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!

In my nearly 10 years of working in the direct to garment industry (I was the VP of Sales and Marketing for U.S. Screen which sold the T-Jet line of direct to garment machines) I found the worst enemy of the machines and leading cause of printing issues was letting the machine set idle. The more the machine ran the less issues people had and the quicker they saw the return on investment. With the development of better inks, better more robust print heads and innovative ink “agitation” systems, direct to garment makes it easier for all its users but still, these are inkjet machines which have small ink openings and they can and will dry up due to lack of uses.

Now while the direct to garment industry grew and innovated, so did the t-shirt transfer side of the business. No longer do you need to associate the paper heat transfer with the crummy stuff you got from your local office supply store the was applied with a hand iron and wash maybe once or twice if you were lucky. Today’s commercial grade transfer paper that is applied with a heat press, is soft to the touch and hold up to many washings while at the same time giving you the flexibility to apply single customized images to both light and dark garments of all varieties. And with the addition of a cutting plotter that has an optical eye you can easily remove the boarder everyone so feared without spending hours with a pair of scissors.

So how do these seemingly rival decorating methods fit together? Well as I explained you must have a market in place to realistically expect to be successful with direct to garment printing. But how do you do that while not currently owning a direct to garment machine? You do transfers and build your market until you realistically have enough work to keep your direct to garment machine running daily.

You can begin doing individual customized garments with transfer paper for less than $2,200 (which will get you a 16 x 20 heat press, a 13” x 19” Epson inkjet printer, a 15” cutting plotter with optical eye and 100 sheets of light and dark transfer paper.) This system uses standard inkjet inks that are specifically designed for the print heads (unlike direct to garment inks which have larger pigments and tend to settle and clog more). Then you can grow your market, lets your printer sit while you are gaining new business and save up the money for that direct to garment printer you have been eying.

Let’s say for the sake of this article in both the t-shirt transfer and direct to garment print you have $3.00 in the cost of the shirt, paper and ink (direct to garment can vary depending on the amount of ink used, light or dark garment, so I’m just assuming black shirt, average coverage). Let’s say you sell that individually customized shirt for $15 (I hope you are getting more, don’t sell yourself short, you could easily charge $20 or more for a single shirt). That is $12.00 in profit per shirt. You would have to sell 184 shirts to pay for the transfer paper set-up while you would have to sell between 1,250 to 2,000 shirts to pay for the average direct to garment machine.

Transfers with today’s technology can get you in the short run garment decorating business and be your bridge to having a successful direct to garment business, versus one filled with headaches and difficult equipment leasing payments. I’m happy to help anyone look at their business model and show you how to be successful. Email me at aaron@coastalbusiness.com.

Aaron Montgomery
Sales and Marketing Manager
Coastal Business Supplies, Inc.
www.coastalbusiness.com
aaron@coastalbusiness.com

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 to be a Pulitzer prize winning coffee table document that takes thousands of dollars to produce, but it does have to be something that is in writing and carefully thought out. Again this doesn’t have to be a formal marketing plan with all the big words and things most small businesses don’t understand, but it does have to make sense to you and it does require a little hard work and effort.

So you ask why is this “marketing plan” so important and why should I put in the time to do it? Most small businesses have just one entrepreneur or at best a few people involved in the business who are already doing everything needed just to keep the business afloat. One of the best sayings I have heard about being an entrepreneur/small business owner is that “they have the freedom to work all 24 hours of the day and most usually get close”. So again why add extra work to these already overworked people for something that most see as a waste of time? Well first off, let’s make sure we are clear about what we are talking about.

Most of us think of a marketing plan as a complicated document with excessive amounts of analysis, budgeting, and over the top reviews of all things business. This is not the document I am talking about. Yes, these types of Marketing Plans can be valuable; especially within large companies where there are abundant resources available and one must convince many of the higher-ups that the dollars required for marketing are justifiable. But for the small business owner, we are already intimately involved in the industry, know our competitors pretty well (most-likely we used to work for them), and probably don’t have much money to pump into marketing anyway. But, the fact that there may be meager dollars allotted for marketing is exactly why we need a plan.

We need to simply put down on paper what we know about our industry, what we know about our products, what we know about our competitors, and then a quick plan of how we will utilize the small amount of marketing money we have to maximize every cent of it. So, really, most of us already have a marketing plan in our head, in notes scattered about, or maybe even in emails written to customers and colleagues. However, it is critical that we organize this information and spend time not just thinking about it all, but also put it in writing so that all of that scattered information can all be in one place. So for the small business owner/team, the most important part of a marketing plan is the actual act of writing the document. This is more about brain storming and less about the document itself. Former President Eisenhower sums it up well; “I have always found planning to be indispensable, but plans to be all but useless.”

So hopefully you are now starting to see that you don’t have to spend weeks and weeks creating a full blown Fortune 500 ready marketing plan full of Situational Analysis, Macro environmental PEST analysis, and other things that just don’t matter in a small business environment.

