How to even get started to open a t-shirt printing business

For the next several blogs that I compose, I’m going to focus on the
subject matter geared to anybody who might be entertaining the thought of
trying to start up a successful Columbus t-shirt printing business.

I’ve always been of the opinion that one should arm himself with as much
knowledge as possible before starting any type of business venture. Trying
to break into the screen printing and custom embroidery industry is
certainly no exception to that. That being said, where do I even get
started? How do I acquire this knowledge? Well first of all, I’ve got good
news, as you could pretty much do it in the comfort of your own kitchen
table or recliner. The fact that we live in a digital age, where knowledge
is so easily acquired and you can pretty much find out anything you want to
know about any subject matter at all, is definitely a huge advantage.

The key to this is simply learning the right questions to ask. Ask yourself,
what is the most important aspect of any company? And that’s exactly what
you should put in the search bar when you pose your query. Another helpful
tip would be to do a search for the top 10 Columbus digital t-shirt
printing and custom embroidery companies. Take note of who’s showing up on
that first landing page. There’s a reason you’re seeing them and not
others.

Over the next several blogs, we’re going to be talking about why
they are there and what it’s going to take to potentially and eventually be
there yourself.

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Reasons for buying shirts for different seasons

Let me start out by saying this. Don’t sell yourself short! One of the things I love about owning a website that caters to Columbus t-shirt printing is the fact that about every 4 months or so the weather changes. I think you should take this into consideration when trying to establish an initial clientele. I’ve heard it said that the best salesman doesn’t actually use a hard close, but they lead softly and gently. Here’s an example: don’t get greedy! When dealing with a first-time customer, bid it fairly where you’re going to make a fair profit margin, but also make sure that he or she is equally comfortable with what you’re presenting. This will help you get your foot in the door.

Let’s just say for example that he’s ordering some custom screen printing or embroidery. I recommend that you don’t just give them what he asked for but throw in a little something extra. Also make sure that the potential customer realizes that once his logo has been created, you archive it and can reuse it as long as it doesn’t change in any way shape or size. This creates a reason for him to remember you the next time he’s in the market for some custom t-shirts. Why would he go anywhere else? It’s so easy to deal with a repeat order than it is a first time request. At that point when the season starts to change over, he’s going to go from short sleeve to long sleeve and from warm weather hats or jackets to cold weather apparel. You might want to keep good notes regarding what they used and when they placed it. You might want to reach out to them with a phone call or an email. Say something to the effect of this. It’s been a few months since we last did work for you and just wanted to know if you thought you might possibly be needing any sweatshirts or hoodies since the season’s starting to change over. I would consider this to be a very soft approach.

There’s a fine line that a Columbus T-Shirt Company walks. You don’t want to be a nuisance but at the same time, you sure don’t want to be forgotten. It helps that we live in a digital age where it’s not even necessary to actually talk to them. It could be as simple as just shooting them a text. I hope this has been helpful. Stay tuned for upcoming blogs that could be helpful. In the next few weeks, we’ll be talking about custom embroidery companies in the Columbus area.

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Starting a Custom Embroidery Company

Starting a Columbus custom embroidery company can be overwhelming if you happen to be the new kid on the block just starting up. For example, there’s so many different aspects to it. Where do you even start? I always emphasize that the most important part of any new business is the marketing, and then the sales that back it up. You can be the best Columbus t-shirt printing company in the business, but if that phone doesn’t ring with a potential customer on the other line, you are quickly going to be out of business. It all starts with that all important quote request.

There’s many ways to acquire this, but the most common platform is typically either social media or a major search engine. Someone does a relevant search for whatever it is they’re needing, such as digital t-shirt printing or screen printing and that normally will direct them to that first landing page. It’s not a coincidence that you’re seeing the websites that are there. They’re either called sponsored ads or they are natural. The sponsored ones are there simply because someone paid for them. Every time someone clicks on them it costs the person that paid for it a little bit of money. How much does it cost? Well that depends on the search term. Each term is different, and what determines the cost is usually determined by how popular that word is. For example, the term, Columbus screen printing is going to be different than Columbus embroidery. The word digital t-shirt printing is going to be different than sign manufacturing and so on.

