Minuteman Press Franchise Review: Jim Sweeney Talks Growing Apparel Sales in Houston
Left to right: Owners Jim & Jane Sweeney along with their daughter Allison Everett (Production Manager) at their Minuteman Press franchise in Houston, Texas. Jane notes that Allison “is a vital part of our DTF program.”
HOUSTON, Texas – Jim and Jane Sweeney are the owners of the Minuteman Press franchise in Houston, Texas for the last 29 years; they first joined Minuteman Press in June of 1994. Jim and Jane have been incredibly successful in building their business. Recently, they have really excelled in increasing their apparel sales.
Jim summarizes: “The past 2 years have certainly been interesting. As of July 2023, we are 30.5% in front of our 2022 sales. This is a 35% increase over 2021. It seems like the world (or our world anyway) came out of its 2-year long malaise in 2022.”
Jim shares more specific details about his center’s booming apparel business and how he and Jane’s Minuteman Press franchise in Houston have accomplished such strong growth in their apparel sales. Their center is located in Houston, Clear Lake City at 1040 Hercules Ave.
Growing Your Business
On growing the business over the past two years, Jim says, “During the early pandemic we pivoted to personal protection products, which naturally led to custom face masks. Jane was busy sewing 1000 masks while I provided custom logo cloth face masks to schools, hospitals, medical offices and service providers. We sold about 40 000 custom masks at that time. They were either heat-pressed, or we sent them to local screen printers. We also donated a lot of masks to schools, non-profits, etc.”
He continues, “Finally, in 2022, our traditional printing was finally starting to climb back to pre-pandemic levels. Trade shows and marketing campaigns became more common, which led to an increase in promotional products. There was a huge surge in large format printing, but it slowed after the initial rush. EDDM has also grown to be a greater portion of our print sales. We definitely noticed a large increase in our direct mail once we registered with the USPS as EDDM suppliers. The Graphic Whizard’s slitter cutter and creaser have made business card printing even more profitable. Our marketing efforts consists of: heavy community involvement; direct mail postcards, especially this year with the Deal of the Month art provided by MMP corporate; SEO/SEM on the Minuteman.com website, and social media, specifically as it relates to Direct to Film Transfer sales.”
Building a Booming Clothing Business
Minuteman Press offers custom branded clothing as a way to help businesses build their brand and market themselves. Jim explains:
“We really started getting serious about apparel about 8 years ago when we purchased a commercial embroidery machine. Jane created a wonderful lobby presentation about five years ago. This area includes apparel, promotional items, large format and other interesting items.
The Epson F570 added dye-sublimation capability, and we then added DTG printing to produce one-offs (we sold the DTG machine). We used a lot screen-printed transfers during this period, mainly from 613 Originals or FM Expressions. Turnaround time became an issue. The turnaround time was the issue.
We purchased a second, and then a third Stahls’ heat press during this time. Then we decided to enter the Direct to Film printing business. We purchased our first DTF printer with dual printheads and large format about 2.5 years back after trying several desktop converter printers. Our capacity allows us to not only produce transfers for in-house usage, but also sell them to other printers. This includes screen printers. sign shops. Facebook Group/Etsy owner. We added additional capacity with a 4 head DTF printer in January of this year (we will most likely be adding a third printer in the third quarter this year).”
Jim continues: “Wholesale Transfer printing is now approximately 20% of our monthly sales; we ship all over the country, with a daily capacity for printing thousands of transfers. Adding embroidery and our in-house t-shirt sales makes apparel approximately 30% of our monthly revenue.”
He adds, “Concurrently with this growth in transfer sales, the embroidery business was taking off. We receive regular orders for 10-50 button-down or polos shirts to be embroidered. Our customers included a local hospital and two grocery stores. Each order consisted of 150-200 shirt. In the past, we have completed a $24,000 jacket embroidering order and delivered a $32,000 jacket order. Both clients are hospitals. Of course, we use a trusted local vendor for larger quantities of jackets.”
“Our apparel business continues to grow weekly with more, and larger, in-house turn-key t-shirt sales really ramping up.” -Jim Sweeney, owner, Minuteman Press, Houston/Clear Lake, Texas
How to grow your clothing business
Jim shares three tips for growing an apparel business.
“1. Our lobby display, along with wholesale transfers, we feel, continues to be the main thing driving our apparel sales. This display, which includes apparel samples, promo items, and large format samples, was put in place several years ago. The display always attracts new customers, and even existing ones, whenever they come into the store. Around one in five people who come into the store inquire about something on this display. About 85% of these inquiries are converted into sales.
2. It is also helpful that our CSR knows all about apparel and all about our products. Allison, our CSR/production director, worked as the store manager in our Galveston branch (which we will sell in August 2022) and has been involved in all aspects of our business. It’s true that not everyone has this kind of luck, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t train your employees and give them the tools to succeed. SanMar’s apparel catalogs include swatches and marketing tools that can be used to build a simple apparel site. It goes without saying, too, that your entire staff should wear logo shirts to showcase your abilities.
3. Attend a local trade show in the apparel industry, ASI, or the MMP International World Expo if you can. Start small with your own shirts. Educate yourself. Request samples. Purchase a heat press. Apparel is an excellent way to tie into all the other services our shops offer to their clients. Apparel sales spur printing sales, just like printing sales should spur apparel sales.”
Client Example
Jim shares how he met the clothing needs of a hospital in his locality. He shares: “One of our regular ordering apparel clients is a local specialty hospital. The hospital also owns or partners with 15 other physical therapist centers in Houston. We first provided them with their usual printing and big format products. Later, we were contracted to supply new building signs for each of the offices in the surrounding areas. And then, together, we expanded into apparel. We have them set up on 2 Stahl’s Spirit Sale websites. Both websites allow employees to buy branded apparel and new hospital employees to buy apparel. In addition to standard corporate apparel, each department has their own branded t-shirt.”
Jim continues, “At least once or twice per year, this hospital does a bulk purchase of 430 t-shirts for all the staff members. The bulk purchase could be jackets (rain jackets), backpacks, specialty items or tee-shirts. We’ve provided $200,000 or more in just apparel and high-end promo items to the hospital in the last 3 years. This hospital then referred us to the hospital that I mentioned earlier in the article, who has just taken delivery of their second large jacket embroidery order.”
Other People’s Advice on Apparel
When asked what advice he would give to others businesses about utilizing custom apparel, Jim answers, “Apparel is an easy sell. Wear your logo. Wear your logo. Ask for referrals. Don’t be afraid of it just because you haven’t done it before.”
For more information on Jim and Jane Sweeney’s Minuteman Press franchise in Houston/Clear Lake, visit https://minuteman.com/us/locations/tx/houston27/
Learn more about #1 rated Minuteman Press franchise opportunities and read Minuteman Press franchise reviews at https://minutemanpressfranchise.com