Pardon the alliteration, I couldn’t help myself.  Does the constant craving for samples from your customers drive you a bit nutty?  If not tempered, it can quickly launch out of control.
Have you been pulling your hair out lately?
Samples for the most part are for someone else’s final decision making usually, but they can be for other purposes too, such as a photo shoot or a quality control procedure.
The intent for the article is to be more or less a walk through the sampling process to help you define your strategy on what might work for you in your shop.  Just read and use what you like and change or discard the rest.
Ok, let’s get started…

New post from Marshall Atkinson at Atkinsontshirt.com! Looking for the latest tip or trick to run your decorated apparel shop better?  You won’t find it in this article.
Nope.
All I have here is going to be a lot of work on your end if you decide to accept the challenges.  Think you have what it takes?  We’ll see.
Listed below are four things you should be doing in your shop and one that you should not.  Because it sounded catchy, I’m naming these the four do’s and a don’t.  I think these are the cornerstone of running your shop more efficiently.  They are somewhat interconnected, but very relevant.
Ready?  Here goes…

When registering screens for a multi-color job, always take into consideration the direction in which the squeegee will be pulled. Use the black or other dark color screen to register the design onto a light colored fabric, and the white or light color screen to register on dark fabrics.

With over twenty five years in the decorated apparel industry, I’ve spoken with all sorts of folks from shops in every corner of the country.  A good many have a lot of things worked out, and they are usually at the top of the food chain in their market niches.  Some are just ridiculously bad business people or ineffective at managing their processes in their shops. 
Why?
It’s as simple as connecting the dots.  A connects B.  If you don’t do A right, B isn’t going to work well.
We are all blinded by orders that have to ship.  That’s the number one excuse that I always hear when I’m asking “why don’t you do something about your problem?”.  People just don’t stop and think that if they solved for A better; B wouldn’t be such a headache.
Ok, so what the hell am I talking about now?  Let’s take a look at four super common problems.  These are in no particular order or ranking…but in your shop one could be more impactful than another.  Do any of these sound familiar?