Printavo PrintHustlers Podcast

Before you buy a DTG printer, you need to watch this video. DTG (direct-to-garment) printing has immediate appeal to most entrepreneurs. It’s sold as a fast, easy, and affordable way to print infinite colors onto t-shirts and other apparel. Supposedly, the prints sell themselves and simply purchasing a DTG machine sends your business into the stratosphere! READ MATT'S ARTICLE ABOUT BUYING DTG PRINTERS HERE: Except...not so fast. DTG printers are a great investment for your print shop. Well…a great investment if you can meet the following three criteria. Criteria 1: You have the right customer base. DTG printers are ideal for: one-off prints and small, low-quantity orders. DTG printers are NOT ideal for: large, high-quantity orders or your first piece of printing equipment. Criteria 2: You have the right plan in place for equipment. DTG printers are great if you already have the right equipment to support them: a curing dryer, a heat press, and a DTG pretreat machine. When you look at DTG printers, remember that they require additional equipment to actually function in a print shop! Criteria 3: You know how to sell your DTG printing service. DTG printing is not right for every type of customer you’ll serve. While it seems like a lot of successful shops simply plug in their DTG printers and have everything figured out, the odds are good that a lot went on behind the scenes to create the business to support the DTG printer. Read more and get the full scoop on whether you should buy a DTG printer here: Try Printavo: https://www.printavo.com Join us at PrintHustlers Conf: https://www.printhustlers.com Check out Printavo Merch: https://www.printavo.com/merch Follow us on Instagram for all of the latest updates: https://www.instagram.com/printavo

Should you lease or buy your screen printing shop? This is a huge question that lots of shop owners face as their business grows. We talk to Dru Dalton from Real Thread in Orlando, FL about the challenges print shops have to overcome. "What do you invest in? Real estate or the business?" (17:50). Check out Real Thread: https://www.realthread.com Dru breaks down how he uses key performance indicators to determine whether Real Thread is being EFFECTIVE and EFFICIENT. What does that mean in the context of screen printing? Effectiveness is simply how fast orders get to customers. Efficiency is how profitable the shop is. By measuring simple things (and simply starting the process of actually measuring), Dru and Real Thread track their costs and jobs carefully. Did we mention that Real Thread has one of the most beautiful brands and websites of any shop around? They have a very inspiring way of presenting information: https://www.realthread.com Real Thread's lease ended at the end of March 2020 – a wild time, Dru says. "It was chaos. Nuts." They cut back the number of presses they had, sold one, and downsized some elements of their operation. But not all was lost in the move: "We still invested in painting the floor," Dru notes. It's too expensive and cumbersome to pass up the opportunity to move into a shop with a freshly painted floor. Dru and Bruce dive deep into determining how you should balancing investing in a building for your business and investing in your business. "It's just so hard to find the right building for screen printing equipment," Bruce notes. Just finding the right electrical setup can be a huge challenge. Sometimes the choice is obvious and leasing is a much better move, but others abide by a different philosophy. What do you think: should you lease or own your screen printing shop? Try Printavo: https://www.printavo.com Join us at PrintHustlers Conf: https://www.printhustlers.com Check out Printavo Merch: https://www.printavo.com/merch Follow us on Instagram for all of the latest updates: https://www.instagram.com/printavo

QUESTION: How do I let my team communicate with customers in my print shop? ANSWER: People typically need patience, empathy, and a level of emotional intelligence that lets them understand how to interact with customers. Not everyone has these skills, and that’s okay – but you can help your team develop these skills and improve their customer interactions. Tip 1: Have the right people. Without the right people in the right role, you’re going to have a hard time training them to become someone else. This is really the first step – you have to know what kind of people you’re looking for. Test for patience and empathy. Try project-based interviewing. How would you handle a given situation if you were interacting with a customer? What if they want a coupon or lower pricing? Do a mock situational interview and see how they communicate. Tip 2: Use "TAR." Thanks, Acknowledge, Resolve. This is the pattern that your customer service should take. You simply follow the pattern: thank the customer, acknowledge their problem, and resolve their issue. These three steps make people feel that their entire situation has been addressed. This is a big goal – but it's always possible. Tip 3: Think like a high-end restaurant. Treat customers like they’re in a personable, high-end restaurant that is super familiar with their needs. What is a fine dining experience like? Are people confused, left feeling cold, or concerned with pricing? No! They're treated with an extreme degree of respect and care – and carefully catered to at every moment. Tip 4: Measure how well your team is doing. Use KPIs (key performance indicators). We use Zendesk to track First Response Time and Total Calls Received to Total Calls Answered. Those are crucial metrics that let us determine how well we’re doing in responding to all of our customers! You can also use Frontapp to track your email inbox's response times – and share your inbox. This is such an important piece of your brand. Customer service is what you can do to really set yourself apart in a large, competitive industry. Try Printavo: https://www.printavo.com Join us at PrintHustlers Conf: https://www.printhustlers.com Check out Printavo Merch: https://www.printavo.com/merch Follow us on Instagram for all of the latest updates: https://www.instagram.com/printavo

