by Michael Best | Sep 30, 2024 | General interest
Stanley’s is changing the way they bring you useful industry, technical, and management information. Instead of this blog and a monthly email, there will be a Monday-morning “newsmail” with two items of information and a coupon special with which to kick off your week.
This change is happening at the same time as the launch of Stanley’s new e-commerce site – https://stanleysonline.com. The first coupon is for 10% off all Wilflex standard colours . So, head over to the 24/7 Warehouse and check out the best Canadian e-commerce site for textile screen printers!
by Michael Best | Sep 26, 2024 | General interest
There’s an issue that plagues many a textile screen printing shop—a build-up of partial ink containers of colours not likely to be used too frequently, if ever again. And of course there is always a very good intention of searching the redundant ink shelves before ordering colours but, as we all know, in practice that seldom happens. It’s much easier to pick up the phone than search through a collection of messy, partially-full ink buckets.
The best solution is an in-house mixing system, however, some printers argue that they don’t have the staff or time to mix ink in-house except on a few special occasions when it is really, really necessary. But, that doesn’t mean that they’re not concerned about the inevitable build-up of partial containers and the unemployed money it represents. So, is there another solution, perhaps a compromise between mixing in-house and a redundant ink inventory? Yes, there is.
Here’s how I’ve seen some printers deal with this. . . , They have a limited palette of colours that they offer customers (rather than say, a huge selection such as the PANTONE chart), and therefore limit their inventory of ink colours to those colours. Printers who use this strategy have told me that they find that most customers are flexible enough in their colour choices for this to work very well. They find that if they offer three reds, most customers will pick one and be happy about it, but if they offer twelve reds it doesn’t make them any happier, it just takes longer to do so.
The one exception is that corporate client who has very specific colour specifications. But, if the order is large and profitable enough to warrant it, you can make an exception.
So, here’s the compromise . . . Why not adopt one of Wilflex’s printable ink mixing systems and offer those colours as your house colours? If you consider that a bit limited, you have the ability to add colours by mixing the printable colours to create the additional colours for your standard palette. And then, if you want to accommodate the occasional custom colour (such as for a fussy corporate customer) you can mix it in the exact quantity.
The benefits are convenience, standardization, and no build up of redundant ink inventory. It will save you time and money!
by Michael Best | Sep 23, 2024 | General interest
In order to remain competitive, you need to know at all times what your competitors are up to. And in order to know that, you need to undertake a competitive analysis and then, having done that, update it from time to time. At least once a year is a good idea.
So what is a competitive analysis? The BDC definition is as good as any: “It is an assessment of your competitors’ products, services and sales tactics, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses relative to your own.”
There is more to conducting a comprehensive competitive analysis than I have space here to cover in full. This means that you have more research and reading to do but, in the meantime, there are four key elements you should concentrate on in researching how to conduct a competitive analysis:
- Identify your competitors. Not just direct competitors but also indirect competitors and substitute competitors that target the same customers as you do.
- Gather all the information you can about your competitors. You want to know about their products, their pricing, how they market and promote, their reputation, their staff, and the relationships they have with suppliers.
- Using the information gathered in (2) above, analyze your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
- Based on the analysis in (3) above, determine your competitive advantage. You can then reinforce your advantages and work on your weaknesses.
Your shop can’t compete effectively in ignorance or with only a minimal understanding of your competition. And this is all stuff you can do on your own without spending on consultants or other third parties.
by Michael Best | Sep 19, 2024 | General interest
Passwords are an key element in personal and business online security. How you use them matters.
Hacking is a constant threat and underestimating the expertise of hackers and the sophisticated tools they have, can be a costly mistake. No individual and no business (large or small) is exempt from this online threat. Passwords are one of the key ways of protecting your online access, but they must be used properly if they are to be effective. In the same way that you’re going to find the best possible unpickable lock for your new bicycle before you park it in public, you should ensure that you use better passwords that are less likely to be hacked.
An innovative way of coming up with random passwords is to construct a sentence and then use the first letter or digit of every word to make up your password. For instance, “Why is this the 4th new password I’ve had to think up today?” gives you this password: “Witt4npIhttut?”
Here are some additional password precautions you can take:
- Don’t use the same password for different services.
- Don’t use similar passwords on different sites, i.e., don’t just change a single character in creating a new password for another site.
- Whenever possible, use multi-factor authentication (MFA). That’s when you log on, you receive a code by, say, text message, to enter before gaining access to the site.
- Use different, long, random passwords for every site.
- Keep your passwords in a password manager.
Again, don’t underestimate the resourcefulness of hackers. To do so could be costly.
by Michael Best | Sep 16, 2024 | General interest
I once saw what was promoted as a training a video for textile screen printers. It was one of those videos that are more harmful than helpful and produced by someone who clearly had no business claiming to be an expert.
In this instance the person was talking about frames and screens. Real industry experts talk about using tension meters to ensure that you have a suitably tense screen. The pretend expert in the video said that while he had a tension meter somewhere in the shop (he didn’t know where) it was okay to press the mesh and just make sure that it was “good and tight”. He also talked about bouncing a quarter on the mesh—the way “oldtimers” tested tension.
It’s this kind of nonsense that does the industry no favours. If you’re going to do screen printing seriously then take screen preparation seriously and use the technology available for the task. It starts with understanding the technology and selecting the best your budget can afford. There’s the frame (wood, fixed aluminum, or re-tensionable aluminum), the right mesh count for the job, the right mesh tension using a tension meter, and the right emulsion for the job.
Bouncing quarters on a screen or just pressing and guessing, might have been fine before we had today’s technology, but it’s not fine now. It’s not fine if you want to run a technologically sound shop producing consistent results in a competitive market.
by Michael Best | Sep 12, 2024 | General interest
Rejects cost money and there’s a quick and simple calculation to bring the cost of rejects into focus.
Any number of mistakes and oversights can result in a reject. It’s important to be reminded of this whether you’re a new sole-operator or an owner of a large shop.
If the reject rate is not watched carefully it can become costly. Try this simple calculation . . . what is your margin on an impression on customer-supplied shirts? (Let’s call this $A). Now, what is the cost of replacing the customer’s rejected shirt plus the cost of making the impression? (Let’s call this $B). Now divide $B by $A. This tells you how many impressions you have to do just to get back to break-even after incurring a rejection. You can’t make money when you’re working to pay for rejects.
Even if you can fix a mistake with a spot-remover gun, it may less costly than replacing a garment but it’s still going to cost you in terms of time and chemical cost.
And that’s just the money side of it. What about the embarrassment of having to admit to a customer that you’ve messed up a bunch of their shirts? What will too much of this do to your shop’s reputation?
Everyone in your shop should understand the true cost of a reject—from the person that takes the order, to the artist, to the screen person, to the printer, and everyone else.
