What a year

[T Shirt Farmer]

Man what a year 2017 was, Gross sales up a lot over last year, Margins up, 2ea six digit $ orders, lost a killer sales rep but hired an even better one, last kid graduated UC Berkeley. I feel so blessed that this business has supported my and other families for 33 years, 2018 goal is to start working 4 days a week.

How was your 2017 ?

[Frog]

Pertty good here as well. Didn't have near the drop off I expected (and was kinda' hoping for) when I dropped all promotion and SEO.
My goal in 2018 is an eventual 4 workday month! I'm too old for this crap.
Glad that 2017 was good for you.

[numbercruncher]

Solid year here - hoping to get to that 4 day work week myself - Best to all Apparel Decorators this Season

[GraphicDisorder]

Tough year for us on employees, but growth was great even still. Finishing up around 17% growth over last year, one of our slowest growth years ever % wise but the numbers are getting bigger so its going to become harder to keep the 30-40-50-60% growth years we've had.

[Doug B]

  I will hit that magical number (the government says so) next year so
I just might drop to three days a week. I'm getting too old for this crap too.

[alan802]

Sucked pretty much across the board for screen printing.  Employees...rough, sales down about 2% over last year, and by far the most mistakes to the sum of about $4,000 in mostly crooked prints being replaced.  The most we've ever had in one year till now was about $1200 overall but that mostly from one job being printed incorrectly. 

Embroidery is up so much that it erased everything over here and then some.  Engraving was way down, ASI down a bunch, but embroidery picked it all up and we might break our record of total sales that we hit last year.  So BIG picture...really good, but my part of the equation had a tough year. 

[ffokazak]

All of your year ends are on DEC 31st? haha Im like halfway through Q2!

[Doug S]

For us, if we grew any, it couldn't have been more then 3 to 4%, we are still tallying.  I know it was all we could do to keep up.  We are really about where we want to be with no help.  It sucks when we are swamped but atleast I don't have to deal with the headaches that come along with employees.

[dsh]

Sales grew 20% or more the last 3 years.  This year we were the same as last.  But we actually didn't work quite as hard.  A lot of growth with Richardson hats this year.  And I agree with Doug S about no employees.

[DannyGruninger]

Overall a good year for us here at DPH and even better year for me personally relating to business. I was able to accomplish something that I feel most work a lifetime to achieve so for that I'm super pumped. As of last week I was able to sell DPH to an existing client of mine. I will be staying on with the new company for the next 5 years, possibly longer depending on how everything plays out. I will be the general manager of production bridging the front of the house with the back of the house, focusing on r&d, development on new products, among a few other items. Personally for me I will have more time for my family, more time for r&d, much less stress worrying about the financial future of my family among so many other benefits that I would have been silly not to accept this new venture. I'm forever thankful for the people who helped me get to where I am, m&r, roq, ryonet, among so many others that played such a key roll in helping me build a company that has great value. I encourage everyone on here to check out one of the brands my new company produces - Kastlfel.com is the website as we are a leading manf. for an eco friendly sustainable minded blank garment. We private label for some other brands right now as the product is extremely nice so I encourage the group here to take a look at the product and if anyone wants some samples let me know. Hopefully my new venture means I will have more time to share on this forum and possibly visit some of you guys at your own shops.

[Colin]

Woo!!!   Congrats Danny!!!

[ericheartsu]

although no where near as exciting as Danny, we bought a building, switched presses, and are up by about 25% over what we expected to be this year. all in all pretty insane.

[mimosatexas]

Switched from being an owner to an employee as well this year (though obviously on a much smaller and less exciting scale than Danny, lol).  Grew shirt production revenue at the new company by >50% while cutting overhead by about 30%.  Next year is looking to be really great for growth as well, lots of new ventures, probably moving into a bigger, better space (though industrial space in Austin is garbage).  Looking forward to asking lots of questions about new equipment in the next few months...

[3Deep]

We've been steady since last year and saw a little increase this year in production, we actual had to stop taking orders as of last week so we could have Christmas off.  I'm like some the rest of you I would like to work less and put someone else in my place and wear just one hat.

[Biverson]

Insane year for me. Started out cleaning out my SWFs for a Barudan 6 head to increase embroidery production. Late Spring I started looking at my workload and needed to jump to an auto. Got a Volt 8/7 and is perfect for my situation. Hired some  temp help this summer and hired my first employee a month and a half ago. Sales are up 30% this year. Its been tough with so many changes and carrying it all myself, but 2018 looks to be a good year for normalcy - I hope. I need to get workflow and production schedules down. Did I mention Im home based? Haha, presents problems of it's own, but may jump to a building in 18'.


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