Printavo PrintHustlers Podcast

SHIRT KONG’s Andy Rudman runs one of screen printing’s most interesting shops. We invited him to PrintHustlers Conf 2020, and now he’s giving us a virtual shop tour on July 23rd. “I have this idea of a live shop tour,” he told us. “I was really excited about being in person at PrintHustlers Conference. I know from being there last year it was so cool, and the energy that’s there, so we'll bring some of that to the web.” Join us at PrintHustlers Conf 2020 (it's free!): https://www.printhustlers.com Andy discussed the ups-and-downs of running a screen printing business during a turbulent period of change. When he started Shirt Kong, he’d place an ad in something called a “phone book.” Soon, he’d have to adjust to new technology: “Marketing shifted to Google, and we spent time trying to educate ourselves on this new thing called SEO.” But marketing is not Shirt Kong’s biggest asset: it’s their unique and ability to tell a fascinating story. Their remarkable Instagram account is a prime example: a t-shirt screen printing shop with 12,000 followers? “We’ve grown with word of mouth, referrals and SEO. You have these customers and it starts to snowball,” Andy said. “I started sharing our shop’s day-to-day story. I thought that was real. If anyone was looking through Instagram, they’d see...this is a real shop. And they’d identify with it. It worked.” Andy posts pictures and videos to the Shirt Kong Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/shirtkong) that pull the curtain back on their busy operation. Get your tickets to see Shirt Kong's shop here: https://www.printavo.com/blog/printhustlers-conf-2020-shirt-kong Just as Shirt Kong was hitting their stride and expanding into a 12,000 square foot facility, coronavirus hit. “We expanded at the perfect time,” Andy joked. But it’s been an opportunity to take stock of what really matters. “I’ve spent so much time here at the shop. I love this place,” Andy said, “but family and friends are where it’s at. I probably need to spend a little more time away from here, as soon as we’re out of this mess.” Andy will join us at Printavo’s PrintHustlers Conf 2020 on July 23rd for a live shop tour of Shirt Kong. Featuring two days of live-streamed presentations to arm you with the resources and knowledge you need to survive 2020, PrintHustlers Conf 2020 is free and open to all. Reserve your space now: https://www.printhustlers.com 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

Reinvention! We rarely have time to pause and create the business we want. This time is an opportunity to create the leadership, processes, and financial plan that you've really wanted. Are you changing your print shop during this slowdown? Do you have a plan for the regular winter slowdown? Here's some effective ideas for how to improve your screen printing business: Implement Profit First. Allocate those percentages, go back through your books! Listen to his talk again: https://www.printavo.com/blog/profit-first-full-presentation Finally tape off your shipping and receiving department. Some shops even have their shop physically laid out like their Printavo account! Refine your QA process. Create videos and training documentation to help people make better work. When people return to work, they've got an easy-to-follow set of instructions. Start getting 100% downpayment. Now you can update your terms & conditions! Do you want to do artwork in-house? Or maybe outsource art to a company like GraphXsource? Figure out a process that works better for you. And if you want to dive deep into what it means to really work on your business, check out this article: https://www.printavo.com/blog/working-on-your-screen-printing-business 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

Homestretch Sportswear in Ohio saw a webinar about Printavo Merch and decided to give it a shot. "The outcome was unbelievable. We had such amazing community support," Kelly from Homestretch told us. Can a small town still raise money with online stores? How can you grow outside of your small town as a screen print shop? With 2 locations in two small towns in Ohio, Homestretch has recently adopted Printavo Merch and quickly made more than $60,000 in sales. "We took it upon ourselves to stay focused. Before this, we would say, it'd be nice if the world would stop for a moment. So what did we always want to take the time to do? We've just started checking that list," Kelly said. Their local Chamber of Commerce helped to promote the stores and Homestretch to local businesses. By knowing their local networks of businesses, "They heard about us from different angles at the same time," Kelly said. "They just send their logo, email that to Homestretch, and we add them onto the store," Kelly told us. "I didn't expect it to take off. But it was crazy!" They've spent years wrangling with Excel spreadsheets and struggling to take orders for their yearly team packs, but now it's much easier to create stores and accurately ship and track orders. "We always get complimented on our individual bagging, just the convenience of it – be sure you're catering to those businesses." Homestretch Sportswear has pivoted and adapted to a new era in screenprinting. We're thrilled to have their back and help them keep pushing through! Try Printavo: https://www.printavo.com Join us at PrintHustlers Conf (online!): 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

