just turned down a big opportunity

[mooseman]

Guy tells me he is a very popular local artist has thousands of followers in my area wants to know if I want to be his sponsor.
Looking to get a bunch of shirts for his many fans and he is going to allow me to put my logo along side his .
Wants to know if I am interested because he is really popular and has thousands of followers.....
We say no we do not sponsor anyone.
He replies that he was going to allow my logo on his shirts (that I was going to give him for free).

Well he finally got the message... then he asks OK how much for 100 shirts two colors one side ...I say $8.00 ea ....long silence....he says OK I will get back to you BYE.....

I really wanted to suggest he should contact Bernie Sanders as i  hear he is giving away free tee shirts along with everything else for free.
Where do these morons come from.............
mooseman

[starchild]

What's worst is that he is walking with a bad businesses model in his head.. He wants to sell designer type shirts with the screen printer's company name on it?

Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk

[screenxpress]

Naw, he don't have a bad business model. 

Just somebody with no business model and a hand out.

[bimmridder]

I had a somewhat similar thing happen. I have to use contract labor (temps) quite often. I don't have much say as far as who I get. About a month ago I was blessed with the opportunity to have "D" introduced to me as my new utility person. (insert fist bump. sorry, I don't do those)Along with the attempted fist bump, he felt the need to tell me he is "A young Black man with dreads".  As  I showed him around the facility, saving his work area for last, he seemed more concerned on how we could work out a deal on shirts, because he's "A rapper with a couple of labels chasing him". He was going to let us move up with him as he grew. We would get all of his shirt business from now on.

About a week later I had to apologize to my staff and a number of other people in the business. I had to let this fist bumping, up and coming rap star go. He was not able to properly clean squeegees and floods, and didn't know the difference between an odd and an even number (a nice thing to know since that's how we store our inks) And with him went 100s of thousands of unprinted shirts, I'm sure. The guilt I'm carrying is is horrendous, and my nights lately have been sleepless. Please pray for me and my company, that if this opportunity walks through the door (late by the way) I don't  let it slip through my fingers. I have also since learned a proper fist bump.       

[mooseman]

It is a great gift to have the energy to believe in yourself it is even greater gift to know how not to waste that energy.

I print tee shirts and I know there are 10000000000000000000000000 of tee shirts printers way better than me now and forever.

 But the people I meet who think thay can sing or pluck a guitar, or wright a couple of words down on a misic line never seem to see the line in front of them. they are all going to be great tomorrow or as soon as I get them their shirts.

 Dues baby, that is what it is all about you got to pay em yourself and you got to turn around to see your place in the pay line. Fist bumpin and dreams only get you a place in line and free tee shirts can't sing or play guitar.
mooseman

[Steve Harpold]

There is always chance the 1 in 1,000,000.

We have a customer who actually took one of those opportunities, the group he took by chance became one of biggest pop stars of the late 90's.  The still abide by the original contract. 

[mimosatexas]

I'm all for supporting my clients and I try to cross promote whenever possible since their success means I am making more money, but it doesn't make any sense to give something away entirely for free without getting something in return.  I frequently give away "upsells" for free to good paying customers with their other orders because I know they will re-order (with some certainty), it usually costs me very little (or simply eats into a little profit rather than truly being free), and usually ends up as a paying up-sale on a future order.  I have worked occasionally for trade, but that is always expressly discussed beforehand and an actual monetary value is attached to the transaction even if money doesn't change hands. 

I just don't really understand the mentality of "give me something for free and it MIGHT mean I pay for similar work later and it MIGHT mean you get exposure from me".  I have plenty of paying customers who feed me tons of referral business, and it has nothing to do with getting something for nothing.  Steve: I doubt that original contract was "give me free crap and put your logo on it, and is still that same deal"   Cheap maybe, but free?

[Steve Harpold]

Hey,

No you are 100% right, the contract was the usual. I am going to be the next big thing do these shirts for super cheap and when we make it you are the man. All printers, equipment manufactures, sales people hear this 1,000 times a year. It is was just comical to hear when one of those deals actually pans out. Let's hear your stories TSB, we all have the 999 that didn't work. Some times it is nice to hear about the 1 that did.

Like this one:
I received a contact through Craig's List on a used piece of equipment we had. He told me I am going to start multiple stores and I just need my first break. I said ok I have some old stuff here I can give to you real cheap, and for some reason I delivered by hand taught him how to use it for a day and chuckled as I left. the equipment went into an outhouse behind his parents house which he was living in. 1.5 years later he has ordered 3 different shops of new equipment and rolling along!! Some days you just have to laugh!

[inkman996]

I would venture to say that most of us here have seen a successful business form even tho 99% fail.

In over 15 years I can name several that we were a part of during their inception and seen them move on to success.

None of them were dead beat types that wanted things for free or spec, they all had funding and the drive to be successful.

We would never do anything on spec or for free advertising. Fender or any major guitar makers do not give out guitars to up and coming musicians just because they think they will be big someday. So why should we?