question Mark, thank you so much for asking that. Marshall Atkinson
Episode 18 of this year's Success Stories podcast was a lot of fun. It featured Monica Maglaris with Liberty Print Co. She's a dynamo and I always enjoy talking to her. And in fact, the entire idea for this "Turn the Tables on Marshall" came from her shop -- one of her employees. So, let's see what questions she has in store for me. Monica Maglaris Hey, Marshall, it's Monica here at Liberty print Co. We have a couple of questions for you. I have one about staff training. At Liberty, we try to have everyone catch shirts no matter what position they're hired for. We want everyone to know that catching shirts and doing quality control is an important job. What other job in a shop, would you suggest that everyone try? Marshall Atkinson So what other job in a shop would you suggest that everyone learn? Here's what I'm going to go with. I'm going with organizing today for tomorrow's production. And the reason I'm going with this is that I know that organization is the key. It's the bedrock of being efficient, right? So, if you can have someone today be in charge of planning and executing tomorrow's production, which means they're in charge of deciding what are we ready to print with or embroider or digital print or whatever. Do we have all the shirts? Do we have all the threads? Do we have all the ink? Do we have all those screens? To have every single thing that we possibly need for tomorrow's production. And what we're going to do is we're doing a scavenger hunt today, we're going to get those screens, those inks, that thread, all that stuff. We're going to decide on the exact order we want the jobs to run in. We're going to pull all that today, and we're going to set it up next to the equipment in the order we want it to run in. And what we're going to do is we're going to take turns getting that organization done, and then you'll quickly realize: how those screens aren't ready, or the ink isn't next, or out of that thread color or whatever. You're going to realize that you're not ready for that. And taking turns and discovering where you need to go is where I think that is really going to help you because that planning that staging touches every single department in your shop. So that's going to be my answer. Monica Maglaris My next question is, and this is just a general business and screen printing one. If you had one ultimate tip, one nugget of pure screen-printing business gold; what would it be? Marshall Atkinson So, my ultimate business tip? What is my screen-printing gold? I think if you guys have learned anything from me, I'm listening. It's gonna have to start with your business plan. And the idea of writing a business plan is articulating who is your number one best customer? And then knowing exactly who that is? What are their pain points? What are they struggling with? And what is your answer to that? Do you have the answer to that pain, to that problem? And are you the best on the planet at that? If you have that dialed in, you will have the world beating a path to your door. If you're trying to sell people stuff, what you're gonna find is they're not ready to buy because they don't understand it. If you have the answer to their main question, their biggest problem and struggle, they're going to find you. That's the difference, right? So, I would say start with your business plan, and figure out what your customers' pain points are, solve those problems, and then make that your unfair advantage that your whole business revolves around is solving people's problems. Not putting ink on cotton, and just being a commodity-based printer. So that's my answer. Monica Maglaris And the third question comes from one of our favorite people here at Liberty. Sarah
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