Now, one analysis that probably sounds all big and fancy, but is actually just what we reviewed above (and in my opinion, is the basis for all small business marketing plans) is the SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). SWOT can be broken down like this; who you are (strengths and weaknesses), what your selling points are (opportunities), and who your competition is (threats). This process, along with identifying your target market and your goals for reaching them, give you what you need for a good marketing plan. You can be as detailed as you like or skip parts all together; it is just a good exercise to go through in order to initiate the thought process regarding how you want to promote your company. This gives you a road map to follow when creating promotions, advertising, making cold calls, and applying other marketing strategies ~ all so that your company has a brand (now you’re probably thinking Nike Swoosh, but I actually mean a brand as in this is what we do best and this is how we want people to think about the company). Having a brand is having the same look and feel no matter what medium your customers are seeing your company through. You want to insure that you are not wasting your time on things you don’t need to do and your company is putting forth the best image possible at all times. This little plan can be done in less than a day if you really want to sit down and make it happen. It doesn’t have to be pretty or even clear to anyone but you.

So now hopefully you’re starting to think that this whole marketing plan thing might just be a good idea… But, I’m guessing that there are still some skeptics out there. However, I will continue to insist that this is something all small businesses must do because most small businesses not only lack a marketing plan but a business plan (or any plan at all). These small business owners/teams may know their products and their industry, but without a plan of attach, it will be nearly impossible to truly convey their vision to the rest of the world. The other drawback to having no plan is there is nothing to test, nothing to change, and nothing to track. I assure you that, when time and resources are limited, unwritten plans and ideas in heads start falling through cracks. If every things good, then maybe having a written marketing plan is overkill. But, when the market changes and/or as your sales start to slip then your marketing plan matters very much. Your plan is the guide that will get you through all the times (good and bad) in your business life. It serves as a reminder of what you did that works (which is why you actually do need this plan even in good times) and doesn’t, timelines and costs; and helps keep you (and your customers) focused on what is special and critical about your product. And, it also helps you think about the best ways to get in front of the customers you want to reach with little to no budget.

So, start putting your thoughts down on paper so that you can give your company its best shot at success while at the same time make working 24 hours a day worthwhile and not just a very time consuming (and financially draining) hobby.

For more information, please contact Aaron Montgomery

With 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.

Let’s take the recent winter storm that rolled through St. Louis. I know certain parts of the area were hit harder than others, and the part where I’m at was not hit very hard at all. If you read some of the local newspapers or watched the local news, you would have thought the world was going to freeze over and we were all going to be popsicles in the matter of days. Here is a funny spoof on our local news coverage of what was warmly referred to as Snowpocalypse 2011. (Please read at your own risk – there is some foul language in it so be prepared if you are easily offended.)

Yes, we did have a winter storm. Yes some people were affected more than others, but the world did not end. The problem is that people were freaked out, things shut down that probably didn’t need to shut down and there was a run on the milk and bread at the grocery store for no apparent reason. It was all because the news stations wanted to get our attention. I guess it was good for the grocery stores, but was it good for the everyday citizen that is now going to have to throw out bad milk and bread they bought when they didn’t really need it?

The thing is, this happens in business too. We run out and buy the milk and bread and cutter and screen printing press because we were hyped into it, not because it is the best decision for our business.

While our industry is slow to catch into social media, some of our colleagues are using it very extensively. I think that is great, but again, how do we sort the hype from the information that we can really use. For example here are 2 posts from the same company. Let’s see if we can see the hype (some info changed to protect the not so innocent):

“Last day for #FREE ground freight on all #{insertproductnamehere}! This special will not be extended!!” Posted on January 31^st.

“Free shipping on orders over $299 for the month of February. Order online with promo code…” Posted on February 1^st

So where is the hype? Well if you missed it that is understandable as the context of who the posts are from are helpful. I don’t want to call anyone out, so I’ll just explain. The hype is that the first posts says the special will not be extended, but the second post does just that, it extend the promo for a full month as all the {insertproductnamehere} they sell are over $299. So if you bought the {insertproductnamehere} on January 31^st to get the free shipping, even though your company was not ready to make that investment, then you bought the hype.

Let me give you another example. For some reason we all want to buy that product that does everything or has multiple function regardless of what the functions are. Now I can see the logic to it from some respects, but let me be the devil’s advocate. In our industry the print and cut machine seems to be a hot item that lots of people are talking about, but why? Is the product cheaper that buying 2 separate machines that will do the same thing? NO (it is about $1,000 more expensive actually). Is the product faster that having 2 separate machines running? NO (it is actually slower because you have to wait for one function to be complete before you can do the other, and you have to wait for the ink to dry). The only real reason I can come up with is the fact that the area you need to operate the equipment would be smaller than having 2 separate machine. But what happens if your printer goes down, will your cutter still work? Not if you have the print and cut machine. But I don’t think we think about those things. We just believe the hype and we have to have that multifunction machine.

Are you still unsure whether you are believing the hype or not? Well let me give you one more example. This one is from a while back and it is pretty buried now because I think the hype was uncovered. At one point a respected member of our industry was promoting what seemed to be the next great thing. There were tweets, blogs, forum discussions and videos from the experts. Our industries’ association even “pimped” it in their webinar about hot trends for 2011. I imagine they were selling this special product as fast as they could ship it, but then the hype started to be revealed. The fact that it was just a normal product they already sold, just applied with a different technique started to come to light. Then the issues with why that technique was not used in the first place started to come up and now you have to really search to find anything on it anymore. This wasn’t more than 4 months ago and now you can’t even get a sample of that “new” hot product. No explanation on their site they just buried the hype.

Hopefully that opens your eyes a little and makes you think before you make that impulse buy or before you retweet that news story, or tell a friend about needing to run to Walmart to prepare for the next Snowpocalypse.

