Custom Apparel Startups

During episode of the CAS Podcast we have a special guest, one that represents a product that has basically revolutionized the custom t-shirt and promotional products business – let’s welcome Randy Rickert from Okidata, the Pope of White Toner Printing. Randy has worked in the printing industry since the 80s. His resume includes running Mutoh and being in charge of OKIData Sales in the USA. Listen in to learn a little more about the OKI White Toner Printer Revolution.

Everyone out there can shoot a basketball into a hoop. You really don't even need to be taught how to do it. You could hand someone who's never seen a basketball or a hoop and say... get the ball in there. They will eventually get the ball in. In fact, they may get it the first time, or the first 3 times. How would they go up against someone who's played every weekend for 20 years though? How would they go up against a high school student who goes to practice every day? This is just like selling! You don't need to be taught how to sell a t-shirt. Anyone who starts a t-shirt shop might get their first sale easily, they might get their first three sales easily. How would they go against someone who has had an embroidery side business for 10 years? How would they go against someone who has been practicing and refining a sales method for custom apparel? If you want to be the best at anything, you have to practice and refine. This episode is about building a framework for your sales method Where to start The first

All businesses are not the same. They each have their own individual personality and goals. Although every business & person is completely unique, we can categorize them. These categories can help us understand a few things: Where are you now? Where do you want to be in the future? What are your strengths now? How to sell against each category? In this episode, we will talk about each of these businesses/people and how knowing this information will help you succeed. The Pure Hobbyist Definition: This person makes t-shirts for fun. They wouldn't even consider it a business. They often aren't charging anything and just doing stuff for presents. If they do a favor, they usually just charge for supplies and do the labor for free. Pros: It's just for fun! That's it. They like to do it. Cons: This hobby costs money. It's not 'cheap' to make custom apparel. So if you are concerned with a hobbyist 'taking away your business' - remember it's not sustainable. Its a money pit, not a money generator. Also, they sim

Leah Calvert has been in the custom apparel industry for over 20 years. Her business, 918 Design Company, works with gymnastics, cheer and schools. Their focus is on spirit wear – t-shirts, bags, etc. Her business has gone from a huge focus on live events to working from home. What has she done and how can this inspire you? This short but information packed interview with Mark Stephenson and Leah Calvert is a great listen for business inspiration.

Marshall has 30 years of direct industry experience including running his own custom apparel businesses, working for fulfillment software vendors and doing boots on the ground consulting for shops all over the United States. During this podcast, Marshall shares his experience in many areas, but in particular on the impact of creating a business plan, following that plan, improving plan and sales processes and more.

5 ways to inject life into a stagnant business: Get some bling transfers Opposite Marketing Month - Methods Opposite Marketing Month - Markets Call 10 Customers and Ask what you're missing out on Back to Business Basics What are the basics? Put your selling shoes back on - chances are if a business is stagnant you might not be hitting the pavement and selling. Call old leads and lost deals. Take a hard look inside - face some hard truths on what you do wrong. How is your processes? Is your business space a mess? How is your art? final products? Re-look at your pricing model - are you too low? do you make a profit so you have money to re-invest?

A CRM is a Customer Relationship Management software. It’s designed to help you organize your customers, track interactions and even more complex items like creating invoices and setting reminders to follow up. A CRM can also help you create business automation. For example, if you mark a customer as someone to follow up with in 6 months, you can have an email automatically go out in six months and a reminder pop up in your calendar to call them. Why have a CRM (should you have one)? – If your customer database isn’t organized you will lose / forget things – You can make notes about this customer: They are really cheap / They are really high end driven They prefer phone calls over emails They don’t like polyester shirts – Save quotes in CRM – Set reminders to follow up – 1 place to keep names of contacts, emails, phones, websites – Instant access to database from any computer or mobile device YOU MUST COMMIT TO USING IT AS YOUR COMMUNICATIONS HUB TO BE SUCCESSFUL! Picking a CRM – 2020 Pics ZOHO CRM PROS – Fre

