Scott's Corner

New Trends in Embroidery - Create More Business

2010-03-19T20:10:00Z

I just got back from the Atlantic City Trade show and I noticed some very interesting trends. Diversification is moving ahead full force. Companies that only offered 1 decorating type have now branched out into many different areas. After all, you can only sell the same embellishment on the same garment to the same customer for so long before it gets stale. I think people shy away from different techniques because they are afraid of trying them. One important thing to remember is that you don't have to do everything yourself in order to be profitable. There are many different companies who offer wholesale outsourcing options. You may want to try offering your customer one of these great variations to their designs without actually having to own the equipment to produce them in house. In this way you can get a feel for your market on the new ideas without the investment.

Once you build a growing niche within your business structure it will be time to purchase a direct to garment printer or embroidery machine laser etcher etc.

When you think about a decorated garment, the odds are you think of embroidery or screen print. You must also begin to think about rhinestones, sequins, appliqué, reverse appliqué, direct to garment printing, sublimation, heat transfers and laser etching. Taking an existing customer logo and reviving it with a different technique can only lead to new opportunities for you.

The one thing we have always talked about here at Scott's Corner is being innovative and thinking outside the normal box of creation. So, let me give you some quick ideas to help you get those creative gears going. First, let's talk about the direct to garment printing. There are several good machines available on the market. With these direct printing machines you will be able to print any image you have on your computer directly to a garment, instantly in minutes or seconds. Now take this one step further. Combine the background imagery of a customer's design with the direct ink printer, then embroider their logo on top of the pre printed ink image. The sky is the limit. You could do something as simple as add color in some areas to save on fill stitching for larger embroidery designs. You can even create a pattern to mimic a thread pattern! Take it up a few notches and add a colorful background image including lettering to a left chest then embroider their company logo on top to create a one of a kind look.

The second Idea is for the new laser etcher. With this new laser you will be able to give the old tether look that is so popular today. You will be able to use the laser to create a logo burned directly into the material that alters the color of the material in the shape of your customers logo, without cutting through the material creating a direct to material etched look with no ink or embroidery needed.

The next process is using the laser to cut appliqué material around embroidery or reverse it out and apply material of any pattern to the inside of your garment and let the laser cut into and through the top material, exposing the patterned material you have on the inside of the garment in the shape of letters or any logo. Then the machine will come back around the exposed inside material shape with embroidery. Creating a look that is tethered and extremely unique.

What market will be good for these type of new techniques? Any market. This is where you become creative. What is your niche? High schools, colleges, team sports, corporate hats and garments that have a unique style? The sky is the limit and your imagination is the only thing between new profits and new customers.

Remember, research these techniques and come up with your own ideas and then find a wholesaler who can provide these services for you. Get their pricing and turnaround time. Next step is to have some samples made. You will want to do the samples with some of your pre- existing customers designs as they will have the biggest impact for your sample show room.

Then add the new services and products to your companies list of available items to choose from and start your marketing. The best aspect of all this is you may spark an interest in a customer who may have been waiting on placing their next order. You may even be able to open communication with a client who is using your competition, all because you are offering something new and interesting. This makes a person naturally inquisitive and makes them want to contact you.

I hope your creative gears are turning now! Remember, build the sales, then buy the machinery.

If you need help finding a wholesale distributor, please email me and I will be happy to help with some suggestions. The laser techniques are very new and there are only a few companies in the nation offering them right now.

Thank you for joining me today. I look forward to seeing you all next time at Scott's Corner.

Customers Large or Small?

2010-02-12T21:30:00Z

Hello everybody, welcome back to Scott's Corner. I recently had a conversation with one of my customers regarding a big customer of his that was very demanding. This customer had great volume but a low profit margin. My customer was considering telling the customer that he no longer could do work for them under current conditions. They want to put in place some policies that would help make it possible to keep the customer while, at the same time, pay more attention to other customers. These smaller customers were sometimes neglected because of the demand put on them by the larger, more demanding customer. This is a dilemma that many of us may have encountered in our business past. If you haven't you may encounter it at some point in the future. It is a very perplexing situation.

So, today we are going to talk about those customers of ours that may actually be keeping us from showing growth in other areas.

The type of customer I am talking about here is the one that brings a large amount of consistent work. Many times they also have a low profit margin with the higher volume. The same customer can often bring in rush orders that you feel obligated to complete by the rush date because you don't want to jeopardize the relationship. This is great! You have consistent cash flow, assuming they are a good paying customer, and the machines are always running. But, you may want to ask yourself if this particular client's work is keeping you from growing your company into a more profitable company. One with a less demanding schedule and more "LIFE TIME" for you!

