Custom Apparel Startups

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 follow everything on this list.

Here are the 10 (plus one bonus) things you should do for every product page on your website.

Know your goal - When someone lands on this page, what do you want them to do?

Tell them what it is - Big and Bold, then short and sweet. Explain the product in a glance.

Ask them to take action - clear and obvious - buy now, call in, live chat, complete form.

Offer more info for those who want it - for many people the short and sweet isn't enough... so after the above. add more text, add videos, additional images, bullet lists of features.

Address their concerns - If you know your customers, or have surveyed people. let them know their concerns and how this product helped them. e.g. won't shrink, collar won't wrinkle, color won't fade, etc

Live chat - most of the time you can get a live chat for free, and make it available during business hours. Even mobile apps to make it easier for you

Let them call you - if they have questions, plenty of people STILL like the phone. Make it easy to find and call you.

GOOD photos, videos, gifs - Be sure to have photos and/or videos... and don't make them super fuzzy or stretched out or confusing. You have a $1000 camera in your pocket, use it.

Add testimonials - site reviews, quotes, pictures from customers, social comments, screenshots, etc

Brag - if a famous person or brand purchased this... brag. Could be local schools, winning football team, local church, big famous brand, famous social media influencer

Review, test, repeat - come back to these pages and review them. When possible test different versions of the page. Don't let them go stale.

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 to the slightly bigger picture of what's happening NOW in your business.

So you can use that perspective and experiencing this busy season to better take advantage of the next.

Here are a few things to take note of, and set aside for planning next year:

1. What's wasting your time? Every year you probably take orders for the same kinds of things that you know just take WAAAY too long to do. The way you know that is by looking at how much you're charging for everything, how long it takes you, and what it all costs in materials. But really - you probably kind of FEEL it right now anyway...

Custom stockings?

Table runners

Halloween or Thanksgiving decorations?

2. What Customers are NOT worth it? You can really tell who your best and worst customers are when you're super busy.

Are you DREADING someone's phone call?

Do you already know they're going to complain?

Do you end up with high return rates and low customer satisfaction consistently from one or two businesses?

3. What do you LOVE making right now? Look at all the business coming in the past 30 days - which ones do you want to do FIRST? Which kinds of activities get you excited about starting work?

4. What has made you, or IS making you, the most PROFIT?

Are you pumping out left chest t-shirt logos with a DigitalHeat FX printer and making tons of money from it?

Is making a big custom one off project, like a jacket or holiday decoration paying you better than anything else?

What customers is keeping your mortgage money coming in because every job is so profitable for you?

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 this new entertainment center – if you’re watching the video recording you’ll see a picture.

It was all unexpectedly difficult. And that made me think of all of you.

First: The instructions for this RTA thing were awful. And parts weren’t labeled. My wife and are RTA PROFESSIONALS, but we still went through a solid day of “oh, that’s backwards, let’s take it all apart again”.

There were no IKEA style pictures that were clear enough to help. No handy assembly videos. Noone to call and ask questions. And like I said, even though we are PROS at this, a few nudges from someone that had assembled this thing before would have saved HOURS in just getting set up.

I thought of all of you out there that get a DTG Printer, Embroidery Machine on White Toner printer system like the DigitalHeat FX and:

BUT I KNOW PRINTERS! BUT I HAVE AN EMBROIDERY MACHINE NOW! BUT I HAVE TO GET IT GOING THIS WEEKEND! I HAVE ORDERS TO GET OUT!

Part 2: NEXT time it will be so much EASIER

This entertainment center had 3 pieces – and one of them is basically a bookcase mounted about 4′ off the floor.

It’s freakin’ heavy. And it’s just my wife and I doing the install. No handy rail mounts. Just 2 places to put screws to mount to the wall.

While we held it up in the air with one hand and tried to screw in with the other.

And I was terrified this thing would fall down in the middle of the night.

Oh, and did I mention – stud was in the wrong place.

So we did what anyone would do – googled heavy duty drywall screws and toggle bolts. Went to Home Depot and bought a few of each kind.

We realized the space behind the wall was more shallow than most when we broke the special-heavy-duty mounting things against the inside of the exterior cinder block wall…

And we failed, and failed again, and then we figured it out – you’ll have to listen to find out how we did it – but in the end it took us about 15 or 20 minutes for a pretty easy installation.

And it’s the same for YOU and your business. Your new equipment and your new product or process.

Listen to this short episode for more.

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 you don’t complete these. Start on these first.

A “B” item is “Should Do” but is not as important as an “A” item. There are only mild consequences to not completing these tasks. The consequences are only short-lived.

“C” tasks have no consequences. They’re nice to do, but not essential. They will not contribute to your long-term success in your personal life or career.

D’s need to be completed but should be given to someone else. In one word – delegate. The only time you should spend on these tasks is the amount of time it takes you to figure out someone to delegate the task to.

“E” stands for eliminate. You can eliminate these tasks and there will be no consequences.

The CAS Approach:

What we would add is to score each task in each category by:

The "eat the frog idea" is to start with the A tasks you dread and do that first.