Although this type of marketing campaign can be very successful, it can also be very expensive and even put some out of business very quickly if they’re not careful. The best way to approach this in my opinion is to reach out to somebody who is experienced in this type of thing. They can help you to set daily and even weekly budgets. Once that money runs out, your ads will go offline. There is software out there that will help you to manage this where you don’t have to be constantly looking at a monitor.

One of the things I like about this type of marketing is that you can turn these ads on or off depending on your workload that it generates. The reason I say this, is that it doesn’t do you any good to write up an order if you can’t fulfill it, especially if it happens to be time sensitive. If you choose to pursue this approach, I would recommend starting out small and just doing a feasibility study with let’s say $100. Of course, how long it takes to go through that dollar amount will be relevant to the cost of the words you choose. One of the problems you may incur is what’s known as empty clicks. People who are trying to sell you something such as embroidery thread or screen printing supplies will also probably be clicking as well. I would just view this as the cost of doing business as there’s no way to control who is actually going to be the one to reach out to you, whether it’s a salesman or a potential customer.

One of the things that I like most about this type of marketing is the fact that you can gear this type of campaign to a very targeted and specific audience. Understand that there are no guarantees with this approach and everything you try is going to be a calculated risk. That’s why I recommend doing a feasibility study first and then you can gauge on its performance, whether this is going to be something you want to pursue in the future or not.

If you’ve taken any type of sales training, you were taught that a person’s attention spam is very limited. You typically have approximately 30 seconds or less to do this and if you can’t, then they’re simply clicking on to the next website on the landing page.

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Owning and operating a t-shirt printing company

When it comes to running a successful Columbus t-shirt printing company, there are many different directions one can go. Personally speaking, I’m a fan of whatever works best. Sometimes it takes a little while to figure it out. I heard it said, that experience is the best teacher, but that doesn’t work in the world of business. I would much rather learn from someone else’s mistakes than make my own, especially when some mistakes are much less forgiving than others. Any route to go is going to be a very calculated risk because there are certainly are no for sure in the world of business. You go forward with a good plan after doing your homework and hope for good things as a result.

Here’s something to consider. Instead of starting out by incurring a large overhead that is consisting of the normal overhead of starting a digital t-shirt printing business, such as seeking out a brick and mortar facility where you can do your production and going out and buying expensive state-of-the-art equipment, consider surrounding yourself with a network of people who are great at what they do and letting them do it for you. Take production for example, there’s a lot more to it than just owning the correct machinery. You have to know how to use it! It doesn’t just happen overnight and you’re going to probably have to pay a premium, to find an experienced screen printer that goes along with all the other virtues you would be looking for such as honesty and integrity.

It also gets even more complicated if you’re going to cater to offer custom embroidery. If you’re going to also cater to that market, you’re going to need experienced operators to stand behind those machines as well. When you break it down, as expensive as the equipment is, what’s even more expensive are the people running them. Instead, you might want to consider outsourcing all your screen printing and embroidery production. The key here is to find a company that you can depend on. A great company can make you really look good and a bad one can make you look very bad just that quick. The reason I mentioned integrity earlier concerning employees, the companies you network with are no different. Make sure you have an agreement up front that they’re not going to steal your clientele. If you can find the right folks to work with, it will not only drastically cut your overhead of monthly expenses, but it allow you to concentrate on marketing as well as sales.

There are just so many hours in the day and only so much energy in your body so this would give you a way to prioritize what’s most important. It’s always been my opinion that the most important component of any successful digital t-shirt printing business is the ability to sell it. This is what sets the contract printers apart from the rest of the crowd. The folks that do the contract work are normally high volume low profit. More than not, the only reason they tend to go that direction is because it’s very difficult for them to sell their own jobs. Therefore, they depend on others to keep a steady flow of blank apparel coming in constantly.

