Decorator Dilemmas Solved
Decorating veterans and business experts answer your most pressing questions about sales, online issues, machinery, social networking, referrals and getting an edge on the competition.
By Shane Dale
Business owners are facing some tough dilemmas in this economy – from laying off essential staff, to finding new accounts to replace clients who stopped buying, to investing in new equipment without having the cash to purchase it. We've called in top business experts, including members of the Stitches Editorial Advisory Board, to answer your biggest business challenges – and help you create a plan to get through the tough times.
Q: I'm one of seven decorating businesses in my region. We call on some of the same clients, offer similar decorating and digitizing services, and have competitive pricing. What are some inexpensive, creative ways I can grab prospects' and clients' attention?
• Get to know people. "Join your local chamber of commerce," says Gayle Zreliak, president of Ensign Emblem. "Connect with people at your children's school or your church. Always carry your business cards and hand them out whenever you can. People like to do business with those they know and trust."
• Get in with the local media. "You can connect with your community by calling your local television or radio station or newspaper and offer to contribute to their news shows, or write a column," Zreliak says. "Local stations and newspapers are often looking for content. You may not get paid in dollars, but the exposure could be priceless."
• Offer free spec samples. "Embroider your prospect's name or logo on a nice sample that you may have in-house, and deliver it to them with a personal introduction of you and your business," says Andy Shuman, general manager of Topton, PA-based Rockland Embroidery Inc. (asi/734150). "If you do a bit of pre-qualification research about your prospect beforehand, your rate of sales per sample will prove to be extremely high."
• Ply them with sweets. Every Monday, for example, deliver doughnuts to a different prospect or client. "If all the local decorators are doing similar decorating, digitizing services and competitive pricing, you need to think outside the box," says Jerilee Auclair, owner of Vancouver, WA-based Black Eagle Designs. "Doughnuts are inexpensive, but hand-delivering them with a note that says something like, ‘Our world would be sweeter with you as our customer,' is definitely outside the norm. Do this for several weeks. You'll get some, or more, of their business."
• Take the consultative approach. "If you're doing commercial orders, ask your prospect or client about who their clients are, what image they're trying to attract and what feelings they are trying to project," says Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group. "The best salespeople always want to know something about their customers' customers."
Q: How do I become the top decorator on the Internet? What does my website need to do to really hook customers? Also, how can I use search engine optimization to drive more random Google searchers to my site?
• Design all original graphics. "Templates look generic, and if you want to push yourself to the fore as a creative company, you can't simply slap your logo on a template and expect your customer to believe you can design," says Erich Campbell, digitizer and e-commerce manager of Albuquerque, NM-based Black Duck Inc. (asi/140730). "Second, match your copy and the overall feel of your content to reflect both the range of clients you want to court and your corporate culture."
• Be visible. "Have your contact info located in a few highly visible spots on your blog or site," says Lee Romano Sequeira, owner of Philadelphia-based Sparkle Plenty Designs (asi/88444). "Make it easy for people to get in touch with you."
• Make virtual shopping a breeze. "You need to give customers a good description of each product you offer, give them a selection of fonts and stock designs, and allow them to upload a custom design for you to have digitized," says Joyce Jagger, owner of The Embroidery Coach.
• Use video testimonials. "Use a flip camera and ask your clients for referrals and post them on your site," Thoreson says.
• Get on Google's Local Business Center. "If you aren't on it now, stop reading this for 15 minutes and sign up (www.google.com/localbusinesscenter)," Campbell says. "Seriously, it's that important. Someone who searches and is logged in with a location near you, or searches with the name of your city or a zip code, will see your result above all the other standard search results." Campbell's traffic increased when he got his information on Google Local. "You can use Google Local to offer coupons, a further hook to bring in those random searchers," he says.
• Use the power of keywords. "You don't want to drive random Google searchers to your site," Zreliak says. "You want to bring people to your site who want what you're selling. You need to know who your target market is and what terms they're likely to search with. Once you know that, you can find targeted keywords that are likely to bring your preferred market segment to your site." And, use those keywords often in the text on your site.
Q: I offer embroidery, screen printing and heat-press services to my clients, but now people want complicated, multimedia design and logo work – chenille, laser work, sequins, rhinestones, all-over prints and more. What kinds of decorating techniques do I need to offer now to ride this wave?
• Only offer techniques you can sell profitably. "Honestly, don't chase fads," says Steve Freeman, owner of Qdigitizing.com (asi/700501). "Find your strength and pursue that. Build your capabilities when you can afford to do so without exposing yourself to excessive financial risk." In the meantime, find contractors you can depend on to develop your ideas into reality."
• Subcontract. "Getting started with this is easy: Find other decorators who offer these techniques and use them," Auclair says. If this technique starts bringing in the dollars, look into purchasing the equipment if it makes sense for you financially. "This will allow you to multi-stream various avenues of decorating income, fill the needs of your customers – present and new alike – and give you a way to bring in money while keeping machinery going elsewhere," she says.
