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

Go with intent to meet people (not to sell)

Having cards is important, GETTING cards is more important.

Contact them ASAP.

If they discussed business or a referral, you are in. Contact them

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

“I just went to your Instagram feed and love your pictures, so

“I ended up checking out your website, wow love the design”

“I googled your company and saw 100 5 star reviews on google WOW”

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

Keep engaged with them

TIPS:

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.

NOTE:

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:

Commercial cutter:

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?

Hobby cutter - 8.5 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

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

Have You Been PEACOCKED? #ProjectPeacock

Listen Long and Prosper! #PMCpodcasts

Chat Long and Prosper! #PrintChat

Network Long and Prosper!

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:

What to do when something goes WRONG

Your equipment will break.

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!

Here are some basic rules for when anything bad happens:

Learn these 12 steps and grow your home based business:

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.

How to make a GBB?

– Consult apparel suppliers

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?