# Retail and screen printing, good combo ?



## Earthdome (Feb 25, 2011)

Okay, done a bit of research on pro's and con's to doing retail along with a screen print shop. I realize it could be a nuisance and could take away from production time, especially if screen print orders pile up. But could it work if I get a clerk to help run the front of the shop? 

What I want to do is integrate myself into the local school system by adding a storefront with local team clothes, perhaps pads or a few accessories for sports teams, or some custom designs of my own. Also maybe have some transfers on the wall that people can have applied to a shirt. Or have books or a computer with web so people can chose art and I can order the transfers from there ? Or sublimation or DTG ? Or offer other artists designs for sale as well?

Is there anyone doing something similar ? Are there ways to justify having a retail store front along with a screen print shop If I can find the optimal location ? Would I be getting in over my head ? 

Any input/suggestions much appreciated.


----------



## LandmarkTeez (Jul 1, 2011)

I've had both for 21 years, I have 2 people running my store. Sometimes I have to print & help customers by myself. I have a door buzzer next to me to inform me when a customer comes in & a touch screen barcode register for more speed. The biggest problem is that I can get more printing done when I can lock the doors. That means I have 12 hour days during my busy season. Also my rent is higher than other printers because I need a good location for the retail to survive The good news is that having retail allowed me to afford an automatic, so the long hours should be a thing of the past. I'm not sure if I helped you any, just sharing my retail experiences


----------



## Earthdome (Feb 25, 2011)

LandmarkTeez said:


> I've had both for 21 years, I have 2 people running my store. Sometimes I have to print & help customers by myself. I have a door buzzer next to me to inform me when a customer comes in & a touch screen barcode register for more speed. The biggest problem is that I can get more printing done when I can lock the doors. That means I have 12 hour days during my busy season. Also my rent is higher than other printers because I need a good location for the retail to survive The good news is that having retail allowed me to afford an automatic, so the long hours should be a thing of the past. I'm not sure if I helped you any, just sharing my retail experiences


Very helpful, thanks Rob. Can you tell me what kinds of things you offer in the shop? Is it all screen printed items? Or do you have other promotional items, or offer heat pressing? 

I honestly could start things up in my basement, but I want to move to a location that has a NEED for printers and is a growing community, also much larger population. 

I am also getting some help with funding, so I want to make it as profitable as I can from the start. I will have to see what kind of locations are available and do price comparisons. 

Good luck with your Automatic ! Hope you get some huge jobs ! and hope it saves you a lot of time : )

Tks


----------



## LandmarkTeez (Jul 1, 2011)

We mostly carry Athletic Socks, Belts, Baseball & Football Pants, Just about everything sports related except the equipment. We also print our own High school spirit apparel. The public schools mostly since private schools are like businesses & you usually need their permission. We have almost all the garment decorating equipment. Press, embroidery machine & a heat press, the only thing we do on the heat press is vinyl numbers & names on the uniforms we print. Also we sell alot of blank T-Shirts, sometimes to my competitors, if you can believe that.


----------



## VeeLove (Jul 18, 2010)

Earthdome said:


> Very helpful, thanks Rob. Can you tell me what kinds of things you offer in the shop? Is it all screen printed items? Or do you have other promotional items, or offer heat pressing?
> 
> I honestly could start things up in my basement, but I want to move to a location that has a NEED for printers and is a growing community, also much larger population.
> 
> ...


Don't spend all that funding before you start. Think of your worst case scenarios- do these teams get free accessories for signing with a specific shoe or clothing manufacturer? Who's supplying them now and what's the additional value you bring to make them change? How seasonal is the business- year-round sports or just busy in the fall and spring? Will you have enough cash to carry inventory for six months to a year and still pay rent, wages, equipment loans, marketing, association/trade memberships? 

If you can start in your basement, then start in your basement, "free rent" and possible tax write off. Create a sample kit with carry along if customers absolutely need to see and touch the merchandise.

Grow your business by reserving cash as long as possible. There will always be "great locations". Keep your business plan open and review it often to see if you are hitting your numbers.


----------



## gapipkin (May 29, 2011)

Great thread! My question is about the merchandise. How and where do you order it from? I'm interested in the exact setup you guys are talking about. I want to rotate inventory with the sports seasons.


