Impressions - October/November 2023 - 33

Coordinate similar jobs to minimize the amount
of time and effort you have to put into executing
changeovers. Photo courtesy of Bolt Printing
I
f you're busy, does that mean you're making money? Or are you
so focused on getting work-any work-you're no longer paying
attention to your bottom line?
Are you squeezing the most profit out of every minute of your shop's
day? Or are you spending too much time on less profitable work at the
expense of jobs that could bring in more money for the same amount
of time and effort?
Many shops, especially those run by newcomers, will greatly benefit
from taking a hard look at how they are spending their time and
evaluating what type of work best fits their strengths and capabilities.
" One reason embroiderers struggle with understanding the difference
between profitable and busy is it feels good to be busy, " says veteran decorator
Marshall Atkinson, of Atkinson Consulting (atkinsontshirt.com).
" A lot of times, we chase the low-dollar work because it's easier to
get. It's harder to get more profitable orders, because you have to sell on
more than price. The closer you get to zero, the easier it is to convince
someone to buy...What embroiderers have to ask themselves is for the
same amount of work, do I want to make $1 or $10? " Atkinson says.
With that in mind, what follows is a list of 10 things to consider as
you strive to grow your company's profitability:
No. 1: Capture and Track
the Numbers
How do you really know if you are profitable? Management guru Peter
Drucker once said, " If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. "
" Every single day, we get a production tracker of exactly what is produced
for every department on every machine. Based on those numbers,
we can see if an operator and a department have been profitable, " says
Rob Dubow, CEO, Dubow Textile, (dubowtextile.com).
" Our profit-and-loss statement gets checked monthly when it is published,
and I watch our revenue and expenses on a daily basis. If I see our
bottom-line percentage going down while our production numbers are
consistent, I know it's time to raise prices, " Dubow adds. " Over the past
couple of years with rising wages and supplies, we've had to raise prices
a couple of times to ensure we are profitable. We didn't have a choice. "
No. 2: Plan for
Maximum Efficiency
If your shop is not running at peak efficiency, you will never know
how much profit is being lost due to poor organization, step-wasting
workflow, miscommunication, out-of-date equipment, etc. Some shops
have been known to double their profit by fine-tuning their operations.
For higher-volume shops, one way to increase efficiency is to group
similar orders together, so you don't have to keep adjusting the machines,
says Anthony Corsano, COO, Bolt Printing (boltprinting.com). For
example, Corsano says, take care of all your flat goods before switching
to caps, as opposed to going back and forth between the two.
" At Bolt Printing, our motto is to complete each step of the job
thoroughly to make it easy and efficient for the next person to do their
part, " he explains. " You don't do your job as efficiently as possible at
the expense of the next person down the line. Find the right balance. "
According to Corsano, " As a manufacturer, everything should be
about efficiency and not working harder but smarter. At my company,
we were able to significantly increase capacity without increasing head
count. We achieved that by analyzing every step of our process and [no
longer] saying, 'Well, we've always done it this way.' We reviewed how
we take an order, how we process it, how we order blanks, all the way
to getting goods shipped. "
" Efficiency is obviously critical, especially with the number of machines
we have, " agrees Randy Carr, CEO of patch and emblem speOct./Nov.
2023
P.33
http://www.atkinsontshirt.com http://www.boltprinting.com http://www.dubowtextile.com
Impressions - October/November 2023

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