The holiday season is the busiest and most profitable time of the year for garment decorators, screen printers, embroiderers, sublimators, and DTF shops. In this episode, Aaron and Terry share proven tips to help you plan ahead for Q4 so you can boost sales, meet deadlines, and keep your sanity. You’ll learn how to forecast holiday orders, manage inventory, train staff, and set customer policies that actually work during the rush. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the holiday chaos, this conversation will give you practical strategies to streamline production, simplify your marketing, and finish the year strong. Whether you’re decorating apparel, custom gifts, or promotional products, these Q4 preparation tips will help you avoid burnout and make the holidays your most successful season yet.

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Aaron: How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh?

Tentacles (10 Tickles)

Segment 1: Forecasting & Capacity

Terry: Looking at last year’s numbers & trends.
Aaron: Best-guess projections if you’re newer.
Discussion: Facing real capacity vs. “perfect world” capacity.

What volume of sales do we expect?

If you were in business during the holidays last year, that’s your starting point.
What dollar amount did you sell?
How difficult was it to reach those numbers?
And how much business did you leave on the table because you were overwhelmed?
If you’ve been in business for multiple years, it’s all the better. You can look at trends up or down for October, November and December.
Is it possible this year for you to add to what you’ve done in the past with new marketing, products, graphics, staffing, etc.?
Or in semi-turbulent times will you be happy to just maintain your previous sales numbers?
Either way, project a number and work backwards on how to achieve it, without the extra hours and the pain, both physical and mental, of previous holiday seasons.
Projections are just that, a guesstimate of what we believe we can accomplish. Your best guess is probably more than most decorators do in the run up to the season.
As the years go by and you track sales and production, these projections will become more and more precise.

What’s your current capability

Do you really know your current capacity?
Unfortunately, most of us imagine our capabilities in a perfect world, not the world we live in day-to-day. It’s hard for you to admit that where we are today is where we are production-wise, but we have to face reality. And know that you can make it better in the future.
If you’re up at night worrying about getting orders out the door, you probably haven’t admitted to yourself at what level you are truly capable of producing right now, today.
Again, be honest with yourself, and then start working toward the things you need to do to increase production.
For this holiday season, we need to work with what we’ve got. Short of a Christmas miracle, you’re more likely to be missing deadlines than magically producing more.
I’ve worked with so many companies that base their sales and production schedules on operating in a world where nothing goes wrong. I don’t know about you, but my production floor doesn’t exist in a sealed bubble of perfection.
Scheduling must take unknown delays and issues into account. I’m not saying sell yourself short on what you can accomplish. I’m saying take off your rose-colored glasses and see what you can do right now, today.
In the new year, let’s focus on becoming more efficient and more production centric. Coming into the holiday season is not the time to try and shake up how you accomplish your current tasks.
Do you have the equipment, staff, and capital to invest in equipment or products and so on, to produce what you anticipate?
Obviously, if you are operating at your maximum capacity and you expect an increase in sales/production over the holidays, you need to make some auxiliary plans.

Segment 2: Inventory & Vendors

Buying smart: bestsellers, practical vs. high-end items.
Building vendor relationships + backup plans.
Anecdote: stocking up too late vs. planning early.

Do an inventory of equipment, supplies, staff and more

Take stock of what you have at hand to work with, whether that be equipment, employees, blank goods, supplies, etc. Think about what potential all these things combined together can accomplish.
Does any of your equipment need some tender loving care? Is it time to replace or buy new equipment? Year-end tax savings can be a good motivator to make that purchase before the new year begins.
As to blank goods or other supplies, everyone else is looking forward to holiday sales as well. Don’t be left scouring the internet to find product at the last minute.
Planning to custom decorate Christmas stockings? Buy them now, before you’re on the “estimated delivery in January” list.

What products or services do you offer that can maximize your potential?

What do you do best and most efficiently that can maximize your profit potential? These are the products and processes where you should focus your attention and marketing. Promoting what you do best and what makes the most money for you only makes sense.
Promote, promote, promote your specialty and what makes the most money per order. That alone can make you more money this season with exactly the same amount of production time and effort as last year.

Segment 3: Staff & Workflow

Temporary help, training before the rush.
Shop layout tweaks, workflow, and realistic schedules.
Showing gratitude and keeping morale up.

Contract decorators

If you don’t have the ability this season to meet your production goals, what are the options?
You could take fewer orders, but that doesn’t make sense, or you could get some production assistance.
Contract decorators are planning for the rush of production just like you. If you wait too long to get a slice of their production schedule, they may be booked up.
Do you know any niche market decorators who don’t participate in holiday sales? They might be your perfect partner. When I sold exclusively in the fraternity/sorority marketplace, I was always looking for contract production between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, and all summer long.
Ask to see samples of the contractor’s work and, if practical, ask for references of other customers (that aren’t your direct competitors).
Anyone who has been in the garment and product decorating game for very long knows that some decorators are better than others. Poor quality work or late delivery could sabotage your entire holiday sales plans.

Temporary employees

Some college students have as much as 6-8 weeks off over the holiday season, and most would love the opportunity to make some money before going back to school.
The more flexible you are, the greater the pool of potential employees. After school high school students (and full time when they’re on break), stay at home moms and dads, second job opportunities to help pay for the holidays, and so on.
A Saturday shift for six weeks or so can add to your productivity. Or an evening shift can broaden your staffing potential to people who work full-time jobs but would love to make some extra holiday spending money.
Have a great employee who can lead that shift? Give them the opportunity to head up the extra hours so you’re not working six or seven days a week, day and night. And with that opportunity, you might just find a potential new manager to relieve some of your burden year-round.
Hire and train before the rush. Yes, you’ll spend a little more money with payroll on the front end, but you’ll gain more productivity in the heat of the season.
It’s far easier to train someone when business is calm as opposed to rushing through it with orders stacking up.

We serve up bite-sized tips for our #regulators to instantly spice up their decorated apparel business. Just like the perfect wing sauce, these quick tips can transform your business experience, adding flavor and depth to your operations. Each video in this playlist is a nugget of wisdom, carefully selected for its potential to bring immediate value to your work. So, whether you’re a seasoned pro or just getting started in the decorated apparel industry, dip into our ‘Secret Sauce’ for insights that can help you soar.