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Embroidery => General Embroidery => Topic started by: Gilligan on November 07, 2011, 04:24:20 PM
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I'm starting to take my t-shirt business to a more "professional" level and opening up some retail store space (inside my other shop... but all the same).
I had my first "walk-in" this week and I realized how unprepared I was for it.
I had not real means of taking the customer's information or what they needed or anything.
I quickly made something up in word on the fly but it's time to get busy and do it proper.
Just curious if any of you guys would care to share what you are using when taking in simple one off orders and even larger orders?
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we use www.priceitsoftware.com (http://www.priceitsoftware.com) it tracks everything....check it out
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Hey Sam,
Are you using this on a Mac or PC? I see that they have it for Mac which I like. Thanks
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went to DL and my anti virus red flagged it
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we run it on a pc...we have used it for about 7 yrs and it rocks
sam
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Thanks!
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So no one has a hard copy form that their customer puts their info in?
You all use this type of software even if grandma comes in and wants her initials put on her hand bag?
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I made this one about 2 years ago, I might change some stuff on it,
I took my logo off from the top left.
Hope it helps.
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gilligan...yes, even if we sell 1 piece.
it helps you stay better organised...trust me.
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If its a 1-off, I will hand write their info into my notebook then transfer it into PriceIt later that day.
You'd be surprised how easy you can loose track of a 1-off and the software helps keep the order in the mix.
Here is an order form that the company I used to work for used for many years.
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...if you want to make the MOST money, -you absolutely, without question, need some sort of a program like Price-it, T-quoter (what we use), T-Boss, Shopworks, I think there are a few others. You input your overhead, what you want to make and it spits out a price you should charge. in less than 10 seconds. If we started with it years ago, I would have a new auto -that's for damn sure.
Quick story. About 3-4 weeks ago, a guy stopped in, he wanted 50 hoodies, left crest with black print. CAKE work....I put in the info, printed out the quote, shot the bull for a few -out the door he went. Hour or two later he calls me from a competitors parking lot "hey man, these guys are 5.00 cheaper per shirt than you, what can we do". . .I said bring in a written quote and I will look at it and see what I can do. . 2 days later -nothing, I figured he was gone, a 250.00 difference is a ton of coin. .well he wasn't gone, he came back, with a dirty piece of paper with coffee stains, it turned out to be there "price list". . he told me would have been here sooner but it took over an hour to get a written price from them, fumbling through catalogs to get the right style number, they finally told him to come back tomorrow, they couldn't figure out how to do it, blah blah blah. .this "company" has been in business since the 80's . .I ended up meeting in the middle and knocking off a few bucks. he said he walked in here -told me what he wanted, I put it in the computer and done -very professional, no time lost, he had a price in under 30 seconds. He wasted 2 days waiting for these jokers to use their dirty word print out. . .I was clearly higher priced and won. It paid for the program.
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Take a look at this.
http://www.t-worksmanager.com/ (http://www.t-worksmanager.com/)
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I use T-works manager. Was looking for a mac compatible setup and it fit the price-point and feature set. It's basically a heavy duty Filemaker database. For project management I use Daylite by Marketcircle as it also has a iPhone app that syncs (and you can have up to 50 users sharing the calendar/projects/tasks).
I have considered duplicating the T-Works into my own Filemaker database because there's a plugin for daylite that will autofill the project info straight from the Filemaker database. Can't do this directly from T-Works because it's an outputted/packaged application from Filemaker.
Chris
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Gilligan PM me your email and I will send you one that we use in Excel. I am not smart enough to attach it here....lol
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If its a 1-off, I will hand write their info into my notebook then transfer it into PriceIt later that day.
You'd be surprised how easy you can loose track of a 1-off and the software helps keep the order in the mix.
Here is an order form that the company I used to work for used for many years.
Exactly... I'm not suggesting that you don't use these programs... I'm actually looking at having my brother build me a custom database like he did for my computer shop.
But I just don't see it being practical for the one off piece that you quote with a sign on your wall (Monogramming $10, Initials $8, Single Letter $6) to input that info into the system while the customer waits. Besides, a form lets them pick the font, mark the garment (mockup) for placement, spell out what they need exactly and then SIGN OFF on it!
That way if they come back and say... I said it was Amie, with IE, not a Y. I can say "well, here it is right here and you signed off saying this was right. Or plain and simple they print out what they need themselves and not leave room for me to assume anything!
But then yes... you put it in "the system" to track it and stay organized.