Rule-of-thumb, it is a good company policy to have no one customer make up more than 20% of your overall company's revenue. A lesser percentage is even better. This makes it possible to have a large client leave and not completely destroy your cash flow throwing you into survival mode.

The larger customer may be inadvertently keeping you from a less stressful and more profitable company. Why?

This "whale" customer may be keeping you from paying attention to smaller jobs that have a higher profit margin. You may also be ignoring possible work that is available in your area of the same type of smaller orders with the higher profit margin. By taking control of the larger customer and setting some policies that allow you more machine production time for the smaller, more profitable orders you can create an environment in which your company can experience a higher net profit margin from less work. Now don't we all want that!

My family has been in the embroidery industry, as a production embroidery company, for more than 30 years. The same situation was encountered by my family about seven years ago. We had the larger customer who was great for paying and great for consistent work. But, that customer was very demanding and was making it difficult for us to pay attention to our smaller customer orders.

We found that some of our smaller customers began going elsewhere because we were not able to give them the same delivery service we had in the past. Due, of course, to our machine production time being mostly tied up with the one larger customer's orders. Even when time was allotted for the smaller orders, it would many times be taken away to accommodate a rush order that popped up from the "whale" customer.

This is a tough decision for any company and every situation is different. In our case we began seeing a trend toward relying more and more on the one "whale" customer. Then we decided to implement some policy changes with the larger customer that would allow us to begin growing with the smaller customer's orders again. In doing this we risked losing the larger orders altogether. We gave up about half of the larger customer's work and took the hit in sales for the short term. We began focusing on the smaller but more profitable orders. Within two years we built the business' gross sales back up, but by servicing the smaller orders with more profit potential. My family now enjoys a better quality of life. They are not as tied to the business since they are able to work less hours. They have now increased net margins to exceed the previous numbers when we ran two shifts and worked all the time to service the larger customer or customers.

So, when I was speaking to my friend and customer about this subject I told him this story. It's a conscious decision that has to be made based on your personal circumstances. But, in our case, our philosophy changed and we worked to create our business around the smaller more profitable type of customer. In the long run we have found these customers to be more loyal in both good times and bad.

I hope this story might come in handy for some of you who may be facing the same dilemma. I want to thank you for joining me here at Scott's Corner and I look forward to seeing you all again next time.

For now take care and make a prosperous 2010

Scott's Corner - What's coming in 2010

2010-01-22T21:02:00Z

Hello everyone,

I hope you all enjoyed your holidays and had a wonderful bringing in of the New Year.

I am looking forward to all the information we have to share with you in 2010. It is going to be an exciting year. We will be looking at Microsoft Outlook more closely and exploring what each component of Outlook can do for your personal and business life " Its not just email anymore"! We will be looking at Microsoft Exchange and how it differs from your everyday email services.

We will be having a series of informative blogs exploring websites and how to add usefulness to your existing site through marketing and on line shopping stores, plus much more.

We will be focusing the first part of this year on how to make your hobby or business more enjoyable and profitable by taking advantage of software and on line resources that many of us may already have, but don't use to their full potential. For those of us who want to start taking advantage of the resources available to improve your customer base, work flow and overall work experience, who may not know what direction to take or how to get started, we will be focusing on your needs as well and offering suggestions on where to begin.

Please join me at Scott's Corner next time as we discuss Microsoft Outlook, Exchange and Email together. Thank you for joining me and I look forward to seeing you all next time at Scott's Corner.

How to Work in a Paperless World

2009-11-13T20:00:00Z

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to actually see the top of your desk through all those bills, notes, orders ...... and the list goes on. I know that feeling of "where did I just put that!" I know it's within arms reach because it was just in my hand and I haven't moved!

Hello, I am Scott Phillips and welcome to my corner.

We took our company paperless in 2003. It was one of the best business decisions I have made. It has made my job of managing paperwork and running my business so, much easier. The end result is a more productive atmosphere.

You will find yourself creating new ways to utilize the system for Order Taking, Inventory, Production, Accounting, Taxes, Bills and the list goes on.

And best of all there will be more time for other projects, family, friends, etc.

My first personal experience gave me a glimpse of how much stress this new system relieves. This became evident one day when the bank called and said they were missing last month's payment for a loan our company had with them and that it was now showing past due. (I knew this payment was made because I took it to the bank myself. ) I told the person on the phone that I made that payment! She told me that their computer systems show that the payment has not been received and is now past due with a $45 dollar late fee needed in addition to the normal installment. She asked me if I had my receipt for the payment that I was claiming to have made. The magic words "Where is your Receipt?"!!

