by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
In a previous I talked about how I had three major life changing events that occurred in 2012 and I shared with you the first major change; I went back to work to manage my old embroidery business!
In this article I want to talk about the other two major changes that took place in my life and how they affected me physically and emotionally!
A New Embroidery Training Website
At the beginning of every New Year we all want to set new goals for the coming year for both our personal life and our business! After taking a long look at the goals that I had set for the previous year, I discovered that my TheEmbroideryTrainingResourceCenter embroidery training website was not doing what I wanted it to do. I was devastated but I really did not know what do do about it.
I sat down with my business coach and she told me that I had no choice but to start over with my website if it is not allowing me to accomplish my goals! Starting over meant another year of work that I had not planned on but if that was going to help me reach my goals then that was what I was going to have to do!
We Must Willing To Make A Change
Change is not always a welcomed visitor but we absolutely must deal with it and be ready when it shows up! When I was faced with the fact that I had to rebuild my embroidery training website I was not a happy camper, but when I realized that this was standing in the way of me being able to reach my goals I did not have any other options.
The accounting system in the back end was not working like it should and I could not even add any more membership levels. My goal is and always has been to help the new embroiderer and the existing embroiderer with all of the information that they need to start and grow their embroidery business.
The back end system behind TheEmbroideryTrainingResourceCenter was blocking me from being able to build the kind of complete system that I had envisioned. This required me to lay out a new plan, start from scratch and build a brand new embroidery training membership website, I wanted a complete embroidery training site, one that would help the brand new embroiderer with the basic information to get started in their embroidery business as well as more advanced levels of information for the more advanced embroiderer.
Embroiderers need ongoing training to teach them how to create and tweak their designs, how to create the right type of business plan, how to price their embroidery products, how to market their embroidery, get their questions answered and help them through the rough times when they are first starting their embroidery business.
With this new system that I have created, I am now able to keep adding more information each week. It is still a work in progress but there is so much more inside of TheEmbroideryTrainingResourcecenter than I was able to upload into my old system. I am so excited about this new website. It is going to be everything that the embroiderer needs within a few short months. There are monthly Free trainings trainings in addition to the videos and other programs that I already have uploaded.
I am very excited about this new embroidery training site and I look forward to being able to help more embroiderers with their embroidery issues!
Surgery That Made A Huge Difference Physically And Emotionally!
The third major change this year was the surgery that I had on August 14th to have my left knee replaced. It was a surgery that was long overdue and as a result I had complications that caused me to be laid up for 10 weeks instead of just a couple of weeks that I had planned. I knew that I would not be able to be back to work in two weeks, but I had no idea that I would still be off my feet most of the time after 8 weeks and still in pain. I had lots of time to think but I was not able to do any work. During much of this time I was able to digitize but could not write or do any other type of productive work on my websites. My brain just did not want to function right! Digitizing is like an automatic reflex to me. I have been doing it for so long and I do not have to do much thinking about it as I go through the design!
I could not write any articles or even create my newsletter. This set me back a few weeks and again, I had to take a step back and take a good look at what I had done and do some re-planning for the remainder of the year. At times I was starting to feel like maybe I was done with my career and it really scared me. I really do not know what I would do if I could not do embroidery or help other embroiderers. That is a major part of my life! I guess you call it feeling sorry for yourself, but it really made a big impact on me.
I discovered that this was the time that I needed to spend on reflecting and look back at what I had actually accomplished and stop looking at what I had not yet accomplished! This made me feel a lot better and even stronger. I made lists of what I had accomplished and then I made a list of what I had not yet accomplished and my first list was a lot longer than the second one!
This gave me the courage to change what I was thinking about and helped me to keep going. Through this I was able to pull myself out of my doldrums, shall we say, and get back at it. There are times when we are all afraid of changes that need to take place whether we cause the situation that requires a change or whether it is totally out of our control.
Welcome change when it creeps into your life and make the best of it. By the way, I had a record breaking December in 2012. Change was good for me and I look forward to the next obstacle that causes me to make another change! Change can be great!
Click on the link to Register for our Free Training that occurs each month!
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Pricing
How To Price Embroidery Workshop Starting January 8th!
I have some questions that I would like to ask you.
- Do you have a concrete pricing structure in place that makes you a good profit?
- Can you give your customers an instant price?
- Do you price by stitch count alone?
These are very important questions for you to think about.
In today‚’s economy and the way that business is changing it is extremely important for you to be able to work with your customers more efficiently and be able to give them an instant price! In order to do this you must have a concrete pricing structure in place!