----------



## JAEB (May 22, 2008)

Going retail is a huge risk with no existing customes in place. 
Go visit industry trade shows thats a great start! Good Luck.


----------



## monkeyinadryer (Sep 29, 2006)

Earthdome, Did you make the plunge into a retail location or start the process out of your basement? We are in the process right now of doing the same thing you are. We started demo today on our retail location. We will offer all the things you talked about for schools. The only difference is that we have our screen printing equipment off location from the retail store. We already had an employee working for us out of the print location that we are moving to the retail location. Plus we are hiring a part time person to help out. We plan to open March 1st. 

andrea


----------



## d4s (Dec 12, 2011)

Andrea we have 3 retail store locations in different towns. At our main location we have our production side of the business that supplies the spirit wear, business wear, banner and signs for each location. Each locations has 1 full time and 1 part time teammate. The full time teammate is the graphic artist and manager of that store, the part time is a sales associate. We run QB Pro POS Multi store for our registers. We use Chatter for internal communications between locations so everyone is in the loop. Our problem as we grow to other towns is the quoting and work order process and getting that from our remote locations to the main office and then to production. Other than that I think screen printing and retail is a great combination for impulse buying along with bulk orders......


----------



## monkeyinadryer (Sep 29, 2006)

d4s said:


> Andrea we have 3 retail store locations in different towns. At our main location we have our production side of the business that supplies the spirit wear, business wear, banner and signs for each location. Each locations has 1 full time and 1 part time teammate. The full time teammate is the graphic artist and manager of that store, the part time is a sales associate. We run QB Pro POS Multi store for our registers. We use Chatter for internal communications between locations so everyone is in the loop. Our problem as we grow to other towns is the quoting and work order process and getting that from our remote locations to the main office and then to production. Other than that I think screen printing and retail is a great combination for impulse buying along with bulk orders......


Wow! You are doing what we are just starting out to do with this store. I will post pics of our store once we get it up and ready. I took a pic of the original space a few weeks ago and will post what the space looks like as soon as it's done and setup. It's very exciting to go from just a production location to adding our first retail store. Lots to learn and what to carry, etc. POS systems


----------



## luckyspade (Feb 6, 2012)

Good Luck! Sounds Like your start out good and thinking of everthing u need.


----------



## d4s (Dec 12, 2011)

Andrea just curious on your investigation process on POS and work order/quoting software for your retail shop? Any pics yet??


----------



## monkeyinadryer (Sep 29, 2006)

d4s said:


> Andrea just curious on your investigation process on POS and work order/quoting software for your retail shop? Any pics yet??


It's going great! We are set to open March 5th and we still have LOTS of work to do. Finishing up a lot of the showroom stuff this weekend. I would post pics but it's just not to the point I want to share. I will next week  Also, haven't gotten the POS setup yet. I bought it from a friend who used it for his business but unfortunately had to close but the system worked great! So, he's going to train us next week. That is probably the most scary thing to me  I know it will really help with seeing what sells for our pre-printed merch and one off shirts. I'll post more next week.

Andrea


----------



## monkeyinadryer (Sep 29, 2006)

Finally got the store almost together enough to post some pics! Still missing some athletic gym lockers that I ordered that will house our sports uniform samples and a dressing room. Here is a link to our facebook page and you can see all the pictures of the new retail store and also the before pictures. Please feel free to post your thoughts!

Monkey in a Dryer Screen Printing Minnetonka Location


----------



## d4s (Dec 12, 2011)

Store looks great! Decor is awesome....Grand Opening Soon I'm sure!!! How close is your production shop to your retail location??


----------



## monkeyinadryer (Sep 29, 2006)

It's about 10 minute drive. The thing is, our son goes to school about a mile from our store. So every day, we go by the store. So, if we need to bring something up their that we printed, we just drop it off. We will have a grand opening as soon as we get everything running smoothly. It's gettin' there 

Andrea


----------



## gapipkin (May 29, 2011)

Wow, Really impressed! How did you do all the interior decorating and fixtures?


