The current economic state of our world makes our industry a scary place to try and make a living right now. We, of course, don’t work in a “recession-proof” industry, not even close (that is if there are any recession-proof industries). If fact, when corporate belts are cinched tighter, the custom embroidered apparel, printed shirts, custom logoed swag, coffee cups, pens and magnets are the first to go. Company budgets are smaller or non-existent and this early in the year, they have a tendency to hold on to them longer to see what the year has in store.
Merriam Webster defines economy as: thrifty and efficient use of resources.
How do you deal with this in your business? How do you keep your head up and revenue flowing? Are you treading, sinking or swimming?
Firstly, you’re gonna have to do that marketing that you keep putting off. I know, believe me…but it can mean the difference between feast and famine (OK, maybe not feast in this economy but you know what I mean). Carve out some time every day, even if it’s half and hour to devote to getting some new customers. Right now local is better because you can save your customer shipping fees and meet people in person. They’re more likely to buy from someone they feel they know. Phone calls and emails are free.
If you’re an embroiderer, wear your logo everywhere! This is you, marketing your business and a great way to show potential customers your quality. Pass out business cards like Halloween candy. Narrow your efforts to the area that’s most likely to pay off.
Get serious about your receivables. Current customers that owe you money and go out too far wreck havoc with your cash flow. If you have a policy, stick with it and work to collect. If you have no policy, make one.
Really talk to your customers. Remind them that now is the time to spend a bit on their marketing, not stop it completely. Just make sure that you are the go-to person to help them with that and reassure them that they’re getting the best bang for their buck. Get creative and find them options they can afford on a tighter budget.
Make sure your customers always get the best quality for their money and realize that great customer service doesn’t cost you anything; that’s your advertising. Trust me, if you help them when times are tough, they will be with you when things get better.….and they will get better…. right?
Monday, February 16, 2009
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Embroidery Digitizing - The Digitizing Side of the Embroidery Fence (Part II of II)
For all you Embroiderers out there:
With all that being said from the last post (Part I)...a look on the embroiderers side as to whether its better to use an outside digitizing company, hire an on-staff digitizer or learn the process yourself.
The truth that no salesperson when you bought the digitizing software will tell you, but that you very quickly find, is that the learning curve to get up to digitizing at a commercial (professional)level of quality is HUGE. And, worse, there's no place to learn the art, save for a few books and online classes. And make no mistake, it is an ART and some people, if they're honest, just aren't cut out for this art.
On the positive side of this, if you have the time to dedicate, the artistic ability to apply and the where-with-all to stick to it, you can master the digitizing side of your embroidery business. But do you want to?
Maybe not, "Do you want to?" BUT "Is it a wise use of your time with regard to running your business"? As you know, you're not making money if the machines aren't running. As an embroidery business owner you will wear many hats and juggle many balls. Do you have the time to wear the digitizing hat also or would your time be more effective doing production, marketing, customer service or management and leaving the digitizing to the pros?
You could hire and/or train a staff member to digitize but be sure you have enough work to warrant and sustain this person full-time, year around. A good digitizer commands a decent salary. It's not cost efficient if you don't have enough digitizing to do. If your training, realize that it will be awhile til they're up to speed.
That leaves us back again to using a reliable digitizing company that will be there when you need them and allows you to talk directly to your digitizer. You don't have to provide health benefits or vacation pay. You pay them only for the work that is done and you get the very best digitizing from an experienced professional to provide your customers with the best quality possible.
Do your homework, figure out what's best for your company! If you need great digitizing now, call NeedleUp Digitizing, 303-287-6633
You didn't think I'd pass up that opportunity, did you?
With all that being said from the last post (Part I)...a look on the embroiderers side as to whether its better to use an outside digitizing company, hire an on-staff digitizer or learn the process yourself.
