The full title to a recent Shopify article is "Why Mental Health Is Essential to Your Business Strategy." I'm pleased to see an organization as influential as Shopify highlighting this issue. I addressed it in the context of our industry in my book, Characters Who Can...

Textile screen printing is a heavily plastic-reliant industry, and not only because of materials such as plastisol ink, but also because of the containers in which the materials are delivered. This means that if we are to participate in the movement for more...

I've suggested before that small businesses should not only have a website (many still don't) but that it should be an e-commerce site so that it serves both as a promoter of your shop and an extra source of revenue. But, you'd be quite right to point out that there...

For at least the past two years I’ve been writing about an accelerating trend in the sign industry — adopting textile printing. I’ve mostly mentioned this in the context of sign shops printing garments on direct-to-garment printers and also heat-pressing vinyl onto...

With forest fire season already underway in Canada there will likely be warnings about poor outdoor air quality throughout the summer. It's something we have to live with. But what about poor indoor air quality in your shop? It's something you don't have to live with....

If you've been screen printing textiles for some time, you'll be aware that there are different plastisol inks for different applications, effects and substrates. But how up to date are you on that latest additions? Perhaps there are inks that will give you ideas for...

Your business is in a competitive market saturated with textile screen shops pretty much producing the same product. And as with any commodity such as, say, bread, milk, bananas, and T-shirts, price tends to become the main influencer in buying decisions. And we all...

It's true that not all textile shops are messy. And I suppose "messy" is relative and depends upon your definition of the word. But I think we all know a messy textile screen shop when we see one. I visited many textile screen shops over many years, and of those quite...

Mahatma Gandhi apparently had something to say about customers, though I for one would never have guessed that he had any interest in business generally or customers specifically, at all. He was much better known for being an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist,...

Garment decorators (screen printers and direct-to-garment printers) concerned about their impact on the environment face a conundrum in three questions. And those are: "Aside from obviously not putting chemicals and ink into the sewer system, what can I do to minimize...

I had an interesting email from a reader about something I hadn't considered before, and I'm guessing that you might not have either. But now that it has been brought to our notice, it would be foolish to not keep an eye it. So what is it? Well, why don't I just let...

As posted last month, the September Imprint Canada shows in Montreal and Calgary are scheduled for  the 7th and 8th and 28th and 29th respectively. I don't have to remind you that attending shows is an essential part of staying up to date on developments in the...

Online retailers are increasingly using Augmented Reality (AR) to help overcome the apparent boom in customer returns. According to Narvar—a company whose platform provides support in shipping, tracking, notifications and returns with algorithms to understand trends,...

As I posted last month, March was fraud prevention month. That of course wasn't meant to imply that now that March has passed we can forget about fraud prevention. And to underscore that, Amazon put out an email warning today about fraud when buying from them in which...

I recently found this story by Bill Hood from a few years ago in my files. Who's Bill Hood? Read the story and I'll tell you at the end. "Yesterday, I was in a very large, high-production shop and found the owner of the shop, wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and a bandana...

Dear Bell, It's commonly assumed that small businesses can benefit by modelling themselves after big business practices. I'm not sure about the origins of this—it may stem from an assumption that bigger businesses with their greater resources, are more sophisticated...

By now we all know that glitter is microplastic. And we all know that, like all other microplastics, it's finding its way into the oceans where it's causing havoc with marine life, including finding it's way into the marine life that we eat. And by that route, we're...

Further to the post last Thursday, the 23rd, about the non-delivery of my parcel and the atrocious customer service every small business could learn from, there's been a development. After much searching, I found a chat line for Amazon customer service. I explained...

I'm not sure how many times I've written about this or discussed it with business owners, but it keeps coming up—being accessible to your customers, especially the ones you've frustrated. And it's not just a small business problem, in fact, my experience (yet again)...

A VW dealership in North Carolina recently had to apologize to customers after stickers that included a racial slur were stuck on their cars after a service. It all happened because of a lack of security over in-house equipment such as a computer on which they...

I make a point of reading to keep up with developments in, not only the world-wide garment decorating industry, but also the fashion industry generally. What goes on in the greater fashion industry is bound to have an impact on textile screen printing sooner or later,...

The Imprint shows are coming up later this year in Canada and, as usual, I recommend attending shows, if not as an exhibitor, then certainly as an attendee. It's an essential part of keeping up to date on what's going on the industry. You can't keep up with the...

Some members of our industry are taking the plastic pollution problem seriously, others aren't. Those of us that are, need to keep informed on the topic, both the good work that is being done to address the problem as well as new aspects of the problem as they become...

As you might already know, March is fraud prevention month. If your bank is like mine, then you would likely have received at least one email about fraud awareness. And if you're like me, you'd be inclined to hit "delete" and move on. But we shouldn't do that. Online...

Yet another article about Direct To Garment printing popped up recently in my email. This one forecast a USD1.8201 billion DTG market by 2032. Based on my experience with the difficulties of forecasting, especially ten years out in an unsettled and unpredictable...

I recently had a discussion with a small business owner about a difficult customer. The situation had arrived at a point where the customer was no longer worth the stress they were causing. In situations like this, and given that it's impossible to tease your personal...

The fashion industry (of which we are a part) has a terrible reputation among environmentalists, and rightly so. It's a big topic so it's enormously popular among business journalists who love writing about "success stories" in the battle against, for instance, fast...

If you're going to prepare promotional material for your shop be aware that your credibility will be judged by it. For instance, if you draft an email or a pamphlet advertising your products and services it had better be well designed with eye-catching graphics,...

Customers don't want to be told what you can't do for them. What they want is to be told is how their problem is going to be solved. How you handle a customer's issue can determine whether or not you retain that customer. It comes down to positive versus negative...

Here's a follow-up to the previous post from the same writer, Adrian Dayton. You should re-think your business's participation in social media if it is preventing you from concentrating on more important things. It's a question of focus. Dayton makes the point that...

I was recently reading an article by a LinkedIn consultant who said that, when it's necessary, he advises clients to close their LinkedIn accounts. And he said that he does so when the client has nothing to gain from LinkedIn or when the time spent on the account...

Three years ago already, Adrienne Matei, writing for the Guardian, pointed out that glitter is "an environmental abomination." She explained how it is made from a combination of aluminum and plastic and is a microplastic. Microplastics have been found in Arctic ice,...