In this surprisingly candid interview, Ryan Moor from Ryonet and Allmade tells his wild story about creating, selling, and pivoting his business to sell face masks. Should screen printers sell face masks right now? Ryan answers this question (and many more). Ryonet and Allmade pivoted quickly to designing, selling, and distributing Allmade’s unique Allmask during the early days of the coronavirus crisis. “The production facility in Los Angeles was a madhouse,” Ryan told us. “The economics of making a profit selling a high-quality mask are difficult. It’s less fabric than a t-shirt, but the small hand movements involved make it labor-intensive.” Read more about Ryonet here: https://www.printavo.com/blog/mask-adventures-with-ryonet Ryan has the inside scoop on what’s going to happen next with the brand new face mask industry. This is a can’t miss episode of Printavo’s PrintHustlers podcast. Try Printavo: https://www.printavo.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

Get It Got It LLC is a small mom-and-pop shop in Pennsylvania. After having a baby on March 13th, Courtnee Wampole returned from the hospital to a totally changed world. Courtnee tried Printavo Merch online stores after sales dried up during the pandemic. Using her connections in her local Chamber of Commerce and from previous sales to her local school district, she successfully pitched Merch stores just by sending links to a few example stores. Check out the Printavo blog for more stories and tips: https://www.printavo.com/blog/running-merch-stores-and-having-a-baby "We saw online stores purely as a long-term play, thinking 3-6 months down the road. I wasn't expecting anything to happen right now. We pay our $99 now and maybe it turns into just one $1,000 order down the road – that makes it worth it. I just didn't expect it to pay off right away." After the district sent the link to students and teachers, she immediately had thousands of dollars in sales through her Merch store. "We don't know how to make a website, or make online stores. So we really couldn't do it without this tool right now," Courtnee told us. Courtnee has tons of practical tips. Her story of perseverance, a little luck, and a lot of hard work is both fun and inspiring. From getting on the local radio and newspapers to having a gameplan for running online stores, Courtnee shares a ton of interesting insights. Thanks and congratulations Courtnee! Try Printavo: https://www.printavo.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 Check out the Printavo blog for more stories and tips: https://www.printavo.com/blog/running-merch-stores-and-having-a-baby

We join Cedar City House of Print for a candid interview about their upstart screen printing business in Tennessee. They've sold Allmade's Allmask face masks, custom t-shirts, and other merchandise to fundraise for their community – both after tornadoes struck their area and during the pandemic crisis. They've found clever ways to keep generating revenue, including using Merch stores to let customers buy online. That's a testament to their can-do spirit! This husband-and-wife duo have a creative approach to marketing that lets them leverage their small size. The secret? They lean on Facebook, their community, and super personal customer service. They recently held an all-day live printing event...on Facebook Live! It drew several hundred viewers and helped them make sales throughout the day. Check out their Merch store selling Allmasks here: https://cedarcity.printavo.com/merch/allmasksale/ Try Printavo: https://www.printavo.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