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? The holidays can be a very lucrative time of year for many garment decorators, especially those that think outside the box and plan ahead. So put off the vacation planning just for a moment, and let’s discuss some marketing ideas and some easy-to-produce items that are ideal for the holidays. Besides ideas, I’m going to give you some graphics you can use to print out posters for your shop. Just download and customize them with your information.

1. Personalized T-Shirt Transfers: Many people struggle this time of year to find the ideal gift for that person who already has everything. Grandma and Grandpa don’t need another fruitcake, and Dad doesn’t want another tie that he won’t wear (unless it is customized, see #3). These are the perfect candidates for one-off customized t-shirts. You can put a picture of the favorite grandkid, pet or even car onto a single shirt with a transfer. Just make it easy for the customer as they won’t typically be artists and will show up with a picture to be scanned or a low-res image for you to clean up. Have some pre-designed borders with different themes that you can easily drop the picture into after doing a little vignette work in PhotoShop. Don’t charge for the artwork, just include it in the cost of the shirt. You will have at most $2 in the finished product and can charge $20 to $25 for these one-out shirts. Invest in a $250 cutter and you can give the customer a great shirt without the edge around it. The quality of transfers these days will amaze you! Download a great customizable sign for this type of work here. You can also just grab a full size JPG here.
2. Custom Bags: Today we are all realizing that it is important to do our part to help make the planet a little more green. You see grocery stores selling reusable bags all the time, because the amount of plastic being wasted and pumped into our landfills from grocery bags is massive. Why not offer your customers a customized bag that can be used over and over again. This makes the perfect shopping bag for Mom to show off her kids pictures and Grandma would love one of these personalized bags to carry her knitting around in. They are the perfect size for going to the beach when summer rolls around or for carrying the kid’s toys on those winter break vacations. By customizing it you make it special for the customer, but again you have to make it easy for them. They will love the idea but need your creativity to make it worth the extra money. Have customers bring you 5 to 10 pictures per side and put them into a nice collage with the text that they want. Again include the artwork charge in the price of the bag, and your customers will tell their friends about the neat gift idea. All you need is a sublimation set-up and you will be ready to go. Here is a customizable sign for you to use and also the JPG.
3. Sublimation Ties: So Dad is tired of the boring ties he gets every year for Father’s Day or the ugly Holiday Tie he has to break out once a year for the candle light church service. Well, why not let Dad wear a tie that he can rock with pride? These easy to imprint ties (make sure to download the template for really easy decorating) will be a hit year round for your business, but can certainly also be a big hit at the Holidays. Why not create a few ready to go templates with nice holiday images where they can drop three to four of their own pictures into them and have a personalized neck tie. Like before the key is to make it as easy as possible for the customer by leaning on your creativity. Here is another customizable sign for you to use and also the JPG.
4. Ornaments and Other Sublimation Items: Along with the customizable items we discussed above, Coastal Business Supplies, Inc. carries a large assortment of great customizable items like ornaments, cutting boards, food trays, ceramic tiles, picture frames and other neat little things that people are willing to pay a premium for, as long as it is customized to make it special to them. Each of the items have easy-to-use templates available for download from our website, and if you spend a few hours working on it, you can again have some easy-to-use pre-made borders for customers to drop their personal picture, etc. into. By having a heat press, a very cost effective sublimation printer and our phone number (800-562-7760) handy, you can offer a huge range of customizable gift items to your customers.

Those are just a few of the things you can do to take advantage of the holiday season. Yes, you will need to spend a little time planning and making it easy on your customers, but the extra money for a much nicer holiday vacation should make it all worthwhile. So put those personal holiday plans on hold and start planning for your business. Then you can get back to the family and friends while planning a nice beach vacation as opposed to freezing at home.

Aaron Montgomery

One 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.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 – Took a Southwest Flight from STL to LAX by way of Kansas City. If you can avoid a layover in KC, then do. You have to leave security to find food, bathrooms etc. The airport was not designed for post 911 airline travel.

Once arriving in LAX out first stop was In and Out Burger. We don’t have one in St. Louis so for us it was a must. Then we got to the show and set-up began. The set-up went very smooth and NBM gives the exhibitors some beer and snacks at the end of set-up day to say thanks. This is a nice touch that I think other shows are missing the boat on. NBM just seems to care about their exhibitors unlike some of the other industry shows where you are just filling space.

Thursday, August 12, 2010 – Being a Thursday and the first day of the show our expectations for this day were pretty low. (Watch a short video of our booth HERE) The morning started a little slow, but it didn’t take long for the buyers to start rolling in. I was shocked. Our booth was pretty much packed with people from about noon on till 4PM. We scanned 97 badges and we are not the type of company that stands in the aisle and scans everyone. Those were only the qualified folks who we asked for their badge. I would guess we probably had close to 300 people come through our aisle and at least look at our booth.

Friday, August 13, 2010 – Being Friday the 13^th I was pretty excited (I was born on Friday the 13^th, and my Dad always emails me “Happy Non-triskaidekaphobia Day”) but was worried that maybe Thursday was going to be the big day and Friday and Saturday would get smaller. I was pleasantly surprised by Friday. There were definitely not nearly as many buyers on Friday, but the ones who were there were ready to buy. We had a great sales days, made contact with lots of great customers and had a nice steady flow of people to chat with and show them out wares.

Then Friday right after the show, NBM hosted a very nice mixer for both attendees and exhibitors alike. There was beer and wine, and a nice spread of appetizers and even a carving bar. All of this was FREE! Again, just another way that I felt like NBM really cared about the people who attend their events. We meet a few people at the event as well, so it was just an added bonus.

