Starting July 14, 2009 I am starting a series of webinars to show you “How To Create Your Embroidery Business On-Line Marketing System”!   This will be a series of 3 webinars followed by a webinar for Q & A.  You will be able to send in your questions and I will answer all of them during the Q & A session by a webinar showing you the answer to your questions.

I have received so many requests for this type of training, so I decided to add it to the Embroidery Webinar Of The Month  sessions.  Getting your business on line is not easy and creating a marketing system that will help you to connect to your customers is not easy if you do not have the right kind of guidance in this area.  I have found that many embroiderers do not know how to get started in creating a website for their business,  and do not  know who to ask for help.

Creating an on-line presence does not have to be difficult and I have created a simple system that will help you to get your business on-line and be able to connect with your customers on a consistent basis.  You will be able to let them know when you are having a special.  You can create specials on the fly and get your message out to your customers quickly, when you need to bring in some extra cash!

Our first webinar will be July 14th followed by the second one on July 28th.  I will let you know at that point when the next one will be.  You will be able to work on your website between sessions and be ready for the next step. This is going to be an exciting series.

Join us for this embroidery of the month webinar series and get your embroidery business on-line using the simple system that I have created!  Don’t forget all EmbroideryTips and More Embroidery Club Members have the opportunity to attend for FREE!  This webinar series is worth far more than your annual investment in your Embroidery Tips and More Club membership and you are getting two for the price of one!!

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

When I think of High-End apparel or high-end apparel decoration, I think of high-end as expensive or exclusive.  In today’s economy, one might that this would not be easy to market, but if someone is looking for an exclusive product or something that is totally different, then they will be looking at a high-end product.  Even though there is a lot of talk about how our economy is in such a slump, there are many people that are more than willing to pay for high-end service.

You must convey to the customer why your product or service is so different and why it is so specialized.  Most often this type of customer will be looking for one of a kind items or designs.  I personally am a fan of one of a kind designs.  I do not want to walk around wearing something that someone else may also be wearing.  That goes for the designs on my clothing as well as the selection of my clothing.

I cannot afford to go out and purchase one of a kind designer clothing pieces, but If I can take a basic piece of clothing and make it look like a one of a kind designer piece by having an exclusive design created for it; I have then created that one of a kind high-end look!  By doing this, I have significantly raised the value of my garment as well as the overall perceived value of it.

Here are 6 tips that will help you to market high-end apparel decoration.

1. Show your customer how a one of a kind design created for them will raise the value of their product as well as give them the feeling of wearing designer clothing without that high-end apparel price tag.  This can be done using good quality basic clothing pieces and adding a one of a kind design or an exclusive monogram design.
2. Always market your high-end services by appealing to your  customer’s emotion.  When you are marketing high-end apparel decoration, your customers must be made to feel special and extremely important!
3. Insure your customer that their one of a kind design will be kept exclusive.  You must be careful that the design is not repeated for someone else.  This will defeat the purpose and will ruin your reputation.
4. Offer a service that no one else is willing to offer.  Do you have a sequin device?  Even though the stitch count may be very low for a sequin design, the perceived value is much higher than a normal embroidered design and can command a much higher price.  If you can offer an exclusive sequin design for a basic garment such as down the leg of a pair of jeans or on a jean shirt, you can charge accordingly for your time plus the added perceived value of the one of a kind design.
5. Market to Bride’s and the Bridal party and family.  This is a market that likes to have exclusive designs.  You can create a custom monogram for the new bride and groom that can be used on all of their linens.  you can even create a custom one of a kind design for the bridal veil or the skirt of the wedding gown.
6. Market your services to Performers and Show Groups.  They want one of a kind designs and yet you may be able to give them several garments with the same design bringing in more revenue.  This can even bring in repeat orders of the same design for the same customer if you develop a costume or uniform for the performer or show group.

You can build up a following by word of mouth about your exclusive service of one of a kind designs.  I did this with monograms.  I created exclusive one of a kind monograms for my high-end customers and they were very appreciative of the type of service that I provided.  They brought in their friends.  I kept the designs in folders for that customer’s use only, and no one was ever allowed to see or use that design.  Each and every monogram design was a one of a kind.  I created exclusive full monogram sets to be used for their wardrobes or their home decor and linens.

