Custom Apparel Startups

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:

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..

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?

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.

Here are some factors that determine success or failure and moving through the stages:

Business factors:

Owner factors:

You have to understand these stages and where you want to go. Recognizing where you shift focus and motivation. Your business can be whatever you want!

Resource: https://hbr.org/1983/05/the-five-stages-of-small-business-growth

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.

Waster: Searching all over for 'how to do XYZ in photoshop

Waster: Filing business / tax paperwork when you have no clue what to do

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

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

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)

Another book: EMyth by Michael Gerber

You Can't Find Anything

Waster: Piles of boxes of shirts. Finding a "small" takes 5 minutes

Waster: No CRM, No Customer database. You will find yourself searching through emails and texts to find what you quoted someone

Waster: No process from orders in to orders out.

Penny Pinching

Waster: Jamming vinyl designs or transfer designs so close, it takes 5 minutes just to cut them out.

Waster: Always price shopping supplies that cost almost nothing. e.g. thread

Waster: Trying to save money with lower quality materials.

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

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

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 trusted partner.

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:

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

Cost in materials

Avoid tech support 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 - Why would you do it yourself?

Hire in house - Why would you hire an artist?

Farm it out

Case for Outsourcing - Why WE like it.

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:

According to a study done by Oracle:

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!

Building a customer experience plan

Initial contact

Quote Stage

Purchase Stage

Fulfillment

Post sale

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:

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

They're USING promotional products

Listen for verbal clues:

Oh yea we always get custom shirts made

Do you customize ............ hats, bags,etc

I've thought about doing this

Do you have a storefront?

Do you have a business card?

Do you have Facebook / Insta etc?

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:

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:

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:

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:

Email 4: Infotainment

This is entertaining your customers with information. Educational content they will want to read or watch. This could be:

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:

Text Only:

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:

Off your website:

But WHY are they signing up? Offering a Lead Magnet

Reasons why customers sign up … aka newsletter

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!