. (This can also be a way to work with local vendors/customers (“hey i am going to be at a show, want to give me some free Ice Cream Coupons to give away on my wheel” Post Marketing Email people, call people. Have a post show special or coupon. Contact them after. Most people will have little-to-no follow up. You can be the best by picking up the phone, emailing people. thanking them. Watch the END of the video below for 2 more tips that make a HUGE difference! The post Episode 70 – Events and Shows | 10 Tips for Getting the Most from Events appeared first on Custom Apparel Startups.

business tipscustomer serviceMarketingpodcastsalesStartup Business This Episode  Mark Stephenson & Marc Vila  customapparelstartups.com  CAS Podcast  ColDesi You Will Learn Why giving someone a small gift can make a big difference in your revenues What Apple and Samsung have to do with the Custom T-Shirt Business How come you’re attracted to long lines When Name Dropping can Mean picking up more sales Resources & Links Colman and Company Blog Success Stories ColDesi Learning Center Leasing Equipment The Science of Upselling – The Best Ways to Talk to Your Customers During this podcast we’ll get into Part III of our trilogy on Up-Selling, a vitally important skill in growing your business. The idea that you can service the same number of customers but make more money at the end of the month? Golden. SHOW NOTES: During this podcast we’ll get into Part III of our trilogy on Up-Selling, a vitally important skill in growing your business. The idea that you can service the same number of customers but make more money at the end of the month? Golden. We’re going to go through the following concepts/tactics in detail: 1: Reciprocity – Social norms compel us to respond to a favor with another favor, in order to not be considered ungrateful. 2: Consistency – People like to remain consistent over time. We feel a pressure to remain consistent with previous choices. Especially when we publicly commit to something. 3: Social Proof – When we arent sure of what decision to make, we look to others to see what they are doing 4: Like-ability – We are influenced by people we like. 5: Authority – People have a tendency to obey authority figures. People like a testimony from a person of authority. 6: Scarcity – things are more attractive when their availability is limited. But the best part is that we’ll walk you through specific examples of how to use each one of these ideas in your business AND how ColDesi and Colman and Company do the same. Download Transcript The post Episode 69 – The Science of Upselling | The Best Ways to Talk to Your Customers appeared first on Custom Apparel Startups.

This Episode  Mark Stephenson & Marc Vila  customapparelstartups.com  CAS Podcast  ColDesi You Will Learn How giving away product can make you more money, not less How ColDesi’s “Bundling” strategy came about and how you can apply that to your business What questions you can ask you customer that no one else ever does, than can double your business from an existing account What it’s like to hear Mark and Marc talk in an echo chamber Resources & Links Marc Vila mentioned “Principals of Persuasion” by Rober Cialdini We discussed the 2X Business Bundle (Stitch & Cut) Colman and Company Blog Success Stories ColDesi Learning Center Leasing Equipment The WORST statistic we could find, and there are a lot of them available, says that selling to an existing customer is 68% less expensive to selling to a new one. New customers don’t know what you do, what is available, what they want, how to talk about what they want AND what they can expect to pay. Current customers will buy more and pay more. You have a trusted relationship. If you advise them to buy a better garment; they are more likely to do it. Compared to new customer more likely to haggle or expect a lower price. They cost less to service and less time to complete orders – you know their wants, needs, pet peeves, sizing preferences. You already know what they are worth – you know big their orders are, what shirts they buy, their budget, how much time they are worth, etc During this podcast we’ll discuss the following 5 Strategies to Up-Sell and make more from your existing customers: 1. The Freebie – Sample on Delivery and Marc Vila’s Theory of Reciprocity (ok, not really HIS theory, but he’s going to talk about it.. so props). Why do they give away samples at the food court? 2. Anticipating Business Because you KNOW Their Business – When you are IN your customers business, when you know what they have going on, coming up and you know what matters to them you will be able to upsell. 3. Horizontal Marketing – How you can make more in more ways than you ever thought possible, all starting your current customers. 4. What Else they Buy – one of our favorite ways to plan expansion and add a few extra dollars to the bottom line while you do it. It’s a good one! 5. Next Order Couponing – when and how to use discounting to up sell and add to your business. Follow what the ecommerce guy says on this one – notes are encouraged. Show Notes Watch Us Recorded Live on YouTube The post Episode 68 – Re-Upselling | Making the Most of Current Customers appeared first on Custom Apparel Startups.

