3 Tips To Help You Prepare To Make More Money In The Coming Year

3 Tips To Help You Prepare To Make More Money In The Coming Year

We all need to start thinking about how we can prepare to make more money in the coming year! I have been working on my new marketing plan and during this time I have come up with 3 Tips that may help you as you are preparing to make more money in the coming year.

  1. Create A Great Mindset!
  2. Set Your Goals!
  3. Start The Year Off With All Of Your Financials In Order!

Create A Great Mindset!

This is the very beginning and most important tip of the 3. That is why it is No. 1.
Do you have a great or positive Mindset? Many times our thoughts, especially the negative ones, are what hold us back from succeeding at what we want to achieve and may really be hurting our chances of having a successful embroidery business. I thought that I had a positive mindset but I discovered that I had fallen victim to a negative mindset and it was all of my own self-talk and negative feelings.

I wanted to charge higher prices for my embroidery work when I first started my business but then the negative talk started. I had been told so many times that there was no way that I was going to be able to make a living with an embroidery business that I actually started believing it.

We second-guess ourselves and we have doubts when this happens. With all of the negative thoughts and other people‚’s opinions, we soon tell ourselves that we aren‚’t good enough, smart enough, talented enough, or whatever to be able to charge the prices we want or need to for our work. So we end up just settling for what we think we can get and really create a tough struggle for ourselves.

This was a huge struggle for me when I first started my embroidery business and it lasted for almost 15 years!I was determined to have the highest quality embroidery of anyone that I knew of that was in the embroidery business and I was told many times that I had accomplished that. I was offering this very high-quality embroidery at a price that was as low or lower than the embroidery businesses that were offering low quality. How stupid was that!

I thought that my customers would not pay the prices that I really wanted to charge and I found that the secret is not to project your thinking & feelings onto your customers! This mindset held me back for 15 years! Since everyone else was charging low prices, I thought that I had to stay in line with them or charge less to get the customers. That mindset almost cost me my entire business!

I did not realize that what I had to offer was a product that I could have priced much higher right from the beginning of my business but my mindset had blocked my ability to see that. It took my accountant practically batting me in the head to get this point across.

It was a struggle for me to change that mindset but with his help, I was able to do so. I guess you would say, he was my first business coach. When I changed my total mindset and started promoting my quality product and excellent customer service I had plenty of work! Most of my customers were already coming to me for my quality and service and when I raised the prices, they were OK with that.

I would love to be able to convince you and all embroiderers that you need to charge for your expertise. We are not or should not be struggling artists! We are highly skilled professionals and should be paid accordingly and you need to develop the mindset of a professional!

Set Your Goals For The New Year!

Now is the time to start thinking about the new goals for the coming year! This year is already half over and we need to be prepared to get the new year started off on the right foot! Are you on target to reach your goals this year? If not, how far are you from reaching them? What is the obstacle that is in the way that has prevented you from reaching your goals?

Sit down with a pad and paper and look back over each month of this past year and see where you were and think about what you could change to make this next year a more profitable year.

Now is the time to set your new goals for the coming year. Do not wait until January gets here. You need to get prepared months in advance so that you can start January off with the right plan to reach those goals.

Setting your goals is the very first step in creating your plan for the coming year. Do not set goals so high that you cannot reach them and do not set them so low that they do not mean anything. Set your goals a little out of your reach so that you do have to stretch in order to reach them.

Write down your Goals. I have found that if I commit to them on paper, not just on the computer, but actually writing them down they mean a lot more and I am more apt to follow through and reach my goals. You must create a plan for each one of your goals in order to be able to reach them.

Start The Year Off With All Of Your Financials In Order

Do you know how where you will stand financially for your year end? I know that the year has not yet ended and we  are few months away, but you should be able to anticipate how your year is going to end.

Are you happy with the results of where you are presently? Can you run off a quick report and see where you are today? You may or may not be happy with the way that your year is going to end or where you are today, but knowing exactly where you are financially is the first step in being able to make a change.

Without the knowledge of your current status, it is impossible to create a plan that is going to help you reach your goals and make the necessary changes in your business to do so for the coming year.

If you cannot run off a quick report to find out where you are, you need to start preparing to get all of your financials in order and be ready to start the new year going in the right direction. By the time the year ends, you need to have all of this information gathered.

