• Sample the actual logo on a t-shirt, using our Kornit DTG printer
• Customer can show the sample to coworkers.
• Build excitement for the store. 
• The customer must be your "cheerleader" to promote the store. 
• This might not be necessary do to cost per Marshall (Consultant)

Erik spoke with Tom Rauen on the phone: 11-16-17 tom@envisiontees.com
Sample Client Store shop.envisiontees.com/blufflake   (they order 300 at a time. that is why $6.00 shirts

Notes from Phone Call
Ideas
Hospitals: "Years of Service" shirts
Gift Cards  (e gift cards on inksoft). i.e. Insurance company purchases the gift cards ahead of time. 100 gift cards at $50.00  they write you a check for $5,000.00.  the cool thing is that some cards never get used.  You can make the gift card in photoshop to email to customer.

Company Store Dollars:  A hospital will give nurses $100.00 to purchase goods. Use a discount code. Then send the orders to the hospital and they will write you one check. Kinda like arrow lumber

Two types of stores
1. Company Store: Sell at full retail and add for the logo.  Jacket retails for $75.00  then add $5.00 for the embroidery. You will be doing one offs.  Produce immediately.
2.  Client Stores: Current customers that have already been buying from you.  You pick the items that they have already been buying. Use the qty discounts in Inksoft.  The pricing is already established.  The cool thing is you can NEW items. An example is Joe's Lawn Care buying a black DTG shirt every year.  He logins to place his order and he sees his standard t-shirt but a new item .. Good be a jacket, mug, promo item. You will get plus sales.

School/Fundraising Stores:
Have a minimum order like 24 pieces.
Price the item at the 24 unit price i.e $15.00
then tell the customer that if he orders more than 24 he will get discounts based on the qty ordered. They will pay $15.00 online but NW Custom will write a check back to then based on the qty discount.

25-48: $14.00
49+:   $12.00
If they order 49 plus they pay $12.00.   So you would write a check back for $15.00 - $12.00 = $3.00  then times by 49*$3.00 =$441.00

That profit can be used for the fundraising. A school wants to raise money and they think they can sell 144 shirts. Instead of immediately giving the 144 piece price, you give them the 24 piece at $15.00. This will prevent them only selling 24 shirts and receiving the 144 piece price. Then you have a cheerleader in the group because they want to get a check written back. The check then would be the profit for the fundraising.

Who do you hire:  A millennial that has graphic artist experience that can quickly setup the sites.  $15.00 per hour.

The front office staff sells the stores and the artist and factory does the rest. 

Steven Farag
Campus Ink
(217) 344-0944
steven@campus.ink
campus.ink/
Video of Steven

Erik spoke with Steven on 11-17-17
Notes from Phone Call:
slogan "Were going to make life easier"
Customers need to follow the rules.
Keep the store up for 2 weeks. Not year round.

Ideas:
Seasonal Stores: Black Friday, Christmas, Back to School, Cyber Monday.
Define the perfect customer and then go after them.

Pricing:
Charge a $2.00 convenience fee for poly bagging
Have a min. order size before you start the order. Clearly mark that on the header (Inksoft can tell how many pieces been sold app)
Rebate the customer:
Put the retail price at 24 units then discount. Just like tom says .  price at $15.00 if they sell 24.. then 48 at $12.00.  the store will always have the highest price. but then you write a refund check back to the organizer.

He pays a commission to the student reps 7%-8% per item

he uses ship station to ship individual orders. 

• Determines product
• Pricing
• etc. 

• Keep store open for a predetermined window: 2-4 weeks to collect orders.
• Close the store after orders collected.
• Open the store after the order is shipped (add additional product when you reopen) customers will get the sweatshirt and the people who didn't order will want more.

• Download orders into Shopworks
• Verify orders etc. 
• Hand order over to the purchasing department.

• Purchase the blanks from the vendor

• Produce the order.  DTG or embroidery

• Ship individually
• Bulk Ship
• Bulk pickup

• Follow-up 3-4 days afterwards
• Ask if they need any add ons. (this should be at the beginning of the order) add items to the store. 

