Custom Apparel Startups

How to hire an expert: - Accountant CPA - Business Consultant   - Ad Agency - Marketing Guy - Social Media Pro   Make sure you have a good reason to hire someone or a company.   First 3 things:   1. What problem are you solving? or What are you trying to accomplish? 2. Why are you hiring outside for this? 3. Statement of work/Job description   Choosing a Vendor:   1. Send each prospective vendor y...

Planning: We all try to brainstorm together about what videos we need or think yall want to see, sometimes we ask! We get blanks ordered and prepare artwork for the video. We have lots of equipment so we like to get artwork that is great for that process (example, embroidery = digitized logo, DigitalHeat FX = colorful graphic with negative space, sublimation = colorful photos and portraits) One co...

How to Start an Embroidery Business In many ways, it's just like starting any other custom apparel business. Or any business at all. But we DO suggest that you look at your business backwards, or at least in a kind of reverse order from what many experts suggest. Some suggest you start with buying an embroidery machine - and that seems just wrong, though we do have some very high quality embroider...

You mess up an order, upset a customer, make a huge mistake, how to handle them and WIN It's a good policy to just figure out what you're going to do IN ADVANCE. What will you do when you or an employee makes a mistake? Don't wait for someone to be angry or disappointed, figure it out now. Don't Panic! 1. Just like the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - “I like the cover," he said. "Don't Panic. It...

Why $75,000? Because according to the article "how much is enough" and the Princeton study they reference there, for most people $75K/year is enough to be worry free. They surveyed people at different income levels and by and large, the people that made less reported to be less happy and happiness didn't increase much at larger amounts. Depending on almost everything of course - location, family s...

Easy! There is not "best". There's only best for you.   1. Best for your plan 2. Best for your products 3. Best for your budget   Lets break this down by first determining:   1. What do you want to sell? 2. Who do you want to sell to? 3. Where do you plan to fulfill orders?   Things we aren't asking yet:   1. What is your budget? 2. Which technology have you 'heard' is best? what are others doing?...

In Today’s episode, we talk with Vik Patel, Director of Global Marketing for Sawgrass Inks about what sublimation is, the opportunity for business growth and why working with Sawgrass and ColDesi makes financial sense for almost any business.

We are on the cusp of a customization boom. Public places are re-opening at different speeds and events are being scheduled. These parks, festivals, sports, etc are all being scheduled. What does this mean for YOUR business? There is an opportunity for a surge in custom shirts, hats, mugs, etc. It's up to you how to evaluate that opportunity and how to benefit from it. Restaurants Sports School Ca...

As a small customization business are you poised to have your greatest year ever in 2021. In this episode, we will discuss WHY this is true and HOW to make it work for you. Trends stack the cards in your favor. What do we expect to trend in 2021: 1. Working remotely - 42% of the US workforce is working remotely now (Stanford University Study) - Many businesses will bring employees back in in 2021,...

We’re going to divide this podcast up into 2 sections today. First, we’ll talk about Contact Pages themselves, which ARE important. Then we’ll talk about Thank You Pages – often overlooked but even MORE important, we think, than ty pages. So – what’s a contact page and why do people use them? Or more importantly – why do YOUR customers use them? If you have an ecommerce site they probably use them...

How important IS the Product Page on your website? If you're relying on eCommerce for your income, and are running ads to pages OR relying on organic search, they're a big part of why your business will succeed - or not. So, Marc - what IS the product page? If you are going to spend the time and money online, do your best to make it RIGHT. If you want to create a good product page, you HAVE to fol...

It's time to start getting ready for 2021 - Most businesses use these last 3 months of the year (Q4) to start choosing their goals, deciding what targets they want to hit, new markets they'll text - listing out their business plans for the next year. But we know THIS is the busy season for many of you! So the best way you can start prepping for next year is to take time each day to pay attention t...

During today’s MiniCast I’m going to talk about how you approach learning new things, new equipment, making new products to sell – and the lessons I learned doing home improvement this weekend. The last few weekends have been focused on home improvement – which is what happens around Halloween after your kids move out. Part 1: Assembly REQUIRED Part of those projects was assembling and installing...

