By Peggy Elliott, Marketing
Yes, time to clean house. For the purpose of this article I mean spring cleaning style…not the daily/weekly routine house cleaning. Most of us do this at home once or twice a year to get rid of things you haven’t used in forever and make room for new household items or clothing items you’ve been wanting. Maybe you don’t need to purchase anything new at all, but need to become more organized and eliminate clutter. The start of a new year often inspires us to focus on this sometimes daunting project.
Now apply this to your heat printing business. Whether you are set up in a storefront operation or working from home, you can probably do a lot to get rid of clutter and get organized. Here are some tips to get you started:
1. Visit your back room or storage area. Are there boxes that you haven’t even looked in for a while? Take the eggplant colored XS T-shirts that have been sitting there for the past year and get rid of them. Donate them, sell them on the internet, or decorate them and give them to a children’s charity.
It’s kind of like cleaning out your closet and donating to Goodwill®, right?
2. Change up the main area around your cash register. How long have those same products been on display? Remove everything, dust and clean your counters or shelving, and make it shine. Then, display a few small items like bumper stickers for the local school. These result in quick add-on sales. Just make sure you don’t overcrowd your display or you will overwhelm your customer with too many choices.
Hmm, sounds like cleaning out and reorganizing cabinets and bookshelves at home.
3. Time for an inventory check… Are your heat printing products and supplies in a bit of disarray? When we get busy, it happens, but we all need to find time to get organized! Use lettering storage boxes with sectional plastic inserts to keep things neat and orderly; they’re perfect for storing pre-cut letters and numbers. Use jewelry organizers to keep rhinestones sorted by size and color.
In addition to organizing your inventory, this will give you an opportunity to see what retail items, heat press accessories, heat transfer materials, and other supplies you may need. It never hurts to double-check your inventory numbers.
4. When in doubt, throw it out! Do you have transfers or other heat transfer materials that are damaged by dust, debris, or humidity? Throw out any product that has been damaged. Don’t try to salvage anything that has been ruined, in the end it could result in a dissatisfied customer.
5. Keep your signage fresh and inviting; change it up often. Continue to give your customers new reasons to stop in. Window clings are inexpensive, removable, and repositionable – perfect for spreading news about sales, new products, or store events to passersby.
These are just a few of the ways in which you can organize your workspace and storage and retail areas. While it might seem like a chore, you’ll be glad you did it.