The truth that no salesperson when you bought the digitizing software will tell you, but that you very quickly find, is that the learning curve to get up to digitizing at a commercial (professional)level of quality is HUGE. And, worse, there's no place to learn the art, save for a few books and online classes. And make no mistake, it is an ART and some people, if they're honest, just aren't cut out for this art.
On the positive side of this, if you have the time to dedicate, the artistic ability to apply and the where-with-all to stick to it, you can master the digitizing side of your embroidery business. But do you want to?
Maybe not, "Do you want to?" BUT "Is it a wise use of your time with regard to running your business"? As you know, you're not making money if the machines aren't running. As an embroidery business owner you will wear many hats and juggle many balls. Do you have the time to wear the digitizing hat also or would your time be more effective doing production, marketing, customer service or management and leaving the digitizing to the pros?
You could hire and/or train a staff member to digitize but be sure you have enough work to warrant and sustain this person full-time, year around. A good digitizer commands a decent salary. It's not cost efficient if you don't have enough digitizing to do. If your training, realize that it will be awhile til they're up to speed.
That leaves us back again to using a reliable digitizing company that will be there when you need them and allows you to talk directly to your digitizer. You don't have to provide health benefits or vacation pay. You pay them only for the work that is done and you get the very best digitizing from an experienced professional to provide your customers with the best quality possible.
Do your homework, figure out what's best for your company! If you need great digitizing now, call NeedleUp Digitizing, 303-287-6633
You didn't think I'd pass up that opportunity, did you?
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Embroidery Digitizing - The Digitizing Side of the Promotional Fence (Part I of II)
For all you Distributors out there:
I was reading some posts on a popular promotional distributor industry message board site today and I keep coming across people who are looking for insight as to whether to use their embroiderer for digitizing along with production or to have their own outside source for digitizing.
Of course, being a commercial freelance digitizer, I’m going to say that this is a better way to go, right? Not necessarily, but I will tell you why, in most cases, it is.
I’ve been doing this a long time, relatively speaking, and in all my years (16), I have repeatedly come across a few situations I'd share with you. There are arguments on both sides of this topic; It is good to use a one-stop-shop when you're new to this and you need to get your feet wet. In this case, the embroiderer would be responsible for the overall quality of the embroidery process and until you know what to look for and how it all works, this may be the best choice in the beginning. Hopefully, the embroidery company happens to have a fabulous digitizer and the price is right.
But...seasoned promotional people understand a few things. You should know the person who's actually doing the digitizing. (Not all embroidery companies are large enough to have a full time digitizer on staff. AND, if they do, ask their experience. If they don’t, they are sending the digitizing out also). Having embroidery software and machines doesn’t mean they are great digitizers. You can’t purchase artistic ability after all. Be able to build a rapport with and speak to the digitizer about your embroidery designs.
What happens if the embroiderer’s digitizing is not so great but the prices for production are good and you don't really want to stop using them for embroidery? What happens if you want to go to another embroidery company but the first one has all your designs and they don't want to give them to you? Many times when an embroiderer says the digitizing is free or "included" in the production price, it's not, it's just built into the price and then they can hold you hostage for the design saying that you never paid for it.
It's also difficult to use web-based dig companies (here or abroad); the results can be inconsistent because you never get the same person doing your work and it's hard to get someone to talk to if there's a problem or edit needed. You may sometimes get a good design, sometimes not. There’s no way to build a relationship with them. They are just pounding out a product at a low price and if they are overseas, it’s night time when you’re open so they’re not available to you when you need them. BTW, Do you speak Japanese?
Ask questions. I’ve known “punch houses” that advertise 20 yrs in the business but that’s just how long they’ve been open; upon further investigation, there’s not a person digitizing there that’s been doing it longer than 4 years and it’s not the same person doing your designs every time.
You should always protect yourself and your business by keeping a copy of your customer’s designs. I know it takes a bit more effort but it pays. If you use a separate digitizer, changing embroiderers is never an issue and you can work your margins your own way. The best of both, you can match your digitizer of choice to your embroiderer of choice.
