Generational Change; Growing and Renewing a Family Business

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

• China Vows Retaliation for New US Tariffs on Textiles – China vows to retaliate in response to a recent round of taxes proposed by the Trump administration on imported goods. The 10 percent levy worth $200 billion includes products like textiles, hats, and footwear, according to Women’s Wear Daily.

• Etsy Increases Seller Fees – On July 16th, Etsy sellers will see an increase on the transaction fee from 3.5 percent to 5 percent along with a new 5 percent fee on shipping costs. There are some producers in the personalization industry that choose to utilize this platform as a primary tool for selling their products; others use it to appeal to customer convenience and expand their range of potential customers beyond their brick-and-mortar shop. Though this increase is seemingly small, some may wonder if it is actually cause for concern.

Generational Change - Growing and Renewing a Family Business

Erich: First and foremost, why don’t you tell us a little about how your shop started and what it was like growing up with the family business? Did you always think you’d take it over?

Terry: Pretty frequently when businesses grow organically from small startups, there can be some old, ‘good enough’ policies that end up sticking around even after a shop becomes established. You wrote in our initial conversations that you wanted your company to move from ‘management by Jim and his Gang’ to running ‘correctly with procedures and policies’. What kind of policies did you find needed changing the most, and what new policies have you put together to get to those correct procedures?

Erich: Policy changes and personnel issues can be tough, especially when there’s a handing over of the reigns; how have existing staffers handled the changes, and what challenges have you faced in putting these changes in place? How is your father reacting to your initiatives? What are you doing to help get folks on-board and to make sure new hires know how to operate?

Terry: Shops can get comfortable, not only in the way they handle their people, but even in production methods and equipment. Have you taken any steps to update your production line, and if so, has it made a difference?

Erich: Production is important, especially with an existing customer base still coming in throughout the process of updating your shop, but when you want to grow, it’s all about marketing. We’ve seen some cool things you are doing with packaging and social media marketing; What have you changed about your marketing, and how has it affected your sales?

Terry: With longstanding businesses like yours, sometimes the customer base is as used to the old practices as everybody inside the shop; have you had to make changes to pricing or customer service procedures? How were the changes received?

Erich: Is there anything else you’d like to share about the process of updating a family shop?  What resources have helped you as you’ve been working on these new goals?

Terry: Thank you for coming on the show, Erik! Where can people find you and Northwest Custom Apparel?

Erik Mickelson is the operations manager at Northwest Custom Apparel and Embroidery with an education in business administration, but you may know him as a frequent contributor in industry social media groups such as Screen Print Marketing, where he’s been sharing his progress in bringing the 41-year-old company started by his father Jim into current and correct procedures and policies.