Are you prepared for the season ahead?

This month Colin Marsh, Resolute DTG’s managing director, shares his top tips on how garment decorators can get prepared for the run up to the Christmas period. Or as he puts it – how to cash in and not burn out.

Online T shirt sales and personalisation generally treble or quadruple during the run up to Christmas and August is normally the time when businesses should start to think about preparing for the extra seasonal sales.

Yes I am little late, but this due to a very busy year in the land of DTG. September is now upon us and already your customers are browsing online looking to buy Christmas presents before the last minute rush.

It is important to understand personalisation is not just about T shirts, it runs to many products that generally sell better during the Christmas season. The following tips will help you to be prepared for this and will help maximise throughput. Making sure you cash in on as much extra business also means you are not losing orders to your competitors.

1. Trebling your sales in any one month means you treble the need for consumables. Make sure you have the finances in place to do this or you could run dry with orders to left to fulfil.
2. Can you cope with treble the orders with your current workforce? Short term labour is hard to find these days. The early bird gets the best worms so recruit early to avoid disappointment.
3. Don’t run your stocks down during busy periods, anything from bad weather to a shortage in supply could leave you stranded. Keep your stock levels up and don’t slow down until you have enough to see you through until the Christmas close down.
4. Get your equipment ready. It’s no use having a printer serviced in the middle of November or December when it should be running flat out for you.
5. Step up marketing early, most people make a decision what and where to buy a few weeks before the purchase the actual on-line is made.

By putting these five tips into action you are on your way to preparing for the busiest online personalisation season of the year. But please remember, these are general points, your garment business is unique to you, there will be other points you will need to address to cope with the extra work. Good luck.

New to DTG? How to take to it like a duck to water

Over the many years of being involved in developing and now manufacturing printers in the UK I have seen a lot of different scenarios where DTG is concerned.

Taking the time to study the process and make sure it does what you want it to, is one of the most important points when adding the DTG process to your business. DTG printing is now very simple but you must follow procedure. Compared to six years ago the consumables are far more stable, the equipment much more reliable and there are more companies to choose from. This all sounds very good and it is, but please remember the two most important parts of DTG printing are your training and making sure you buy the right equipment for your needs.

All DTG printers are slightly different and this can have a massive impact on how you use them and what they are good at producing. Here are a couple of tips to help avoid the DTG blues by making a wrong turn.

1. If you are going to use white ink, a full automatic circulation system is essential. Without this you will need to remove the cartridges and shake them daily, this can cause unnecessary clogging.
2. Pre-treating garments will be much easier when using a machine. They reduce waste and keep the working area much cleaner.
3. DTG ink – make sure you are getting a good price per litre. This can be the difference between the same print costing less than £1 or more than £2.
4. Technical support – you will at some point need help so make sure this is offered and is included in your warranty. Check you will not have to pay for travel or parts while under warranty should you need them.
5. Research the forums, see what machines are best suited to your business.