by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing, Embroidery Production
Would you believe that changing embroidery thread could increase your production by 20%? Recently I was asked by an Embroidery supply company to do a comparison for a company that they were working with to help increase their production. This was for a large company that embroidered monograms only. They were looking for a way to increase their production without compromising their quality.
This was a very interesting experiment. I took a basic 3 letter monogram, set it up with underlay, pullcomp and density as I normally would. I embroidered it with the normal Robison-Anton 40 weight embroidery thread No. 122. I then took the same monogram, reduced the density by 20% and sewed it out with a 35 weight embroidery thread, Robison-Anton No. 152. The images below are scanned images, They are not photographs. I wanted you to be able to see what I saw! Scanned images seem to show up more flaws than photographs.
40 Weight Thread 35 Weight Thread
I could not believe my eyes. I embroidered each one on a piece of denim at 800 stitches per minutes and there was very little visible difference in the monograms at all and with the density being 20% less, the sewing time was also 20% less. This would help to increase the production at the end of the day by 20% for the large monogram company. This is huge if you have a lot of embroidery machine heads running with different monograms!
I remember when the rage was all about having your school name embroidered on the back of corduroy jackets about 25 years ago, I embroidered the backs of all of those jackets using 30 weight embroidery thread. This cut down about 30% on stitch count and production times. Using 30 weight thread, you definitely could see a difference in the appearance, but you cannot really tell the difference in the 35 weight embroidery thread. This is very exciting to me.
I wanted to share this with you so that you could start thinking about different ways of cutting down on your production time. This would not work for very fine detail in designs but for something like jackets backs or monograms, this 35 weight embroidery thread would work great and you can cut your production down by 20%!
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
Hosting a “Customer Appreciation Night” is a fun and effective way to let your customers, friends, and family know that you are truly ready for business or you want to increase your business. The holiday are creeping up on us very quickly and now is the time to plan for that big boost that you can bring into your business for the year end! This is the perfect time to showcase all of your new applications and processes along with your new products and of course your high quality products and service.
Be creative in putting together your invitations and planning what specials you will have to offer. Encourage your guests to bring a friend with them. Make sure the invitations are of the same high quality workmanship as your embroidery. For the holidays you want to make sure you create a full holiday theme! Have your business totally decked out with holiday decorations and make it very festive! You also want to let your guests know that they will receive a free gift just for attending. Create something embroidered for them to take home. This can be done very inexpensively.
For the Holiday Party theme, you could make some felt ornaments with your logo and contact information on them. I have done this. They are quick to turn around so you can have a large quantity ready before your “Customer Appreciation Night.”
Important Customer Appreciation Details
The best hours for these “Customer Appreciation Nights” are from 4 pm until 7pm. This will give people a chance to come during business hours or after work. Holding the event for two nights usually works better than one night because more people will be able to fit one of the nights into their schedule.
Have all of your samples tagged with pricing and ordering information. This will make it easier for you and the customer. This eliminates a lot of questions and gives your customers and prospects a level of security knowing that you are totally organized and know what you are doing!
If you have a home business, it can be held off premises. A small room in a hotel or a meeting room in a club or organization will work for this purpose.
If the “Customer Appreciation Night” is at your place of business, have your machines running. This is very impressive. You can be running the items that they are going to be taking home. Seeing the process actually done is very exciting to someone that does not know anything about embroidery.
Do not try to do this yourself if you are the only person in your business. See if you can pull in a helper and get them trained enough to run the one type of job, over and over for that night. This could be a son or daughter, husband or trusted friend. It is not hard to train someone to do this if they are only going to be doing the same job over and over.
You need to be free so that you can mingle and be talking to your customers and prospective customers. You want to be as helpful and answer as many questions as possible.
Gift Baskets-Great Gift Display Idea
Have a variety of different samples displayed in an attractive manner and encourage them to ask questions. Help them to visualize their ideas on a garment or other item. You can create some various themed baskets such as a House Warming, Bridal Shower, Baby Shower, Child‚’s Birthday and even a Get Well basket! People love gift baskets and they are very easy to sell. You could have one for each theme and then take orders.