I don't know about you, but in the past I would have had my receipt, You Bet! I know I have it ..... Now where is it? The search would begin.... Did I put it where I was supposed to? Or maybe I got sidetracked (we all know how that happens) and didn't get it there. Is it in the car, my office, home, the fridge.... LOL.

That wasn't going to happen today! While I still had her on the phone I accessed the files on my computer and found my image of the receipt. I asked the person on the phone if they have access to email, she said yes. I got her email address and emailed a copy of our receipt straight from my computer to hers while she was still on the phone. The problem was solved and they found it was a mistake on her side.

This was the first moment I realized how much benefit this paperless system has. Some of us are very organized and sure you may say that I would know right where it is. Sure, that maybe true, but now you have to add that extra to do item, to your already long list of things to do and most important, not to forget to do it.

I realized how many times in the past the accountant called asking for this or that. Today I say sure and can even send documents from my PDA.

This example is only the tip of the Iceberg.

Getting started can be the biggest leap for all of us. "Where do I START"!?!?!?!?

The biggest hurdle in going paperless is the transition from where you are now to where you want to be.

There is always a learning curve with software and the new process. You will need to gather all the past documentation and paperwork that will become part of your paperless life.

The most effort will be spent getting past information into the system, but believe me, the first time you are asked to pull a receipt or bill from 3 years ago and you have it at your fingertips you will feel the stress free experience of having a paperless life.

First thing needed to do any project, paint a car, make a chair, take your life paperless, are the correct tools! Join me on Friday November 20th at 4pm EST to learn how you can also work in a paperless world. I look forward to seeing you all there and thank you for joining me for today's experience in Scotts Corner.

Reserve your seat (https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/976105009)

What Constitutes Good Embroidery and Digitizing , Webinar Rescheduled

2009-10-30T17:27:00Z

Hello everyone.,

I am sorry we missed many of you at this weeks webinar for "What Constitutes Good Embroidery and Digitizing". There was a technical error with the link posted. We are excited to say the webinar is rescheduled:

Host: Scott Phillips of JS Digitizing

Title: What Constitutes Good Embroidery and Digitizing

Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Time: 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM EST

Space is limited.

Reserve your Webinar seat now at (click the link below or copy it into your web browser):

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/468923128

I look forward to seeing all of you who missed this week's webinar. Have a good weekend and see you all next week, when we will be visiting Text , lettering , editing and digitizing software, What is the good and the bad.

Thanks for visiting Scotts Corner.

The Extinction of the Professional Digitizer

2009-10-23T16:00:00Z

In today's market the true professional digitizer who knows how to create crisp small letters, make your sewing machine sing through a 200k stitch design without a thread break and create some of the best looking embroidery you will see on material are becoming extinct. Those who are becoming digitizers today are learning how to get it done fast with automated tools and systems, without knowing or utilizing techniques that make that cutting edge difference between creating an embroidered give away shirt or making a professional embroidery garment that a person will be proud to wear.

But, is a change on the horizon? If there is a change who will pick up the pieces and bring the industry back.

What am I talking about some of you might ask? This information might help those asking that exact question the most. What I'm talking about here is that the perception of what is "good embroidery" and what isn't "good embroidery" is changing and not for the better. Its very simple, if you do not know what is good, there is no way you can know what is not. Now some may say that they see great embroidery designs at shows and in contests. This is true. Many professional digitizers still spend hours creating embroidery art to help get their names recognized. But, these designs are not from the real world. You and I do not use these designs to sew our customer's shirts, make their hats or sew monograms on gifts. I am referring to the everyday designs that we all use to make a living or grow our business through our customers.

With the professional digitizers falling by the side, many of home and commercial embroiderers rely on overseas digitizers or U.S. companies sending it overseas. Granted, work has improved from really bad to ok. But after a while the ok , becomes accepted as good or excellent, simply because there is no longer a higher level commonly available for comparison. Does this make sense?

I recently had the opportunity to work with a person who owns an embroidery company that brags about how good their work is and how inexpensive they produce their embroidery designs. We met at a show and the owner of the company said that he gets flat rates on any design left chest size for $35, others jumped in that were listening in and bragged about getting the best quality work even cheaper.