We sit down with Danny Sweem from The M&R Companies for an honest conversation about screen printing, DTG printing, and where the entire textile printing industry is heading for 2020. Learn more and see amazing pictures of M&R HQ here: https://www.printavo.com/blog/screen-printing-will-survive Located just miles from Printavo's Chicago offices, M&R is a trusted partner for thousands of print shops across the world. Their Roselle manufacturing facility is a giant operation that produces equipment for a worldwide market. M&R's famous blue screen printing presses have a reputation for lasting decades. Now, they've taken the leap into digital and hybrid printing with their Digital Squeegee and Maverick products. But the global pandemic represents a huge speed bump for the textile industry as a whole. We discuss M&R's future, what's in store for the industry, and much more in this episode of the PrintHustlers Podcast. Q: How did you become M&R’s CEO? “Rich Hoffman (M&R’s founder and legendary CEO) called me during 2018. Our companies were having a dispute, so I thought he wanted to talk about that. He said, ‘Are you sitting down? Would you like my job?’ So after some meetings, I convinced the equity group that owns M&R that I could have the job.” Q: What’s up with the new Rebel screen printing press? SHIRT KONG is always posting about it. See pics of the Rebel here: https://www.printavo.com/blog/screen-printing-will-survive “The pandemic screwed up the launch,” Danny jokes, “But if I say too much, Thomas Trimingham [M&R’s Director of Marketing] will strangle me.” The Rebel is a new press that M&R has pioneered during the past year, with legendary screen print shop SHIRT KONG getting the very first model. “It’s a niche between the Sportsman and Gauntlet screen printing presses,” Danny says. He adds: “Once the stay-at-home order is lifted, we’ll show them to you on the show floor at M&R HQ here in Illinois.” Q: What do you say to screen print shops that are discouraged right now? “People still need t-shirts,” Danny says. He offers a positive look into human psychology: yes, this event has changed the world. But we still want to be part of our tribe, and t-shirts are a big part of how we signal that to each other. “The t-shirt is a personal billboard. You don’t put on one that you don’t believe in, that doesn’t reflect your personal attitudes and outlook on life.” But things will be tough over the next year. “Our industry was hit harder than most. We’re just above the cruise and airline and hotel industry. Baseball, football, soccer, schools, the whole thing has been impacted. But it will start coming back. Retail will be the first channel to get product out through.” Just like we’ve noted, M&R sees that print shops have stepped up and used their creative grit to power through this entire mess. Danny’s final words are a dose of realistic optimism that we all need: “People have been wildly creative. Masks, gowns...I was on the phone with a customer printing a huge number of masks and gowns. You’ll see new things come out of this. The industry will not die, it will not go away. Batten down the hatches, survive the next several months, and we’ll have new ideas and thoughts. We’ll be more creative than ever, the industry will be stronger than ever in a year from now. I promise you that.” See inside M&R's factory in Illinois here: https://www.printavo.com/blog/screen-printing-will-survive 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

We talk to Dave Quigley from Noreast Apparel in Lowell, MA about screen printing in 2020. The bulk of this interview was filmed in January 2020 at Impressions Expo Long Beach – but it features an intro from April 2020 looking back after the crisis. We ask Dave about his business, his strategy for getting customers, and much more – and his candid answers will surprise you and make you think. What was Dave most excited in the screen printing industry heading into 2020? "The events, the industry, meeting people, learning. I got stuck behind a screen or a press. [...] I'm excited to lean in to the industry a little bit." Instead of events, Dave managed to raise more than $20,000 for local businesses in Massachusetts using Printavo Merch's simple online stores. Noreast Apparel prints simple, vivid designs on great shirts at the right price, then splits the proceeds with restaurants, breweries, gyms, cafes and other local businesses. Even wilder...his Printavo account is number 80! He's one of the very first Printavo users. Here's Dave's amazing Instagram post about his ideal Saturday in Lowell, MA: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-AxJVpn_nL/ Try Printavo: https://www.printavo.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