The gift baskets could contain various items but most of all, embroidered products. An example of products could be for a bridal shower, a bath towel, hand towel and washcloth set along with a roll of embroidered toilet paper and embroidered soap. They could all have the bridal couple‚’s new monogram on them. Gift baskets are easy to create and can command a high dollar!
Keep It Simple
Have plenty of business cards and brochures for them to take. Make up a form for them to fill out with all of their contact information on it including their email address. Have a bowl or basket for them to drop this form into. You can have a drawing for a gift certificate at the end of the evening. Serve refreshments, but keep it simple. You want this to be a fun event for you and the guests.
A “Customer Appreciation Night” does not have to be expensive to be very effective. Remember, everyone needs personalized gift items, even your corporate clients. We all have Weddings to attend, birthdays, anniversaries and need gifts for many other occasions, personal and corporate. Keep it simple and most of all have fun and make sure that it is an event that your guests will remember.
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
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Starting a new embroidery business is not easy. It is very exciting, but it can be extremely overwhelming to the new embroidery business owner with all that you need to learn in a very short time.
When I first started my embroidery business, I did not have any type of a guide to help me get started and I made so many mistakes. There is so many key elements that I did not understand, but need to be set in place before you can become profitable. I wrote this embroidery business book to:
- Help you create a Working Business Plan
- Help you set your goals
- Help you create your Marketing Plan
- Show you how to price your Embroidery and Products
- Help you find a Niche or your very own corner of the embroidery world
- Help you Organize your Embroidery Business
- How you find good dedicated employees
- Help you create an Action Plan that that is so vial to your business!
My passion is to help you get off to a fast start! There is no reason why you should start your embroidery business without the sufficient knowledge that will help you to succeed right from the beginning.
If you are someone that has already started your own embroidery business and is not having the type of success that you had envisioned, then this book will help you get on the right path to developing your own profitable embroidery business.
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
As embroiderers, we are always looking for ways to increase our name recognition and ways for people to remember who we are! It is amazing what the power of gift giving can do for your embroidery business!
I have found that giving a simple gift to the person that placed the order for an organization or business works wonders for increasing your name recognition and bringing in new business! When they receive a gift from you, they will remember you, and they very quickly pass on your name to other people. This inspires people to help you spread the name of your embroidery business and there is no better way to do it than to show your appreciation by giving gifts to your buyers!
What types of gifts should you give?
Gifts may vary depending on your audience or niche market. It is best to give an item that you carry in your line that would be relevant for them and something that could easily be turned into another order. If you have added a new way of decorating an item it may be a smart option to include this on your gift to show what new processes you have introduced into your embroidery business.
How much should I be spending on these gifts?
That can be relative to what your buyer is actually purchasing from you or it can be a very inexpensive gift. You are purchasing your gifts at wholesale prices, adding an embellishment to it and increasing the value by 2 or 3 times the cost to you. I would suggest that you add give something that this person would not normally purchase. This will make your buyer feel very special to receive something that they have not seen or would not purchase personally and at the same time will allow you to increase your exposure of items to your audience.
When a buyer receives a gift from you like this that they are not expecting, they become very excited and very quickly want to tell the whole world. I have had this same experience myself. I went into my insurance agent‚’s office not long ago to go over my policies because I wanted to make sure that I was covered for any catastrophes that might happen in today‚’s world! To my surprise, when my agent finished going over everything and made the changes she handed me a gift card! I was shocked and so excited. Now this gift card was only $10.00, very inexpensive relative to what I had just purchased, but it did not matter. I was so excited I told everybody I knew about it! This is the reaction that you will receive when you start giving gifts to your customers for their large purchases.
These gifts are classified as marketing expenses!