When a customer or prospect wants a price, you cannot tell them that you will get back to them later! This does not work anymore! They want an instant price! You have to be prepared ahead of time and be able to work with them quickly. You do not have the time to spend on trying to get things figured out. You need to be running your business more efficiently if you are going to stay in business. I do not mean to scare you but the way that we have to do business today is far different than the way that we did business a short time ago.
The economy is changing and we have to be prepared to change with it. The competition is getting fiercer and in order to stay on top, you have to be more organized, give better and quicker service and show your customers that you really want their business.
As you make your plans for 2013 keep in mind that I am going to be holding a series of workshops that will help you become more organized and make it easier for you to run your embroidery business.
- How To Price Your Embroidery–Starting January 8th – 4 weeks
- Embroidery Business Plan-How To Plan For Your Business –Starting February 19th Рthis will include Organization, your Marketing Plan and your Business Plan with projections– 4 Weeks
- Embroidery Shopping Cart-March 26th – Includes more organization and getting samples together- 4 weeks
- Embroidery Business Marketing System – may 14th – Blog-Automatic Emailing System – 4 weeks
Plan to be part of this first Workshop starting on January 8th. You will be creating a tool that will allow you to see instantly if you are going to make a profit on a job or if you should even take a job. This tool is extremely important in your business. You will also be creating pricing worksheets that will allow you to be able to price for Retail, Schools, Organizations and even Wholesale. Having these tools in front of you at all times makes it easy to work with your customers and be able to give them that instant price!
Go to http://www.TheEmbroideryCoach.com and get signed up for the How To Price Your Embroidery Workshop staring January 8th!
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
We are about to say goodbye to 2012 and welcome to 2013! This is the time when we need to look back on the old year and see what worked and what did not work! What do you need to do in your personal life or business to make the necessary changes in the areas that did not work? Is it time to let go of some of the things that did not work?
2012 was a year that was very good and yet it was a challenging year for me! There have been so many changes in my life and I have felt like there have been so many new beginnings from those changes and I am happy to say that in 2013 I expect to see the fruits of the labor from all of those changes.
I have always done a lot of planning and I try to work my plans but sometimes our plans just do not work out the way that we expect no matter how hard we try!
When you find an area in your life or your business that is not working the way that you think that it should, it is time to stop and take a good look at the situation and find out what you need to do to make the necessary change or perhaps you need to let it go.
This was one of those years for me. I had many changes that took place in my life that I had not planned for, but there were three changes that were major that affected both my personal life and my business in ways that I would not have imagined. I would like to share these with you.
- Went back to work to manage my former embroidery business
- I had to build a new Embroidery Training membership site
- Surgery for a knee replacement
Managing My Old Embroidery Business!
One morning in January 2012 I received a phone call from the gentleman that had purchased my embroidery business. The business was not making the kind of money that we was expecting and he was having a lot of problems with the employees. He was an absentee owner and he made some drastic changes to the business when he purchased it and closed the retail side of the business. The business seemed to be OK for while, but now several years later, he was extremely frustrated and about ready to close the doors. He wanted me to come in and do an evaluation of the business and let him know what it was that needed to be done to solve the problems and get the business back on track.
This was a real challenge for me, not because of the evaluation, but knowing what he really wanted was for me to fix all of the problems of the business and then stay on to manage the business. I knew that I could give him a great evaluation and let him know what he had to do to make the changes, but giving up some of the hours that I needed to spend on my embroidery training business so that I could fix his business, was a really tough decision for me to make.
I called my business coach and discussed it with her. She told me to evaluate my business and my personal life to see if this was going to be a benefit or a detriment. I wrestled with this decision for two weeks before I finally made my decision to give it a try for a few weeks and see what I could do to improve this business. I also decided that I would share this experience with my students so they could also learn from this business makeover. It is now 11 months later and I am still there.
Changes That I Made In This Business!
During this time I have sold old equipment, changed the work flow, added new production flow forms that must be followed, let go of employees that were not happy or causing dissension among the other employees and retrained the remaining employees. The business was totally divided into departments and the employees stayed in their particular departments and were not willing to cross the line to help in another department when it was necessary. There was no teamwork whatsoever among these employees.
This business was strictly a contract embroidery shop and it is almost impossible for a small embroidery business or even a medium sized embroidery business to survive on contract work alone. It needs some retail sales to help balance out the money flow especially during the lean times and there are lean times or months in almost every embroidery business.