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Making a profit versus staying busy

Although working hard towards achieving one’s goals is a very honorable thing, when it comes time to meet your financial monthly obligations, your creditors do not have any interest in how diligent you worked or how hard you worked. All they are interested in at that point is collecting what you owe them. How often is it that someone asks how you’re doing, and your reply is I’ve been busy. Their response to you is that’s good. I say that’s nonsense! I’m in the Columbus t-shirt printing business to be profitable and not to be busy. For some reason, folks seem to have the wrong idea that being busy in of itself is a good thing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Working hard is highly overrated.

What is worthwhile is working smart. Here’s an example, if you’re running east as fast as you can, when you should be running west, you’re running the wrong way. One of the things I talked to young entrepreneurs about who are trying to break into the Columbus screen printing and custom embroidery business is to not try and reinvent the wheel. Get your computer out and go to a major search engine and put in a relevant search such as Columbus digital t-shirt printing or something similar and see who pops up. The ones you’re seeing on the first landing page are there for a reason. Either it’s a sponsored link that someone is paying for every time it’s clicked on or you’re seeing that particular website because the search engines like what they saw.

More than not, it’s the content. There’s an old saying that content is King. I think this holds true. Especially when it’s newly written or recently added. There’s an old saying that reads, keep your friends close and your competitors closer. I think there’s a lot of wisdom in this. I would recommend that you study what they’re doing. I am not recommending that you plagiarize their sight but simply use the same concepts. The key here is that when somebody is doing a relevant search, you need to make sure that it’s your website that comes up on that landing page and not your competitors.

When it comes to marketing, we live in a digital world and I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to have your website optimized in order that it shows up. This is what’s going to create your bid opportunities.

 

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Starting a printing business

I’ve heard it said that knowledge is power. Working hard to achieve one’s goal is certainly admirable but let’s face it, when it comes to the end of the month, and it’s time to pay your bills, nobody cares how hard you actually tried. All your creditors are concerned with this one thing – where’s their money! If you happen to be a young entrepreneur with a lot of energy and ambition that’s trying to make a name for himself in the Columbus t-shirt printing industry, then I would certainly recommend you pull up a chair, get comfortable and read this carefully.

There are many different ways that you can go when starting a Columbus screen printing and custom embroidery company. That being said, there are no for sures in business and every approach you take is going to be a calculated risk. I happen to be a big fan of low risk and high reward. The first thing you need to do is pick your battles. One needs to be very discriminating regarding where he or she is going to direct the lion’s share of their effort, as well as where to allocate their initial investment. The traditional way of starting a digital t-shirt printing company for most folks has been to go out and buy some very expensive equipment. You are also going to need a place to put it and do your production. If you choose to take this path you are also going to require employees that know what they’re doing and standing behind those presses. We’re talking huge overhead here! As I mentioned earlier, the employees have to know what they’re doing.

There’s a lot more to screen printing and embroidery then just owning the machinery. You need to know how to use it and there’s a huge learning curve to it. That being said, the good folks and representatives at the trade shows make it look so effortless. I can assure you that it’s not that way when you’re first starting out. Be expected to ruin a lot of different T-shirts. Relax, it’s all part of the learning process. My recommendation would be to start out by just forming a marketing plan. No matter how good you are at whatever it is you do, nothing happens before the sale and without that, you’ll quickly be out of business. I also recommend not incurring that huge overhead when first starting out. Instead, why don’t you consider finding a good contract embroiderer to do the work for you? Using this method, you will be able to do a feasibility study and see if you can actually be successful in sales and build a significant clientele before incurring a huge monthly financial responsibility.

