How we moved forward after the pandemic

Think about our line of work. What are we paying attention to? We are focused on keeping the doors open, how to get more staff, how to keep up with our customers’ demands, learning about marketing, how to improve a process in-house, and so much more.

All of these topics are extremely important to us and they should be. However, around five years ago, my mind was different than it is today. We’ve doubled the size of our company since then, so let’s talk about what has changed over this time period.

Pandemic changes

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it seemed to me that there was a race to the bottom to be the cheapest. For years I said to focus on your quality, customer service, and turnaround time. Everyone has different costs and if you are netting less profit, you open yourself up to a high-risk gambling that normally ends in failure.

Another thing that started happening during this time was that wholesalers were struggling with stock and staff. Because of this, the quality and turnaround time of producing orders is still a concern.

Growing pains

As our company grew in size, we also faced several issues. There were growing pains in which my wife and I, as owners, didn’t align with two longtime managers. After some personnel changes, we were able to focus more on growth even though it meant I was personally operating a piece of equipment for two months without a lunch break while we got back on track. In those days, I thought I needed a manager in each department. And since some staff didn’t want to deal with management in certain areas, it was impossible to cross-train. Focusing on production and morale allowed us to complete a 180-degree change in our direction.

Still, staffing is an issue. As I write this, we are down a general manager, design manager, embroidery manager, and screen print/DTF manager, but you would never know! Our daughter, two other managers, and our son, who just graduated high school, have all stepped up with my wife and me. We took control as a team and work together to determine how we want things to run in our company. Everyone on our team is cross-trained in every process. In doing so, they will make more wages per hour and the morale has never been so good. Everyone is eager to help one another and to learn from each other.

Recruiting staff

Another thing we focused on was our interviewing and hiring process. That was my biggest weakness as an employer and here’s why: As a person who grew up poor and in group homes as a child, I have always been big on paying it forward and giving someone in need a chance. But I learned that many will mistake your kindness for weakness and, in the end, you actually pay them to hurt your company.

Now, we focus only on quality candidates who seem eager to learn and are looking for a career, not a job. When someone is interested in a position with our company, I email them and I am very direct about who I am and what our company name stands for and means to us and our family. Most of the negative people will run from this email, but those seeking change run toward us. After I interview them, I bring my managers in for a second opinion to meet with the person and to make sure they have a say as well.

In-house production

Once we got our morale turned around and everyone on board to cross-train, we invested in three new processes last year. As promotional companies’ quality and turnaround time started to slip, we needed to figure out what our next move was and what we wanted to do to prevent these issues. So, I researched a lot more about equipment in the past year. DTF and UV printing caught our attention right away because we could print full color images, it was easy to teach, and it took up very little space.

On top of that, we added a UV laser for glassware. We already had a 2D and 3D laser, so it was a natural fit. These three processes alone are game changers for ease of production and allow us to tackle 90% of all projects in-house. As we source more blank products, we can get up to at least 95% of all work done in-house. This gives our company full control of the quality and turnaround time.

All three of these processes take up very little space and create a high impact for our company and customers. Remember that in our line of work, we have three options: We can sub everything out and rely on the next company to produce for us and hope they care about our customers as much as we do, we can limit the processes in-house of what we want to offer and still sub as much out when we feel like it, or we can work to take on 95% or more and control everything from start to finish.

All these options have their perks and everyone has different business plans and goals. With our growth rate, we are looking to produce as much in-house as possible so as to never miss any deadlines and to ensure our print quality is top-notch at all times. I encourage you to keep making moves toward your success.