Sometimes I like to sit back and reflect on how I eventually transitioned into this type of business. It certainly didn’t happen overnight. First, it took me a long time to realize what I was naturally gifted with as well as my many limitations. I was never a good student and the things that ended up helping me the most as a successful St. Louis screen printing company owner were never taught in school. I trained quite a few people in my time and I have become very aware of the fact that it’s not that difficult to teach people what to say but it is extremely challenging to teach them how to deliver it. Either they are believable and genuine or they are not. I can arm you with the most effective and powerful dialogue , but if the person standing in front of you is sensing that you don’t believe it yourself, then it is all going to be for nothing. I certainly have that gift.
What I am not good at is numbers. I was cursed with the disorder called dyslexia and back in the day when I was in school they didn’t even have a name for it, let alone know what it was. I can remember staying after class long after all the other kids went home and trying to get some extra help. My father even hired a tutor to come over once a week in order to try and help me to get the hang of long division. That ended up being useless and just a waste of money, time and effort. I thought I might just be stupid and I expect my dad probably thought the same thing. He just didn’t want to tell me that I was. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was actually brilliant in my field. I was a natural when it came to people skills. I just have the ability to meet somebody for the very first time and within five minutes of being together they would open up to me as if they had known me their entire lives.
After trying a lot of different business ventures, some of them worked out well and others not so much, I finally transitioned into the digital T-shirt printing business, which eventually ended with me getting into custom embroidery as well. You need to take into consideration that this was well before anybody had cell phones and the Internet hadn’t even been invented yet. What that meant is that I needed to get some business cards printed up and then simply start cold calling. I would start by driving to a local industrial park and just start walking indoors and introducing myself. I would ask to speak to the owner but if the owner wasn’t available, I would talk to the receptionist and just ask them if the next time they happen to need some more custom T-shirts if I could simply just have an opportunity to give them a quote. Most of the time they would say sure just leave me a business card and we would be glad to give you an opportunity when that time eventually comes. We will talk more at a later time on how I eventually transitioned into the St. Louis digital T-shirt printing and custom embroidery business.