  • All of your expenses, month by month
  • Your credit card purchases
  • Your Bank Statements
  • Loan information

Your next step is to see if you are making a profit. If not how far are you behind? Do you know your break-even point? This is exactly how much money you need to be bringing into your business each day, week or month in order to pay all of your bills, including a salary for you! You need to be rewarded for all of your hard work.

You need to know which area of your business is profitable and which area is not. This is the only way that you can realistically make the right course corrections and start your plan for next year. If you find an area in your business that is not profitable, get rid of it. It is not servicing you well and is costing you money.

Change your mindset, Set your goals and get your financials in order. This is the beginning of creating a great plan to help you make more money during the remainder of this year into next year!

If you will do some serious thinking about what I have given you in this article and start applying these tips, it will help you to get prepared for the coming year.

Control Supplies Inventory Costs In Your Embroidery Business!

Keep A Close Eye On Your Inventory Costs

Keeping close track of your inventory and supplies is a must when you are trying to control your supplies inventory costs in your embroidery business. Keeping a minimum on hand of all of your basic embroidery supplies is very important. You do not want to run out of a supply when you are in the middle of a job. Keeping a running inventory record is a must.

Planning ahead so that you are not ordering for overnight delivery is one of the ways to hold down shipping costs. Ordering in quantities, if at all possible, will reduce the costs of both the supplies and the shipping. Early payment discounts also helps to reduce the cost.

In a small shop the extra supplies can be stored in the actual work area. In a larger shop they must be stored in a separate Supply Storage area that is strictly for supplies or inventory. This will remove the extra clutter and keep the production and prep area more organized and cleaner.

Have One Person In Charge Of Inventory

Make sure that you have one person in charge of your inventory. When supplies are removed from the supply storage area, they must be accounted for so that they can be replaced before they are actually needed. Keeping a running log is very important in order to have this information at your fingertips at all times and it deters others from picking up supplies when they are not authorized to do so, controlling employee theft. In some areas this is a constant problem and one that is hard to pinpoint.

You as a business owner must do everything that you can to prevent losses to your business, and employee theft of supplies is an area that can be prevented. It is up to you to control supplies inventory costs in your embroidery business make sure that employee theft does not happen.

Offer Exceptional Customer Service In Your Embroidery Business!

Offer Exceptional Customer Service In Your Embroidery Business!

Working with customers is different today than it was just a few short years and even months ago and you must offer exceptional customer service in your embroidery business to stay in the game. In today‚’s world, customers expect to have a great customer experience with you and are much more demanding than they used to be. With the internet at their fingertips, there is so much available to them and they have many more choices today than they did in the past. It is to our benefit as embroiderers to offer our customers exceptional customer service and the best buying experience that we can possibly give them.

In this competitive market place you must you must offer better customer service or at least more customer service than your competitors if you want to stay in business. Unfortunately, this is a concept that is so hard to understand for so many embroidery business owners. Many embroidery business owners think that they need to offer the lowest price not the best customer service to stay in the marketplace. This is a total falsehood and I wish that I could abolish it!

Offering exceptional customer service can be the one area that can make all the difference and make you stand out from the competition. Not all customers today are shopping for the lowest price. They want to be treated with respect, and be shown that you really have their best interest at heart!

Here are 7 ways to help raise your level of customer service, and if followed by your entire organization, will change your business and give it a whole new life!