Saturday, August 14, 2010 – At this point I didn’t know what to expect. The first 2 days were totally unexpected, so I figured there was no way that Saturday was going to be gang busters again. Well once again I was totally wrong. We scanned 116 badges and sold out almost all of the remaining equipment in our booth. I felt bad that we could not get to everyone in the booth, so hopefully

NBM Long Beach 2010 Coastal Business Supplies, Inc. Booth

those people we missed got a card or catalog and we can help them over the phone. The afternoon slowed a bit, but the people looking to make the sales decision still filtered in, so it was extremely successful.

Tear down went smoothly outside of having to roll equipment all the way down a large hill as the convention center people would not let anyone drive up by the docks. We did witness a $5 handshake with a forklift driver, and totally busted the guy, so magically our empties showed up pretty quickly.

Of course we hit In and Out on the way back to LAX. Double Doubles are just addictive.

Summary – All in all it was a great show. We scanned approximately 300 leads, and sold almost all of the equipment we had in our booth.

The down side to of being so busy in our booth was that I was not really able to get out and see much more of the show. I did try to take a new route to the restroom each time so I could quickly say hello to some of my old friends and the thing that stuck out for me the most was the major absence of any real screen printing presence. M&R was in with Ryonet. Workhorse was with McLogan (fortunately I knew it was Workhorse as I don’t remember much of a sign, just people sitting around) and then Brown and Vastex each had their own nice booths. Ranar was also present, but if anyone else was there, I missed them. For me the booths that stood out were the Mutoh booth who was showing vehicle wrapping on a boat, Ryonet had a very nice presence in the Printwear Show and NuSign had lots of activity in their booth as well.

I’m excited to go back next year and to see how the other NBM shows are in 2010 and 2011. Next we are off to SGIA, so look for another recap of that show in late October.

My next blog will be about my thoughts on ways to improve your company image. Stay Tuned!

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 16^th of August.

Aaron

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.

Black Duck (Albuquerque, NM)

I was fortunate enough to get a personal tour of “The Duck” when I was in Albuquerque recently. One of the excellent art/digitizing folks who also runs the company’s Twitter account (www.twitter.com/blackduckinc/) took some time out of his busy day to show me around. Erich is a great guy and is very proud of the shop. After the tour, I could see why he was proud of it. I would be too! Note: Click on images for larger view.

From locating the facility until I left, I knew exactly what they did. They are creative people in a creative business, and I was impressed. The first very positive marketing effort they put forth is their store front. They are located along the frontage road of one of the major interstates in the area and their sign out front is a bright yellow color with large black lettering on either side that says what they do. In the middle is a large, very cool looking 3-dimensional flying duck. Even if I didn’t already have plans to stop by, I would have because the sign grabbed my attention.

Then once I arrived I walked in the front door and was in their show room. Fantastic! They had great samples, good lighting, and it was clean and clutter-free. If I were there to discuss a one-color shirt job I needed, I might be inclined to also ask about a multiple-color job or maybe some cool hats similar to the ones in the show room. Customers can be creative too, and sometimes all it takes is just a little spark and their heads start spinning with the possibilities because they saw all the things your company was capable of producing.

From there, everything else in their shop fit that same bill. Even though I could tell they were very busy, all the production areas were clean, clutter-free, and many of the open wall spaces were decorated with the company’s logo and murals by the creative folks in the art department. Just wonderful show pieces letting the customers know they are in good hands when doing business with this company.

My Friend Moomba (Glenburn, ME)

I have yet to have the pleasure of meeting Gabe of My Friend Moomba, but I am certainly looking forward to that someday. I follow him on Twitter (http://twitter.com/MyFriendMoomba) and one day he was kind enough to share his business cards on Twitter for the rest of us to see. (http://twitpic.com/1gy2yx) To say I was impressed is an understatement. They were obviously professionally printed and designed by someone who knows what he/she is doing. They are easy to read and give all the details needed to do business with Gabe. On top of that the back (http://twitpic.com/1gy38f) is a stroke of pure marketing genius. As you see, the back gives the potential customer some space to sketch out their own design and gets them thinking: “Hey, maybe I do need some shirts, and now I know that My Friend Moomba has the ability to make that a reality.” Just a great and easy marketing tool I hope Gabe gives out by the fistful!

Those are just two good examples of some of the garment decorators out there who get what marketing is all about. They didn’t have to spend thousands of dollars to do it; they just took the time and put in the effort to do it right.

Regardless of where you work, there will almost always be times when you have a customer in your shop. Are you going to be proud of it like Erich or are you going to hope they are not grossed out by how messy your shop is. There is a supplier right here in Arizona that I have had people tell me they won’t even go inside because it is such a mess. There are kid’s toys everywhere, empty food containers on the floor, and in general a mess. What is worse is they promote it as an actual store front and invite people to stop by. Take pride in what you do and show it off!

With regards to business cards, as you have read in some of my past blogs, just splurge and spend the $20 (or less) to have them professionally printed. No, we cannot all be as creative as Gabe (my cards pale in comparison), but we can still look professional even if we are a small one-man operation working out of our house.

As I mentioned at the top, I would love to hear other great marketing tools that you have seen or even those you are using that I can feature in upcoming blogs. Email me at aaron@garmentdecoratingsupply.com.

I try to monitor the industry message boards as time permits and it amazes me how in our industry this seems to be the overwhelming theme for most people’s questions about buying equipment. It is possible to buy a good product and it is possible to buy a cheap product, but rarely do the two mix. I know it happens in other industries as well and we are all guilty of trying to get the cheapest price possible, but there is a reason that there is a saying for this. “You get what you pay for.”