----------



## d4s (Dec 12, 2011)

About a week under your belt....how are you handling the work order/quoting process from retail to production. Are you using software for that or just old fashion #2 pencil and big chief tablet! Hope I didn't date myself there. lol


----------



## monkeyinadryer (Sep 29, 2006)

Thanks guys! I designed the layout and Dallas did the creative work on the desk, made the signage, the frames. He's amazing  I hired a a fantastic renovation guy who ripped out the ceiling, painted and installed carpet. The one thing missing are the athletic open front gym lockers. They are coming in about 10 days. Can't wait to see those. I'll post pics once we have those up and in place. I thought it was a great idea to use those to showcase the athletic uniforms like football jerseys, baseball jerseys, basketball jerseys etc. The lockers will encase a fitting room which is hard for me to explain but I'll take pictures.

We opened quietly because we didn't have the embroidery machine, the laser printer for transfers and the sublimation machine working properly. We were missing a piece from our embroidery machine. Found out our laser printer isn't compatible with MAC :-( And can't get our sublimation printer to print all colors. But I think everything will work by Monday. Got everything ordered that we need and should be in this week. Other than that, things are going well. We picked up one BIG account which if it goes well, we could have to hire another person. Very excited to see how it goes but also kinda scary 

Andrea


----------



## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

Earthdome said:


> Okay, done a bit of research on pro's and con's to doing retail along with a screen print shop. I realize it could be a nuisance and could take away from production time, especially if screen print orders pile up. But could it work if I get a clerk to help run the front of the shop?


We do that. When customers pile up in front, production stops so we end up working nights and weekends. We even hired a guy to have an extra hand during the day and we still work the same late hours. 



Earthdome said:


> What I want to do is integrate myself into the local school system by adding a storefront with local team clothes, perhaps pads or a few accessories for sports teams, or some custom designs of my own...


That will not get you into the schools unless someone just walks into your shop and orders from you. Schools have a lot of juiced in suppliers and it is very hard to get in but once you do they probably will not leave you unless you piss them off. 

Quite simply, it is who you know, not your product or art abilities or anything else. 


Good Luck


----------



## FrontRunners (Mar 16, 2012)

Wow nice store


----------



## Rankin Sports (Apr 12, 2009)

My apologies in advance if this was mentioned in the above posts but what POS systems are you guys using?? We need a barcode system to handle our retail and something to handle our screen printing, embroidery, and engraving orders. I would love to have something with ticket support to email customers through production process and a task manager layout for employees to follow workflow. I need it to all be in one system. I was looking at shopworks today but they do not incorporate Quickbooks. Shopworks did have some other newt features. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your help


----------



## d4s (Dec 12, 2011)

Wish I could help we are looking for the same thing. We currently use Quickbooks POS Multi-Store (Retail Side)it does all of our retail sale tags and pricing & Quickbooks 12 for our (Financial Side) payables. Those two work together really well. We use T-Quoter for our work order, purchasing, production scheduling and invoicing. We use proof path for our art approval process. The problem we have is QBPOS integrates with QB12 but not T-Quoter, T-Quoter integrates with QB12 but not QBPOS. So if a customer comes in and wants to pay with credit card it is wrung up in QBPOS and we have to manually go in and write-off out of T-Quoter and not send it to QB12 so we can have history.... the cash and check customers are fine. Hope that made some sense... It has been a work in progress. We use Chatter to communicate to our 3 Retail locations (different towns) and Production site. It is used to keep everyone in the loop on orders or specials. Our main problem with our retail sites are quoting and streamlining our work order process to get to production because T-Quoter is not web-based. Don't think I helped much but maybe something in that windy paragraph will help!


----------



## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

Everything we do is custom so there is no POS needed.


----------



## d4s (Dec 12, 2011)

What about quoting and work order/scheduling software??


----------



## monkeyinadryer (Sep 29, 2006)

We are using checkout for Mac. It works with MYOB accounting program, has a POS system and a check out for any online store sales. It's pretty cool. Haven't tried to integrate the two softwares together yet.


----------



## justin1213 (Sep 20, 2011)

I'm hoping for some guidance... I am looking at opening a store/print shop and stocking the store with preprinted local school sports apparel and sport specific stock transfers. I have researched everything I could...started my business plan but am hitting a road block when it comes to how much inventory and what products besides the shirts, hoodies, polos, etc. any help would be greatly appreciated.


----------