I say it like I'm the zen master of organization but I'm more of the master of chaos sadly. But I'm trying to change that.
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Possible the custom work order form I have on my site might help.
www.fluiddsn.com/?page_id=1135 (http://www.fluiddsn.com/?page_id=1135)
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Cool... getting great ideas for screen printing too now. Thanks Fluid!
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I use t-invoicer, its a cheap software program but works good for tracking names quoting and invoicing and you can pull reports off it so its nice at tax time. The newer version does more. Also I use this form for approvals (Attached)
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I use t-invoicer, its a cheap software program but works good for tracking names quoting and invoicing and you can pull reports off it so its nice at tax time. The newer version does more. Also I use this form for approvals (Attached)
Hmm, now that's a good price. T-Works seems to be an upgrade though you can still get t-invoicer.
Where would you say that this program lacks compared to teecal or something like that? I mean $800+ compared to $130 (or even $60 bucks), you HAVE to assume SOMETHING is missing.
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q
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I use t-invoicer, its a cheap software program but works good for tracking names quoting and invoicing and you can pull reports off it so its nice at tax time. The newer version does more. Also I use this form for approvals (Attached)
Hmm, now that's a good price. T-Works seems to be an upgrade though you can still get t-invoicer.
Where would you say that this program lacks compared to teecal or something like that? I mean $800+ compared to $130 (or even $60 bucks), you HAVE to assume SOMETHING is missing.
Well, the version I have you cant email from directly and there were some glitches with printing and converting to pdfs but they have corrected those issues. Its not a do all just invoicing, you can run reports on paid/ unpaid invoices I wish I could separate jobs that were taxable and those that were not, and some of the fields space is limited. I will be upgrading to the newer version soon. The other programs offer more in reports and field customization you can also build some pricing tables but the other programs offer more options for doing that.
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Do you guys see a need for another player in this market? I've talked to my brother several times about developing something. I'd of course like to fill in any holes and of course price it a bit cheaper than some of these systems.
Should I start another thread for a "wish list"?
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Maybe, but the problem is you will never make a system that will do everything that everybody wants. I'ts a crowded market, but I think you could make a go of it.
The thing that would get you the most amount of users is being able to bring all of their old info from another program over to the new one. Once you start with one, you feel locked in.
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Yeah, I feel ya.
Do the current systems have an "export" function? (obviously you personally probably can't speak for all of them).
If they have an export function, especially to CSV or something, I'm sure it could be worked out. As long as they don't "encrypt" their exports I would imagine it all could be reverse engineered. Wouldn't be flawless but probably could get it pretty decent.
I know you can't please everyone... but if there is a feature that others don't have that lots of users would like then that would be one more thing to throw in that would be worth it.
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usually they have a customer export feature, but frankly a customer list doesn't mean crap if i can't import past orders and the details.
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And that would be a problem with that.
Unless they are using flat files (unlikely) or some standard format even FileMaker might work. It would be hard to rip out their data.
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Whoa, just checked out T-Works and I dig it! I needed a nice one for a mac and I like the way the screens flow.
Gilligan, if you decide to venture into production, I would suggest designing a nice user interface. I've been running through alternatives for our POS and accounting softwares (at a retail clothing store), but I always decide to stick with Quickbooks. All because of the UI, despite the worst customer service ever...
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Whoa, just checked out T-Works and I dig it! I needed a nice one for a mac and I like the way the screens flow.
Gilligan, if you decide to venture into production, I would suggest designing a nice user interface. I've been running through alternatives for our POS and accounting softwares (at a retail clothing store), but I always decide to stick with Quickbooks. All because of the UI, despite the worst customer service ever...
Really?! Uggh... everyone I know hates QB... I have a customer that wishes they never would have bought their POS software. Way too much money invested in it and it just doesn't really do what they feel like it should. Plus POS doesn't really cleanly integrate into regular QB adding to their frustration.
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I'm too busy (and lazy) to sort through this thread and split the majority of it to the Shop Management software section right now
Can one of you interested parties start up a new thread?
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Sorry Andy... I know I'm bad for posting in the wrong section (truly by accident) but this time I wasn't the one guilty. ;)
I really wanted to just look at forms and everyone else got on this shop management stuff. ;)
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I'm not pointing fingers at you particularly, the change of subject just grew and grew, obviously displaying its value, and that it desrves to be in its own thread, in its correct section.
I'll probably split it later.
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I know, I'm just taking responsibility for my actions and then when I finally get it right... ;)