BrandingCustomerMarketingStartup Business This Episode  Mark Stephenson & Marc Vila  customapparelstartups.com  CAS Podcast  ColDesi You Will Learn The 4 Rules for Up-Selling Why buying MORE is better for your customers How to not feel sleazy about getting paid more for every order Brainstormed ideas of ways to speak to your customer about other products Resources & Links Colman and Company Blog Success Stories ColDesi Learning Center Leasing Equipment 4 Rules for Up-selling Description: How would YOU like to add HUNDREDS of dollars to t-shirt order? Bring up your next t-shirt sale by 40% or more? Real people, business owners just like you, get results like this from helping their customers see what they didn’t know they wanted. Follow these 4 Rules for Up-selling and earn more starting on your very next order! Just like so many of our podcasts this one was inspired by our listeners, by our own business careers and research on what the current trends are in sales and marketing. All of which leads us to our discussion of the 4 RULES FOR UP-SELLING: 1. Don’t Assume What Customers Can Afford Not because of the way they dress, they look, what organization they work for – OR what price they tell you they’re looking for. 2. Don’t Assume You Know what a Customer WANTS OR that THEY know what they want! Explore every opportunity by giving your customers a chance to spend more. Remember – many of them have never ordered custom apparel before, and if they have it probably wasn’t from someone like you! 3. Ask the Right Questions – Not just the Direct One There’s a big difference between running down a checklist of what you offer – do want hats? do you want ponchos? do you want jackets? do want a sign? – and asking about the customers business or event in order to lead them to more options. Listen to the podcast for some great specific examples of how to do this. 4. BE THE EXPERT Once you no longer assume the customer knows what they want and what they want to spend you can recommend alternatives. Offer a better shirt and tell them why. Offer a different process or additional logo placement. Consult – don’t just take the order! Naturally, there is more on the podcast – ready to listen yet? The post Episode 67 – How to Add $$ to Every Sale appeared first on Custom Apparel Startups.

Startup BusinessTime Management This Episode  Mark Stephenson & Marc Vila  customapparelstartups.com  CAS Podcast  ColDesi You Will Learn The “tricks” to finding time during your day What other businesses like yours are doing to streamline their activities The Surprising App that’s making a big difference in one successful business How Colman and Company has increased productivity with Time Budgeting What managing your finances has in common with managing your time Resources & Links Colman and Company Blog Success Stories ColDesi Learning Center Leasing Equipment Your time is completely yours to control, unlike many other parts of your business. All you need to do is decide to control it AND do something about it! During this podcast we go through Marc Vila’s Time Budgeting ideas, discuss what people IN business are using right now to manage their time – or not – and some apps, software, and ideas that will help you get control. We mentioned the following apps and software applications: Trello Asana Evernote Wunderlist Google Sheets Microsoft Excel YNAB (You Need a Budget) The following books: 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris Profit First by Mike Michalowicz Show Notes The post Episode 66 – You DO Have Time & We Can Prove it! appeared first on Custom Apparel Startups.

Custom T-ShirtMoney IssuesStartup Business This Episode  Mark Stephenson & Marc Vila  customapparelstartups.com  CAS Podcast  ColDesi You Will Learn Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus. Pellentesque in ipsum id orci porta dapibus. Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus. Sed porttitor lectus nibh. Nulla quis lorem ut libero malesuada feugiat. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum ac diam sit amet quam vehicula elementum sed sit amet dui. Vivamus suscipit tortor eget felis porttitor volutpat nulla porttitor. Resources & Links Colman and Company Blog Success Stories ColDesi Learning Center Leasing Equipment Welcome to the second part of our 2 part series on WHY YOU’RE BROKE! That title is only slightly tongue in cheek. We had both just happen to be reading finance related books recently – Marc Vila on personal finance “Why You Need a Budget” – and Mark Stephenson on business finance “Profit First: A Simple System to Transform Your Business..” and discussing how the two were related. During the next 2 podcasts, we’ll discuss what WE learned from each of these authors and how they might apply to you and your business. Episode 64 discusses the basics of the Profit First system and how it relates to both business and personal finance. The next episode will review YNAB (you need a budget) and how that might impact your professional life. Show Notes The post Episode 65 – This is Why You’re Broke Part II appeared first on Custom Apparel Startups.

Custom T-ShirtMoney IssuesStartup Business This Episode  Mark Stephenson & Marc Vila  customapparelstartups.com  CAS Podcast  ColDesi You Will Learn Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus. Pellentesque in ipsum id orci porta dapibus. Curabitur non nulla sit amet nisl tempus convallis quis ac lectus. Sed porttitor lectus nibh. Nulla quis lorem ut libero malesuada feugiat. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum ac diam sit amet quam vehicula elementum sed sit amet dui. Vivamus suscipit tortor eget felis porttitor volutpat nulla porttitor. Resources & Links Colman and Company Blog Success Stories ColDesi Learning Center Leasing Equipment Welcome to our 2 part series on WHY YOU’RE BROKE! That title is only slightly tongue in cheek. We had both just happen to be reading finance related books recently – Marc Vila on personal finance “Why You Need a Budget” – and Mark Stephenson on business finance “Profit First: A Simple System to Transform Your Business…” and discussing how the two were related. During the next 2 podcasts, we’ll discuss what WE learned from each of these authors and how they might apply to you and your business. Episode 64 discusses the basics of the Profit First system and how it relates to both business and personal finance. The next episode will review YNAB (you need a budget) and how that might impact your professional life. Show Notes The post Episode 64 – This is Why You’re Broke appeared first on Custom Apparel Startups.

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