STAHLS’ Shop Makeover
There have been lots of very popular tv shows over the years on updating and renovating houses, shows about organizing houses for maximum space and usage, and then shows on improving businesses, mostly restaurants.
These types of shows have given inspiration and tips to viewers, so they can take what they’ve seen into their own spaces.
But have you ever seen a show where someone goes in and looks under the hood of an apparel decorating business?
No, we haven’t either… until now!
Josh Ellsworth from STAHLS’ visited Jessie Mommsen at Threads and Inks in Minnesota, the first $10,000 STAHLS’ Shop Makeover winner.
We went behind the scenes of this apparel decorating shop to hear her story, see how Jesse got started, how she grew her business into what it is today, and how the STAHLS’ Shop Makeover helped her position for more growth in the future.
It’s kind of like a tv show, but with actionable tips you can apply to your own t-shirt business.
The First Shop Makeover
Jessie works in her apparel decorating business full time and also has a few part time employees, as well.
Josh Ellsworth of STAHLS’ visited her shop to go over her goals and some strategies on how she can plan for growth.
One of the goals Jessie mentioned was to grow the right type of business so that possibly her daughter could one day take over, if she desired.
Shop Talk – Minimums and Pricing
Some things that they found is that Jessie was doing 1 piece orders.
Besides Jessie, lot’s of shops tend to give in to the 1 piece orders, though they lose money on them and they consume their valuable time.
Josh recommended that she stop doing those one or two piece orders and establish a minimum, either by the number of pieces or by a minimum dollar amount, such as a 6 piece minimum.
Jessie did have a nice price sheet to quote jobs, but Josh made some recommendations to improve the price sheet for customers.
And you can’t talk about business without walking through pricing and costs.
Josh and Jessie sat down to walk through costs, including both direct and indirect expenses. Many shops forget to account for indirect expenses, which can lead to much lower margins than expected.
Instead, knowing all of your costs will help price for profit a lot easier.
[Related Content: Pricing Printed T-Shirts – How Much to Charge]
Equipment Upgrades
As part of her shop makeover win, she received two Hotronix 360 IQ Hat Heat Presses. They unboxed them and went through tips for loading caps on the cap press and storing patches for easier placement while pressing.
Jessie also received a Tag Along™ HP Platen for her heat press. This platen allows for printing the front of a shirt and the inside tag print at the same time.
Josh showed Jessie how to use this platen to load garments faster and easier.
The Tag Along HP Platen can aid in growth through inside branding or a second print location.
Josh also showed Jessie on how using platens for additional locations can help with upselling.
Showroom and Merchandising
As part of her shop, Jessie has a very nice retail shop showroom filled with pre-decorated garments to purchase, mostly with school spirit wear for the city.
A print-on-demand path was discussed for better inventory management.
By adding merchandising looks around the showroom, you can show more without having to carry printed inventory of each. Carry blank apparel in stock so it can be printed as purchased. This is also a big advantage to heat printing – the ability to fulfill orders quickly.
Watch, Learn, and Apply
View the full STAHLS’ Shop Makeover to see how it enhanced Threads and Inks and how you can use the same concepts discussed to do it, too.
Watch the Shop Makeover to:
- See how Threads and Inks is set up for success and how STAHLS’ helped improve it
- Learn some helpful hacks for saving time and getting better application results
- Gain insight into how you could apply some of these strategies to fuel your own business growth
- Find out how adding premium decoration options to your offering can help drive higher profits
We are dedicated to the success of our customers, and we are passionate about giving back to our customers by supporting growth and continued success with education, customer service and partnership.
So grab some popcorn and enjoy!