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Always be in Promote Mode with Your Business

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Please find some links and notes from the 2 Regular Guys Podcast. Aaron and Terry talked about all the ways to always Be promoting your business to increase sales. Growing your business is a non-stop task and we are going to cover some tips and tricks to help keep the pipeline full. Things like sample packs, websites and social media. This will be a great discussion that WILL help your business grow. Always Promote

Sponsored by: SGIA.org | 2017 SGIA Expo in New Orleans – Oct 10-12

Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!

News and Notes

  • Big Picture Women in Print Awards are coming this October. Nominations are being accepted until August 7, 2017. Nominate HERE
  • SGIA is introducing individual memberships for only $119. Individual Memberships will cost less over the course of the year and deliver more bang for your buck. At the current time, the Individual Memberships can only be purchased as part of the Expo Registration process.  When you become an Individual Member not only is your Expo pass free, but you’ll also receive a free Education pass giving you full access to over 30 sessions. If you would like to become an Individual Member but not attend the New Orleans SGIA Expo, please contact SGIA at 703.385.1335 or membership@sgia.org

Always Promote Your Business

(Terry) Business cards

  • The only thing many of our potential customers will ever see
  • Make a great presentation
  • Show all pertinent information
  • Have a “business” email address

(Terry)  Price sheets

  • 1st, be sure to have one!
  • Make a positive presentation
  • Make yourself look like a professional capable of professional production levels

(Terry)  Generic catalogs

  • Let your vendors help you to look like a professional

(Terry)  Sample packs

  • Opportunity may come when you least expect it.
  • My “5 Things” recently saying what should be in this package

(Terry)  Presentation

  • This is what your customer receives – likely a box of shirts
  • Your name on the box (or the tape)
  • Individually folded
  • Labeled and bagged
  • Promote your other products in the box

(Terry)  Showroom

  • Show your best work, and more importantly, show the work that you want to do
  • Clean, crisp, professional – we want our customers to feel warm and fuzzy about our abilities as decorators
  • The person behind the counter (if not you) can make or break your business

(Aaron) Website

  • Make it Professional Looking (WordPress)
  • Have a call to action front and center
  • Put the Social Media icons at the bottom
  • Make external link open in new tab, don’t make them leave your site.
  • Optimize for Mobile/Google

(Aaron) Social media

  • Facebook Groups
  • Meetups
  • WaNeLo

(Aaron) Event Sites / Other Sales Channels

(Aaron) ASI / PPAI

  • Great places to sign up to be a manufacturer of promotional products. You will need to be prepared to lower your margins, but you can, in turn, get some decent volume from these avenues. I would use it as a tool to keep your staff and equipment running in the slow times and then adjust your prices accordinly for these avenues when it is a busy time of the year for you and you can’t take on these lower margin jobs.

Aaron: Final Thoughts – Just because you are busy right now, does mean you should stop promoting. Sales is an organic process and your sales down the road (3 mo, 6 mo, year) are just starting today. So if you take today off of selling, plan on taking a day off down the road. That makes being efficient and profitable very hard.

Terry: Final Thoughts: Successful entrepreneurs let people know what they do for a living, and why “You should be excited about what I do as well!” Promoting your business is a part of everything you do inside and outside the business day to day.

Addition comments from the chat room:

  • VeeAtCentralianShop: Is there a tool for creating a price sheet- software/app/template?
  • VeeAtCentralianShop: wear your work- all seasons. It doesn’t have to have your company name. Maybe just a really cool design
  • VeeAtCentralianShop: drive your work- have your company name and number on your vehicle (if you’re a respectable driver). Don’t put a laundry list on the back window. Don’t use that 12 by 12 inch magnet from Vista Print- no one can read it EVER!
  • VeeAtCentralianShop: go to local lunch and learns and ask appropriate questions for the topic- while wearing your work. Double whammy!

Other Events

  • Complete Screen Printing Business Course – Atlas Screen in Chicago – Aug 5-6
  • Complete Screen Printing Business Course – Workhorse Products in Phoenix – Aug 26-27
  • How to Make Money with Digital Decorating – Mind’s Eye Graphics in Northeast Indiana – Oct 6-7

Digital Decorating Class

Trade Shows

  • NBM Long Beach – Jul 20 – 22
  • Embroidery Mart – Nashville Aug 4 – 5
  • NBM Secaucus – Aug 17 – 19
  • ISS Orlando – Sep 7 – 9
  • NBM Denver – Sep 8 – 9
  • ISS Ft. Worth – Sep 22 – 24
  • SGIA (Specialty Graphic Imaging Association) – Oct 10 – 12
  • NBM Charlotte – Oct 26 – 28

Terry’s Books

Screen Printing: A Practical Guide to Starting Your Own T-Shirt Business Just $4.95 as an e-book.

Direct to Garment: A Practical Guide to Starting Your Own T-Shirt Business Just $4.95 as an e-book.

Scheduling and Estimating Production Time for Garment Screen Printing Just $2.99 as an e-book

This show is brought to you for a full hour by:

Specialty Graphics Imaging Association – SGIA will continually strive to be the foremost resource for information and education within the specialty imaging industry. SGIA supports the digital and screen printing community in the USA and Canada by providing services and activities specific to their interests. While the majority of SGIA services and activities are specific to US and Canada, SGIA will continue to partner with national and regional associations around the globe to continually develop the international community. The SGIA National Affiliation Program brings together a multinational community to enhance awareness and encourage the exchange of information. Supporting the Leaders of the Digital and Screen Printing Community

Equipment Zone, with 20 years experience selling garment printing equipment nationwide. Equipment Zone offers the new Epson F2000 SureColor direct-to-garment printer, their own VelociJet-XL DTG printer, and the all new SpeedTreater-TX automatic pretreat machine with a full 16”x24” pretreat area. Equipment Zone also carries a full line of DTG inks and supplies. Go to EquipmentZone.com

Siser North America’s new and improved website! Just recently Siser NA’s website was updated with a ton of new colors, helpful tools, and fun things to read. Head over to www.siserna.com and check out for yourself. A new great add-on to the site is the “Cutter Settings”. You will be able to get an idea of how you should have your vinyl cutter set up for each Siser material type. Then find out how each Siser product is applied, with the instructions available right there for you. Have you heard about the EasyPatterns™? There is a whole separate tab that will show all the different printed patterns Siser offers. Then while you’re at it, check out the Siser Blog. Get a great scope of all the “out of the box” ideas you can achieve with Siser HTV!

This show is for the listeners so please make sure to ask us some questions or give us some topics you would like us to discuss. Also, if you have any event or upcoming items related to our industry that you would like us to bring up on the show, please contact us via our Facebook Page. Also, make sure to interact/follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Google +. You can also find information over at our YouTube Page.