• Partner with other vendors (rather than subcontracting). "By partnering with fellow ASI vendors, we've created a number of custom rhinestone designs intended to add highlights to, or complement, a screened design," Sequeira says. "The screened garments came to us directly from the screener. We added our piece and shipped them on, or you can simply request the heat transfers only to press on your customer's garments, and we'll help you through the process."
• Go multimedia the easier way. "Put embedded placement cues in your printed designs so you can add either embroidery or rhinestones," Campbell says. "This shouldn't impact your budget at all. If you can't afford the equipment required to create all-over designs, think of trying creative design placements with smaller prints."
Q I really have no extra money for marketing efforts, but I know marketing is super-important these days. What are some creative ways I can use social networking sites, such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, and a business blog to drum up some online buzz about my business?
• Start with good, old-fashioned PR. Find out what local newsletters or business magazines are published and offer to write an article, or ask about their editorial calendar.
• E-mail your press releases. Newspapers and magazines are always looking for news. Catch them on a slow day and you may get a huge feature story. "Tell them when you add a machine or a new decorating technique," says Anna Johnson, owner of Phoenix-based Super Embroidery & Screenprinting (asi/339634). "Have you gone green? Let them know."
• Blog away. "A blog can really be a great storehouse of information, as well as a promotional tool," Campbell says. "It can educate your customers. Use it to teach them about new garments, decorating methods and services you provide. Just remember: You must entertain as well as educate, and then and only then should you actively drive the sale."
• Tweet all day. "Twitter works well to humanize your business," Campbell says. "Be personable and even personal with Twitter. Build relationships by answering questions about your business or your industry on the fly by monitoring Twitter searches about garment decorating. Keep informed about the special projects and events your clients hold by following their feeds."
• Link yourself up. "Create a LinkedIn file and find the groups that are associated with your interests," Thoreson says. "Participate, don't promote. Share ideas and give advice."
• Be a social networking promoter. "The best way to drum up support on Twitter and Facebook is to simply offer support to others who are on those sites," Zreliak says. So if you start a business account on any of these sites, spend as much time communicating and promoting others as you do talking about your own products and business. "People on these sites don't respond well to being sold all the time," Zreliak says.
Q: Most of my business comes from word of mouth, but I want to be more proactive and start a referral program. How do I start a program and make it work for my business?
• Ask every client for two contacts. "If you ask every satisfied client for the names of two prospects, you'll build a nice list," Thoreson says. "You don't have to necessarily offer a referral fee to your customers. However, if they provide you a name, giving the business a nice thank-you with a small gift is appropriate, or a discount off their next order."
• Partner with vendors in adjacent markets. "Seek out other organizations that sell non-competitive but related products and services to the same potential customer base, and meet the ownership of those organizations," Thoreson says. Then, try to work out a plan where you refer clients to them, and they refer clients to you.
• Create a flyer about your referral program. "Keep it simple and let everyone know about it – employees, customers, friends and family," Jagger says. "Give them all business cards. Have them sign the back of the card, and when the card comes back into your business with a new customer, give the person who signed the card a discount toward their next purchase. Keep track of these referrals on a spreadsheet, and check off the name when the referral person claims their discount." Some website programs will even allow you to create coupons to use for your referral program.
• Cover all your bases. Hand out referral cards with the finished garments you deliver, or mail to clients, and offer a next-order discount to the client who gave you the referral and the person who was referred. It's easy and cheap, and if you give a deep enough discount, it's rather effective.
Q: I want to add a four-head embroidery machine to my shop, but haven't been able to get a loan from the bank due to my credit ratings. How should I invest in my business?
• Take a high-level look at your operation."The first step would be to gauge whether you're getting the maximum output from your current equipment," Shuman says. "Decide if your sales are consistent enough to maintain that output now, and in the event that you increase your capacity with a four-head machine."
• Improve your credit. "Get your bills paid on time and pay those debts down and off as fast as you can," Johnson says. "Use a credit card, but pay it off each month and don't pay interest on those things. That's just throwing money away. If your credit is so bad that you don't have a credit card, go to your banker and put $500 to $1,000 in savings or a CD, and ask for a credit card against the CD to start rebuilding your credit."
• Go it slowly. "Going from zero to four heads is a big jump," Freeman says. "Consider a two-head and working some long nights until you can afford the larger equipment. Think and plan big, but be prepared to take baby steps until you can improve your credit rating."
• Consider leasing vs. buying. "Many times, leases are a viable option where conventional bank loans are difficult to obtain," Freeman says.
• Check out the SBA. "The Small Business Administration has wonderful resources," says Geri Finio, embroidery artist at Marlton, NJ-based Studio 187. "Find your local SBA office and inquire about their free programs and lectures. Oftentimes, they offer free classroom seminars covering important business issues, such as financing and marketing."
• Try a coaching team. Another type of resource is an executive coaching team that focuses on using its knowledge to give back by helping small businesses. "These groups consist of successful entrepreneurs who'll arrange to meet with you free of charge and coach you with specifics for your business," Finio says. "The one in my area is called SCORE, and many others exist nationwide."
SHANE DALE is a contributing writer to Stitches.