Good: Excerpts from dictionary.com “satisfactory in quality, quantity, or degree. Of high quality; excellent.”

Cheap: Excerpts from dictionary.com “costing very little; relatively low in price; inexpensive. Of little account; of small value; mean; shoddy. Embarrassed; sheepish. Stingy; miserly”

So after looking at those definitions it seems to me as if those 2 words should not be used together when asking about equipment or goods. Buying the cheapest model doesn’t always save you money and if you want something good, sometimes you have to pay for it.

All too often I have heard the horror stories of customers who have just looked at the price tag and invested their hard earned money into the cheapest model. The problem is they get that cheap item back to their location and it doesn’t work, doesn’t hold up to the normal expected use or just downright SUCKS. So now was that item actually cheap? Not really! It is now an expensive mistake and an even larger headache to eliminate the problem since you have probably sold your customers the service based on that piece of equipment.

So let’s all try to start looking at how we shop for items in a different way. Let’s replace words like good and cheap with; valuable, sturdy, efficient, useful, return on investment and my favorite; bang for the Buck!

So 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 to say there is not a better way; in fact, I’m hoping that the comments section of this blog will be a very useful place where others post their suggestions for social networking, including Twitter.

So without further ado, here are some of the tips and tricks I have picked up so far with my experience with Twitter.

1. If you’re not already on Twitter, I recommend you sign up right away. It is totally free and takes about 2 minutes of your time to sign up and about 15 minutes to customize it to your company look. I highly recommend that you do customize your Twitter page and at the very minimum make sure to add an Avatar (Small image representing you or your company). It can be a company logo, picture of you or a picture of your business. Leave it all public and use the golden rule of social networking. “If you would not say it to someone’s face, then don’t put in on the web.”

2. Once you are set up, you need to start getting people to follow you. The best way to do that is to find some of your customers (or potential customers) on Twitter. Twitter has a nice little search function that will find people by their names, and then there are a number of excellent tools to use:

a. From your marketing plan (See my Blog about why you should do a marketing plan) you need to search for your target market. The best tools I found were http://twitterel.com/ and http://wefollow.com/. Find some people who are interested in what you have to sell and start following them. A lot of them will in turn follow you back and your list will start growing.

b. Once you have a bit of a list going, you can find other people with similar interests by checking out some of the people you follow and then checking their “following” list. You can do this manually, but there is also a cool tool by Bob Lee (software engineer at Google) called Twubble. You put in your Twitter user name and password and the app searches your “following” list for other Twitter people who are being followed by two or more people on your “following” list. (That is like trying to explain to someone your relationship to a 3^rd cousin or something…)

c. Now that your list has grown, be sure to do your best to welcome new followers with a Direct Message (Sometime called a DM and not to be confused with a Reply). I just tell them “Thank you for following me. Don’t hesitate to provide any feedback about products or services you would like to see and check out my Facebook page for additional savings.” You might also want to process your followers with some great apps I found that help wade through the spammers. By now you will have people following you that you have not already followed, so go to http://tweetsum.com or another similar app, http://www.tweepular.com.

3. You have now gotten your followers all in line and growing, but you need to provide them with some content. You know, some reason to keep following you. The first thing to remember is that Twitter is not a place to just pimp your products. Yes, in the right doses at the right times, you should promote your products, but if every update you post is “Go to my site and buy my products,” people will stop following you. I normally give someone about a week or two to figure it out before I stop following them. Make it a little entertaining, give some helpful information that maybe you have run across and give them a reason to go to your site or buy your products. Do a Twitter only sale or let them know about a new feature on your site. If you are going to be giving some deals, you might want to check out http://cheaptweet.com. I have not spent a lot of time with this yet, but it is pretty active and a good way to get your products to the masses.

4. Finally you will discover that if you let it, Twitter will take up your whole day. You need some tools to control your content, track what works and also be able to look at it while you are on the go. There is a feature in Twitter that allows your phone to receive text messages of the Tweets (Updates from people you follow), but I suggest you do not use this. It is unreliable and will overload your text messages very quickly. Instead use one of the many cool apps that have been developed for Twitter. Most of them are free and there are new ones daily. Here are three of the main ones I use:

a. For general tracking of all things social networking related, I use an app called Digsby. This app has the look and feel of a regular IM client but also tracks your Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and many others. Plus it allows me to log into all the IM names I have and communicate with people from family to friends – all with one cool interface. Plus it will even track your email, both online and POP/IMAP. It automatically upgrades itself and allows you to have as much or as little information flashed up onto the screen.

b. For my Twitter content and messaging, I use an online application called HootSuite. This helps me as I have multiple Twitter accounts, and it allows me to track any links that I Tweet. It also allows scheduling Tweets for a future time and has a very good search function. (Side Note: Others have also recommended a program called http://tweetdeck.com, but I have not used it to date.)

c. Lastly, I just found a great tool for keeping up with Twitter on my Blackberry Bold. It is called TweetGenius. It does cost $4.95USD, but I found it to be way better than the application I was using called TwitterBerry, which is free. I was also given the suggestion to look at UberTwitter. All of those will work for you Blackberry folks like me. There are also a ton of apps for the iPhone and others. (Side note: My suggestion for the iPhone is either Twitterrific or PocketTweets per some friends of mine who use the iPhone.)

