Name: Terry, aka "Terry Combs"
Email:
Web Site: www.TerryCombs.com
Bio: Terry Combs is a 30+ year veteran of the garment decorating industry, offering training and consulting through his website TerryCombs.com. Terry is also editor of the management and production newsletter Screen Print Weekly.
Posts by Terry Combs:
Four Rules of Management for Each Department
August 15th, 20111) When in doubt, stop the presses. Examine the practices in your own shop. Is it okay for an employee to stop a machine and shut down production because he has a “bad feeling” about what’s being produced? Do you reward that person for just such a shutdown? Maybe you should. The trick is to learn something every single time things grind to a halt while at the same time keeping shutdowns to a minimum. But always keep “stop the presses” an acceptable policy.
2) If there’s a better way to do it, get it out into the open. All the best ideas for running your business are floating around out there in the heads of your employees. Encourage and reward the exchange of these ideas. Follow up on suggestions, and whether you do something with the idea or not, always respond to your employees, explaining why you did or didn’t implement their idea.
3) Put on your customer’s glasses every day before you walk through the door. Sometimes, all it takes to stop your employees in their tracks is to say, “Would you buy this? If you were asked to deliver this order by hand to our customer, what would you change about it?”
Sometimes in the heat of battle, we forget there is a customer involved in this process. If every department has the attitude of pleasing the customer, your business will prosper, guaranteed.
4) Make training a part of your weekly schedule. Learning, relearning, or fine tuning one simple thing in each department each week means that each person in that department has improved on 52 new things each year. That’s probably about 50 more than average. Fifteen minutes, once a week, is all you need to start a mindset of training and learning in your facility.
Excerpt from my free newsletter Screen Print Weekly
http://terrycombs.com/links.html
Trade Show Report for 2011 to Date by Terry Combs
April 20th, 2011
I’ve been at all the garment shows so far this year… ISS, Printwear, as well as the DAX shows. As with every year, they started off with a bang in Long Beach and Atlantic City, but attendance has fizzled (with the exception of DAX) since then. Not all bad news, as attendees are buying again… if only cautiously. Vendors would much rather talk to a small number of qualified buyers than 10 times as many people with hands in their pockets.
It’s been a long and hard recession for vendors at these shows over the past couple of years. Exhibiting is not an inexpensive proposition for the folks you meet standing in their booths as you stroll the trade show aisles. Beyond renting that small piece of real estate in the exhibit hall, there’s freight in, freight out, hotels, meals, air travel, employees and the unions to pay. It’s a hard decision to commit to these expenses in a tough economy, and even harder to not exhibit at some of the shows.
DAX as a Midwest regional venue has been bustling with attendees who are placing orders. (I’ll be exhibiting at the Chicago DAX show this month with my supply business Garment Decorating Supply.) Regional shows are a great opportunity for one-on-one time with your suppliers and industry experts.
The outlook? We vendors on the booth side of the aisle are cautiously optimistic, but the days of saying “I think the next show we’ll start seeing a turnaround,” are over. Just like the national economy, this is going to be a slow and gradual process. It’s survival of the fittest. Some companies have fallen by the wayside already. Others have curbed their expenses and are holding on for better times ahead.
As in the past, most will survive this economy and be better businesses for all the pain. But I’m sure we can all agree, we’re ready for it to be over.
Coating Screens by Terry Combs
January 6th, 2011
Maximum Production
December 18th, 2010MAXIMUM PRODUCTION
Probably 15 years ago, one of my sons was working on that report all our kids have to write at some point in their school careers, “My Mom/Dad’s Job is…” So off to work with dad he went, to watch, take notes, ask for change to plug into the vending machines, and of course go to lunch with dad at Chili’s. Read the rest of this entry “
The Future of Clear Inkjet Film by Terry Combs
September 21st, 2010
All the Epson 3000 users (and similar printers from five or six years ago) ask me regularly, “Why is this clear film so hard to find these days?”
Sensory Overload – Training in Today’s World of Garment Printing by Terry Combs
August 8th, 2010
With a Flip camera or a free blog space, everybody is seems to now be an expert on screen printing, business, and any other subject you might imagine under the sun. But does easy access and what seems to be a never ending stream of information translate to better information.