Of course there is a high-end charge for this service, there are many people that will be more than willing to pay for this exclusive service.

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

Part 3,  the final session of our Design Creation webinars using your existing embroidery fonts and shapes, will be next Tuesday night May 26 at 8pm.  During this webinar I will be working on a college logo using a true type font and we will be doing some review from the previous 2 sessions of this same series of webinars.

I started this design during session 2 in April but the lettering is very small and takes a lot editing.  Learning how to edit is extremely important and is a learned skill that does take a little time to master.  Once you have a good concept of editing and have really developed good editing skills, it is easy to transition into actual digitizing.

We are also going to be going over some details about how to create  your settings for this small lettering to make it sew out beautifully on any type of fabric.  Working with small lettering is always tough when you are new to embroidery and creating it to sew out great takes a lot of practice and skill, but it  can be done very successfully when you know how to use the right tools.

There are many times when  you can do your own custom design setups and create those custom logos instead of having it done by your digitizer.  Should you charge what a digitizer would charge.  Yes, of course you should!  You are spending time creating a design and you should be paid for that time!  There are far too many embroiderers that think that their time is not worth what a digitizers time is worth.  You may not have the same skills that  your digitizer has, but you are still creating their design and you have every right to expect payment for this design creation.

All of the Embroidery Club members from Embroidery Tips and More will be receiving a link to sign up for the webinar on Friday May 22.  This webinar Free to all to Embroidery Tips and More Embroidery Club members.  Anyone that is not a member is still invited to join us for the webinar for a nominal fee.

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach
Embroidery Webinar of the Month

This morning my husband and I are at my neices condo on Anna Maria Island in Florida.  We have been sitting right outside this beautiful condo that is right on the beach.  It is  an incredible sight at the moment.  There are 3 dolphins that have been playing around on the edge of the water for quite sometime.  There are a few people that keep swimming out to them and the dolphins are swimming around them.  I have never seen anything like this.

Last night we saw several dolphins swim past us going south and my neice says that they usually swim north past them in the morning, but this morning they are pretty much staying in one spot and just paying around.

This is an incredible vacation.  We have done so much relaxing and have seen many sites that we do not normally see.  It is so refreshing to do something besides work!  I have done quite a bit of work also on this trip but begin able to relax is really great!

We will be leaving the condo late this afternoon to go back to Ocala, Florida.  My neices home is about 2.5 hours northeast of the condo on Anna Maria Island.

It has been a while since I have posted. This past month has been an extremely busy one!  I have been out working for a large company on a consulting job, caught the flu, held a webinar, created some videos and now I am in sunny Florida for the next two weeks.

It was so great to wake up this morning to the sun shine and warm weather.  It has been a long winter in Binghamton, New York where I live, and the cold just wants to hang around instead of leaving and letting Spring take over!  I have been so ready for this sun and warmth!

I am here in Ocala, Florida visiting my neice for one week and then on down to Wellington, Florida to visit my daughter.  My neice lives in a community on a golf course and it is so beautiful.  She has several trees and a lot of flowers all over the yard and it is so peacefull and realaxing.  I plan on getting caught up with a few of my projects while I am here and am preparing for my next webinar.  I am not sure if I will be here in Ocala for the next webinar or in Wellington.  Either way, that will be held on Tuesday night, April 28th at 8 pm.

My next Embroidery of the Month webinar is a continuation of the webinar that I had on April 7th.  I started creating some designs using the Existing fonts and shapes in my embroidery software and we ran out of time.  There is so much to learn and so many tips that I want to share with you so that you too can learn how to create some of your customers logos using your existing embroidery fonts and shapes.

I created one design and started another one using True Type fonts but I was unable to finish it due to the time constraints.  I am going to show you how to finish up the college logo that I was creating using the True Type fonts and then show you how to create a logos that a customer brought in using a combination of shapes and True Type fonts.

I sent everyone that attended the webinar a jpg of a logo so that they could create a design using that logo and requested that they send them back to me finished.  I want to go over some of the designs and critque them during the webinar.  I am still waiting for some of them to come back into me.  I am looking forward to see how you approached this design.  Some of the attendees were beginners and some were more advanced.  This was a challenge that could be overwhelming to a beginner but it was one that was very doable with almost any embroidery software.

