When your business has a problem, can and do your front-line employees handle the situation the same way you would as the owner? When your salesperson or machine operator has a concern about an order, do they resolve their concerns the way you would? These are interesting questions, and well worth asking. Continue reading this…
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If you have not heard of or considered offering a company store to your repeat customers, you may want to check into it! A company store, in our industry of custom decorated apparel on-demand, means a web page that is dedicated to a specific customer that offers a simple online shopping solution for that company…
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Developing new customers requires that you do more than plop your catalog in the mail, or shoot someone a “Buy my stuff,” email. To stand out above your competition, to be heard through the constant background noise of “the sky is falling” from the traditional media channels, we have to think about our marketing processes…
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We talk with NNEP (National Network of Embroidery Professionals) members and many other embroidery and apparel decoration business owners on a daily basis. One of the conversations that comes up nearly daily is some variation on the theme, "My customer is asking me to lower my price, what do I do?" Here is an example...…
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Here is the thing - all of us went out on a limb when we started our own businesses... We had our reasons, and they are as varied as the number of businesses that have been started! To have control of your time, to control your income, to be able to work from home, to…
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I am a Google kinda gal - and Google calendar is definitely my friend! I would be lost without it, personally and professionally. I was TODAY old when I learned these two time-saving hacks! I hope they help you as well if you are a Google calendar user. I learned these hacks from an ebook…
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We met with a lot of apparel decorators at the most recent NBM show in Columbus, Ohio. The majority of them do NOT do embroidery in-house. We encouraged these business owners to reach out to NNEP when embroidery jobs came their way, as we would help them connect with embroidery business owners that could be…
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I've been going through some old files here at NNEP lately [what can I say, KonMari ROCKS] and I came across these notes from an advisory board meeting of people that were engaged a project called Embroidery University (EU). EU was the brainchild of Alan Bird, Universal Design, in Louisville, Kentucky. Let me put this…
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Terms of Service for your apparel decorator business - Do you need one or not? If you are not sure why a "terms of service" for your business is worth thinking about, read this short article on Inc.com, as I think it brings the question into focus clearly and quickly: Paypal Stopped a Horrible Group…
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If you sell to schools, cheer, athletes, dance, churches or any other sorts of clubs, groups and organizations, there is an interesting new product to check out - Embrace Shoelace Designs! The owners (and inventors of the process to create these customized shoelaces) are Kalyn and Milford, and their business is located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.…
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