The fact that we live in the digital environment that we do, this will give you a huge advantage when reaching out to new potential customers compared to the old days when people did mass mailings and just walked around knocking on doors. Instead I would start out with a very targeted social media campaign. Work on building a following on several different social media platforms. I hope this is helpful!

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Communication Is The Most Important

Well it’s towards the end of Fall and winter is soon to come. There is the smell of fireplaces burning as well as the leaves changing colors, along with warm days and chilly nights. It’s also time for breaking out your favorite hoodies along with jackets and other long sleeve apparel. If you happen to be looking for a company that can provide Columbus digital t-shirt printing, then I highly recommend you give us a call. I’m confident that we have what it takes to potentially earn your business, not only for your current order, but hopefully for years to come. To be fair, we’re not the only Columbus screen printing and embroidery company out there that’s good at what they do. However, what we do better in my opinion than anyone else is simply the ability to communicate not only by email but audibly. In today’s society, it’s becoming more unusual for somebody to actually answer their telephone when you call. Folks are more than not, forced to leave a voicemail in hopes that somebody will actually call them back in a timely manner. It’s not uncommon that no one actually calls you back at all or you get a call back days later. That doesn’t work when there’s a short turnaround time involved. Emails are often an excellent way to keep track of whatever was presented, but there’s also so much to potentially be gained by audible communication and two people simply talking on the phone.

Here’s something to consider. If a Columbus digital t-shirt printing company doesn’t answer when you call for a quote request, it’s probably a good bet that they’re not going to answer if there happens to be a potential problem either. There’s so much more to take into consideration when shopping for a Columbus embroidery company then just the lowest price. A good example of this would be for a potential customer to receive their t-shirts a few days later after your event date. At that point, it doesn’t even matter if the order happens to look great as the event is over and you probably don’t need them anymore. I would recommend that you check out the ratings on their reviews. I’m not saying we never make a mistake. I’m just stating that the difference between a great custom screen printing company and an average one is simply the way they handle it.

Give us a call as we actually want to talk to you! If we by chance don’t answer the phone, it’s probably because we’re on the line with another potential customer. Just leave a message and we’ll be faithful to call you back in a timely manner.

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It’s all in the details!

I’ve heard it said quite often that the little things can mean a lot and that extra attention should be taken when addressing the small details of a job. After all, if you’re faithful to do the little things correct, it’s likely that larger opportunities will come around. This not only holds true in everyday life but also in business. Take actually answering the phone for example. It doesn’t seem like a very big deal, but you would be amazed at how few Columbus t-shirt printing companies actually don’t. More than not, you have to leave a voicemail and hope that somebody will actually call you back in a timely manner. The live human element for the most part has been taken out of the sale equation. Everything is sent via email or text and nobody wants to actually talk to anyone.

I’ve been in the digital t-shirt printing business for quite some time and can attest that good clear concise communication is paramount when trying to figure out a scenario that’s going to be conducive to everyone involved. After all, the goal is to try to create a situation where our customer is going to be as comfortable using us for his or her custom screen printing and embroidery needs as we are wanting to cater to it. If we do our job correctly, we’re certain that the repeat orders will most likely take care of themselves. Audible communication has proven to be the best way of achieving this.

The Columbus screen printing and embroidery industry is extremely competitive and as an owner, I look for ways that I can gain an edge. Who would have thought it was this simple and uncomplicated, whereby just answering the phone when somebody reaches out would make that big of a difference? That being said, I can assure you that it does. My customers have actually told me that if a custom t-shirt printing company refuses to answer the telephone when they think that I could be a potential customer, it’s very unlikely they would actually receive my phone call in case there was a problem. It’s not uncommon that the bid request would involve potential complications such as an extremely short turnaround time or a very limited budget. These challenges are issues that are best talked about.

We consider ourselves old school when it comes to figuring out a scenario that’s going to be beneficial to everyone involved in Columbus when it comes to all their embroidery requirements.

