Images_December_2019_Digital Edition

www.images-magazine.com DECEMEBER 2019 images 35 KB BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Partnering with service providers who needed custom embroidery for their non-apparel pieces and learning how to handle their materials led Laura to working with high-visibility brands and events [Image courtesy of Laura Jastrzemski] This piece was part of a memorial project taken on by a local radio station looking to restore the custom car of a man who had passed away. Projects like this let you do good for the community while getting your shop’s name known in public – it can benefit everyone involved [Image courtesy of Laura Jastrzemski] Even simple logos like this can be extremely profitable in the context of a custom upholstered seat. When your audience is used to paying for custom work, the margins can be markedly higher than one might see in apparel work [Image courtesy of Laura Jastrzemski] be larger, like a seat panel. The panel and the size of the design determines how the item will be hooped.” Even after hooping, Laura warns of material concerns: “Vinyl doesn’t take well to embroidery. Leather is more forgiving since it’s a skin, so it ‘breathes’ where vinyl does not. The digitising is a little different; I use a slightly longer stitch length in fill areas and the finest needle possible for the weight of the material.” Carolyn says that her customers often require extra effort because non-apparel customers often have a well-defined vision, but no embroidery expertise. They have often been redirected by shops who turned down their work due to its difficulty or their lack of experience. “My customers for these items are usually sent to me, they have an idea and they solicit an embroidery shop via a search, then those shops send them to me or they find me via the internet from my postings and my customers’ postings of the finished work.” Though often creative, flexible, and willing to pay, these customers are particular about the result and require additional product preview mock-ups, and meetings to ensure their expectations are being met. How do you sell it? Speciality sales don’t seem as difficult for my decorator friends as one might imagine. Word of mouth referrals flow freely when you take on work that other shops won’t touch. Social media mavens with a penchant for visual presentation, like Carolyn’s interior designers, are known to share and credit images of the finished work, which is enough to drive a volume of orders. Ask for shout-outs, tags, and referrals to grow your business quickly with these engaged audiences. Jane Swanzy of Swan Threads says that working the right niche in your area can make marketing automatic. Jane’s husband serves as her unpaid brand ambassador. She says, “Hunting-related items are a big seller for us. I don’t want to say my customers are ‘easy targets’ but they really are. I decorate something for my husband and all his hunting friends have to have it.”