  • Start Out Each Day With A Positive Attitude!
    There is no better way to create an atmosphere of Exceptional Customer Service than to be very upbeat and positive. When you have a great attitude it is reflected in everything that you do, from waiting on a customer or getting employees started in the morning, to finishing up the day with your family. Everyone around you benefits from your attitude.
  • Always Wear A Smile!
    Treating your customers with dignity and respect and always wearing a smile is the most important principal in creating exceptional customer service. This policy applies to direct contact in person, as well as on the phone. People can tell how you feel and know if you are wearing a smile.All of your customers should be treated as if they are the most important customer you have; it does not matter if they are a large account or a small one. Small accounts very often grow into large accounts.You want your customers to feel that you are a partner in their business success, and as a result, you will receive more orders from these same customers.
  • Have A Clean And Well Organized Environment!
    Invite your clients or customers into a clean well organized environment when they visit your showroom or office. This goes a long way in making that first impression.Have your samples clean, well-organized, in top quality condition, and available for quick viewing as you are giving your presentation.Make sure that all of your samples are labeled with the information that is pertinent to that sample. Having a system in place makes your presentations more effective and creates a feeling of trust with your customer.
  • You Must Be Willing To Work With Your Customer-Give Them A Reason Why They Need To Come Back!
    In the marketplace today, you need to be available and be willing to work with your customers in whatever capacity they are requesting. Today, the customers are demanding more and more from their suppliers in the way of services. If you do not meet their demands or wishes, someone else will. If this is not possible for you to accomplish, given your situation, you must let them know up front immediately.Sometimes their requests seem to be unreasonable, especially delivery dates, but you must deliver on time or ahead of schedule of the agreed date, in order to keep them happy and coming back for more. Customers become very unhappy and untrusting when they have to wait past the due date for goods they were promised.
  • Always Return Phone Calls And Always Respond To Emails!
    When a customer or potential customer calls and has to leave a message, make sure that you get back to them in a timely manner. If you do not return their phone call, they will feel that you do not want their business. All present and future customers need to be made to feel important!
    This same principle applies to emails. If a person takes his time to email you, you must be courteous enough to take your time and reply to that email. They do not care how busy you are; their time is as valuable to them as yours is to you! This type of customer service is expected!
  • Take Accurate Notes!
    Take accurate notes when you are working with a customer in person, over the phone, or my email. Customers very often want to make a change in their order and this must be taken care of immediately, as to not hold up their order.You should have a system in place for this type of procedure, with forms to use to take the notes or make changes. Make sure that the notes get connected to the customer‚’s order. This is also true with email. If the customer sends you an email letting you know that he is requesting some changes in his order, print it out and attach it to the original order. Then you want to bring it to someone‚’s attention so that it is not missed.
  • Never Show Anger With A Customer!
    If a problem or mistake has occurred by either you or the customer, never show anger towards that customer, even if they show anger towards you. It does not matter if they are right or wrong; you must hold your head up high, keep your composure, and talk to them in a manner that will diffuse their anger.Being angry does no one justice, and in business it is one of the best ways to create bad relations. I have found many times by offering the customer a bit more or giving the customer a slight discount that they were much happier, and I was able to smooth over a bad situationand build a better relationship with the customer at the end of the problem. They must be treated with dignity at all times.

Offering Exceptional Customer Service is not hard and is expected at all times! If you give all of your customers more than they expect and you will be greatly rewarded.

 

“When Should I Hire Someone To Help Me?”

“When Should I Hire Someone To Help Me?”

Have you said to yourself: I am running out of time in my business and I cannot do it all myself anymore. I think that I need someone to help me with my work, but where do I begin and when should I hire someone to help me?

Before you decide to hire someone to help, you need to take a really hard look at your business to see if you have everything set up properly and efficiently and are actually ready to hire someone. Ask yourself these questions first to help get this part figured out.

  • Is my accounting system set up properly so that it only takes me a couple of minutes to create an invoice and I know that it is all going into the right accounts?
  • Do I have a logging in system so that I can easily keep track of all of my jobs and I know when each and every one of them is due?
  • Do I have a system for scheduling my work so that it flows easily?
  • Do I have written instructions for every step or process in my business?

If you cannot answer yes to all of these questions, you are not ready to hire someone to help you. If you hire someone before you have all of this in place, you will not get the most for your money and you will be spending many long hours training someone and fixing mistakes because you have not had the time to train them properly and still keep up with your own work!

I know about this, been there and done that! This is a big step and if not done properly, you absolutely will waste your money.

First of all, the first person that you need to hire is someone to help you with your accounting and if it is set up properly, this would be someone that is very part-time. By that, I mean maybe one afternoon a week at max.

The next person to hire is someone to train to do the finishing of your garments. This is someone that pays attention to detail and is good with their hands.

DO NOT try to hire someone to do your customer service for you. You are the face of your business and you need to stay the face of your business for a very long time. I have seen other people make this mistake thinking that they can do the production part better and faster and someone else can take care of the customers.

