Custom Embroidery , Screen Printing, Contract Direct to Garment Printing – ThreadPerfection

ISS Show Atlantic City in Review – UNCENSORED

So our company went to the ISS Show Atlantic City 2010 this past weekend. We had no idea what to expect since we have never been to a trade show. Our mission was to learn as much as possible through seminars and check out all the latest and greatest technology and new products in the marketplace. We do not want to leave any of our customers behind. We must say we left the ISS Show and we were more than satisfied. I will break down what we learned and what our customers can expect to see from Thread Perfection in the near future. Also feel free to contribute your experience if you or your company attended or you have any questions.

The first day we arrived we mainly focused on seminars that educated our company more in the promotional apparel business. A list of  seminars  we attended are listed below with our straight up uncensored opinion. We did try and keep it clean!

Day 1

Pricing Embroidered and Screen Printed Apparel- The Shocking Truth!

Mark Venit , founder of  Apparel Graphics Institute Ltd. was our first educator. This is was by far the most valuable class we attended. Well our company has our so called “formula” for pricing our products but we came out of this seminar with in our opinion the “real deal formula.” This new formula will help our company tweak our pricing structure, help us be competitive, while still making a profit. This is a win-win situation. No you can’t have this formula; you should make the trip to the ISS Show and sign up yourself. What you as a customer can expect now is a no-nonsense way of receiving quotes on your orders without having to speak to a “pricing specialist.”  All of our employees will be trained to effectively price items quickly and accurately so we waste less of your valuable time. So if you need a quick “quote” on custom embroidery, screen printing, or direct to garment printing we will be who you want to speak with.

10 Simple Rules for Running Your Business

This seminar was presented by Greg Kitson the Owner of Mind Eye Graphics. There was no doubt about how knowledgeable he was in the promotional apparel industry. We only added a couple things from here we felt we could improve upon. Mainly the things were money saving techniques which in turn will help us to keep our pricing down which is great for customers. For example if we use 2” tape we may could use  3” tape which would use less linear footage and save money over the long haul. Now that sounds little but trust me tape adds up when your shipping out several orders a day that savings would add up over the year. This is an example of cutting costs which will allow our company to continue pricing our products competitively.

The 10 Biggest Mistakes in Marketing Custom Apparel & Promo Products

Once again Mark Venit of the Apparel Graphics Institute Ltd. was a top notch educator. We would love to have him as our instructor for all seminars. If you wanted to make sure your marketing plan was effective this would have been a great one to attend. You could have used this for any type of business you operate.  After sitting through this we assure you we will have a published “price list” for anybody and everybody to see. We now understand the importance of a “price list” for our customers. You ask and you shall receive. We learned what percentage of our revenue should be used for advertising. Most of all, “GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE” which in turn will help turning our customers into promoters of our company.

Cash Flow: The Lifeblood of Your Business

This seminar was presented by Greg Kitson from Minds Eye Graphics, Inc.  You could tell this guy really know what he was talking about but not the best at keeping your attention.  I did take some things away from this class that I will use in my everyday business life.  The main thing that I took away from the class had to do with quick books.  I have been struggling to decide if I was going to use PO’s for all of my orders or not.After taking this class I have decided it is very necessary to have a PO on all orders at all times.  This will help in tracking and reorders to say the least.  Over all it was kind of a boring class but there was definitely some very good parts that came out of it.

10 Things You Can Do Right Now To Promote Your Embroidery Business

This class was presented by Jimmy Lamb of Sawgrass Technologies.  This was my one of my top pick classes other than the pricing class.  I learned a great deal in this class starting with a small fact here sewing on felt.  Your portfolio should be in felt but not the sew outs you are going to present to your customer.  This one you want to keep on some sort of fabric to which the customer is going to pick this way there are no surprises to what the logo will look like because felt hides all imperfections. You wouldn’t want your customer to see a great logo on felt and then see jagged edges on pique or waves on spandex. Another big idea I got from this class is the news paper.  Use this to your advantage and write articles (press releases) to new equipment new ideas anything new you could write about that might interest readers.  Also a lot about addons, always send one add on.  There is much more great information that I have gotten from this class and I would advise you to take this class if it comes available to you. Great information.

Day 2

Social Media Marketing for Apparel Decorators

This seminar was presented by Josh Ellsworth of Cad Cut Direct. I would highly recommend this seminar for any beginners trying to get into the social media frenzy. If you would consider yourself as doing a pretty good job so far in social media then you may want to skip this class. We did get an idea from here that I personally think will we be a brilliant idea but we have to test it out first. If it works out we will be more than willing to share this idea with you as it would work for any type of business whether your online or not. From our personal experience, Facebook (check our Thread perfection Fan Page) does the best job of driving traffic to our website and storefront. So if social media is going to take up a lot of your time, which it can, I would recommend starting with Facebook first. Hopefully next year there will be an advanced version of this class.

