Name: Aaron
Email:
Web Site: www.coastalbusiness.com
Bio: I have been in the garment decorating industry for over 10 years, and have worked with many small businesses to help them make money and improve their marketing. I love helping small businesses as I have been involved with or had my own small business since I was a teenager. In my free time, I enjoy volleyball, bowling and spending time with my 11 year old son. I have recently moved to St. Louis by way of Boston, Colorado Springs and most major cities in Arizona.
Posts by Aaron Montgomery:
Heat Transfer as a start to Direct-to-Garment
March 31st, 2011
Article by Aaron Montgomery. Direct to garment printing has come a long way since it first hit our industry as a decorating method that is here to stay back in 2004. There have been many highs and lows and today you have a wide range of choices all of which fit certain business models. The down side is the relatively high investment cost of the equipment at first which means you must have a market in place to quick realize any return on investment. So how do you get into that market and not run yourself out of business first? Heat Transfers is the answer!
Read the rest of this entry “
Why every company should do a Marketing Plan – Big or Small – by Aaron Montgomery
March 5th, 2011
One of the things I have learned in my time doing marketing for different companies is that if you don’t have a plan for your attack, you might as well just lock the doors and give all your money to your competitor. This plan doesn’t have Read the rest of this entry “
Can you Believe the Hype?
February 2nd, 2011With the mass of information that we all receive in today’s world, from social media, TV, radio, newspaper, etc., do you find it harder and harder to figure out what is real and what is hype? I know I do. With all the media’s competing for your attention each outlet has to do something to attract you. It seems the number one tool they use it to add some hype or sensationalism.
Are You Ready for the Holiday Season? by Aaron Montgomery
October 25th, 2010
Like anyone about this time of the year, I start thinking about the holiday season, visiting family and working out the schedule with friends and relatives. All our lives probably get busier with coordinating vacations, trips and gift purchases on a tight budget. But what I really want to know is, are you ready for the holidays with relation to your business? Read the rest of this entry “
NBM Long Beach Show Recap by Aaron Montgomery
August 23rd, 2010One of my first responsibilities at my new job was to help plan and coordinate the NBM Long Beach trade show this year. I was excited to hit the road again and see people face to face. In my past life in the industry we didn’t go to many of the NBM shows, but I always knew that they were still pretty good shows. Well this recent trip sealed it. The NBM Long Beach 2010 convention was a hit. It was not huge, but it was big enough for what it is and there were plenty of buyers. By my count there were 173 exhibitors and according to NBM (Thanks Brandy!) there were 11,097 attendees. Admittedly we were in the Awards and Engraving side and I did talk to plenty of people from the Printwear side that were a little disappointed, but it might be them and not the show. Too many people just don’t get how to do a show, but that is another blog…
I tried to kept a running diary of my 4 ½ days in Long Beach via Twitter (www.twitter.com/afm1374) but I will give you the extended version here so you can get an idea of the show and my trip.
Life Changes by Aaron Montgomery
August 8th, 2010
It has again been a while since you all last heard from me. Sorry for that! As with most people I had the greatest of intentions but life gets in the way. For me life has changed quite a bit and I’m excited about these changes. As most of you know I was running my own small business called Garment Decorating Supply, LLC. In the month since my last blog post I have passed my company on to a very close friend of mine and started out on a new journey in our industry.
Not to worry, Garment Decorating Supply, LLC is in good hands. Most of you know Terry Combs. He is a blogger on this site and one of the most knowledgeable guys I know in the screen printing realm. Like me he worked at U.S. Screen for many years, and he is continuing on with GDS as if things never changed. He is a great guy who I trust will treat the customer well, so give him a call if you need anything.
I have moved to St. Louis, MO to become the Sales and Marketing Manager for a wonderful small business called Coastal Business Supplies, Inc. The Pickering family (Andy, Wes and Clay) have welcomed me to their business and I’m excited to help them grow. Coastal is an industry leader in sublimation supplies and blanks, heat transfer papers, textile and sign vinyl and also have a large list of available equipment from inkjet, heat press and cutters. I’ll be managing the sales and customer service team, developing our social media and traditional marketing plan and coordinating and attending the industry trade shows. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at the shows again. (Who’s going to Long Beach this week?)