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Benefits of Networking

Let’s talk about the power of networking. Most people are good at something but very few individuals are great at everything. There are so many different components to running a successful Columbus digital t-shirt printing company. There’s also a huge difference between running a business and having your business run you. You will soon realize that there’s only so many working hours in the day and only so much energy that one person can expel. You need to realize that you’re not living to work, but you’re working to live. There’s a huge difference! The first piece of advice I would give you is to recognize what your strengths are and what are your weaknesses. Once you established that, you can surround yourself with a network of people who are great at whatever it is you’re lacking and don’t do well.

They need to have an understanding that it’s their job to make you look good and if done correctly, there is no limit to how far they can take you. It also frees you up to do what you excel in and more importantly have a life outside of your business. I’ve heard it said that nobody really owns anything as we’re all simply renters. The point I’m making here is that when it comes time to leave this world, nobody can take anything with them and all that you’ve acquired is left behind. At the end of your time, you will not be thinking, if only I’d have worked a little harder or had a little more. You will be thinking that I’m glad I spent time doing something meaningful that I enjoy. Networking with the right personnel will allow you to accomplish this.

When it comes to establishing new digital t-shirt printing customers, experience has taught us that it is much easier to sustain an established customer than it is a brand new one. The custom embroidery and Columbus Screen Printing industry is no exception to that. One thing I love about this business is it repeats approximately every four months as the season changes. People go from short sleeve T-shirts to the long sleeve hoodies and jackets. They’d much rather deal with someone who they’ve dealt with before as they’re already convinced of your abilities to get orders done on time and looking great. In other words, you don’t have to sell them on yourself. Besides that, their logo should be archived and it’s just a matter of pulling it and reusing it far custom embroidery orders.

If you end up doing your job well, then the repeat order should take care of themselves.

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Marketing Strategies

Let’s talk about marketing. There’s a lot of different ways you can go about marketing and frankly, I’m a fan of whatever works. However, I’m a fan of low-risk and high-reward and when comes to marketing a Columbus digital t-shirt printing company, some ways are going to be much more expensive and much riskier than others.

Let’s start out by discussing a few strategies that really don’t cost any monetary outlay whatsoever. The first and most important thing that I would recommend is take the time to actually answer the phone. The Columbus custom embroidery and screen printing industry seems to have removed the human element out of the equation. It seems to me, that nobody wants to actually talk to anybody anymore and everything is done by email. Don’t get me wrong. I think emails are a wonderful way to keep track of whatever was presented and agreed upon, but there is a whole lot that can be gained by simply two people talking to one another.

I always educate my customers when they call us with this comment. If a Columbus screen printing and custom embroidery company doesn’t answer their phone when they think you might be a potential buyer, it’s even more far-fetched that they would actually pick up when there was a problem. That could be a real issue as well as a deal breaker on orders that might be time sensitive and have no wiggle room for error. Most people prefer human interaction and get frustrated when they’re forced to leave a voicemail and nobody ends up calling them back for days.

I realize that we’re living in a digital world. However, one of the secrets to our success is combining the best of what technology lends itself to, as well as just old school human interaction.


Now let’s talk about your website. Although it’s very important to have a professional looking website that’s user-friendly and easy to navigate but the most important part of the equation when it comes to web marketing is the ability for people to find it when they’re doing a relevant search. You have to understand that people’s attention span is very short and they have very little patience as they’re looking for immediate gratification when using a search engine. If your site is not on the first page, then then they’re probably going to click on somebody else’s site who is. Unless you’re really savvy, I would strongly recommend that you get in touch with a professional who knows what he’s doing when it comes to website optimization. It really doesn’t matter if you have a million dollar website if nobody is going to it. You can also be the very best t-shirt printer in all of Columbus but if your potential customer cannot find you when they’re in need of your service, then you’re probably not going to get the job.


To sum it up, you don’t necessarily have to be the most intelligent person in the room. You just have to know the smartest individual and have him on your team.

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