Trying to decide when it is time to take on employees can be a very tough decision but after you have the first set of question answered yes and have everything in place that is necessary, the next set of questions to ask yourself that might help you make this decision.

  • Do I have so much work that I cannot get it all done within the time frame that I have promised my customers?
  • Am I not answering the phone because I already have too much work to do?
  • Are the simple tasks that I am currently doing bringing in the amount of money that I need or am I wasting my time doing them when I could be paying someone a lower wage than what I want to make per hour?
  • Am I not getting my invoices out on time and that is at the very completion of each job?

If you are answering yes to any of these questions then it is time to hire someone to help you.

What Can You Offer The New Employee?

Now that you have established that it is time to hire someone, you want to take a look at what you can offer someone in the way of compensation and benefits. This is very important and you must have it totally in place before you start talking to potential employees.

If you are not financially in a position to offer a high paying wage when this is a requirement for the position, then you must be ready to offer some extra benefits to compensate for the loss.

Determine what you can offer in the way of benefits.

  • Are you in a financial position to pay a good or competitive wage?
  • What type of benefits are you willing to offer to attract the type of employee that you are looking for?
  • Do you offer any vacation time with pay? If so, how many weeks?
  • Do you allow sick days off with pay? How many?
  • If they do not take all allowable sick days or vacation, do you compensate them at the end of the year for this time?
  • Do you offer or provide health insurance? Is this deducted from their wages or do you provide it free of charge? How much is deducted? What type of plan do you offer?

Where to find a Good Employee

If you are looking for a part-timer to help with your accounting, talk to your accountant. He or she may know of the perfect person for you. You may have to pay them a high dollar per hour but you are looking at very few hours per month if you have your QuickBooks set up properly.

If you are looking for someone to help you with your production, Word of mouth is the best way to find a new applicant but this does not always work out. Current employees may know of someone that is looking for a job. Tell your friends and family that you are looking for a well-qualified employee. A word of caution: Do not hire more than one person from the same family. I have found through experience that this can cause issues.

I have had an excellent response by running ads on Craig’s List. However, this does not work in all parts of the country. This is something that can be done for free and it is simple to do. I created a simple ad that has worked in the past. You can place the ad on Craig’s list and see how it works for you.

Title: Embroidery Machine Helper!

Body of ad

  • Some sewing knowledge required!
  • Must pay attention to detail!
  • Must be able to understand and use a ruler!
  • No embroidery experience required!
  • Part Time but may work into Full Time

Respond to:
|Reply at 455-555-5555 or email to help@youremail.com

One of my students hires only Graphic Artists from the local college. He starts them out on an internship to see if they are going to work out before he actually hires them full time. They have a very good understanding that this is only a trial period and they will get hired if they can do all that is expected and is a good employee as far as attitude and his or her ability to work with others.

Place an ad on a bulletin board in a grocery store. Housewives or retirees are great prospects. They may not be able to work full-time but would work out great as a part-time employee and would usually give you their 100% while on the job. They usually have good organizational skills and work ethics. Housewives or home sewers usually have a lot of experience with bobbins and threading needles. Good dexterity is very important.

What questions to Ask In The Interview

Before you start your interview process with each applicant you need to know the right questions to ask. A new applicant does not need to have experience in the embroidery field but there are basic skills that are required before they can even be considered. As a matter of fact, I always hired people that had no experience. It is very hard to retrain someone that has learned bad habits. It is easier to train them from scratch, so to speak!

