We sat down with screen printing legend Scott Fresener at ISS Long Beach for an insightful interview.
If you don't know who Scott Fresener is, you probably know his company T-Biz Network – and you certainly know someone who's read his famous book How to Print T-Shirts for Fun and Profit. Written in 1979, updated over twenty editions, and still a valuable standby for starting off, Scott Fresener is undeniably responsible for getting hundreds of screen printing businesses up and running.
Since then, he's focused on consultation work and developing T-Seps to help automate and simplify color separations for screen printing.
What's your #1 piece of advice to new and growing screen printing businesses?Scott tells us that the most important thing is keep
moving forward and making the best decisions you can.
"I'm on Scott 4.0 right now. I've made millions and lost millions. You have to move on. The past is the past. You make one decision today – and a year later it can catch up to you. You need to stand back and analyze your decisions. Make sure some facts are involved. The ultimate entrepreneur feels like failure is never an option."
How does a beginning print shop with a manual press make the leap into automatics?An automatic press introduces a lot of complexity to your shop.
Your ability to execute orders grows – but so does your ability to completely ruin hundreds of garments. Scott advises owners to institute minimums and have a strong backbone for saying no to customers before you get your first automatic press.
Choosing the right jobs will make this process easier – and more profitable. Once you move to your first auto, it's time to start weeding out the unprofitable customers and make choices that will help you pay for your equipment.
"Tough one. As an owner-operator, you get caught up in taking every size order. You take junk art and don't charge for setup. I think you have to eventually decide that you'll have minimums and walk from bad orders. The growth has to be orderly. You have to delegate. You can't wear every hat. Have procedures. An SOP book. Get organized. I'm a Virgo, so I'm very organized. I'm a spreadsheet guy. I like numbers, I like to crunch them. When you grow to your first automatic, you better have systems and procedures in place. You are not going to be everything to everyone. You have to take jobs that are profitable for you."A strong sense of what your business is, who your target customers are, and strong standard procedures will make the process much smoother. It isn't something to leap in to and leave to chance.
Read the full interview here:
https://www.printavo.com/blog/scott-fresener-t-biz-network-interview