I will be using the Tajima by Pulse embroidery software during my presentation but the techniques that I use can be used in any embroidery software.  I refer to the Wilcom software and the Design shop software during the presentation.

I love working with my students and teaching them embroidery tricks and techniques.  Each new embroidery technique that you learn helps to speed up the process and increase your bottom line!  To me this is very exciting.  I am constantly in a race with myself trying to speed up little processes.  Sometimes the very basic techniques can be lacking and one simple process can make a huge difference!

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

This past week end I was at the ISS Show in Atlantic City and it was a great show!  I had a wonderful time and  met a lot of my students. I also met a lot of new faces and it is always so much fun meeting new people!

I was able to get re-aquainted with people that I have not seen in a long time and the experience was great!

John Urdahl from Stone Mountain Graphics Custom Screenprinting and Embroidery in Owings, MD was the winner of the embroidery training DVD  “How To Create A Profitable Price List For Today’s MarketPlace!”  Thank you John for visiting us at the show.  Please let us know what type of an impact this valuable information will make on your business!

Tracy Trill, my assistant and I spent a lot of time in the Robison Anton booth with some incredible people!  They have excellent quality products and everyone that represented Robison Anton was very knowledgable and gracious!  I had the pleasure of meeting  Bruce Anton, Maxwell Tripp, Harry Katz of KYS Embroidery Supplies and Jory Bender of Dashew Sewing Supplies, all representing Robison Anton.  I also spent a lot of time with Jeff and Gary Kaufman from S.M. Cristall who were also representing Robison Anton.  I am known Jeff and Gary for many years and all of these people represent excellent quality customer service. You have heard me speak of S.M. Cristall many times.

I also had the preasure of meeting Cliff Bolder from Diamond Needle.  When I was in business with my embroidery shop, I purchased a lot of Tajima embroidery machine supplies and parts from Diamond Needle.  They were always very quick to ship and provided good service.    Cliff said that they still carry Tajima parts.

Fred LeBow of Lebow Consulting, invited me to speak in his class on Sunday morning.  He had a very receptive audience that enjoyed his presentation on backings and toppings.  I spoke about my embroidery training website,  my new community site, The EmbroideryCoachClub and the embroidery training videos that I have created.  It was a great class!

I spent the remainder of my Sunday morning in the Hirsch-Tajima booth.  That booth is always wall to wall people with so much activity going on.  The North East sales team were there along with Gaby Finely and Henry Bernstein with the Seit Laser equipment. I had the pleasure of speaking to Kris Janowski and Paul Gallagher, the executives from Hirsch.  Everyone in that booth was very busy during the entire show.

All in all I think that the show was very much a success.  For anyone that was there, thank you for coming!  I look forward to seeing many more of my customers in July at the ISS Show in Rhode Island.

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

I will be attending the ISS show in Atlantic City, NJ at the Convention Center Friday-Sunday,  March 13-15.  There are always new products and so much information  available with so many catalogs to pick up.  If you are attending, make sure that you bring a rolling cart to carry all of them.

Please stop by the Robison Anton booth to register for a FREE DVD Program, “How To Create A Profitable Price Embroidery Price List For Today’s Market Place”‘.  This is a great program that will teach you how to price your embroidery to create a profitable business!

I will be  around the Robison Anton booth or the Hirsch-Tajima booth. Please stop by to say Hi and don’t forget to register!

I am really looking forward to meeting you.

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

Increasing customer sales with your current customer base is all about creating relationships.  Many times we have a gold mine right in front of us and don’t even realize it.  Our customers are our gold mine and without them we do not exist!

Creating good customer relationships is the most important duty that we have as business owners and this is something that does not cost a lot of money.  Many times it is the little unexpected things that we do that mean the most and keeps that customer coming back to our business over and over!

I purchased a program a few weeks ago from a large company and was shocked when I received a handwritten Thank you note in the mail.  I have to tell you, I was extremely impressed at this gesture!  Just a simple thank you card that only took the salesperson a couple of minutes to write meant a lot to me and I will remember that the next time that I decide to order another program.