Hopefully that gives you a great starting point. I look forward to seeing all of you out in the digital world. Look me up and become my friend or follower if you have not already! Happy Tweeting.

For more information please email Aaron Montgomery.

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)

So what things will you be there looking for? What things would you like me to check out if you can’t make it and review for you?

Also, in anticipation of the show, I have been searching Twitter to see who is going and to connect with folks I want to see. I thought it might be fun to put together as close of a list of all of the people I have seen mention that they will be there. They are in no particular order, just how they made it to the page. The information for the Exhibitors is just the information I could find on their website. Obviously some are better than others but that is for another blog.

I’m sure that I have missed some and I’m really hopefully my #ISSLB Hash tag will take off so I can keep up with the happening! If I did miss someone, or have someone in the wrong category, just add it to the comments section.  I’m looking forward to seeing you all there.

Exhibitors

@EnMartian – EnMart is a supplier of thread, ink, transfers, sublimation blanks and equipment and other garment decoration supplies and accessories. – Booth 932

@BeaconFunding – Beacon Funding is a leading company providing equipment financing and leasing services to businesses throughout the United States. – Booth 1436

@Impressionsmags – Impressions is the one-stop source for authoritative business and technical information crucial to building and sustaining a profitable decorated apparel business. – Booth 2247

@copyartwork – CopyArtwork.com we can do your job at a fraction of the cost of a full time vector graphics designer or a digitizer for your vector artwork services. – Booth 2054

@Brownmfg – Brown Manufacturing Group, Inc. – Booth 153

@EasiwaySystems – EasiWay Systems is committed to the development of screen cleaning and reclaiming products for the screen printing and graphic arts industry. – Booth 1732

@MelcoUSA – Melco is the embroidery industry leader in modular commercial embroidery machines and commercial embroidery machine design software. – Booth 1127

@RolandDGA – Roland DGA Corporation is a worldwide leader in the sign, graphic arts, fine art, vehicle graphics, UV, photography, engraving and 3D modeling industries. – Booth 1731

@deconetwork – DecoNetwork is the outcome of research and development that looked at all aspects of printing and embroidering onto merchandise. Booth 1147

@sanmar_corp –Family-owned since 1971, the Seattle-based SanMar® is an award-winning supplier of 17 retail and private apparel brands. Booth 1401

@Charles_River – Charles River Apparel is an active wear manufacturer selling exclusively through a nationwide network of distributors and retail stores. Booth 1014

@shurloc – shur-loc Fabric System is a family owned and operated business with products that help screenprinters prepare and stretch their screens easier and faster than ever before. – Booth 1718

Attendees

@acetransco
@TerryCombsAZ
@PurpleCatJewels
@50champ
@theNIN
@Color3yNumbers
@SUKEBEinc
@NoDivision1998
@LoKnows
@joshellsworth
@zeusprinting
@Rawfreedom
@tshirtforums
@PalomarPrinting
@CityFitted
@esther657
@jovenville
@GoGSG
@tshirt123
@GraphicElephant
@Badalou
@eternitemedia
@How2screenprint
@zeusprinting
@SnarkyMcF
@dudsbydudes
@oglsc

Commentary 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.

Here is a great example. One of my customers just had his site redesigned and I thought it looked pretty good. I told him that and that I might be redesigning my site soon. That customer referred me to his website guy. Here is the email I got from the website company soliciting my business:

From: XXXXX Studio [mailto:chad.n@XXXXX]
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 6:51 PM
To: info@garmentdecoratingsupply.com
Subject:

May we help you with web design? XXXXX is one of clients

chad

Needless to say, my first inclination is to run away. Chad seems to be less than educated and tells me nothing about his company, pricing or the work that they do. He doesn’t even bother to take the time to add a subject line. I just happened to skim my spam folder and found it.

Here is how I would have written that solicitation email:

Subject: Website Help Referral from XXXXX

To Whom It May Concern;

We received your information from XXXXX who is one of our valued clients. They indicated that you might be interested in discussion some help redesigning your website.

We have X years experience in the website design field and have expertise with all sorts of website and applications including (list expertise here). Besides XXX whose site you have already seem you can also see some of our other sites at XXX. We have several very affordable packages to help you get started, but we would love to discuss your specific needs at your convenience.

Please let us know a time that would be convenient for you to discuss this further. We understand that everyone is busy, so if we do not hear from you we will follow-up with you in a couple of weeks.

Thank you in advance for the opportunity!

Sincerely,
Chad XXXXX
(Title)
(Company Name)
(Phone)

(Tag line)

I would love to hear your thoughts. – Aaron

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.

I decided to write this blog after a couple of incidents with the companies I do business with. They seem to have an incredible ability to make it difficult to take my money. I won’t name names, not because I want to protect these companies, but because until I find other vendors, I need to protect my sources. Here are two examples – and  my summary of the moral of the story.

Incident #1:
This is unfortunately just one example from a specific company, but this happens to me often. I submitted a purchase order with specific instructions and payment details, since no one is willing to give terms anymore. The order is processed apparently, but no confirmation or verification is ever sent. Several days later, the package shows up at my door, and it is missing two of the items I needed for my customers. No note in the package about a back order, it just wasn’t on the packing slip. I contact my “sales rep” (I use the term loosely, as this guy seems to be a sales killer), and after several emails I finally get a response that the product was on back order and he would check with his buyer. A week goes by and I hear nothing back; so after several more emails, I finally get a similar response that he knows nothing. All the while I am trying to keep my customer informed with what little information I have. I finally end up just buying the products retail and losing money so my customer doesn’t have to suffer the same fate. It has now been two more weeks and still not a word from this company.