You can really bring out your best in social media, but you can also bring your business down. Making you look WORSE! Here is step 1 to nailing stellar social media skills! Social Channels Facebook YOU have a profile YOUR BUSINESS has a page and your BUSINESS PAGE has a group YOUR PROFILE Posts on the group and is the face of the group. Profiles One human face should be associated with the profile. Groups types of groups Open: Anyone can view the group, its members, and their posts. Closed: Anyone can view the group and its members, but only members can see group posts. Secret: Only members can see the group or any of its information. Pages Your Business Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Purpose of Posts Show activity Sell online Photos galleries, organization -Gain followers Posts should persuade people to share and spread the word Benefits Branding Recognition Social Proof - if you only have 5 followers, people might think less of you Business Information opening closing hours sales summary of business En

1. Perfect basic online presence Google my business, bing, facebook (technical set up) 2. Perfect your ecom or online showroom (if have one) Images Nothing broken Technically correct and optimized (https, ssl, etc) Emails / auto responders set up Google analytics HIRE SOMEONE (that you aren't related to) 3. Physical Marketing Collateral Business cards Brochures Samples! - if you don't have some, get some this means, have sample shirts or hats or something you are willing to give away and a show of what you can do and a freebie. Signage if you to shows "Uniform" yourself and any staff (upgrade them if they stink) 4. Prepare to test ad strategies (2020 might be all testing for you) Divide up cash Facebook / google local New show / bigger booth Local ads (schools, youth sports, sponsorship, chamber of commerce, meet up) (which one of these would work best for me) Pick at least 3 different things to test 5. Invest in new products Try new products to introduce. (this isn't just a new shirt style

It’s 2020. You are still in business. You made it. What’s next? How will you do better? Do More of what works Spend more on what works Do new things 1. Look at your 2019 review. And determine how to spend more time replicating that. Can you go to more events? Can you meet more people? Join more groups? Ask for more referrals? Go on more sales calls? The big question: do you have the time and/or will to do this? 2. If you had paid ads... spending more. If you paid to attend 2 markets, can you pay to go to more? Can you pay for more space at a market? Can you pay someone to go for you? Or hire someone to go with you? If word of mouth works, then you can get promotional items, or wrap your car. The money investment logically pays off cause you know it works. 3. It is a bit of both... spend time and money. This is a new area of opportunity for your business. Are you too new in the business to know what works for you? You have to start somewhere, be sure to track results. Have you tried other things but lookin

How do you determine if you had a good year and plan for the next one? There are some simple metrics that are normally used to determine a businesses success like: Did revenue grow compared to previous years Your expenses and revenue are growing at a healthy rate together You have a mix of new and repeat customers You have profits in the bank Profit margins are high and healthy for the business These are all very important and you have to spend time looking into them consistently. However, let's look into some really specific information and how we can turn that into success for the next year(s) to come. What were the best jobs you had? Most profitable Most enjoyable Most sustainable What can you do next year to get more work like this? How did you get that customer? Can they refer you to others? Do the jobs you thought of above all have some common elements? A certain niche, obtained a certain way, certain method Did these jobs only come from certain customers? Who were your best customers? Profitab

Pricing is an EMOTIONAL thing for most small business owners. It's tied up with how you feel about money. About how much money it's okay for you to make. About feeling bad when you think you're charging too much. About your pride when you ARE charging too much, but need to make a change. The Impact of Pricing: I've told this story before. About the customer and the $8 DFX Shirts, but I'm going to tell it again because it should terrify you. Pricing too high is tricky as well. With price testing you may find that you make MORE money in the end by charging less for specific items. In the rest of this podcast we're going to explore price testing strategies the let the market tell YOU how much you should be charging. And taking all the emotions out of it. (or at least as much as you'll let it) 1. The "Tipping Point" Method - Raise your prices incrementally until you see your customer leave. 2. New Product Change Tactic - As you bring in new blanks, new products or new designs you introduce them at