They are one of the least expensive and most cost effective ways of advertising or marketing your products. You can even set a limit to your gift depending on the amount of the sale that you have received. It can be a dollar amount or a percentage of the sale. You can ask your accountant to help you figure this out relative to your business. For a service business the average amount of money spent on marketing or advertising is 7 to 8 percent of your sales. I am not suggesting that you spend that much for gift giving in your embroidery business. You can limit it to 1%, 2 % or 5% depending on your total sales or the actual profit that you make from these sales. This is something that can be determined only by you and your accountant. This brought in many more sales for my embroidery business and I could never say that it cost me money!
Just recently I had a buyer come in and purchase 25 caps and 25 visors embroidered for their organization. In return I embroidered a simple tote bag with her monogram on it and she was thrilled! Within a couple of days another customer came in that she had recommended to purchase from us. This is exactly how it works! That bag cost me less than $10.00 to purchase and only a few minutes to put on her monogram. The cost of that gift was less than 2% of my sale to her and it brought in another sale that decreased that cost even more!
Giving gifts like this on a steady basis can help you build your business very quickly, can bring in many more sales than you would normally get and can help you put the life back into a very stagnant embroidery business. Try it, you will like it and be rewarded for it!
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
Marketing to your customer and prospects is different today than it was just a short time ago. Today Email Marketing is an easier and a more cost effective way to get started with your marketing. In the past, when someone wanted to do business with you they had to try to get your attention through direct mail, telemarketing or face-to-face.
The problem? Most of the time these marketing methods were completely unsolicited – the marketers pushed information to consumers. As a result, we often refer to these solicitations in a negative way and respond angrily. I do not know about you, but when someone calls me on the phone and tries to sell me something, I get very angry! I do not have the time to listen to all of this noise!
So how is email marketing different? Email marketing is building a relationship with your prospects and customers. This is extremely important in today‚’s marketing!
The major difference between email marketing and the other marketing methods is that people opt-in ‚Äì or choose ‚Äì to receive your marketing message. This is HUGE! It‚’s like an open-door invitation to share your information and expertise with your customers. That is something you just can’t pay for. In today‚’s world of technology, your emails can be received on smart phones, most of the tablets or pads and of course on your computer.
In this article I am going to discuss:
- What Is an Email List?
- How Do You Get Subscribers?
- Why Build an Email List?
What is an Email List?
An email list is simply a collections of email addresses that you have collected from your customers and prospects. Most marketers will also collect the person‚’s first name with the email address so that they can personalize the email through automation in their email marketing software. Instead of saying ‚ÄúHi‚Äù, you can say Hi Theresa‚Äù in your emails. You can also collect other information such as location or phone number in case this is important in your market segment or your marketing message.
How Do Your Get Email Subscribers?
Having a ‚Äúmailing list‚Äù with a series of autoresponder messages that you update regularly is great, but if there‚’s no one on your list, you‚’re not going to be making many sales.
Email marketing is a way to market your product or service through email. You can build your email list in a number of ways. Here are 2 ways to get started:
Opt-In Forms. The most common way to build a list is by placing an opt-in form on a website, sales page or a Facebook Subpage and having people fill it out. Whenever someone visits your Facebook Subpage, your blog, or your website, there should be a clear place for them to subscribe to receive more information, or some type of free gift from you.
Getting people on your email list may seem difficult at first, but there are proven strategies for making people want to give you their email addresses such as providing an Opt-In bonus. This can be a free report on a subject that they are interested in or it can simply be a coupon towards their next purchase!
Customer Lists. Many shopping carts have automatic processes for adding purchasers to your email contact list. This is something you‚’ll definitely want to integrate, because customers are already a step above a ‚Äúprospect.‚Äù By buying something from you, even a purchase of $10 or less, they‚’ve proven that they want what you‚’re offering, they know how to purchase on the internet, and they have money to spend.
Why Build an Email List?
Some people start building their email lists and then get discouraged because they are not getting a flood of people opting in right from the beginning and give up. This is most unfortunate. They simply do not understand the true value of building a large, responsive email list.
Here are five reasons why you need an email list:
- Automatically Follow up – An email list allows you to market to your customers and prospects 24 hours a day, 7 days per week automatically.
