As shop owners, we all wear different hats everyday to make sure the work around us gets done correctly and on-time to ensure we have happy clients.  At some point during our day, we are customer service reps, HR reps, screen cleaners, printers, foldering, shipping, and quality control not to mention, the day to day management of the accounts receivable department.  Wow!  You have to ask yourself how we get all this work done!

The question we ALL need to ask ourselves is what happens to the shop if we aren't around to perform or ensure all these tasks get done as they should.  Here are some thoughts that can help us survive and make our shops more successful.

1. Take care of yourself!

All to often shop owners run theirself into the ground (sometimes literally).  We feel we have to keep everything going or the world will collapse.  We run 12-18 hours a day sometimes 7 days a week.  We suffer physically, our families suffer because we cannot spend time with them, and our friends... well,... our friends are non-existent because we are never around.

We must find a balance in our work life and our personal life.  Force yourself to take a day off weekly.  Once a year, schedule and TAKE a family vacation.  We all have to unplug at some point.  My personal favorite is taking a cruise.  That way no one can reach me and I have no way of reaching my shop.  It forces me to unwind.

Above all else, remember why you started your business.  I am sure you wanted to be in control of your life and your family finances.  You wanted to spend more time with your family but ask yourself, are you? Or are your children growing up without you around because of the business that will fail without you. 

2. Stick to your core business

As much as you want to, you can not be all things to all customers.  It's impossible. Figure out what is your core product offering and simply be the best you can at that.  I have seen several businesses fail because they specialized in nothing but offered everything.  Unfortuately, nothing met the customers expectations and the business failed.  Know your limitation and stick with them.  Build partnerships with other businesses in your area that specialize is other products.  Refer your clients to them when needed and they will refer clients to you when they need your services.  It's a win-win.  The customer get a quality product and both companies gain satisfied customers and referrals.

3. Know your finances

This one topic is one that never ceases to amaze me in that most businesses have no idea what things cost on a day to day basis and where their company stands financially.  I had one person tell me that as long as they had money in the bank, they were doing great!  In reality, they were losing money at a staggering rate.

Questions come up on these boards all the time about pricing services before shop costs are even established.  How can you price your service if you don't know your costs?  You CAN NOT base your prices on what your competition is charging.  If you do, your business is doomed from the start.  Know your costs, set your prices, stick to your prices.  If they job doesn't make financial sense, then don't accept the job.  If you do, you are working for free and your business is now a hobby.  You suffer, your family suffers, and your business suffers.  There will ALWAYS be someone cheaper either down the road or online. 

4. Create Best Practices for your company

What is a Best Practice? A best practice is a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark. Documenting and charting procedures and practices is a complicated and time-consuming process often skipped by companies, even though they may practice the proper processes consistently.  Even though this is time consuming process, your company gains from it as you are forced to look at each aspect of your business and verify the way something is being done is the correct way of performing the task.  You will probably find there are better ways to accomplish tasks as you go.  Not to mention, hiring someone new will be a breeze once you have your processes documented.  This will make a great training tool!

5. Hire GREAT people and let them work

It can be a challenge for small business owners to hire great people and get out of their way so they can work.  Most small business people believe only their way is the correct way.  There are always alternatives.  Train your people well then be open and listen to your people ideas and suggestions.  They see things differently than you do and you would be surprised how many times their ideas make sense if you allow yourself to be open minded.

If there are skills that only you possess, train someone.  Remember, your job is to run your business.  Sometimes that means you have to delegate jobs and tasks to others.  Don't forget, you're going to be taking vacation and that shop needs to run without you. ;-)

6. Create a culture in which people want to work

When people want to come to work, it makes for a more enjoyable day and more work gets done.  If you employees are not smiling and relaxed, something is wrong.  Ask questions, LISTEN to their responses and be willing to react. 

Owners/managers should NEVER argue infront of the employees or heaven forbid, the customers.  Owners/managers should always work out their issue behind closed doors.  Even if the arguement has nothing to do with the employees, the employees feel that stress and react to it.

7. Set goals and review them consistently

Your shop needs goals.  These could be sales, production, and/or quality goals.  Make sure every employee understands how he/she has an impact on all the goals.  Develop a method of tracking and posting your shop progress.  Discuss the goals often and keep everyone involved in the progress.

8. Take time to invest in yourself (the owner)

In small business, you never know everything.  Find seminars or workshops on owning and running a small business.  Check with your local Small Business Association or Chamber for classes.  Talk with others in the industry to see what they are doing to be successful.  Take training classes offered by manufactures to learn different techniques in producing a better quality product. 

When you get back, take time to pass on your new knowledge to your employees.  Your employees want to learn new techniques.  It makes the job more interesting.