Thanks for following me, and I look forward to continuing to bring you my thoughts on the industry, small business marketing and how we all fit together. I’ll be blogging about the upcoming NBM show, so look for a new blog with the highlights of the show the week of the 16th of August.
Aaron
Examples of Good Marketing Tools by Aaron Montgomery
July 8th, 2010
After a long break from writing articles for my blog, I’m finally back. I read some of my older blogs before starting this one and decided I was writing too many rants about bad service and image. You all were going to think I was Mr. “Debbie Downer.” So this blog has a couple of examples of marketing tools that these screen printing companies are using that impressed me. They get “IT”! If you have any suggestions of others whose marketing tool box is impressive, please let me know. Read the rest of this entry “
My Tips and Tricks for Getting onto Twitter (Part 2)
March 30th, 2010So now that you know where I am coming from in this social networking world, I would like to share some of the tips that I wish I had known about before spending hours surfing the web and lots of trial and error. This is not Read the rest of this entry “
ISS Long Beach Preview and Twitter Participants
January 22nd, 2010
Commentary from Aaron Montgomery…….The buzz surrounding the upcoming ISS Long Beach Show is pretty strong, and I’m very excited to attend. I wanted to have a booth this year, but as a startup company, capital is tight and we just could not justify the expense. But I am still going to make it to the show to see old friends, hopefully meet new ones and take in all the cool stuff.
The size of the show seems to be much improved and Long Beach is always a very good show for our industry. Check out this tweet by a shipping company regarding the show:
“Delivering into ISS Long Beach today and tomorrow, 10 shipments at 9,472 pounds. Double vs last year, I think the economy is improving…” (via @ExhibitTransfer 1/19/2010 6:33AM) Read the rest of this entry “
Don’t we all want to work with professionals?
January 6th, 2010Commentary by Aaron Montgomery……I continue to be surprised by how some people stay in business. I do my darnedest to make sure that my company image is one of a professional and maybe even a company that is bigger than we are. But some people just don’t seem to get it. You never have more than one chance to make a first impression. Read the rest of this entry “
Customer Service – Does anyone know what it means?
November 12th, 2009
This edition of my blog is most likely more of a rant than anything, but the morale of the story is hopefully something every small business understands and takes to heart. Companies are complaining on a massive scale about how bad business is, but I wonder how much of it is self-induced? Think about who the major complainers are. The airline industry, American car companies, big banks, etc. These companies also tend to have the worst grades when it comes to customer service. They put a ton of lip service to it, but it is just that, lip service. Read the rest of this entry “
Twitter Pet Peeves
September 13th, 2009
As Twitter continues to grow and I continue to use it and follow new people, I have come across a few things that kind of bug me. I am sure others have things that bug them too (and I’m sure some of my followers have things they don’t like about me). Here are the three main things that bug me on twitter. I would love to see your pet peeves in the comments section.
Trade Shows – Should we go all that way?
July 29th, 2009It is coming to that time of the year in the garment decorating industry where we are trying to decide on heading to those last few major trade shows of the year and also possibly looking to make early plans for the round of spring 2010 shows. With the economy the way it is (even if it is improving in my opinion), we must make good decisions about the money we spend. That includes our budget for attending trade shows. With that being said, I think we need to take a closer look at the reason we attend shows etc.
My Social Networking History (Part 1)
June 26th, 2009First off let me start by saying I am far from being an expert on Social Networking. I am a bit of an addict, but expert, not at all. I do consider myself to be somewhat web savvy, and spend a considerable amount of my time Read the rest of this entry “
Some thoughts about working from home
June 19th, 2009So as I sit here in my office which is less than 20 paces from my bedroom, I think about the ups and downs of working from your house. There are many advantages to working from home especially with gas prices the way they are and Read the rest of this entry “
