It’s always amazing to me when I compare the way that things used to be to the way that things are now especially when it comes to business. I am 58 years old and when I first came into the world, it was quite a different place. For example, nobody had a cell phone. The dial was a rotary wheel that you put your single finger in and then spin it. I can remember going to work with my father and he was had a brand-new telephone cord installed that was actually 12 feet long. This gave him the ability to walk from one end of the pharmacy to the other and still have a conversation. I can remember being so impressed with this that that was such a sense of freedom.
Now that I am 58 years old I am the owner of a St. Louis T-shirt printing company and I have such a deep appreciation for the advantages that technology has given me. It was only about 20 years ago or less where I would drive to an industrial park and start going from door to door and asking if I could please speak to the owner. If I was fortunate enough to actually catch the owner in and he wasn’t too busy to talk to me, I then introduced myself and asked him if the next time he was in the market for some custom T-shirt printing, could I simply have a chance to quote it. If I can give you a better value than what you’re already getting, there is no reason to change However, since we’ve never worked together before, I would be willing to come up with a powerful incentive in order for you to give me an opportunity to prove myself. The reason I would do this was simply to get my foot in the door. I knew that a repeat customer is much easier to deal with than someone new because they already know you and are confident in your ability to get the job done with excellence in on time. Sometimes I would even throw in something that they never even asked for like a jacket with custom embroidery on it. They were normally extremely grateful to receive it and that within just a day or two later they would call me up and say that everyone else in the office asked him where that jacket came from and they were interested in acquiring one as well. This is a Christian concept that I apply where I would get by giving first. It is not only a biblical truth, but it’s a practical technique when it comes to marketing St. Louis screen printing and embroidery.
These days things are so much easier. I don’t have to knock on doors in order to try and find someone who needs what I am selling. In fact, they actually seek me out and all I have to do is answer the phone which by the way does not have a 12′ cord anymore. I can run my digital T-shirt printing company from anywhere in the world as long as I have a signal and can get reception. I was actually in Hawaii last year for approximately one month and was still able to conduct business easily. The only drawback was that my phone would start ringing around four in the morning because they were approximately 5 hours behind St. Louis time. What a great time to be a screen printing entrepreneur as there are advantages now like never before.