Our idea would be to look at all the tasks and outsource what you hate doing or can't do well.

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 small and really bootstrap a custom t-shirt business.

3: Because now that BestBlanks is part of the ColDesi family - we just have to BRAG!

During this episode we're going to get Jim's take on:

What's hot in the sublimation business right now? In other words Jim, if you were going to start a business, what would you be SELLING?

What can ColDesi customers ONLY get from BestBlanks right now?

If you want to learn about Sublimation systems or looking to add this to your business, visit https://www.bestblanks.com/ and call Jim and his team.

If you arent making sure you are able to be found on google maps - you are 100% missing out on business!

According to Brandify:

Local Search Fast Facts:

How to make sure you are found on maps:

Google hunts and pecks to find out everything it can about local business. make it easy for them.

Resources:

https://macmillandesign.com/internet-basics/google-map-pack-benefits/

https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/10322/The-Ultimate-List-50-Local-Business-Directories.aspx

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:

Resources and recommendations from this podcast:

Listen to Jim's Podcast "Dad Cents" where he talks about life - and about personal finance in small bites: https://www.sagepathfa.com/dadcents

Listen to this episode: CAS Podcast Episode 137 | Marketing Playbook: https://customapparelstartups.com/episode-137/

Read this article about Financing Options: https://coldesi.com/financing-options/

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. Ignoring Customer Feedback - Your customers will tell you what's wrong, especially if you ask them. Listen to what they say to improve your business. Often, new business owners will let pride get in the way - thinking "this is the way I do it" instead of how can I give the customer what they want.

3. No plan for Customer Service / Experience - If all you think about is sales, you will forget to think about customer service, customer experience, good processes, organized accounting, etc.

4. Focus on the Making and not the Money - making t-shirts is an art, but if you spend so much time on the art, your orders won't be profitable. Your time is worth money.

5. Making YOUR Business all about what your Competitors are Doing - People will by from you because you are different from the competition, not because you are the same. Sometimes it important to offer similar items, because they are your competition. However, they aren't you, and you aren't them. If you try to push your business into something it's not, it will fail.

6. Change for Change's Sake - You don't need a new idea every day, and a new product to sell every day. Be sure to focus on things that are working, and then look for the right time to push for a new innovation. If you are just getting your t-shirt sales going, it might not be a good idea to spend days trying to figure out how to print on dog collars because its a new idea. If the shirts are working, go for them. This also might be the same for your niche, you don't need to think of a new niche every day.

7. Hiring Mistakes - Not everyone is good at every job. Someone who isn't detail oriented or very good at math probably shouldn't be an accountant. Someone who is 5ft and 100lbs probably should have a job lifting 80lbs bags of concrete. We are all physically and mentally different in our strengths. You need to take this into account for your business. You cannot keep your nephew employed if they are doing damage to your business. You shouldn't be afraid to let someone go if they aren't a part of your success.

Listen to these episodes:

https://customapparelstartups.com/episode-17-know-numbers-value-customer/

https://customapparelstartups.com/episode-18-know-numbers-part-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 selling more and more because embroiderers are embellishing more than just polos.

Cutters and spangle machines are also doing a LOT more - especially for holiday items.

And of course - the king of NOT printing apparel is our UV printer lineup!

So during this episode we're going to look at the most popular and PROFITABLE things people in the custom apparel business are selling.. that's not actually apparel.

What are some popular items you might not be selling now?

Below are some links to items with cost and estimated retail values.

Example: Custom Apron: https://colmanandcompany.com/SM-A520.html

Example: Custom Hip Pack: https://colmanandcompany.com/SM-BG905.html

Example: Coasters: https://compressuvprinter.com/mutoh-valuejet-426uf-desktop-printer-making-custom-coasters/

Holiday Ideas

Embroidery:

DigitalHeat FX:

Spangles:

Videos and Episodes mentioned:

Episode 125 | The White Toner Revolution with Randy Rickert: https://customapparelstartups.com/episode-125/

Episode 129 | UV Printing BOOM: https://customapparelstartups.com/episode-129/

Video: What is Kitting? (https://vimeo.com/456640332 )

Video: Custom Rocks Glasses ( https://vimeo.com/454736432 )

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-127/

Winning Sales Methods: https://customapparelstartups.com/episode-124/

During this podcast we'll be talking with Kelly Lawrence about the idea of an ACTUAL Marketing Playbook - or Business Playbook. What that is and why it just might be the key to long term growth for your business.

Intro Kelly Lawrence from Lawrence Innovation https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellylawrence/

What is a Marketing Playbook?

Okay - let's talk about this idea of developing the playbook by company size, because they're going to be quite different depending on where you are in your business life

What is your playbook?

Here are some steps to creating your playbook?

Initial questions:

Research:

Costs and profits:

Results:

Making the playbook:

Now you are ready to deliver your new playbook to your team, or yourself!

Your playbook will always be adapting and changing over time. It's not written in stone, it is a plan you should refer to and update over time.