But the Experts Say…
July 5th, 2010Most of us who have been in this industry for a while can name those people we feel are the experts in the field. There are many people I know and respect who I personally consider experts in one area or another of the garment decorating business. Read the rest of this entry “
Screen Printing Equipment & Supply Startup Checklist by Terry Combs
July 2nd, 2010
During screen printing classes, I regularly get the question, “What do I really need to get started in this business?” Here’s my list to use as a guideline.
Nine Lies You’ll Hear About Screens by Terry Combs
June 18th, 2010
There are a handful of common “misconceptions” about preparing your screens that are repeated often enough that they appear to have a life of their own. These common fallacies are often rooted in some past truth, or in a misplaced technology. But, these statements are heard and repeated often enough to be known as the nine lies you’ll hear about screens. Read the rest of this entry “The Confusion over RIP Software by Terry Combs
June 1st, 2010
If you’re a screen printer, and you make your own film positives, chances are you own RIP software. OK, some folks still use laser printers, or your rich uncle bought you an image setter, and some folks fake it with their inkjet printers and just find a way to make it work. But most printers today use inkjet printers along with some brand of RIP software to create their films. Yet still, I regularly hear new printers or printers taking that next step to legitimacy wonder aloud “What the heck does a RIP do anyway?” Here’s the condensed explanation.
A Good Day to Start a Business by Terry Combs
May 23rd, 2010Unless you’ve been under a rock, you know the economy has been down for months, jobs are being lost, credit is tight to non-existent, and everyone seems to be holding fast to what money they have. Bad time to start a new business? Not necessarily.
When times are tough, we in the educational end of the industry commonly see spikes in the number of attendees signing up for starting-a-new-business classes. The darker the economic outlook, the longer the waiting list for classes seems to grow. The stories are the same during every down cycle in the economy when students attend a class, stand up to introduce themselves, and tell why they came.
“I’ve been downsized.”
“I took early retirement.”
“I don’t want to depend on someone else for my livelihood.
“I want to start something on the side – just in case!”
On the plus, even in the bad times the decorated apparel business is one of the least expensive ventures you might find. A legitimate startup screen printing business can be put together for about $15,000, or less if you’re creative. Is this the ideal, most efficient investment scenario? Well, more investment gives you a bigger, better, more efficient printing operation. But, you can start a real business with real cash flow in this price range, and then build from there.
On the flipside, an inexpensive startup opportunity also means there are plenty of folks in this industry who probably should have stuck with their day jobs. But, that can just mean a bigger opportunity for you. People are always telling me they have too much competition in their area. I respond, “There are lots of screen printers, but there aren’t very many good screen printers.” Be one of the good ones and you can be successful in this business, no matter what the economy has in store for us.
Even in economic downturns as we’re struggling through right now, kids still need soccer uniforms, lawn services still need T-shirts for their staff, and my daughter in college still needs to buy those $20.00 T-shirts with one color prints from her favorite online stores!
Today might be a good day to start a business.
The Work Order Flow Through Typical Production
February 17th, 2010I talked last week with printers in Florida, discussing how a physical work order progresses through a production shop. Here’s how it works for me. Every shop is different, but the paperwork flow should be something like this.
Read the rest of this entry “
Screen Printing Business Course Online From Terry Combs
January 13th, 2010For everyone who can’t attend a hands-on screen printing class, there’s a new opportunity online. The idea is to save time, save travel, save hotels and meals and rental cars. And in today’s economy, it just makes sense. This is the same course already taught to thousands in person, but now available on your home or office computer over an eight week period. And unlike the array of how-to videos available on the internet today, the new course is offering one-on-one interaction with your specific questions, market ideas and business plans throughout the course.
Being Your Own Consultant
November 15th, 2009
As a business and production consultant, I don’t want to totally redirect all of you from getting some outside help and perspective. There’s much to be gained by having a new set of eyes on your business operations. But all those other consultants out there will agree with me on this one. You observe an operation, analyze what you see, and report back to owners and managers with your recommendations. Read the rest of this entry “
SGIA – What I Expected It to Be
October 12th, 2009I wasn’t surprised at not being surprised by anything at SGIA. If you took a couple years off visiting a show, you would have had an interesting visit out on the exhibit floor. But for those of us who go to many shows every year… it was just that, another show. Same products, same exhibitors. Albeit fewer exhibitors based on my unscientific stroll through the exhibit hall.