Shortly after the show I did some IT work for the same person's company and at their facility. I was taken for a small tour where I watched the machines in production and viewed the finished garments being bagged. I was very surprised and disheartened at how poor the quality of lettering and embroidery was. They truly believed that the work being created here was of the highest quality. My point is that this situation is happening all over making the overall standard of what many view as quality embroidery drop to sub standard levels.

Let me put it another way. Have any of us looked at or called on a used item that was for sale and the seller told us that the Item was in "excellent" or "like new" condition, only to find out later that it was in terrible condition or average at most. The person selling the item may have truly believed that the item was as they described. From their perspective but, you may have known different because you had the opportunity to view, see and experience better!

So, If you were to take the item you looked at in what you would call excellent condition and set it next to one that the original seller was seeing as excellent condition which will bring more money? Yours or theirs......? This illustrates how the perspective of good, quality embroidery can be skewed and lowered by those who have not had the opportunity to experience the difference.

That should make us ask the question; "How did we get here and what can be done about it?"

This is a good question and one not easily answered. Many of the true professional embroidery digitizers have left the industry. But some still remain. We all want to be competitive on price and at the same time provide a professional service with the best quality embroidery available so that our customer comes back. Let's face it your order is only as good as the re-order.

The cost of your embroidery design doesn't stop at the bill you receive from your digitizer. How is that you might ask? Well, let's look down the road a little bit.

I can best illustrate this with a hard lesson I learned recently. I purchased two large screen LCD TV's for use as monitors. One I purchased was rated one of the best for quality of image and was more expensive. The second was a LCD that had the same appearing image and options, but it was four hundred dollars less. I purchased the good one and I chose to get the lower cost second one. Now it's 15 months later and the less expensive LCD went bad. The warranty is up and it will cost as much to fix as it will to buy a new one. But, I saved $400 fifteen months ago.....right! Not really because I lost a lot of money since now it needs to be replaced. The more expensive one is still working today.

Let's look at an embroidery design. What do we need from it? 1) The design must have a clean edge, rich looking appearance that won't pucker or pull the material. 2) Any lettering must sew sharp, even and legible. 3) The design must sew with the minimum amount of trims and color changes to save on labor while sewing the job for our customer. 4) The design must sew without having thread breaks or unthreading the needle causing false thread break stops. 5) The final looking job has to be so good that your customer wants to come back for their next order and finally, 6) the design should be received ready for production with no editing or adjusting necessary by you or your staff.

So....looking down the road, one might have the same choice as I did with the LCD when getting that design for your customer.

You may have the $25-35 flat rate or cheaper choice compared to the $58 dollar design created by a professional digitizer. One might go for the cheaper design and, let's face it, that is $23 or more dollars profit on the order. This is where it becomes fun! The hidden costs associated with that choice. Let's look at what we need from a design. The job may have taken longer to sew then it should have; thread breaks, too many color changes, too many trims etc, as well as your labor time in front of the machine. All this is worth money $$. You may have had to send the design back or spend some time tweaking and editing the design to get it the way you liked. Add more $$ for your time. The re order comes in and it is for a higher end shirt or different garment that is very stretchy material and the original design sews horrible on it. Now I have it digitized again for this material, another $25-$35 dollars. It doesn't take long for that savings to be eaten up does it?

This does not take into account your customer not coming back for that second order because they found a place that can make their shirt look much better! This happens more often than you might think and many times you are not aware of the loss until you see someone from your customer's company wearing a nice embroidered shirt , that you know you didn't do......!

Most of us have a tendency to look at what we are spending now, at this moment and not at how it may affect us down the road. If you are looking at building your business or becoming more profitable this is an area you should look at seriously. I have seen a trend occurring lately. Many companies are beginning to seek out better digitizing and digitizers as the reality of the long term costs compared to the short term savings is counterproductive and "NOT PROFITABLE".

Now here is the opportunity. Seek out the better digitizing company, someone with old school digitizing wisdom. Remember, knowledge is not the same as wisdom. Knowledge is thinking you know how to do something. Wisdom is having actually done it. They will generally be more expensive than your overseas counter parts. But, they want to earn your business also and you can always negotiate with them. The key to successful negotiation is being fair. I am seeing more embroiderers from the home shop to the large companies making a gradual shift.

This is a great opportunity! Remember when I said you always have to have an edge. This may be the best tip to create your edge that is available today. The market has thinned many professionals away from the industry. But, there are still professional digitizing companies out there that have the quality and service to stay strong in this market. Make your company stand out and find one.