Feeling shocked by 2020's turbulence? Screen printing has changed dramatically in just a few months, making a shift toward e-commerce and masks while moving away from events. Ryonet founder Ryan Moor joins us at PrintHustlers Conf 2020 in this incredibly informative and transparent look at the screen printing industry's future. Ryan compares the industry's current predicament to the Great Recession and even takes a look at Printavo's own unique data that shows the catastrophic drop in business – and subsequent recovery. WHAT'S NEXT? The market grows and expands, with a focus on direct-to-customer sales. Things consolidate and change. Uncertainty reigns, and the businesses that can adapt will thrive under interesting new conditions. A huge thanks to Ryonet, Allmade, and ROQ.us for sponsoring PrintHustlers Conf 2020. Without them, Printavo would not have been able to hold this groundbreaking online conference. Try Printavo: https://www.printavo.com Join us at PrintHustlers Conf: https://www.printhustlers.com Check out Printavo Merch: https://www.printavo.com/merch Follow us on Instagram for all of the latest updates: https://www.instagram.com/printavo

Before you buy your next screen printing equipment – watch this video about screen printing's hidden gem: the CTS machine! “If you’ve got enough volume to automate the screen printing process, you’ve got enough volume to automate the screen making process," Graphic Elephants’ Lon Winters explains. Going from film outputs and your trusted Epson inkjet printer is a big step – so why is computer-to-screen technology such a hidden gem? “Basically, automating a few things ‘over in the corner’ isn’t as exciting as a new press,” says Matt Marcotte from Printavo. Learn how much CTS costs, who makes them, and much more: https://www.printavo.com/blog/cts-and-dts-for-screen-printing Watch Lon Winters from Graphic Elephants at PrintHustlers Conf 2020: https://www.printavo.com/blog/printhustlers-conf-2020-lon-winters “If you’re doing just 25 screens a day, it’s still worth it,” adds Lon. CTS manufacturers are conservative with their estimates about the return-on-investment for their machines. “Aggressively forward-thinking shop owners can make sense of [computer-to-screen] if they buy into the intangible benefits.” It’s hard enough to tell shop owners that their registration times will likely be cut in half – they just don’t believe it. It’s another ballgame to explain that a modest $35,000 machine could get a return-on-investment faster than virtually any other piece of screen printing equipment. Calculate how long it will take your shop to pay for a CTS machine: https://www.printavo.com/blog/cts-and-dts-for-screen-printing CTS machines let screen print shops print more jobs. Lon urges shops to think about the bigger picture than how fast their press can print shirts: “We’re still stuck with how fast the press goes round and round. It was all about 900 pieces an hour on the press. Well that doesn’t matter when your runs are 6 pieces on average!” Getting more jobs through your shop means more revenue and more profit – and CTS setups are the simplest way to be able to print more individual jobs. Dive into CTS and learn more: https://www.printavo.com/blog/cts-and-dts-for-screen-printing “If you can cut your setup time, that means if your average runs are 100 pieces and you expect 10 per day – you only need to find a few minutes to be able to get 11 jobs out. Then it easily becomes 12 jobs. So if you start managing to the number of jobs instead of the number of pieces, your business can grow,” Lon explains. Lon, Matt, and Bruce dive further into exactly how to think about CTS, whether lasers will take over the computer-to-screen game, wax vs. ink machines, and even what “ST” stands for in M&R’s i-Image ST. Read more: https://www.printavo.com/blog/cts-and-dts-for-screen-printing Curious about the history of screen printing, film, and high-color t-shirt prints? Read about Jon Weiss here: https://www.printavo.com/blog/growing-a-contract-screen-printing-business-jon-weiss Try Printavo: https://www.printavo.com Join us at PrintHustlers Conf: https://www.printhustlers.com Check out Printavo Merch: https://www.printavo.com/merch Follow us on Instagram for all of the latest updates: https://www.instagram.com/printavo