Moral of the Story:
The moral of the story is communication! In today’s world with all of us on email, it is not hard to update your customers as the sales process occurs. Anyone in sales should have some sort of a smart phone, and a quick note updating your customer should not be a big deal. How about a quick order confirmation once you receive a PO? How about a note letting someone know you are out of something? How about a follow-up to let someone know you actually care about their business, but you just can’t get that product out? Just communicate with your customers. I’m a one-man show and usually get over 100 emails a day, but I try to make sure I get at least some info back to people before the day is over. If it is an unresolved issue, I flag the email for future follow-up. It is not hard, but it takes someone willing to put in a little effort to make a living.

Incident #2:
On a Tuesday I sent a note to a vendor and included my “sales rep” (again using the term loosely), the general orders email address and my technical contact. My email asked a specific question about whether or not I could buy something and if so how much would it cost and when could I get it. I got a note back from the person at the general orders email address stating that I could get it, and that I could have it instantly at a certain price. I quickly took this happy news to my customer, secured the order with a payment and placed a PO to the vendor the same day. I told my customer it would ship on Friday, as I expected the package to arrive at my facility on Thursday. Friday rolled around, and the package had not arrived yet. Again without any order confirmation or any communication, I had to contact the vendor myself to try to get some tracking. This is when I got a note back from the general orders department that the order could actually not be processed and that someone else would contact me. Now in the four days since my original email, I had not once heard a thing from my “sales rep.” So now in a panic – as I was risking breaking promises to my customer – I tried to contact people to find out what was going on. Finally I was able to reach my “sales rep,” and late Friday afternoon I was told he was busy so that is why he never got back to me. When I asked about the email from his company saying they could fill the order, he asked me to forward it to him so he could check into it. He then said he would get back to me – and guess what happened? Exactly! I had to contact him on Monday. In the meantime I had to contact my customer and work something out with them. Fortunately the customer was nice and willing to be patient for a few days while I tried to sort out the problem. Finally I ended up finding another vendor and gave them my money instead. On top of all of it, the orders person got in trouble and blames me for it. So now I get even worse service from this company, all because they screwed up. Can’t wait to find a new vendor!

Moral of the Story:
Again, this seems to come down to communication, but also the fact that people just don’t seem to care about their customers’ businesses. I’m not sure if I’m a small customer or not (In 4 months, I have spent over $10,000 with this company), but in today’s economy, ever little bit helps. We work hard to get customers and then let people within our company or even ourselves make the customers feel like you don’t really give a damn about their business. I have even asked this “sales rep” if he cared about my business and got no response. Maybe they don’t, and they know they currently have me locked in because I don’t have another source for their products. But you know what my #1 priority is right now!? Finding an alternative source! Don’t say you care (or in this case, I just assume they do because their A/R department really seems to care about my sending checks) and then blow people off. If the business is not really worth it to you, then just say so. I would happily part ways – and not do everything in my power to try to steal all their market shares once I find a new vendor. It is okay to say you can’t take someone’s money and in the end you will have happier customers and non-customers.

Well, thanks for letting me rant. I think I feel better and maybe you readers will stop to think about the level of service you really provide your customers. I would love to hear some of your horror stories in the comments section, so I know I’m not alone and that it is not just me who is hard to work with.

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.

1) Continual Sales Posts: There are a few people that I follow on my business Twitter that some days I wonder why. They really don’t seem to bring anything to the table as far as information; it is basically one ad for their company after another. On top of it some of them seem to also have a huge ego with posts like “we are the best screen printer.” To me Twitter is a community where people can find like minded folks and connect. Yes it can and should be used to promote your products and services, but it also should be used to share ideas, discuss hot topics and just to plain get to know someone.

2) Non-Re-tweetable Posts: OK, So re-tweetable might not be a word, but one thing is for sure, re-tweeting is becoming a large part of the Twitter world. To re-tweet is to take someone’s post and resend it to all of your followers. It normally starts with RT @{User Name of Person who posted original item}. This is normally used for reposting someone’s announcement or information that you found useful that you think your followers also might want to know about. I typically re-tweet post about coupon codes or sales etc. It is the nice thing to do and it also allows you to be the connector between people that might no necessarily be connected already. The problem occurs when someone posts something that is too long to re-tweet. When you post something that you want someone to RT (re-tweet), remember that you must be far enough under the 140 character limit to then include RT_@{your user name}. So for example if I post a coupon code for a sale, I would make sure that my post is no longer than 125 characters long because RT @GDSProducts is 15 characters long. With most of the Twitter programs that I use re-tweeting is very easy. Just a touch of a button, but if your post is too long, then I have to manually edit it. I have started to just pass on those, especially if it is just a sales/advertisement post. Am I being too anal?

3) Copy Cat User Names: In all of the people that I am now following (598 as of the writing of this blog) I have run across some that either just repost the same thing as another user name or don’t actually share any information other than re-tweets of the parent user name. I wake up in morning to about 200 to 300 tweets on a normal day and duplicate posts just annoy me.

I really hate un-following people as I know it is depressing when people un-follow me (Can you tell I am a little too wrapped up in Twitter?). Does anyone follow me? If so what do I do that annoys you? What are some things that annoy you about your Twitter experience?

It 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.