- Constantly Building Your Business – New prospects can be signing up to your email list automatically, every day without your help. This is a way to constantly be building your business automatically and getting new people into your pipeline.
- Capture Visitors – You have put tons of work into your website or Facebook page. If you are not capturing visitors, they are leaving your page, possibly never to return again. If you capture their information, you can keep in contact with them and build a relationship. Most of your potential customers or clients do not buy from y ou when they first find you or hear from you. Through email marketing, you can stay on their minds through your automatic emailing program with your autoresponder messages. When they are ready to buy, they’ll look back for your emails or remember your website and order from you.
- Saves You Time – Instead of sending your message one on one, over and over again, you can now reach your entire list with one mailing. This not only saves you time, but it also leverages your time into long-term profits.
- Increase your Sales – Sharing your information and building a relationship with your list is great, but the main Goal here is to create your sales. An email list can deliver you an increase in sales.
The important thing when you start is not to give up too soon when it starts out slow. This is perfectly normal and if you do give up, you will never see the benefits of having a large responsive list!
When I first started my email marketing I thought that I would never be able to build up a list. It seemed like it was taking forever. I kept hearing about all of these people that had thousands on their lists and I knew that I would never get there! Today I still have what is called a small list but with almost 5,000 on my list today, it is giving me a lot to work with and I am able to share my message to all of the 5,000 people!
Start today setting up your automatic emailing system. You will be very grateful you did!
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
Creating High-Quality Sales Tools for your embroidery business will increase your sales and help save a lot of time that is normally spent working with a customer. This will also create confidence with your customers because they can see immediately the type of quality that they can expect with their finished product.
Sew Out Designs You Want To Feature
Using White felt, sew out many of your best designs and the fonts that you use the most or want to feature. When you are sewing out your designs, add a number under each design signifying the stitch count. This makes it easier when you are trying to explain to a customer about stitch count, and they can see approximately what a 10,000 stitch logo is going to look like. If you have some generic stock designs or sports symbols that you like to use, they would be a good choice.
As you are sewing out the fonts, leave enough space between each one so that they will have a neat even border. Sew each font in a different color. Use the colors of thread that you carry in stock. Sew out the main fonts that work best at a variety of sizes for you first. These will be the your standard fonts. Then you can sew out other fonts to offer as Premium fonts at a higher price. As you are sewing out the fonts, use the font name. This makes selection easier and there is no question what they are looking for.
Use Different Sizes For Your Embroidery Fonts
Choose different sizes for your fonts so that you can use this as a tool also. Example: If you sew names out in a certain font, sew that font out in the same size that you sew out a name in. That way the customer totally understands exactly what he is getting. If you have a certain size that you prefer for a left chest, sew out a block or script font that is popular for the left chest in the size that you normally use for the left chest.
After they are sewn out and trimmed perfectly, press a heat bonding material onto the back side of the embroidered sample pieces. Purchase the heat bonding material from the fabric store or an embroidery supply house.
Cut out each one of the fonts and designs using a pinked edge. To get a straight even line turn your embroidery over to the wrong side and draw a line with a ruler measuring up from the edge of the embroidery. Make sure that they all have the same amount of space around the embroidery so that they are all cut in a uniform manner.
Purchase 8 1/2″ by 11″ business card stock from the office supply store. With a hot iron or heat press machine, lay your cut pieces onto the business card stock and press them in place in a neat uniform manner.
With a 3 hole punch, punch holes on the left side of the page when you are finished and place all of your sample pages into a 3 ring binder. Use one with the clear plastic storage view on the front. Create an attractive cover with your business name on it to slide into the front of the binder.
This is not a great picture but I want you to see exactly what I am talking about. Just know that this comes out looking much better than the actual photo does.
A Great Sales Tool For Your Counter
This makes a great sales tool that you can leave on the store counter or take with you. When I had my large embroidery business, I furnished each one of my dealers with a sales binder which really did increase my sales. It was very easy to use, and the customer always knew exactly what they were choosing and what type of quality they could expect.