Tom Rauen
Envision Tees
(563) 590-9856
tom@envisiontees.com
envisiontees.com
Steven Farag
Campus Ink
(217) 344-0944
steven@campus.ink
campus.ink/
Video of Steven


Mark Coudray
Catalyst Accelerator
(805) 541-1421
coudray@coudray.com
coudray.com

Steve, Dee
Envision T-Shirts does close to 1 million dollars using the Inksoft Webstores.
Here is a link to a live store: shop.envisiontees.com/iowawave/shop/home
Hoodies: $35.00
T-Shirts: $15.00 - $17.00
Crewnecks $31.00
Long Sleeve T: $17.00
Notice They do a Page for each design.

• They have different designs
• Design 1
• Design 2
• Design 3

Steven Farag

October 24, 2017Best practice story for anyone trying to get school fundraisers going...
Took a little bit of a risky order for an entire school district in Chicago and created 15 school fundraisers that ran for the last two weeks. Each school used a 2 color unique print on three basic items (t-shirt, dryfit, hoodie). We offered a universal polo, jacket, sweats, and shorts that were available on each store. Each store had a pickup time and location that was provided by the district. We created custom checkout fields to take down students name and grade.
After we built the 15 stores, we created a landing page on our website where the school district pointed all their families to that had a link to each individual store (see photo). We set very strong expectations with the school district. They had to sell a minimum of 24 items per design, and would have to buy enough to hit those totals if a sale didn't go well. We charged them an extra 2$ per item to Bag & Tag each customer's order in a poly mailer from Uline (newly discovered profit enter). There would be no changes to orders or refunds once we processed them.
The district was more than thrilled with us because we were solution oriented and made everyone's life easier. We took all the hassle out of collecting sizes, money, and distribution. They even decided to add a few dollars per item to fundraise.
We wanted to make sure this was marketed well so the school shared with me their mailing list and I created some basic emails that went out to parents via mailchimp.
The results were amazing. We sold a few thousand pieces and the districts made quite a bit of money along the way.
What I'm getting at here is to put yourself in the customer's shoes. They are probably an administrator in a school district and have much better things to do than figure out apparel. We took all the stress out of their position and handled the rest.
If you are scared of Amazon or any other threats in the industry, recognize that our digital economy is pushing the industry to be more convenience based. Think 2 day Amazon shipping, Starbucks, uber etc.
We have made strides to adapt our business to be more convenience based and it has paid off immensely! Price was never an issue here because everyone was winning. It ended up being an extremely profitable job!
I'd love to hear how this has worked for anyone, or any best practices.