Leadership during a crisis is the difference between a permanent catastrophe and a temporary speed bump. But what do leaders do if their mental health is suffering? Hope For The Day’s Johnny Boucher has elevated the conversation around mental health to a new level through outreach, education, and action. In this wide-ranging conversation, Printavo’s Bruce Ackerman hosts Rowboat Creative (Lucas Guariglia and Joe Zangrilli) alongside Campus Ink (Steven Farag) to talk with Johnny Boucher about mental health for screen print shops. Hope For The Day: https://www.hftd.org They discuss why small business owners are suffering so much right now. Steven Farag says, “Small business owners are lonely, stubborn, unemployable...that’s why we work for ourselves!” But since there’s so little structure, small business owners have to take on so many responsibilities. Johnny Boucher’s idea is simple: “Whether you have 10 people or 350,000 people, you have to lead. That means setting yourself up for success right now.” Johnny’s path to success originates in a well-define routine. “Getting up at 5 AM each morning isn’t easy [...] but by 7 AM, I’ve done yoga, meditated, and gone on a walk with the dog and my wife.” With everyone’s routines disrupted, it’s hard to find a way to soldier on under new circumstances. Rowboat Creative’s Lucas Guariglia has weathered the storm in Charlotte, NC – 1,500 miles from his Chicago-based print shop. He adds: “The most productive routine is hard to find. Even when you detach, you’ll still think: Shouldn’t I be formulating a better plan? Shouldn’t I be doing something else?” Even then, what is productivity under these circumstances? Events are canceled, and the majority of traditional screen print orders have come to a halt. Johnny urges business owners to take a realistic approach: “Understand you’re probably only really operating at 50 to 60% capacity...and that’s ok.” Lucas noted the irony of this situation: “There’s less work that can actually happen, but we’re working more than we ever have before.” The things that caused distractions during normal circumstances are gone. There’s just the core functions left: work on your business. “Control what you can, confirm what you can’t,” Johnny urges screen print shop owners. “Stay out of conversations you can’t control...they’re a waste of your time,” he adds. And definitely stay away from what Johnny calls the “24 hour news death cycle.” Screen printing is a difficult path – there’s no question. Joe Zangrilli from Rowboat Creative recounted when he met Johnny Boucher: “He pulled me aside and got me to admit that things really weren’t ok. I’d spent 14 years with my head down, just working as hard as I could. I mean, I’m my own boss, and I wouldn’t even let myself go outside and take a walk around the block during the day.” We’re all familiar with the unhealthy routine: drink coffee until 1 PM, then notice you haven’t had a single thing to eat and your eyes hurt from staring at a screen. “You’ve got to create an environment where you can thrive,” Johnny says. “We need to figure out out our own individual processes for ourselves in order to be productive right now.” The conversation about mental health is a hard one. But now – more than ever – it’s one of the most important conversations we can have. Keep pushing, Print Hustlers. Rowboat Creative: https://www.rowboatcreative.com Campus Ink: https://www.campus.ink Hope For The Day: https://www.hftd.org Printavo: https://www.printavo.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

Lucky Prints in Chicago, IL has raised thousands of dollars for breweries, coffee roasters, gyms, hospitality, cafes and more. When this crisis hit, they immediately saw an 80% drop in custom orders. The industries Lucky Prints serves have been hit very hard by prolonged closures. Lucky Prints already relied on deep partnerships with their customers. They're not interested in making a sale so much as making a relationship. "We looked at the tools in our toolkit and realized Printavo Merch was right there. It was like a lightbulb went off," Lucky Prints owner Adam Smith told us. Lucky Prints has been able to easily pitch stores to customers, with nearly 500 orders coming in during just a few weeks of sales. Since online ordering and fulfillment is new for Lucky Prints, they've had to learn new skills and adapt. "It usually takes longer to fold, bag, tag and label a shirt than to print it," Adam pointed out, "So if you've never done that, it's time consuming. Budget that time accordingly and set expectations for the customers accordingly...we tell them it will take 2-3 weeks." Not only has Lucky Prints emerged as a lifesaver to small businesses across Chicago, they've even had old clients and missed opportunities circle back during this time. This interview is chock full of tips for running online stores in your screen print shop. You can maximize the impact you make right now by reaching out and providing a simple service – and keep your doors open in the process. Check out Printavo Merch – it's the platform Lucky Prints is using right now: https://www.printavo.com/merch Follow us on Instagram for all of the latest updates: https://www.instagram.com/printavo