Here are some simple ways for you to increase your customer sales.

1. Offer Exceptional Customer Service
2. More Low Cost-High Profit Services To Your Existing Customers
3. Build A Relationship With Existing And Former Customers
4. Plan A Customer Appreciation Night
5. Create A Web Presence
6. Offer More Than One Price Level Of Products

Is there a service or a process that you can offer your customers that they cannot get from any of your competition. What is it that you can do to be more efficient than the competition? It is usually better to focus on being different in a particular market rather than trying to compete directly.Find a unique strategy or a way to position your products or your business differently in your current market place.

Spend some time educating your customers about the benefits, services and value that they will be receiving by doing business with you.  Point out to them what you are doing that the competition is not doing.  You do not have to say that the competition is not doing such and such; you just have to point out what you are doing that makes you different or better!

You cannot compete with the big manufacturers or embroiderers that have many multi-head machines when you are only a small shop with one or two heads.  Don’t even try. You must focus on what you do best in your smaller market.  If you focus on improving one step or one process that can make you more efficient then this alone will help to make you more profitable!

Those large shops normally are not offering the type of customer service that you can offer.  This can set up far above the larger shops and help to increase your customer sales.  I have seen this many times.  Many of the larger shops have systems all set and they will not steer away from their systems and they are not always customer focused, they are usually profit focused.

In order to be successful in this business, you must be customer focused.  The profits will follow if that is the case! By finding your own unique way to stand out in the crowd, you will increase your customer sales naturally.

If you have found this article helpful or if you have found a unique way to present you or your embroidery business, I would like to hear about it.  I would really appreciate it!

There are several low cost methods that you can use to prospect for new customers.  You can pay to advertise or you can attract prospects for free.  I have always been very partial to the FREE end of advertising for obvious reasons.  Besides the fact that it is FREE, you usually will  find better prospects using the Free methods  That has been my experience in the past.

• Networking  Off  Line
• Networking On Line
• Donate Products & Services To Charity For Fund Raising Events
• Ask For Referrals
• Attend Trade Shows In Your Niche
• Offer To Trade Your Products & Services
• Press Releases

In the past I spent a lot of money on advertising only to find out that most of the time it did not work the way that I expected it to work!  The newspaper was the most expensive method I ever tried and I never once received the results that I was looking for.  I never even broke even on my investment.

The only paid advertising that ever worked for me was the TV and of course that is not free but I did trade my products and services for the advertising and it made it very low cost.  In today’s market you can use the  trade dollars to advertise on their websites that a lower cost rather than actually running an add on the TV. Your name is displayed for a longer period of time and can be seen by people over and over.

There are so many ways to prospect for new customers and many opportunities to make connections with people in all areas of your life. If you keep your eyes and ears wide open, you will find a gold mine right in front of you!

If you have found this article useful to you or your embroidery business, please leave a comment.  I would really appreciate it!

As I was preparing for my presentation on How To Market Your Embroidery Business, I sent out a questionnaire to all of my students and asked them what was their single most important question about Marketing their Embroidery Business!

I received back over 100 questions!  Many of the questions were related to cost and where their advertising dollars should be spent, but the majority of the questions were related to the process of how to market their particular embroidery business and attract new customers.

These are the most frequently asked questions.

• I am new to embroidery, how do I let people know that I am in business, especially when I am on a tight budget?

• How do you convince new and current customers that they should continue to buy from you in a down economy even if you are not the lowest bid?

• What is the best way to Network?

• I have been most successful getting business when I am able to approach that key person within a company/ business and introduce myself and the service that I have to offer.  Too many times that key person is shielded from “solicitors” and I never get a chance to sell my business.  How can I get past this block?

• What’s the secret to getting new customers?

• Should I be spending money on local advertising?  If so, how much should I spend and what is the best method, newspaper, radio or other?

I will be answering all of these questions and many people during my webinar next Tuesday night at 8pm.

If you “Would Like To Know The Most Effective Ways Of Marketing Your Embroidery Business” sign up for this very informative webinar.  All Embroidery Club Members of EmbroideryTipsandMore can attend for free.  Check it out and find out how you can be included in on our Embroidery Webinars each month for FREE!

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach