Establish what your Time is Worth.
To Take or Not to Take Customer Supplied Goods.
Show your Customer their Thread Color Choices.
Create a Sales Counter. We found customers would come into our “shop” (it used to be our family room) and wouldn’t stay contained to the front table for conducting business, They had a tendency to walk to the back of the room, our computer area. This was very uncomfortable for us! How did we fix this problem? We built a 36” counter top, 72” long and placed it about 5’ from the entry way. This naturally created a “sales counter.” We later added a glass table top which created a great place for putting misc announcements, such as:
Font choices
Thread colors
Deposit information
Customer supplied garments information
Minimum order information
Establish what your Time is Worth. As a home-based business, your number of employees is likely to be limited to you and maybe a part-time helper. We found having a minimum dollar amount per order helped us establish a balance of our time. There are only so many hours per day available for stitching. If you’re helping a customer, the machine is not running. How much $$ is your time worth for that machine to not be running? One shirt with a $3 name? $25 minimum? 6 garments minimum? You decide – and stick with your decision! Establishing your policy and stating that policy over the phone with the customer BEFORE they are in your shop, will save you countless hours for producing that profitable job already in-house!
To Take or Not to Take Customer Supplied Goods. A lot of other embroiderers in our area do not embroidery on customer supplied goods. How do we make a profit by taking in this work? We all know that when the customer supplies their own garments for embroidery, we don’t make any money for providing those items.
We charge $1 more per garment when the customer supplies the garments.
The customer signs a form that they are responsible for the 1-3% spoilage rate that inadvertently happens when placing these garments in an industrial machine (a damage rate that we absorb if they had purchased the garments from us).
We add .25 per garment if they are individually packaged (pinned, bagged, etc).
Visitors. When you’re on the phone with a customer who would like to visit your home-based shop:
Set an appointment time.
Ask your customer to please call before they come back to pick up their order. (Again, unless you don’t mind visitors at all hours of the day, night and weekends.)
Establish “shop” hours, unless you don’t mind visitors at all hours of the day, night and weekends.
If you do not publish your hours, your customers have no way of knowing, and they will assume you are open at whatever time is convenient to them.
Know your Colleagues. Get to know other local home-based companies. Knowing other home-based businesses close to you works more in your favor than you think. We place our orders together and receive shipping discounts, quantity discounts, etc. This also comes in handy when one (or more) of you needs an emergency runs to local distributors
Exchange thread, backing, etc. in emergencies
Place orders together for discounts on quantities and shipping
Display A Lot of Samples. Customers buy what they see – trust us! If it’s hanging in the shop, they want it. Hang up samples of various stitch types as well as custom logos you’ve designed. (Customers love to see their logo!)
Show your Customer their Thread Color Choices. Have your thread hanging where the customer can see it. When they want “red”, let them choose which shade. We use one manufacturers thread and offer every color, so we use their thread color chart in our table top display. This offer an easy, quick glance at all colors.
Show Font Choices. Show the fonts you offer in stitched form. We suggest using the same size for each (.5” for example) so your customers can see various differences in each font. Stitch the name of the font in that font (this makes it easy for writing down their choice on their order form).
Establish an Order Form. We have not come up with the perfect order form yet! We make various changes each time we print another batch. We still use forms printed from our laser printer. They do not need to be fancy, just efficient. Start with the basics: a place for customer’s name/number, what they are ordering - size, color, quantity each, price each and total. Leave a separate space for embroidery info – design number (or custom information), colors, size and location, added text - font, size, location. We suggest requesting 50% deposit with every order. Writing this policy on your order form allows the conversation to flow naturally when it comes time to request the deposit. Finish the order form with a space for Order Total, Deposit Amount, Balance Due at completion of order. Don’t forget a space for customer signature (We have two lines, one at order placement and one if the customer needs to approve artwork.) Number your order forms. We started with 1001 and kept going from there. We started with single sheet forms, but eventually graduated to 2/part NCR paper designed for the laser printer. It’s a little more expensive, but it’s extremely efficient (and more professional) to have a copy to give to your customer.
Create Design Cards. When we’ve designed a logo, we keep all information pertaining to that design on a 3x5 card. (You can purchase laser printer sheets of 3x5 cards. All information is stored in your computer for future changes, additions, etc.) Cards are filed by design name and include: contact name and phone number, design number, size, stitch count, thread color and order. The cards can be pulled from the card file easily when running repeat orders.
Use an Order Board. A grease board stands by our digitizing station. It contains all order currently in process. Below the board is a pendaflex, self-standing filing system with one pendaflex per alphabet letter. After an order is written, it is placed in the pendaflex file. The order number is written on the board starting with customer name. The board also contains columns for: order #, date written, due date, digitize design, order garments, waiting garments, waiting customer ok, ready to stitch and comments. A “check” is placed in the appropriate columns for each order. This is a very quick, easy way to identify what needs to be ordered, digitized, ready to stitch, etc.
Order Form
Fax Cover Sheet
Business cards and letterhead
Design approval/changes form
Digitizing quote form
1 Page Price List or Flyer for mailing purposes
Customer Supplied goods acknowledgement form