  • Do you have previous sewing experience? This is not necessary but it does help. They would already have basic knowledge of threads, needles, scissors, thread tensions and possibly machine maintenance.
  • Do you have any computer knowledge? Not a requirement but it also is very helpful and shortens their learning curve if this will be a tool that they would be using.
  • Do you have small children? In some states, you cannot ask this question directly so you will have to be careful. If so, who takes care of your children when they are sick? This should not be held against them, but it needs to be addressed up front.
  • Do you know how to read, write, count and use a ruler? This is very important especially if it is a person that does not speak the same language on a daily basis. They will be required to read and write to fill in production reports.
  • Can you stand for long periods at a time?
  • What are your hobbies? Let them explain this to you.
  • What do you consider your strengths? What do you feel you are good at?
  • What do you feel are your weaknesses? What do you feel you are not good at?
  • Would you be willing to tidy up at the end of the day?
  • Would you be willing to clean and maintain the equipment that you will be using?
  • Can you carry boxes full of garments?
  • Would you be willing to move at a fast pace when the pressure is on?
  • You must be willing to learn, listen and take orders. Does any of this bother you?
  • Can you take constructive criticism?
  • Do you have specific work hours that work better for you than others?
  • Are you looking for Full-time work or Part-time work?
  • Are you looking to advance in your position?
  • Are you willing to be trained on a continuous basis?
  • Why did they leave their last job?
  • How was their boss or supervisor to work with? (If they talk bad about their former boss, this may not be the type of person you want to have in your place of business. They could be poison for the rest of your employees)

Having an in-depth conversation with your applicant following these questions will tell you a lot about this person. These questions can be part of your application process on a questionnaire that they can fill out. After reviewing their answers and you feel that this is a person you would want to hire you can then schedule them for an interview. It will save you a lot of time in the hiring process. It is not necessary to keep bringing them in for a second or third interview. This is a waste of your time and their time.

If you have decided to hire someone to help, make it clear at the end of the interview, that this will be a 30-day trial and have a specific list of tasks or procedures that you expect them to master.

Give them a clear job description and let them know that they will be evaluated on this description and specific list of tasks at the end of that 30-day trial.

To get yourself organized, and set up your processes so that you can be ready to hire someone to help you, Click here to start the 9 Steps to a Profitable Embroidery Business! This is extremely important and will help you get on the right track! Without this, you are wasting a lot of valuable time!

TEC_9StepsProfit

 

 

 

 

“Is Your Embroidery Business Organized To Run Efficiently?”

“Is Your Embroidery Business Organized To Run Efficiently?”

Organization in your embroidery business is one of the most important aspects of having a successful embroidery business. Without good organization, you have no way of keeping track of orders or getting work done efficiently.

There are three areas that are very important to operating an organized embroidery business. Good organization is critical to a successful embroidery business

  • Good Accounting System
  • Good production flow
  • Good paperwork flow

Without those 3 items, it is very difficult to run an embroidery business that is going to consistently be able to have on-time delivery of your finished goods to your customers, and know at all times where you stand with the production of your orders and know whether or not you are making a profit. A system needs to be created for each one of these items.

Good Accounting System For Your Embroidery Business

Good accounting starts with having an accounting program, one that will create your reports for you automatically so that you are not having to pull a lot of spreadsheets together to see if you are actually making any money or not. I always recommend QuickBooks. I have a program that teaches you how to set up your QuickBooks in the right way to work with your embroidery business. It needs to be set up a little differently than your basic set up.

Once it is set up properly, it is simple to use, it can create all of your Work Orders, Invoices, and helps you keep track of your jobs. It is so easy for me to go in and see where I am at any one day of the month, run off my sales tax report or see who owes me money and when I can expect money to come in. This is a great system and one that you should be using if you are not. It may be difficult for you to set up by yourself, but when you follow my step by step instructions,you can  set up the basic structure and start using it immediately.

Good Paperwork & Production Flow For Your Embroidery Business

Whether you have a large shop or a 1 person at home embroidery business, you must follow the same type of a system in order to be efficient in your workflow. The beginning of your good workflow is your floor plan.

Creating A Good Floor Plan

Creating a blueprint for a good floor plan for your embroidery workroom is one of the first things that should be done in your process of getting your embroidery business organized to ensure that you will have an efficient workflow. A layout for the most efficient work flow should be done in a loop if at all possible so that each area is not conflicting with another area. In a good workflow, the work runs efficiently from one production area to the next and without it, there are too many wasted stepsfrom one job process to another. No work should be on the floor that is not in progress. It should be on a shelf in a holding area.

If you are working from your home, your floor plan may be a little different and you may have only one door into your embroidery room preventing you from working in a loop. If this is the case, Shipping can be located in the same area as the Receiving, but on the other side of the area.

The best physical layout of your shop will determine how you will be able to place your embroidery machine for the best possible production. The most efficient layout I have found for me has been having my two machines across from each other with one table in the center.