First off let’s discuss heading to a show to buy equipment or to explore new technology on the exhibition floor. Over the last few years our industry has seen the typical trade shows attendance on both sides of the wall (buyers and exhibitors) slowly decrease. Many shows that were major shows have turned into regional events and many exhibitors have cut their trade show budgets. This has forced them to look for new ways to show off their wares. Because of this we are seeing some new virtual trade shows and also the vast improvement of most major exhibitor’s websites to be able to showcase new products.

We must really take a look at whether it is worth the high cost of traveling to a show and being out of the office on critical work days. Even the trade shows have been cutting costs by changing to Thursday, Friday, Saturday shows (or even 2 day shows) so you to should look at your costs as well.

The old thinking that it is cheaper to buy equipment from the show floor does not always hold true. Yes most manufactures want to save the cost of having to ship the equipment back to their facility, but many manufactures are now pre-selling their equipment or have prearranged for a local deal to take the equipment on consignment. Also many exhibitors now will also offer their show specials to everyone even if you are not at a show.

Another thing that many attendees do not realize is that in some shows it will cost you money to take that equipment off the floor. This will depend on the show rules, union rules etc. Also many municipalities are cracking down on trade shows with regards to collecting sales taxes. Make sure you check with the show organizers and also the seller so you won’t be surprised by a large drayage bill or sales tax payment.

The other aspect of many trade shows that make it worth attending is the seminars. This can be invaluable, and over the years I have been fully impressed by the expertise of many of the speakers and trainers. But the same effect and need for the shows to save money has really changed the speaker landscape. Before speakers would make a decent check, have expenses paid and even more depending on the show. Now a day shows are looking for people who are going to be there anyway, and the expertise level has really been watered down. Many of the experts in the areas that you are interested in will take the time to consult with you directly, or are already spreading their knowledge for free on the industry forums etc. You will also continue to see industry webinars increase and there are already some great ones available.

So you have read this far and you are saying to yourself “This guys is totally against trade shows.” I know it may sound that way, but what I am really saying is that we just need to make sure we look at all the reason why we are going and to not just go for the sake of going because that is what you have done in the past. Trust me, the show organizers, the exhibitors and others involved with a traditional trade show are looking for ways to save money and increase margins, you should be too.

Now this is not to say that you should never go to a show. Many of the major shows are great way to get a jump on your competition by learning the latest technique and by having the best equipment, but do your research. Plan out your trade show experience before hand by talking to the vendors you are interested in seeing, and by doing the research on the speakers of the topics you want to learn about. Are they truly the expert on that subject or are they just there to exhibit and are local? Take advantage of the smaller regional shows that are in your area where you can slip out of the office for ¾ of a day and get some good one on one with the vendors. Also make sure to let the show organizes know that to win your business back on a more regular basis they must make the shows more convenient (back to Friday, Saturday and Sunday shows) and they must regain the best speakers in the industry.

Lastly, make sure you do take advantage of the virtual trade shows and also attend a few webinars. I know it is nice to get out of the office and away from the computer, but it is also nice to make a profit and have a business, not a hobby.

For questions, please email Aaron Montgomery. Your comments and feedback are welcome below! Thanks for reading!

First 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 online or at the minimum surfing the web, or checking Twitter and Facebook on my Blackberry Bold. But I learn something new about social networking every day. I just want to give you guys a little history about my social networking ride to date. This is a 2 part blog so stay tuned for the next Blog about getting onto Twitter.

I first got involved years ago in the social networking realm with Plaxo. This was a cool online app that let me keep my Outlook contacts up to date. It would tell me when people’s birthdays were, and allowed me from time to time to requested updated addresses etc. If my contact was a member of Plaxo too it would automatically update my address book when they made changes and vice versa. So my trek into social networking was born. I mean for all real purposes social networking is just a way of tracking friends and family digitally, right?

Then I got onto MySpace. It was cool to connect with some old friends but it never really grabbed me. Then there was Facebook. I got hooked up on Facebook when I started as an assistant coach for a college volleyball team in Boston in the spring of 2008. We used Facebook as a recruiting tool. All the kids were on there and I found out at the time some of my friends were too. About the same time a friend of mine who is a Twitter expert (@amyblack) told me I should check it out. Life went on and my daily Facebook addiction took a hold. I found I interacted with my friends more on Facebook than in real life. This is because most of them don’t live in the same state and even if they did we were busy with jobs etc. All the while I maintained a Twitter account (@afm1374) but was never really active. Then along came Shaq (@the_real_shaq). I found him on Twitter early in his tweeting (The action of sending a twitter post) days and a number of other fun people to follow and got hooked. So now between Facebook and Twitter, I am constantly updating and checking things out.

As for the business side of things, the same thing applies. I have customers all over the world and honestly I have only met a select few face to face, but I need to keep up with them and hopefully they want to know what I’m doing. With that I started a Facebook Page for GDS and also added a Twitter account (@GDSProducts). This way I can keep up with my customers and they can get their hands on some great deals that I try to have for just Facebook and Twitter folks. Plus it allows us all a nice place to share things quickly about what is going on in our worlds. To me it is a good way to communicate without the inconvenience of interrupting someone with a phone call, and it is not the same email clutter that email blast are. This allows my customers to read and gather the information when they want it, not when I am shoving it down their throats.

I think that you will come to find out that Twitter is here to stay and to easily communicate with our customers; we must all learn to communicate on Twitter. No matter how big or small our business is. To follow in my next blog will be my tips and tricks for getting onto Twitter.