What Kind of Business Do You Run?

[printavo]

Are you a business that screen prints or are you running screen printing business?

You took the plunge into this industry on a whim of hobby-searching, curiosity, craziness, and a little bit of creativity. Sounds familiar?

Can you remember purchasing your first single color press and figuring out how to coat a screen with a bucket of that colorful goop that was supposed to help create crystal clear designs?

Do you remember the struggle of learning what exposure time was?

What about the time your design wouldn’t wash out of a screen?

Can you think back to your first order you weltered through, learning the hard way what it meant to pull white ink through a screen on a dark garment?

What about the moment you realized you could make money decorating garments?

Lightbulb moment— “people will actually pay me money for this!”

Fast track a few months, even years, do you remember when you decided to make a career out of becoming a screen printer?

Do you remember when you left your full-time job to focus on your business?

Everyone has a different journey. You can go back in time like it was yesterday, reminiscing about the late night garage shop prints that you started out prying your way into this lucrative industry. Those are special— definitely.

But now you are an established screen printer, living the dream of being an entrepreneur, but your diploma probably does not read “Masters in Screen Printing Business Operations”

So we ask the question again— are you a business that just so happens to screen print, or are you a screen printing business? You see, these two things are completely different, and it is important that you understand the difference early on, as you establish yourself as an entrepreneur.

Read full article and learn how to apply brand awareness in your shop and make your business more remarkable to your customers:

https://www.printavo.com/blog/what-kind-of-business-do-you-run

[mooseman]

Not trying to be a smart a$$ and have little else to do at the moment so  I get nervous when ever I see "a system" that will raise my bar, take me to the next level, or create the new  paradigme for any process that man toils away at on a regular basis.

In a previous life I had the task of sizing / selecting and applying various versions of rotating machinery. the process was not overly complicated much like screen printing but required a series of simple decisions all combined together to actually get the selection /application right.
Because the process was at times tedious and involved much like screen printing most resisted taking the journey.

To solve the problem a very smart management program was created where someone could simply input a few operating parameters and boom goes the dynamite an answer was presented. Thus the question was is the person using the system an  engineer or a person operating in an engineering environment?

A man operates a machine tool, he is given a piece of steel and a blueprint and some time later produces a finished part from his time and labor.  From  start to finish the man was involved with every element of the process. Another man is given the same task but is given the material and an operating program for the machine. The part and the program are loaded into the machine and the operation begins. After some time a finish part id produced.
Is one man a machinist and one man a machine operator and which one do you want around wen something goes wrong?

So am I a business that just happens to screen print or am i a screen printing business?

the answer is I am neither I am a capitalist pig involved in the exchange of money using the attraction of a managed stain on a otherwise plain piece of fabric .
i sell tee shirts to people who don't need them, sporting designs they don't really like  and get them to  (eventually) to pay for them with money they don't have.

By the time someone develops a program that simplifies this process for me i will be hawking tee shirts at a much higher plane or most likely much lower plane where the dryer heat is free and always on full. 

mooseman

[RICK STEFANICK]

Printavo, I really enjoy your resources. For some of the master screen printers, business owners here wont see the value but you are reaching and helping others. Keep them coming .