9. Outsource!

If you find yourself spending more time on things like doing your own books, doing your own taxes, and managing HR tasks instead of selling or bringing new ideas/techniques into your business, you might want to look into outsourcing that work to a part time bookkeeper or an agency that handles all that work for you. Focus on improving your business and outsource the mundane tasks if possible.

10. SMILE! You are living your dream of self employment.  Enjoy it and enjoy your family!

At SkylinePrints.com, we are always looking for ways to improve our business.  We hope that you find our tips useful in your own shop.  Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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  Many of us that have been in the industry for any length of time have seen numerous changes come about. These changes have not only been in better supplies but also in better equipment that has made our jobs a lot easier. Just look at how film output devices have changed where now anyone with a decent ink jet printer and a good rip program can output near image setter quality films. Gone are the days of needing to use cameras to create the films and all the heavy expenses that went along with it. A lot of the changes have seen the rise of new companies that offered updated equipment that was easier to set up, provided for more consistent printing and allow for higher speeds of production.

  Currently in the United States there are only a few main players that make quality automatic screen printing equipment. As one would expect in our industry automatic screen printing equipment is not normally been affordable to a lot of shops. This forces a lot of small and start up shops to seek out used equipment as an option to go automated. While this can be a viable option it does have its own set of problems. Used equipment is just that it is used. This means you may or may not get that sweet deal and find a piece of used equipment that will not have a lot of problems with it. This does not mean you cannot find good used equipment it just means that you really have to look hard and check into the equipment's history so that you can make your most educated decision as to whether buy the equipment or not. At the other end of the spectrum on used equipment would be the equipment that has been refurbished. If the equipment is refurbished by a reputable service center chances are it will perform very well and not give you too many problems.

  Another problem that small shops for startup shops will typically have is access to funding needed to purchase automatic screen printing equipment. When purchasing used equipment from an individual a small shop will typically have to dig deep into their pockets to find the funds to do so. Depending on the age of the equipment it may not even be eligible for financing and thus the purchase of it will require cash on hand. While refurbished equipment may be a safer buy it also typically comes with a higher price. This amplifies the problems of securing funding and some small shops and startup shops may have. In today's economical climate it is hard enough to secure financing as it is but a small shop for a start up shop will probably not have the credit rating and definitely not the tax records needed to secure such a loan.

  Just recently China has started manufacturing screen printing equipment to be exported into the United States. This equipment will be available at a significantly lower cost than equipment currently available in the US market. One of these manufacturers is even offering manufacture finance with no credit checks. The lower cost and ease of financing may make these machines of viable option for a lot of shops in the United States. As usual there's always talk about how China builds inferior products. In the case of the screen printing equipment the statements may be being thrown out there as a scare tactic to keep shops from considering China built equipment. Those statements could also be true at the current time. I feel within the next year we should know one way or another if the equipment manufactured in China will stand up to the day and day out production requirements needed in most shops.

  As with any equipment the equipment made in China will have some problems. But this is no different than equipment made in the United States or anywhere else for that matter. The question will be can the problems be resolved to where they will not fail again in the same manner. Only time will tell but I'm thinking of the fact that the China equipment will be better than most people are saying right now. If the China equipment can stand the test in a production setting, and I think you can, then this will be another turning point in our industry as it will allow shops that could never have had automatic equipment to be able to purchase the equipment to improve the quality of the product they put out and the production levels.

  How will this affect current suppliers of automatic screen printing equipment here in the United States? If the equipment proves to be junk as some have said, then it will have little if no effect at all on the current suppliers of equipment. If however the equipment produced in China proves to be dependable, durable and can stand up in production settings then it is safe to say the current suppliers of automatic screen printing equipment distributed in the United States will have to rethink what they are doing. If the equipment manufactured in China proves to be just as dependable and robust as equipment currently available in the United States and is available for two thirds perhaps the cost of current available equipment in the current manufacturers and suppliers of automatic screen printing equipment in the United States will have no choice but to change their business model.

  As this proving time plays out over the next year I am quite sure several negative smear campaigns will ensue. The smart shop owner will be the one that looks through the smear campaigns for any truth in their content. It is quite apparent to me that the current manufacturers and suppliers of automatic screen printing equipment in the United States will use smear campaigning in an attempt to retain market shares. The question Owners will have to answer to themselves is if there is any validity to the smear campaigns. If the equipment manufactured in China proves to be not reliable and not very durable then this will be easy information for shop owners to find out without the need to rely on the context of smear campaigns. However if the equipment manufactured in China proves to be very reliable then one must see the smear campaigns for what they are.

  I for one am interested in watching the show but in my opinion I believe the equipment manufactured in China is the next game changer in our industry. If it proves to be dependable and can stand up in a production setting then the current manufacturers and suppliers of automatic screen printing equipment in the United States will have no choice but to change what they are doing or close their doors. I feel that they will change the way they do things instead of closing their doors. This can only be a good thing for all the shops here in the United States. Only time will tell.

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