I have also had the opportunity to work with each employee personally and have found out where all of their strengths and weaknesses are. This has allowed me to move them around in areas that they are excelling in and are much happier.
The business now has less employees, there is no division within the company and the production has greatly increased with the current employees. These remaining employees are now happy and are very willing to work as a team and it will be easier to train new employees because of all of the procedures that are now set in place. Do you have written procedures for each area of your business?
Plans For More Changes In 2013
I have more changes planned in 2013 for this business. I am in the process of opening up a retail area in the business and the opening is set for the end of January. I have the retail area 
all planned out and am in the process of getting the samples and the display equipment together. I am creating wall samples to make it easy for the customers to pick out exactly what they want for embroidery. It is going to save a lot of time for both the customer and the salesperson. When they are finished, I will take pictures and share them with you. I will tell you exactly how I created them so that you can duplicate what I have done for your own business.
I am also installing a new accounting system to get the New Year started off in the right direction with the accounting and the work flow. The changes that I have already made have been very positive and the owner is pleased with the progress. The employees that are still there are happy and are very willing to work as a team! I will not be leaving there any time soon. I have a lot that I want to accomplish and I want to see this business become very profitable and it is now moving in the right direction.
In the next Ezine, I will be sharing with you the next major change that affected by business!
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Management
Your Embroidery Business Once In A Lifetime Opportunity!”
This Embroidery Business Lifetime opportunity does not come your way very often. I want to offer you something really special to celebrate the end of the year and the launch of The Embroidery Training Resource Center‚ that you absolutely will not want to pass up! What a wonderful Christmas gift this would make! Can you imagine a better gift than all of the information that you will need to grow your embroidery business!
I have built The Embroidery Training Resource Center into the only Embroidery Training Center that you will ever need! The training inside of this comprehensive training site starts with the baby steps of starting your own embroidery business and provides the tools that you will need as you grow along in your embroidery business.
Go to http://www.TheEmbroideryCoach.com for full details! Trust Me! You do not want to miss out on this once in a LIFETIME opportunity!
Along with the Gold Plus Membership you will also be eligible to attend FREE the “How To Price Your Embroidery Workshop” in January of 2013
It is Time To Give Yourself A Gift! A Once In A Lifetime Embroidery Business Opportunity!
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Management, Embroidery Production
Do you have the business organization and forms that help you to run your embroidery business and keep track of your production at all times? When you first start your embroidery business you can become so overwhelmed by all of the forms and processes that are so necessary to keep your entire production running smoothly.
There are software programs that can be purchased to help you keep track of your entire order, but most new embroiderers are not in the position to be able to purchase these programs so you must have a way of keeping track of it manually. I always advise new embroiderers to start keeping track of their jobs manually before going to the computer systems.
Record keeping is so extremely important and there are many forms that I have and keep with each order. You must have a system for keeping track of each step and the forms for each part of your organization or production of every job. Without a good system in place, you will soon become totally overwhelmed with the workload and you will not be able to keep track of your production and it can become very discouraging. I have 3 types of forms
- Office or Sales Forms
- Production Forms
- Shipping Forms
The Office or the Sales Area is the First One That I Will Address.
This scenario is based on the fact that you are an embroiderer that sells retail and may have a retail or showroom in your location. If you are working from home and do most of your orders online or on the phone, the same processes and forms will apply to you as well.
I create sales packets that are ready for each sale so that I can grab them and be ready when I am first starting to work with a customer.
- Customer Quote Form – Can be part of the packet or separate-This form is filled out and a copy given to the customer-your copy is then placed in a binder until the customer comes back in ready to place the order.
- Order Form – I have one for Apparel and one for Caps-You can expand on this if you have different needs.
- Form of Payment -Credit card-Pay Pal-Check form
- Design Tracking & Timing Form
- Production Tracking & Timing Form
- Packing List
- Do you have a checklist to make sure that all of the steps are taken?
These ready-made sales packets make it easy to work with and you do not forget anything as you are going through the entire process with your customer or prospect. Between the Quote form, the Order form and the Form of Payment form, you can collect all of their information and be ready for the sales process. I also have all of their information to easily input it into my database and start marketing to them. This can be in the form of a Newsletter, postcards, emails or a combination of all three.
Order is Ready for Processing
Once the order has gone through the sales process it is ready for the production process. The first step is to be Logged in. This can be done manually on a sheet of paper or in the computer. On the Log In Form, you want to have all of the necessary information to track it through the entire production process, finishing process and out the door! After the job is Logged In the process begins.
