Impressions - October/November 2023 - 35

No. 5: Qualify Your Customers
A proven technique for wasting less time and improving profits is to
filter out potential clients who are not a good fit for your shop.
With this in mind Gary Glenn of StitchMine Custom Embroidery
(stitchmine.com), says he determined from the outset that he wanted
his business to be " the Nordstroms " of embroidery shops, offering highend
retail brands like Nike, Adidas and Cutter & Buck.
" That's what our customers want, and we price accordingly, " Glenn
says. He adds, " We [also] work on tight margins, so we want to avoid
the client who's never going to be happy. You want to filter them out as
quickly as possible because time is finite. "
To this end Glenn says, he long ago crafted a response for any client
who tells his company they are accepting multiple bids for an order.
" Our response is 'If you don't care about quality or delivery, I can give
you some names of places to go. If quality is important to you, we are
not the cheapest.' And if the response is, 'We don't care, we just want
the cheapest shirt,' we say, 'We're not the place for you,' " Glenn explains.
" While it may be hard for a new embroiderer to turn away business, it's
better than wasting hours of your time. "
No. 6: Identify Your Sweet Spot
A shop's sweet spot is work that is easy to do, takes advantage of a shop's
strengths and makes the most money. It's the work you want more of.
" A lot of times in this industry, we just start, and we don't know how
we got here. We have no idea. But everything you do should be about
outcomes, " Atkinson says.
" To achieve this, " Atkinson says. " You've got to know your numbers
and identify your goals. You can't wander around the shop aimlessly
taking whatever's in front of you. Design your business around where
you want to go. "
If you choose to branch out into bags
and backpacks, make a point of
finding blanks that are easy to work
with. Photo courtesy of Bolt Printing
That done, the next step is to go after that same sweet spot with an eye
toward making it the goal of your business as a whole. As an example, at
Bolt Printing, an online business, this means leveraging a combination
of SEO and advertising aimed at what it sees as its target customer.
" We're not a local shop. We do everything we can to discourage local
traffic. Our building is locked. We are not interested in the neighbor
coming to buy shirts, " Corsano says.
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Oct./Nov. 2023
P.35
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