Writing will captivate the attention of your customers and win you sales. You got into this business to be the best at what you do. You mastered the art of production, you’ve worked on your sales process, you are even doing your best to get found online. Putting together great copy (writing) will show the world the true custom apparel professional you are. When will you need to write? ALWAYS. EVERYWHERE. Website copy Sales emails Promotional emails Social posts Business descriptions (google, FB, etc) Text messages Print ads Store signage Job Bids Why does it matter? People cannot pay attention to everything. Your brain filters out 99+% of everything you see. How many people read all of your website, or all of an article, or your entire quote? Almost none. People need to get their attention captured and HELD. If someone is searching online for a t-shirt printer or sifting through quotes they got on a job, great writing will help you win more than the competition. They stop on your page, they stay on your web

Your customers have a great idea for a shirt, or a blanket or a cap. You might even agree its a great idea, but it’s just not possible. Maybe it is possible, but not with your equipment or skills. How do you still win? How does your customer still get what they want? You can still win, your customer can still win… you just have to work it out. We are here to help! Your customer asks for something that CAN’T be done. – They want 5 hats with embroidery on the bill for under $10 each. You aren't getting that anywhere in the world. – They want a DTG print that glows in the dark neon pink on a moisture wick t-shirt. This is probably the simplest one to solve. You know they cannot go anywhere else and get this. You know they won’t find it for a price they are willing to pay. Explain to them why, let them understand. If you explain in a way that shows how much of an expert you are they will be excited to have asked you. They will know they didn't waste their time chasing something that doesn't exist. I agree that em

Mark S. : This is Mark B. from Contract-DTG. If you didn’t hear him before on Episode 86 then make sure to listen to it here: https://customapparelstartups.com/episode-86/ Mark is the owner of 3 different custom t-shirt businesses that do everything from large contract work – with orders of 1,000 DTG printer pretty common (http://contract-dtg.com), all the way to the typical 1-6 shirts that many smaller shops do (http://fat-tees.com). During this episode we’re going to ask Mark to walk us through 3 questions that many growing custom t-shirt businesses have: #1: How do you know when it’s time to REPLACE a piece of equipment? You’ll hear how Mark tracks escalating maintenance, part availability and more to figure out when it makes sense to say goodbye to a current piece of hardware. #2: When should you change or upgrade to a BETTER system? Hear his story about how he decided to go to replace a perfectly good manual screen print press with an automatic and how you might apply that same logic to what’s next. #3:

In this CAS Mini-Cast we are going to show you how to design an email using the Mailchimp.

In this CAS Mini-Cast we are going to talk about the anatomy of email and how to structure powerful email using the Mailchimp. Mailchimp is a marketing automation platform and an email marketing service. It’s perfect for businesses of all sizes. You can start using it for free and upgrade as your business grows. The greatest part about the Mailchimp is that it’s easy to use for beginners.

Facebook groups can be very powerful if you want to increase sales for your business… but they are completely different compared to Facebook pages. Groups are about community, participation, conversations and less about selling. But it doesn’t mean you can’t sell. Here’s how to do it: Join your niche groups. Introduce yourself Add value to the group/community by helping people. Selling is done by helping people. This way they will learn more about you and how you can help them.

If you are a custom apparel business looking for local or national business and you are doing word of mouth marketing then you should consider using LinkedIn. Here’re some tips to improve your LinkedIn profile: Change the background image that represents what you do. Use a picture of yourself and not a logo. Use the tagline area to pitch your services. Use about section to pitch your company and explain exactly what is it that you offer. Highlight your past experiences and education. Ask people to recommend you and endorse your current skills. -Join the groups and start a conversation with other people. Look at LinkedIn as a mini website and an opportunity to market yourself and get new business.

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 i