Impressions - August/September 2012 - (Page 50)

talking SHOP Embroidery Production How to Find Efﬁciencies in Your Embroidery Shop Sometimes, saving pennies equals wasting dollars. There is nothing wrong with stretching your business dollars; just do so wisely. By Jimmy Lamb, Contributing Writer ’ve been around this industry for a number of years and, during that time, I have had the opportunity to make as many mistakes as humanly possible. If it’s true that you learn from your mistakes, then I could qualify as a genius … or not. But for sure, I have learned a lot from my business experiences — especially in the areas of economics and efﬁciency. i that involve money, such that you leap before you look. The result is that you may be saving pennies, but wasting dollars. Let’s take a look at some of the key day-to-day production activities of an embroidery shop and address some of the areas in which you may not be spending your money wisely. The ﬁrst focus will be needles. Do you Needles are cheap; producing poor quality embroidery is not. Anytime you change from one needle style to another — regardless of how long the previous needle was installed — throw the old one away. In addition, change out your existing needles on a routine basis. The frequency of doing this depends on how much sewing you are doing, but my The purchase of embroidery thread is an area that is ripe for seeking ways to save money. Focus on ﬁnding the best thread for the best price, not the cheapest thread on the market. Test and retest to verify strength, ﬂow and colorfastness. Make your ﬁnal choices based strictly on performance, not price. This will save you the most money in the long run. Like all business owners, I learned very quickly to assess what things cost and where I was spending my money. After all, if I could reduce the cost of operation without cutting into revenues, then my proﬁts would increase. On the surface, that’s a very simple concept. In reality, it’s very easy to be shortsighted on decisions 50 Impressions | August/September 2012 save needles to reuse later? Do you try to see how long you can go without changing them? These are examples of poor cost management. Old needles will become dull, leading to embroidery details that are not crisp. If nicks develop on the needle, it can result in thread breaks — which, in turn, result in unnecessary downtime. preference is at least once per month. Consider this: A package of 100 standard needles costs about $20, which works out to $0.20 per needle. Is it really worth it to reuse or overuse needles? THREAD REALITIES Going beyond needles, how you do you impressionsmag.com http://www.impressionsmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Impressions - August/September 2012

Impressions - August/September 2012
Table of Contents
First Impressions
From the Show Director
FYI
Product Gallery
ISS Conference
Warming Trends
Redefining Fleece
Jackets of All Trades
How to Handle the Unhappy Customer
Shop Spotlight
Embroidery Technique
Embroidery Production
Screen Printing Production
Screen Printing Graphics & Design
Online Directory
Digital Decorating
Business to Business
Classifieds
Ad Index

Impressions - August/September 2012