The basic idea from this book by Brian Tracy - Eat that Frog - Ways to Stop Procrastination Free pdf: https://www.briantracy.com/success/time-management-made-simple/op/eat-that-frog-transcription.html Brian Tracy's ABCDE Method: Make a list of all of your To Do’s. Go through the list and put one of these letters (ABCDE) by each item “A” items are your key tasks. There will be major consequences if...

Jim Francis with https://www.bestblanks.com/ is has been getting people started in custom t-shirts and promo products business for about 150 years (maybe closer to 10 but it seems like that much) - and we've asked him on the podcast today for 2 reasons: 1: Because he's a PRO in a part of the business that we have less experience in. 2: Because Sublimation is a great technology if you want to start...

If you arent making sure you are able to be found on google maps - you are 100% missing out on business! According to Brandify: 77% of people use google maps to find a local business, second place is Facebook at 38% (obviously there is overlap, some people use both) 25% of these searches are in the car. This means they might be 'in town' or 'running errands' and hoping to find someone nearby 59% o...

Jason Fuchs https://www.sagepathfa.com/ is a Financial Advisor that specializes in small businesses - and entrepreneurs just like you. And he's here with some of the answers to questions that we get all the time.. about insurance, retirement and the personal "money" side of the customization business. People most wanted to learn about: Small business loan options - When to pay Cash, When...

Here are seven (7) things that kill business growth. Ignoring these things are certain to keep your custom t-shirt business, embroidery, sign, promo products business from being more. More sales, more profits, and more satisfying for you and your customers. 1. Bad Accounting - In other words, not knowing your numbers. All too often people think they are doing well, but they are failing slowly. 2....

One thing is has become clear this year. That MOST of our new customers, and ones adding new machines to their shop, are doing a lot more than just apparel. At every tradeshow, in every industry email and magazine, even in ColDesi emails you see more and more outside the norm. Just recently we finished a video on making custom Whiskey glasses with DigitalHeat FX. And the Embroidery Grip has been s...

We've been actually kind of BUILDING a Marketing Playbook over the past few episodes - not on purpose. Las episode we talked about identifying your ideal customer, and recently we've done podcasts on: Ecommerce sites: https://customapparelstartups.com/episode-130/ Turnaround strategies: https://customapparelstartups.com/episode-128/ Selling Conversations: https://customapparelstartups.com/episode-...

Here's how to build a winning ad strategy for your business: Step 1 – Choose your Niche -Fitness Coaches & Personal Trainers -Local Moms from pregnancy to toddler years Step 2 – Build your Avatar Male – 25-45 – In shape, loves fitness, likes cool t-shirts, casual minded, wants to be independently wealthy. Has own business for personal training. Probably works out of a private gym and does some...

Marketers are constantly talking about a "customer avatar", which translates into normal English as your Ideal Customer. Identifying that Ideal Customers is very similar to, and JUST as important as choosing a Niche Market, something we've devoted quite a few episodes to as well. All you're really doing here is creating an imaginary person. The one you'd most like to sell to. The one tha...

Let's talk about making that BIG Decision like adding a new piece of equipment to your business, or moving into or out of a retail location, or moving your business to a print on demand model. 1. Look at the opportunity objectively and from several perspectives. Are you doing this because you're excited, or because it's objectively a good opportunity? How will your existing customers view this dec...

One of the problems people have about opening their small business is being shy about it. You have to tell everyone There is a thing where people are scared to share that they are starting (or started) a new business. This might be because: Fear of ridicule.. aka that's a bad idea. Fear of looking like a failure - next year you aren't in the business Fear of not being good enough - do work for the...

The first thing to discuss about this episode is WHY you want to call people you've never met. Why make sales phone calls? They are proven to work (aka make you money) They are essentially free Why don't business make sales phone calls? Scary Feel they are intrusive Don't know what to say. How to get past these and start making calls? Realize you've done something WAY scarier, you started a busine...