We have been using Ink Soft for about 4 years.... It isn't perfect, but it is good.
We average 10-15 stores open at any one time and have created 200+ in the past two years.
What I like:  they are very responsive to feed back.  Many of my recommendations have been implemented.  I sat with Matt and the developers for a day back in November and am very excited about 2018 releases.
Recent updates that are HUGE - rapid product loader for pre-decorated products.
What I don't like:  order capture, tracking, and analytics are very poor.  We use ShopVox for bulk order tracking, it does not integrate with Ink Soft.  I don't want to make the investment into ShopWorks because InkSoft is suppose to be releasing a product very similar that is integrated to capture the online orders.  The release is 'suppose' to be in April although InkSoft is notorious for pushing back their release dates and it is suppose to be included in the price of our current subscription.  If this is true, and they get the design studio mobile compatible, I don't think there is a product out there that will come close.  If they fail to fulfill these needs,  I still believe it is a good product, but I will have to look at ShopWorks more closely.  I don't mind making the 2000.00+ initial investment, but not if I am only going to use it for 3 months.  
I am working on SOP's for our shop, included in that will be best practices for Ink Soft Stores.  I am happy to share it when I get it out of my head and onto paper.
To be completely honest, I strive hard not to be a leach and just take from others (your handbook and marketing materials) I want to contribute as well.  But I am the sole owner of my business, my husband died a year ago and I have two teen age daughters.  It takes me a bit longer to get things done than your average person.  I hope you will bear with me and I am happy to share any knowledge I have.
As for fundraising and schools.  I used a fundraising store one time and it bit us hard.  Unfortunately, the actual meter that inksoft puts on the top of the draws from TOTAL sales, not the actual amount the schools/group receives.  So it will say 10,000 dollars and then you hand the school a check for 1,000 and they think you are ripping them off.  They don't get that it was total sales, and all of your costs.  They think 1 you misrepresented the fundraiser, and two you are getting rich off of them while they do all the work to promote the site.  
That being said, we do fundraisers with school/clubs we just use a regular store.  At the end of the campaign we calculate their proceeds and give them the check.  We either do a standards markup of a % or a we do a flat dollar amount ($3.00) per item.  DO NOT let them talk you into marking up short sleeve shirts by 3.00 and long sleeve shirts by 4.00 and hoodies by 10.00 etc.  You will spend half your life running reports and calculating proceeds.
Off the top of my head - lessons learned on stores:
1 - CLEAR expectations of delivery dates.  Will you be printing for bulk production on on-demand.  Set prices accordingly and explain the difference.  Use a banner to clearly state expected delivery date.
2 - we use the custom field option to have the customer sign off on a statement that says this is custom printed apparel and to choose sizes carefully.  We will only exchange items due to manufacturer defect and only same item/size.
3 - use the custom field option to capture student name.  Often the student name may be different from parent's or order placers name.  The schools get frustrated when orders are delivered and they don't know that Johnny's grandma is Roberta Smith, but the order is for Johnny Jones.  We also capture the customers phone.  If they check out as a guest, you will only get an email address and no good way to contact them if there are issues with their order.
4 - use the count down clock component - it does two things. 1 - lights a fire and gets people to order more, sooner.  2 - you can keep the store open after the clock expires, and then people ordering are more appreciative and respect the fact they were late ordering and their item may not come in with the rest of the order.  They are super happy when they know they have ordered late and you still deliver with the rest of the team.
5 - We do not put limits on the number of products they can offer and we do not charge to put more items up.  We make STRONG suggestions to keep their product offers to 10-20 items.  More than that becomes overwhelming.
6 - We do not charge for store set up or art.  We up the price of the product by a couple of dollars to recoup that expense.  Most youth organizations and schools will not put out up front costs for a store, but incorporating them into the product pricing makes everyone in the organization pay a couple bucks and disperses the expense.  We have gotten pretty good at estimating sales based on the size of the organization.  This gives us a good idea of how to price the items. 
7 - be flexible and creative to make it as easy as possible for your customers.  For example - PTA pays for t-shirts for their 5th graders but they do not want to gather all the sizing info or disperse the shirts.  We set up a store for everyone to place their order, we then issued a discount code for the total cost of the shirt.  School distributes the site.  We have 125 orders.  125 new customers with email addresses to market to, more traffic driven to our website (better SEO), and a customer that is happy because the only thing they have to send out a link.  At the end of the campaign we look at the number of uses for the discount code and we invoice the PTA.   Think of outside of the box uses.
SELLING POINTS for organizations:
1 - they do not have to handle money, sizes, personalization or field any complaints on orders
2 - parents can pay with credit card (which most schools and youth organizations do not accept)
3 - EASY to do personalization
4 - we bag all orders with packing slips with the individuals name so 'they' do not have to spend their time sorting and organizing orders for delivery.
Once we set up a store for an organization - we have a 90% return rate for future stores - we do everything we can to make it easy for them.  'THEY' LOVE IT!
Just remember for fundraisers for organizations you will have to issue a 1099 at the end of the year.  Make sure you gather the appropriate information (tax id or SSN) and you track this somewhere.  Inksoft does not track it.
I have attached our work flow sheet that I fill out and give to my staff members that create the stores.  Each sections flows exactly with the new store setup flow - I hope it is useful and is a small return on what you have sent me.
Let me know if you have other questions - I am happy to answer.
THANKS!
Ali Banholzer
MOSD LLC, dba Wear Your Spirit Warehouse, Owner
WearYourSpiritWarehouse.com
32 Cox Road, Huntingtown, MD 20639
(W) 410-741-3299
(C) 410-474-2889