Create embroidery that becomes the new quality standard. Raise the bar. Make this new method part of your advertising scheme. Brag about your quality and people will pay a little more for it. I have seen slogans that read " What you think is great embroidery isn't even average. Experience the difference!"

Hey, who doesn't want to work less and make a little more. I will leave you with this thought.

Many have told me that customers in their market are used to paying nothing for the designs and they won't pay the higher prices, I will lose the order, they say..... I say Nonsense! Build a good relationship with your digitizer, let them know when you have a situation that arises where you might lose a job. They will work with you ! Why not offer the best you can when it's possible!

I invite all of you to join me on October 28th at 4pm for a Webinar that will cover "What constitutes good embroidery and digitizing?"

Thank you for joining me here today and I look forward to seeing you all again at Scotts Corner!

Growing Your Business

2009-10-02T15:30:00Z

Hi again. Well it has been a great week! Thank you for all your questions and energetic comments regarding frames. The response has been so overwhelming that we have put together a Webinar regarding frames, their Uses and were to get them. Join me as I present "Hooping the Impossible into Profits" on Monday October 12^th at 3:00pm EDT.

Sign up at (https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/377317768 ) and email me if I can help with any questions that might help you grow your business with frames.

Today I want to talk about how we make our businesses grow. My family has been in the embroidery industry for almost 30 years. In that time so many things have changed.

One of the big ones is how you reach out to your existing customers and how you bring new customers to your business. Word-of-mouth has always been one of the best and least expensive available. How do you get word-of-mouth business? You ask. By being personable with your customers, getting to know them and developing a rapport. Building that kind of relationship is just as important as quality of service and excellent product. Ask yourself, when people talk about my company do I want them to say, "they are the cheapest in town and their quality is ok"? Or "the price is right and the quality isn't bad"? How about, "the quality is unmatched and they are great people to work with, give them a call"?

Build your company as a brand name known for quality and friendly, professional service. My families' embroidery business prices are fair but higher than most companies in our area. The philosophy is simple. If your company grosses 100k a year for example and you net 30k. A competitor might have lower pricing than you and gross 200k per year with a net of 35k. Which do you want to be? I want to work less for the money I make. Bottom line is you need to look at the big picture. Build your business with customers that want quality and great service. You will find more loyalty and faster payment from building a business with these types of relationships and that statement comes from almost 30 years of experience.

Now, how do we get those customers in today's market environment? I am glad you asked.

Remember when I said that to be successful you need an edge. Here is where you find your edge. Stay in front of your customers with newsletters, email, mail and fax specials weekly, monthly or seasonally. Build a data base with your customers contact information and use it to keep your company name in front of your customers. The goal is not to sell at the exact moment you contact the customer. But, instead to be the first thought on their mind when they need something. That gives you the edge.

I will be sponsoring another Webinar that shows you on-line technologies for your business and ideas on how to implement those tools easily too grow your business.

Join me for a free "How to Grow in Today's Market" Webinar on Tuesday October 13th at 3:00 pm EDT for a one hour seminar where I will share some secrets of how we created our success stories. Sign up at (https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/325690064)

I look forward to seeing you there. As always, let's find the edge together and have fun doing it. ‘Till next time, this is Scott from Scott's corner.

Creating a Niche with Embroidery Frames

2009-09-18T16:00:00Z

Hello,

My name is Scott Phillips and I am happy to have you here with us at Scott's Corner.

I have been in the embroidery industry for 20 years and my family has nearly 30 years experience in production embroidery and monogramming.

I believe that being an informed embroiderer on the latest techniques, software and current hot items makes for a successful embroidery business. I enjoy sharing what I have learned over the years with other embroiderers like you. We decided Scott's Corner was the place to do so.

If you are having an issue with something in particular or just want to say hello, let me know. I am looking forward to meeting all of you.

Today I am going to talk a little about hooping and the use of frames in your embroidery business. In today's market it is important to have an edge. We created a niche in our business by sewing items our competitors are not able to because they don't have the correct frames. Frames make it possible to sew sleeves, shoes, hat brims, napkin corners and even toilet paper. Talk about some exciting ideas! We started sewing names and numbers on athletes' shoes and the kids went crazy. Today we have a private on-line store for each high school. We were the first with the ideas, the first with the edge that has made our business the number one embroidery choice. Most of the high schools in our area come to us for their embroidery and team logo items. If you are interested in more information regarding frames for you machine, just ask.

Thank you for joining me today and I look forward to sharing lots of ideas and tips with you in the future here in Scott's Corner

Scott Phillips

JS Digitizing

Tri Dimensional Solutions