- Two copies of the Customer’s original order are made and the original Customer Order form is filed away and you work with the copies of the order all the way through production. The goods or blank products need to be ordered. One copy of the order is then placed on a clipboard and hung up so that you can easily see it. I have mine hung over the Login table. This will stay there until the blank goods arrive.
- The other copy of the order goes to the person that will be creating the artwork or embroidery setup for the job. The Artwork will need to be started. The Artwork Tracking & Timing form is used to keep track of all of the time that is spent on creating the artwork, design set up, sewouts and getting approval from the customer. There is a lot of time in this step and it all needs to be kept track of. I have a form, Customer Approval Form that I created that has the embroidered picture of the design on it and the color breakdown so that the customer knows what the color will be for each part of the design. If there are different colors of garments, your color breakdowns may be different. You must have the customer‚’s approval before you start embroidering the garments. This is very important.
- The Artwork person creates a folder that will hold the production information and be followed all the way through production. I have an Embroidery Room Worksheet that the Artwork person fills out. This has all of the embroidery and design information on it, the color breakdowns, how the order will be hooped and run. A copy of the design is then put on a disk and placed inside of the folder. All of this information follows the job through the entire process.
- The blank goods arrive. This is where the Production Tracking and Timing form comes in. Each step of the production process must be timed and kept track of so that you will know what your true costs are at the end of the job! The blank goods need to be counted, inspected and organized in stacks of sizes. Each size will be hooped in a slightly different location so you must have a system of keeping track of the sizes so that they do not get mixed up and hooped improperly. The blank goods must be checked against the packing slip from the distributor and the customer‚’s order to make sure that they match. After they are verified that they match, the distributor‚’s packing slip is attached to the customer‚’s order.
- The garments go to the hooping area and are hooped with the properly sized hoop and the correct type of backing and topping if necessary.
- The job then goes to a staging area waiting to go to the embroidery machine. If you have your jobs hooped ahead of time, you will save a huge amount of production time and can just basically feed the machine. This is when you can really make money.
- After the garments are embroidered, the embroidery machine operator removes the hoops and places the garments into a bin.
- The embroidery machine operator will make notes on the Embroidery Room Worksheet of any changes that were made and other necessary notes that she feels is important. Many times an embroidered garment will be placed on a copier so that they have the exact location pictured or if there is any question about how it was run. If it was a job that was difficult to hoop, that will be recorded on this Embroidery Room Worksheet.
- The Production folder that the Artwork person created is then filed away with all of the embroidery and design information so that it is ready when a repeat order comes in. This makes it very easy to repeat a job without errors.
- The embroidered garments then go to the finishing area for trimming, steaming and packing.
- After the garments are trimmed, steamed and packed, they are then placed in stacks and counted to make sure that you have all of the proper pieces and sizes that match the customer‚’s order.
Job is Finished Ready for the Shipping Process
- After the job is counted and placed in size stacks, the Packing List is created. This will have the Customers Name, Shipping Address, Order Number from the Log In sheet, Box __ of __, Quantity, Item Description, Color, and Size
.
- A copy of the Packing List is made and placed inside of the box for shipping. The original is sent to the Shipping department to have the shipping label created and the cost for the shipping is added to the packing slip.
- This copy of the Packing List with the shipping costs added is attached to the total packet of forms, Customer‚’s Order, Artwork tracking & Timing form, Production Tracking & Timing form and sent to the office to be invoiced.
- The shipping person must go back to the Log In form and add the shipping date.
- The Invoice is generated by the Office person and then she goes back to the Log In form to write in the Invoice Number.
This system gives you a total tracking of all of your processes and helps you to keep on top of your orders at all times. If a customer calls and wants to know where their order is in the processing, it is very easy to find out and give them an accurate answer. This is very important. Customers want and need to know that you are totally organized and on top of their order at all times!
This system works even if you do not have an automated system that tracks in the computer. As your small business grows and you have the funds to add an automated system then you will be ready and understand all of the processes. The automated systems still need to have the accurate information input into them, but they are a huge time saver when you get to that point in your business.
I hope that this basic process will help you as you are getting your Embroidery Business organized and getting all of the forms necessary for you to keep track of your production. All of these forms are available inside of my Embroidery Training membership site. I have 4 levels of membership. Go to http://TheEmbroideryTrainingResourceCenter.com and see what level is the correct one for you. Most of the forms are inside of the Silver level.
