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Planning for 2018

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Please find some links and notes from the 2 Regular Guys Podcast. This is our 4th annual planning show where we wrap up the year with some planning tips, things to look for and new techniques to improve your business. We will talk about strategies that have worked for us as well as discuss some things you should be looking at in your decorating business. We will talk technology, sales, and marketing, business planning and all thing related to operating a successful decorating business.

Sponsored by: SGIA.org | ThreadX – Palm Springs, CA February 25-28, 2018

ThreadX18Our 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!

 

Planning for 2018

Aaron: People – One of the things you talked about last year Terry, was change and any business is going to be looking at how they change things up and improve. One of the by-products of improving and growing is how that affects the people that are part of your business.

  • Reviews – Honest assessment from both sides and focus on the positives and then look at the areas that can improve.
  • Budgeting – Payroll can be one of the biggest expenses at many companies, and a thorough review of those expenses and how they fit in your business is needed. Do you need to trim so fat so to speak? Do you need to budget more so you can attract higher levels of employees?

Terry: Time Management in a New Year. Better management of your time will make your work life easier. Here’s an assignment that might feel like a chore but can change your whole year!”

  • Make a chart with 15-minute blocks, make a short note of what you did for the previous 14 minutes. Do this for an entire week, and then total up each block by category.
  • If you’re an owner or senior manager, getting caught up in the tiniest of details running your business is a waste of your time and talent, and is holding back the growth of your business.
  • Learn to delegate – easy to say, not so easy to do, especially if you have a history of micro-managing your company and staff.

Aaron: Software/Technology Stack – There is a great deal of software out there that is all vying for our business and they all claim to make our businesses better. The problem is each business and how it operates is completely different and I have never seen a company that has the identical technology stack as another. In Fact, most off the shelf software need to be tweaked and customized for your business. Have you spent the time to do that and if not is the tool really helping?

  • Inventory Management/ Purchasing
  • Marketing Automation / Business Intelligence

Terry: Sleeping Better in 2018.

  • Get control of your schedule. Knowing where you stand – for better or worse – will make communications with your customers and your employees 1000 times better.
    • I’ve done articles, seminars and a book on Estimating Production Time.
  • What makes you and/or your employees crazy every day at work. Is it a fellow employee? Is it unrealistic demands? Is there something or someone who makes you dread getting out of bed each morning?
    • Planning can include removing roadblocks, including people.

Aaron: Customer Experience –  Take this time to either yourself or ask a close friend or relative, to walk through the customer’s experience of doing business with you. Try to go back as far as you can in the process

  • Figure out where and how people are finding you. Document what that looks like, how easy it was, what you look like from the outside looking in
  • The document the buying process was it easy to do, where are the pain points, what things did make sense. What things are a challenge for you the company when dealing with new customers?
  • Lastly, document the receipt of goods step. How did the customer get the products from you? Were you able to keep them up to date on the progress (Think Domino’s pizza tracker) Was it a challenge to schedule a pick-up or grab their items and go? When they opened the box, what did that look like?

Terry: Your Position in the Industry. What does this mean? What do people think when they hear your company name? If you don’t like that image, you can change it! Who would your customer prefer to buy from? Change your position – your image in the industry – to be that company!

  • This can be as simple as changing your business cards,  your logo, the way you answer the phone.

Other Events

Trade Shows

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

SubliSource

Sublimation just got easier with the launch of sublisource.com, the new US distributor for Best Sublimation. Our mission is to help our partners grow with a different way of doing business compared to all the “Me too” distributors in the United States. We will do this by:
  • Offering products as a single item instead of forcing cases on you.
  • Changing shipping standards.
  • Offering unique products from limited manufacturing partnerships.

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

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 on our YouTube Page.