The best situation for you would be to know and develop a relationship with a reputable digitizer, be able to speak to that person directly so they know exactly what you want/need, (especially when there are changes) and someone who knows commercial production well. No embroiderer can make a crummy design sew beautiful on your customer’s garments with a poorly digitized stitch file. And no digitizer can turn out professional embroidery designs without understanding and experience in multi-head embroidery production.
Experience, consistency and artful technical ability is what makes a digitizer worth their salt (money). A great digitizer can charge more and get it because most people understand that quality costs.
...Just a little insight from the digitizing side of the fence.
I was reading some posts on a popular promotional distributor industry message board site today and I keep coming across people who are looking for insight as to whether to use their embroiderer for digitizing along with production or to have their own outside source for digitizing.
Of course, being a commercial freelance digitizer, I’m going to say that this is a better way to go, right? Not necessarily, but I will tell you why, in most cases, it is.
I’ve been doing this a long time, relatively speaking, and in all my years (16), I have repeatedly come across a few situations I'd share with you. There are arguments on both sides of this topic; It is good to use a one-stop-shop when you're new to this and you need to get your feet wet. In this case, the embroiderer would be responsible for the overall quality of the embroidery process and until you know what to look for and how it all works, this may be the best choice in the beginning. Hopefully, the embroidery company happens to have a fabulous digitizer and the price is right.
But...seasoned promotional people understand a few things. You should know the person who's actually doing the digitizing. (Not all embroidery companies are large enough to have a full time digitizer on staff. AND, if they do, ask their experience. If they don’t, they are sending the digitizing out also). Having embroidery software and machines doesn’t mean they are great digitizers. You can’t purchase artistic ability after all. Be able to build a rapport with and speak to the digitizer about your embroidery designs.
What happens if the embroiderer’s digitizing is not so great but the prices for production are good and you don't really want to stop using them for embroidery? What happens if you want to go to another embroidery company but the first one has all your designs and they don't want to give them to you? Many times when an embroiderer says the digitizing is free or "included" in the production price, it's not, it's just built into the price and then they can hold you hostage for the design saying that you never paid for it.
It's also difficult to use web-based dig companies (here or abroad); the results can be inconsistent because you never get the same person doing your work and it's hard to get someone to talk to if there's a problem or edit needed. You may sometimes get a good design, sometimes not. There’s no way to build a relationship with them. They are just pounding out a product at a low price and if they are overseas, it’s night time when you’re open so they’re not available to you when you need them. BTW, Do you speak Japanese?
Ask questions. I’ve known “punch houses” that advertise 20 yrs in the business but that’s just how long they’ve been open; upon further investigation, there’s not a person digitizing there that’s been doing it longer than 4 years and it’s not the same person doing your designs every time.
You should always protect yourself and your business by keeping a copy of your customer’s designs. I know it takes a bit more effort but it pays. If you use a separate digitizer, changing embroiderers is never an issue and you can work your margins your own way. The best of both, you can match your digitizer of choice to your embroiderer of choice.
The best situation for you would be to know and develop a relationship with a reputable digitizer, be able to speak to that person directly so they know exactly what you want/need, (especially when there are changes) and someone who knows commercial production well. No embroiderer can make a crummy design sew beautiful on your customer’s garments with a poorly digitized stitch file. And no digitizer can turn out professional embroidery designs without understanding and experience in multi-head embroidery production.
Experience, consistency and artful technical ability is what makes a digitizer worth their salt (money). A great digitizer can charge more and get it because most people understand that quality costs.
...Just a little insight from the digitizing side of the fence.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Embroidery Digitizing - Charge! - Part II
Why does digitizing cost as much as it does?
Many people out there think that digitizing for commercial embroidery is a scanned process where art is loaded, a few buttons are pushed and out pops (magically) a fully usable and perfectly running design.