“Delegate and elevate.” This crucial leadership skill is how you can grow your business. Don’t get stuck in the business! Stay on top of it. Watch TRACTION expert Tom Bouwer at PrintHustlers Conf 2020 here: https://www.printavo.com/blog/printhustlers-conf-2020-tom-bouwer Entrepreneurs hustle hard. From the beginning, we train ourselves to do everything. But the attitude that took you from Step 1 isn’t the attitude that will take you to Step 2. You have to manage a team and enable them to execute your vision. You can’t just work harder and harder in the same way! Here’s THREE WAYS to delegate and elevate: 1. Write down everything you do every single day for 2 weeks. This is how you can show yourself exactly what you’re spending your time doing. Ever seen “Hoarders”? This is like taking everything out of the hoarder’s house and showing them the problem. Do you really have the time and capacity to do all of these things? 2. Create LOVE and DON’T LIKE columns, and figure out which tasks you LOVE and which tasks you DON’T LIKE. You’re probably good at the things you LOVE. And the truth is you probably spend too much time doing the things you DON’T LIKE! Those tasks you don’t like? It’s time to find someone to take those things over. There is someone that love taxes and accounting, or dealing with people, or handing art feedback. Even if you can’t hire them now, you’ll know exactly where you can get help first – or give current employees more responsibility. 3. Delegate the low-value tasks and believe in your responsibility to do high-value activities. The reason we call this “delegate and elevate” is because it elevates your business. You have to really believe that this is true (and we promise...it is!). Low-value tasks are strangling your business. If you have the team and the right people to help you with these tasks, you have to overcome the mental block that’s preventing your business from running at its full capacity. What have you learned? Drop us a comment and let us know! Try Printavo: https://www.printavo.com Join us at PrintHustlers Conf: https://www.printhustlers.com Check out Printavo Merch: https://www.printavo.com/merch Follow us on Instagram for all of the latest updates: https://www.instagram.com/printavo

What software do you need for a screen printing shop? Here are 27 essential software tools to make running your screen printing business easier, faster, more fun, and more profitable. ALL SOFTWARE MENTIONED LINKED BELOW: PART 1: Management/Communication If you think of “where the work in your shop happens,” you probably think of your production floor. That’s what these platforms and apps do: they’re where you actually work on your business. Printavo What it does: manages your screen printing, embroidery, DTG, or signage shop from anywhere on virtually any internet-connected computer, laptop, smartphone or tablet. Where to get it: https://www.printavo.com QuickBooks Online What it does: manages accounting, taxes, expenses, and more Where to get it: https://www.quickbooks.com Gusto What it does: payroll, benefits, payroll taxes, time tracking and HR Where to get it: https://www.gusto.com Indeed and Zip Recruiter What it does: help you hire people to grow your business Where to get it: https://www.indeed.com and https://www.ziprecruiter.com Lucid Chart What it does: builds simple visual charts and workflow diagrams Where to get it: https://www.lucidchart.com Asana What it does: manages internal development and complex projects (like marketing, content, etc.) Where to get it: https://www.asana.com Stripe What it does: collects payment online Where to get it: https://www.stripe.com Ring Central What it does: software for managing, setting up, recording, and tracking VOIP and phone calls Where to get it: https://www.ringcentral.com PART 2: Productivity The right tools make all the difference. There are a glut of useful, affordable, and effective tools for becoming more productive. These apps and software provide valuable services and let you get more things done faster. Gsuite What it does: provides the best email inbox and a robust suite of apps and services to help you and your employees run your business Where to get it: https://gsuite.google.com Frontapp What it does: lets you share an email inbox in a highly transparent manner Where to get it: https://www.frontapp.com Signpost What it does: generate reviews and positive feedback to Yelp, Google, Facebook, and other sources – while sending negative reviews directly to you Where to get it: https://www.signpost.com Expensify What it does: manages expenses and receipts for employee reimbursements. Where to get it: https://www.expensify.com Zapier What it does: connects multiple apps, websites, or online services. Where to get it: https://www.zapier.com Loom What it does: records, edits, and shares videos (particularly for screen recordings, coaching, and training) quickly and easily Where to get it: https://www.loom.com Trainual What it does: helps train your staff and even your customers by creating a step-by-step process Where to get it: https://www.trainual.com Zoom What it does: a powerful video chat platform Where to get it: https://www.zoom.com Slack What it does: lets your team communicate internally Where to get it: https://www.slack.com Calendly What it does: lets customers, potential employee candidates, and anyone else choose a time for meetings that works for them – and you Where to get it: https://www.calendly.com Jotform/Typeform What it does: puts forms onto your websites for things like quoting, inquires, and even helping contract shops get and place orders Where to get it: https://www.jotform.com and https://www.typeform.com PART 3: Marketing From building websites to posting to social media to purchasing advertisements on the web, there are tons of apps and tools designed to make marketing a snap. SquareSpace What it does: lets you make incredible custom websites easily. Where to get it: https://www.squarespace.com Canva What it does: lets you create beautiful marketing materials on the fly. Where to get it: https://www.canva.com