Your Paperwork and Production Flow consists of:

Forms needed for the complete process

  • Quote Form
  • Order form
  • Log in Form
  • Production Tracking Form
  • Artwork Tracking Form
  • Packing Slip

Embroidery Business Production Process Flow

  • Take the Order from the customer-make sure that you have all of the information on the order form about the product, design, customer information and contact info.
  • Log the Order in and give it a PO Number. The Login form should include the following information:
    • Date (the order came in)
    • Job Number
    • Customers Name
    • Job Name
    • Item Description
    • Quantity of Pieces in Order
    • Process (embroidery, screen printing, twill, heat press)
    • Date Due
    • Date Goods Arrived from Distributor
    • Date Shipped
  • Your Receiving area should consist of a table and a box to file your order in or a wall to hang your orders on that are not complete in one form or another. The tools that you need for this area are a Copier or Computer and Printer, Clip Boards, Plastic Job Folders for your orders.
  • Plan out the Order‚ Design setup, Pull Design if reorder
  • Create Design or send it out to Digitizer
  • Order Products-Place the Order sheet on a clip board and hang it on the wall behind the Receiving table or place it in a file box left on the clip board of orders waiting for goods to come in.
  • Check to see if you have the correct thread color on hand
  • Check to make sure you have enough backing and topping
  • When Design comes back from the digitizer or is complete, it should immediately be sewn out on the Embroidery machine-Embroidery Machine Worksheet is created and a manila Design Folder is created by the digitizer or set up person
  • Products Arrive from Distributor and taken to the Receiving area.
  • Clip Board with the order is removed from the file box and Order pulled off the clip board and matched to the PO number on the packing slip from the distributor. Products inspected for flaws or dirt, Counted & matched to the Original Order with Packing Slip to make sure that they are all correct.
    • PO Number
    • Quantity
    • Item Number of the garments
    • Color
    • Sizes
  • Product items are placed into size stacks on a cart or in a box or basket for easy hooping and sent to the Staging area waiting to be hooped. Once you have all of the information together and you have all of the correct items, place all of the information along with the order inside of a clear plastic Job Folder and tape it to the front of the box that has the goods inside of it. If there is more than one box label each box with the Order No., Job Name and Box 1 of however many boxes in the order. It is now time to place the order in the Staging area of Received Orders Ready for Processing.
  • Design Folder is placed into a basket or box in the staging area ready for hooping
  • Garments are hooped
  • Garments are run on the embroidery machine
  • Items are removed from the embroidery machine, remove the hoops and place flat on a cart or in a basket and sent to the Finishing area.
  • Garments are Trimmed, backing cut off, excess topping removed.
  • Garments are steamed and remaining topping is removed. This needs to be done with a commercial steamer. When I say commercial steamer, I mean just that and not one of the handheld ones. They do not do the job that the upright steamers do and my favorite brand of a steamer is the Jiffy Steamer. The reason for that is the amount of time that it lasts and the ease of being able to get parts for them if something does need to be replaced.
  • Garments are folded and placed in size stacks.
  • Garments are counted in the size stacks and matched to the original order.
  • A Packing Slip is filled out with the quantities, color, sizes of each item.
  • Items are all boxed and made ready for shipping. A copy of the packing slip is made and the copy goes into the box. Make sure the packing slip has the Order no. and the PO number on it.
  • Add the shipping cost to the Original Order and staple the original order and the packing slip together along with any other notes ready for accounting to create the invoice.
  • The production forms such as the Embroidery Room Worksheet, the packing slip a copy of the design information, the design run off all goes into the Design Folder to be filed in a file drawer in Alphabetical order for each retrieval for repeat orders.

Embroidery Design FolderHere is a picture of the Design Folder and what Information I put inside of it. When I took this picture, I also added a floppy disk with the design on it and place inside of the folder with my Embroidery Room Worksheet that had all of the information about the job sequence, what color the garments were and all of the information about the design. Today, we have upgraded and now use the USB devices on newer machines. You can also store your designs in the cloud, in a backup system and send the designs directly to the machine or add them to the USB when you are ready to embroider.