The honest truth is, the process is far more complicated than that. This is the reason that any commercial digitizer worth their weight in gold, charges more than the advertisements you see all the time for designs for $15. Yes, the industry is closing in on some auto-digitizing software options but they don't work for designs more complicated than very basic line art and not at all for text; and let's face it, how many custom company logos do you see that fit that mold.
In the embroidery market as a whole today, you can buy "digitizing" software for anything from $500 to $10,000. Quite a few home embroidery softwares call themselves digitizing software because the waters have gotten muddy and the term "digitizing" has become a broad term, meaning that they are able to upload a picture and punch some stitches over it. The differences between the $500 stuff and the commercial top of the line softwares costing $8,000 - $10,000 is definitely night and day! You're not just paying for more option or buttons with the high end; you're paying for the programming and stitch processing capabilities of the software....and you're paying for the ability to alter and/or edit every possible aspect of the stitches, in any manner, to create a stitch file that is controllable in every way and capable of sewing commercially, professional quality. Therefore, someone with $1,000 software isn't capable of turning out stitch files with commercial results.
Now that's just the technical side of embroidery digitizing; let's talk about the digitizer themselves. You should be concerned with experience above all because if you want your designs to reflect "professional" to your customers, your going to need someone who knows what they're doing, has been doing it for quite awhile and understands not only production of embroidery but the very technical side of the art of digitizing. ...And make no mistake, it IS an ART. Those that digitize professionally and are very successful, have years upon years of experience and have an inherent creativity that brings something special to their work. These people charge more for their expertise, NeedleUp is included in this group. Now, you've heard me say this before but it bears repeating. When purchasing software or just the service of digitizing; YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! If you still don't get this, you've either been miss-informed or are very lucky. (And don't even start me on the topic of over-seas digitizing companies...another time perhaps)
Anyone with money can buy expensive digitizing software....in the same way that anyone can buy scissors; That doesn't necessarily make them a hairdresser now does it?
Many people out there think that digitizing for commercial embroidery is a scanned process where art is loaded, a few buttons are pushed and out pops (magically) a fully usable and perfectly running design.
The honest truth is, the process is far more complicated than that. This is the reason that any commercial digitizer worth their weight in gold, charges more than the advertisements you see all the time for designs for $15. Yes, the industry is closing in on some auto-digitizing software options but they don't work for designs more complicated than very basic line art and not at all for text; and let's face it, how many custom company logos do you see that fit that mold.
In the embroidery market as a whole today, you can buy "digitizing" software for anything from $500 to $10,000. Quite a few home embroidery softwares call themselves digitizing software because the waters have gotten muddy and the term "digitizing" has become a broad term, meaning that they are able to upload a picture and punch some stitches over it. The differences between the $500 stuff and the commercial top of the line softwares costing $8,000 - $10,000 is definitely night and day! You're not just paying for more option or buttons with the high end; you're paying for the programming and stitch processing capabilities of the software....and you're paying for the ability to alter and/or edit every possible aspect of the stitches, in any manner, to create a stitch file that is controllable in every way and capable of sewing commercially, professional quality. Therefore, someone with $1,000 software isn't capable of turning out stitch files with commercial results.
Now that's just the technical side of embroidery digitizing; let's talk about the digitizer themselves. You should be concerned with experience above all because if you want your designs to reflect "professional" to your customers, your going to need someone who knows what they're doing, has been doing it for quite awhile and understands not only production of embroidery but the very technical side of the art of digitizing. ...And make no mistake, it IS an ART. Those that digitize professionally and are very successful, have years upon years of experience and have an inherent creativity that brings something special to their work. These people charge more for their expertise, NeedleUp is included in this group. Now, you've heard me say this before but it bears repeating. When purchasing software or just the service of digitizing; YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! If you still don't get this, you've either been miss-informed or are very lucky. (And don't even start me on the topic of over-seas digitizing companies...another time perhaps)
Anyone with money can buy expensive digitizing software....in the same way that anyone can buy scissors; That doesn't necessarily make them a hairdresser now does it?
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