Revive Your Corporate Clients’ Old, Boring Logos with CorelDraw X4

This class was overall a really good class.  The first part of the class to me was just going over the same thing over and over again but after we got past that part it was a great class.  In this class we went over wire-frames and how to tell whether the logo was tampered with in the past and how to take a customers logo and make it look different in 10 different ways.  If you come across this show at a future show then I suggest you should take it if you use Corel Draw and want to learn how to change a logo in little ways to make is better.

Special Effect Shirt Treatments

This is a “must take class” for all experienced screen printers.  The instructor was a great speaker who knew what he was talking about and could give some great great tips.  Unfortunately I am not an experienced screen printer and it was way way over my head.  Half the time I had no idea what he was talking about.  I think it needs to say on the class description for experienced “screen printers only!”

Double Your Production in 30 Days or Less

If your company has several employees attend this class. Right now I am not an extremely large company and this did not seem to help me much. I will keep note of what I learned so when I reach that point.  The class was mostly on how to move things around on the floor and on the work order to make things go smoother. You may not think about the little things that hamper production but trust me there are several that do. With less production that means less money.  When my business grows and I have several employees this class would have given me some great direction on how to make things flow better and it will for you.

Venit`s 21 Ways to Get Customers to Love You

If you are not making every single one of your customers love you than you may “NEED” to attend this one. I am not going to list every one of these ideas but I will tell you there were more than 21 ways listed and I guarantee if follow these rules you will never lose a customer again.  Aren’t customers who love us what we want and need? I know it sure doesn’t seem that way with a lot of companies so this as an easy way to stand out above the crowd. Just remember every “happy customer” most likely will promote your service and products for “FREE.” I guarantee you if you ask any successful business owners they will say word of mouth marketing is there number 1 source of business hands down! Are you the owner of your business? How many times have you called a customer and just said, “Thank You.” How would that affect you as a customer? Have you ever put a little surprise in a customer’s package just for the heck of it? Well maybe you should be doing both. To learn more I suggest this class to you. If you have anything to add to this please post a comment at the end of this post.

Decorating Strategies for Athletic & Performance Apparel

This class was presented by Chris Bernat partner of Source Substates. He was a great speaker but honestly didn’t take much from this class.  The main things you can take from this class are the sports apparel market is the fastest growing in the apparel market. I believe he said, “This is $3.1 billion a year market.” That being said make sure your company doesn’t miss the boat on this market.

Day 3

Embroidery Goofs

If you are a beginner this class may be something you want to attend. In my opinion it will be completely unnecessary.  Nothing against the instructor but this was a very boring class for me.  The class consisted of how to remove stitches from garments, how to cover up holes and I don’t think I remember the rest.

Direct-to-Garment & Digital Transfer Profit Strategies

This class was taught by Chris Bernat of Vapor Apparel. This class seemed to be more of his success story than anything. I was hoping that I left this class with some profit strategies but truthfully I really didn’t. In my opinion to sum up this class is that more and more things are going digital in the apparel industry and without digital capabilities for customizing your orders you will be left behind. Everybody today is looking for customized apparel and that is why your company will need digital printing capabilities. If your company isn’t capable of this I suggest you start planning as soon as possible. Make sure you research what your customer base will be and make it happen. If you have any profit strategies what are they?Please share them!

ISS Show Atlantic City – Exhibitor Experience

As for the exhibitors at the ISS Show Atlantic City there were so many it was a little overwhelming. Fortunately everyone there generally was helpful and we didn’t experience any real pushy sales pushers. Our favorite part was meeting the people in person that we have worked with over the phone numerous times but that we have not met in person.  There was more screen printing equipment there than anything. We saw a neat little portable screen printing setup that was a little pricey that I wouldn’t see how it would be cost effective but it was indeed very nice. From there we saw every size screen printing press up to the awesome looking automated press from M&R. There were several options for direct to garment printing machines. Whether you wanted to start off with a basic DTG printer or the Mac Daddy DTG printers you were sure to see hands on action. If you needed any type of supplier you would have had no problem finding one here for any niche. We are definitely are going to give a few vendors a shot which we never would have seen if it was not for the ISS Show Atlantic City. Other than small minor things we found this as a great show for getting information for beginning or established businesses in the promotional apparel industry.

In conclusion I am better off since attending this show versus not. Our company Thread Perfection learned a lot in the seminars which will help us out with the learning curve in certain aspects of this business. If you or your company is considering getting into the promotional apparel business I highly recommend attending as ISS Show regardless of the location.

If you attended this ISS Show please share your comments as we would love to see what you took from the show.