 It is very easy to pull a folder out of the file drawer with all of the information inside and we do not have to worry about whether or not our information is all there for a repeat order. This is extremely important. If you have to contact a customer to bring in an item so that you can match it, that is extremely unprofessional and very inefficient. The only thing missing in that folder is the actual design. We now add it to the USB when we are ready to embroider.

I hope that this article has helped you. If you will put a good system in place for organization, you will be able to increase your production and increase your profit as well! Getting your embroidery business organized is not hard, just stop and think about each step in your process of taking an order to creating the invoice and write it down and create a good flow. To learn more about organization go to 9 Steps To A Profitable Embroidery Business.com.

An Inventory Tracking System For Your Embroidery Business!

An Inventory Tracking System For Your Embroidery Business!

Do you have an Inventory Tracking System For Your Embroidery Business?  Do you ever have extra shirts, jackets, caps or other products left over from your orders?  Are you in the habit of ordering extra stock to get FREE shipping? Do you have any idea as to how much money you have tied up in all of those extra pieces of inventory?

You may currently have inventory that you have acquired through the years to be eligible for free shipping, that is a subject for another time. All of a sudden you have boxes or bins of all of these items and you really do not know what you have in total or how much money you have tied up in all of this. I have worked with several private clients that had in excess of $10,000 worth of inventory and it was just sitting all over the place in bins!

The only reason they had it was because they always ordered extras in case of a mistake and to avoid shipping charges. Many small business owners fall into this trap and all of a sudden, they have a huge accumulation of products and a lot of money tied up in them that they could be using for other expenses.  This has eaten up a lot of profit for many small embroidery businesses!

Now the big question I get from so many embroiderers is, how do I keep track of all of this stuff? To keep it simple, create a Spreadsheet for your entire inventory. Keep track of it as you use it and add to it as you bring in more pieces, but the important thing is, you must know what you have and what your cost is that you have sitting in all of that inventory.

Inventory Tracking System For Your Embroidery Business

Here is a simple 10 step Inventory Tracking System for Your Embroidery Business that will work for keeping track of all of your Inventory.  It is simple and easy to put into practice.  It will take you a little time to get it together.

  1. Create a Spreadsheet with Columns for Quantity, Description, Size, Color, Cost Each, Total Cost.
  2. Sort all of your pieces. Put you T-shirts in one area or stack, your Sweatshirts in another, Caps in another, etc.
  3. Place them in Color Stacks by Size
  4. Count them
  5. Add them to your Spreadsheet
  6. Place them into clean plastic See threw bins and label the front of each bin so that you know exactly what is inside by Color & Size. Do not add Quantity to your label because it is going to change as you use them or add to them.
  7. Total all of your Columns of the spreadsheet so that you know how many pieces your have and how much money is tied up in this total Inventory.
  8. Print out a copy of your spreadsheet and place it in the same area as your Inventory.
  9. As you pull from your Inventory, add a Minus of pieces in the Quantity column. As you add to your Inventory add a Plus of pieces in the Quantity column.
  10. At the end of the month, Go to your computer and update your Inventory Sheet and print out a new one and place that new one in the Inventory area.

Take a weekend or two and get it done.  When you have it completed, you are going to feel so good and know that you have really accomplished a huge task and it has taken a lot of weight off your shoulder

Once you have your QuickBooks set up, you can add your Total Inventory Cost to an Inventory account in your Chart of Accounts.  When you are creating your Invoices for your customer, you will then pull from this Inventory account the amount for your products instead of your Cost of Goods account.  I talk about this in my Embroidery Business Bookkeeping System program.

It is very important to know your numbers, to know what you have sitting in Inventory and then you can create a plan for it.  If your inventory does not look fresh and new, you may want to consider having a sale to get rid of it, but before you do, you need to know exactly what you have and your cost is so that you do not lose money when you are creating your sale.  Sell it at cost if you have to, just to get the money back that you have invested in it.

I hope that this will help you take care of a huge problem that plagues so many embroiderers.  If you do not know how to create the Spreadsheet, I show you that in my program inside of  TheEmbroideryTrainingResourceCenter.com membership site. I showed you how to create the Inventory Spreadsheet in one of my Basic Business Building training inside of the membership site.

Get that Spreadsheet created and get started creating your Inventory Tracking System for Your Embroidery Business!  You will be so glad that you did!