The perfect print shop workflow? Lon Winters from Graphic Elephants joins us at PrintHustlers Conf 2020 to show HOW you can solve one of screen printing's riddles: what makes for a great workflow in your shop? Showing real screen print shop layouts and floor plans, Lon shares decades of experience consulting with print shops to improve their operations and make big strides toward the perfect print shop workflow. Learn more here: https://www.printavo.com/blog/printhustlers-conf-2020-lon-winters Try Printavo: https://www.printavo.com Join us at PrintHustlers Conf: https://www.printhustlers.com Check out Printavo Merch: https://www.printavo.com/merch Follow us on Instagram for all of the latest updates: https://www.instagram.com/printavo

Learn how to price heat transfers with Supacolor's Rum Walia and Mike Modgill on this episode of the PrintHustlers Podcast! Download the Supacolor Price Calculator and learn more here: https://www.printavo.com/blog/how-to-price-heat-transfers The Basics of Pricing Heat Transfers: You can price heat transfers with a very simple formula. You simply add together: -Your desired margin -Your press charge -The price of the heat transfer. -You can also amortize additional business costs into your heat transfer prices. For example, Supacolor has a flat-rate 2-day shipping charge of $15 for their heat transfers. You can add that as a setup fee for the entire order, or have heat transfers shipped in bulk and spread the fee across several orders. Let's discuss what each element of the heat transfer price equation (Markup + Press Charge + Heat Transfer Price) really means. "Margin" This is simply the amount above the price of the heat transfer that you charge. 30% to 50% margins are an ideal target. Supacolor recommends charging a different margin depending on your customer and the complexity of the job. A wholesale account may get a lower margin, while a retail customer would likely receive a higher margin. "Press Charge" This is a flat, per-piece charge that's applied to each piece. Consider this the "fee" for using your heat press for the product. While SanMar suggests starting with a $1 press charge, Supacolor claims that $0.60 is a reasonable fee. “Nobody can tell you that $0.60 is the press charge you should go with no matter what. You're going to have to make adjustments to these numbers. SanMar, for instance, recommends going up to $1.” - Rum Walia of Supacolor We show you how to more accurately calculate your press charge later in this article. "Heat Transfer Price" Supacolor has a 20 piece minimum order quantity and flat-rate, 2-day shipping. This means, for all intents and purposes, calculating the actual price of the heat transfer is very easy. You can just add the shipping cost ($15) to each heat transfer. Like a screen printing shop, Supacolor gives bulk discounts. Their products are arranged by sizes. Heat transfers were traditionally sold in sheets, so there was incentive to purchase as many logos as possible for a given transfer. Supacolor's system doesn't require you to play that kind of game. Download Supacolor's Price Calculator and price your heat press and heat transfer prints perfectly: https://www.printavo.com/blog/how-to-price-heat-transfers Try Printavo: https://www.printavo.com Join us at PrintHustlers Conf: https://www.printhustlers.com Check out Printavo Merch: https://www.printavo.com/merch Follow us on Instagram for all of the latest updates: https://www.instagram.com/printavo

Dr. Sherry Walling has spent her professional life serving entrepreneurs – but as a therapist and counselor for issues of mental health. "There have been a number of high-profile suicides among brilliant, successful, highly functional people," Dr. Walling says. "In your life as an entrepreneur, you're going to experience some different mental health challenges – it's important to tell the truth about what's hard!" Dr. Walling is joined by her husband Rob Walling, a "serial entrepreneur" who's dealt with his own challenges despite resounding success. From handling anxiety and a "busy mind that's hard to shut off" to burnout, there's no shortage of traps and pitfalls along your path. With the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone has felt more stress and anxiety – not to mention pressure from needing to pivot your business, lay off employees, or simply adapt to a challenging new business environment. While our conference is called "PrintHustlers Conf," it's really a space for community and wellbeing...not hustling. You spend the rest of the year hustling, growing, and challenging yourself – so this conference is where you can take a load off, slow down, and look back on how you're doing. No topic is off-limits at PrintHustlers Conf, and mental health is a top priority as we head into the next year. Dr. Walling brings a perfect mix of practical insights and sensitive, loving kindness. If you can't love and look after yourself, who will? Try Printavo: https://www.printavo.com Join us at PrintHustlers Conf: https://www.printhustlers.com Check out Printavo Merch: https://www.printavo.com/merch Follow us on Instagram for all of the latest updates: https://www.instagram.com/printavo