One of my recent trainees sent me an email with a scanned image of a business card and was having trouble remembering how to use the vector conversion tool in Design Shop.  This doesn't work for those of you who have Design Shop Lite or Design Shop without the Vector Option.  The vector option is available in Package B when purchasing a BRAVO.   As with many things, there are more ways to accomplish the same thing, but this is my personal favorite.

Limitless Lasering

Traveled to the metropolis of Milan Minnesota this week to teach Randy and his son how to use their new embroidery machine. Randy isn't just learning about embroidery though.... Embroidery is going to add to the product offerings of his sign vinyl, sublimation and engraving business. The next step in the new business is going to be direct to garment printing. Sounds like Randy is well on his way to building a one stop shop for anything printed.

Randy raised his 4 kids while running a carpet laying business and he decided that laying carpet is getting a bit harder on him with each passing year. Randy also has several head of cattle, and now that the kids are gone he is having to take care of chores by himself. He began thinking it's time to change gears and cash in the cattle for some printing equipment that he can run without worrying about the weather (and believe me, it was freeeeezng in MN this week).

Maximum Promotions

I had a great time teaching Vesna and Alex at Maximum Promotions in Sioux Falls how to run their new embroidery machines. Maximum Promotions is a fairly large company that has gone national with it's flag business. As a Nebraskan, they were eager to show me the flag that they made for the Huskers. The 60'x80 flag that you can see in the attached photo has made by hand by Vesna and her team in the Applique department. Vesna and Alex are going to be instrumental in helping Maximum Promotions bring the embroidery production in house, giving them more control over price and lead times. Another benefit to having the machines in house is that they can create a single piece for their sales force to take out on sales calls. This is a very effective strategy in selling embroidered goods. If you haven't tried this yet, give it a shot!

Mark Nelsen, the owner of Maximum Promotions is also an author. As a fellow entrepreneur he recognized in me what he calls "a gift". The gift being the Spirit of the American Entrepreneur - which also happens to be the title of the book he wrote about those of us who choose to open our own business. I have read the book - it's free and it's online here.

Please take a couple of hours to read the book, especially if you feel like you also have the "gift".

Holy Coats!

Who wouldn't love to land a huge account?  Diane at Decorative Designs by Diane is working on an order of coats - in fact she has already done over 5000 coats for this one customer, and they are also needing caps, shirts, bags and other items.  MONEY!!!!

Diane has been embroidering for several years on a Happy machine and recently purchased her first AMAYA machine.  There was a few times today that she mentioned that she wasn't always happy with her Happy, so I hope that the time we spent in training will give her the knowledge base to appreciate the auto-tension system of her new machine. 

Diane's family experienced a rough month of January this year including the loss of her job as an ER nurse after 20 plus years.  Nursing full time while building her embroidery business was a great way for Diane and her husband to support their family, but after the loss of her nursing job the family is still going strong with several clients including the money client with the thousands and thousands of coats.

Just like Diane, many people purchase embroidery machines and start building their business while working a full time job.    Not only is it possible to have a part time job working for yourself to pay for those extra things like a trip to Hawaii (yah, that's what I'm saving my embroidery money for this year), it is possible to build a solid business that can provide the income you need in case you find yourself in a situation like Diane.

Kansas Juvenile Correction Complex (KJCC)

Ok, so I got dispatched to the KJCC in Topeka today to do a training.  As it's name implies... it's a jail for juvies.  The walk through the halls of the high security side of the facility was a bit intimidating, but when I got to the work study building I was welcomed into a program with a hard working bunch of kids.  The work study program purchased a used Melco Amaya XT machine to replace a 3 head Brother machine for use in the textiles program. 

Of course we set to work on making sure that the facilitators and students alike got familiar with their new embroidery machine - which actually was easy work for me!  The kids were drawn to the ease of opening designs in AMAYA OS and selecting colors to stitch ~ their enthusiasm was infectious.  They were familiar with the ins and outs of embroidery, so moving from the Brother to the AMAYA was like upgrading from DOS to Windows! 

As we sat and waited for the designs to stitch I had the opportunity to see the other things that were going on in the program.  These kids are learning how to be creative and make stadium seats, draw string back packs, regular back packs, duffle bags, computer bags, eReader cases and more.  As a non-sewer myself I made a comment to one of the boys that I was working with that I was impressed with a bag that another student was making.  He replied with "yah, but after the first couple it gets boring" however, the young man working on the bag said "no, it never get's boring because you just need to keep coming up with new ideas for the bags".  This is so true - the young man had designed many bags and his pride in them showed through.

Now, these kids are in juvie for a reason (I don't know the reason and the reason is really insignificant to me) but they are using their time in the correctional facility to learn a skill, which I admire.  They are making anywhere from $.25 to $1.25 per hour, so they may not come away with a lot of money, but I hope that they come away with the skill and pride to make something of themselves one day. 

Who knew embroidery could be so inspiring?

Layette

If you are in the Dallas area and have need some high end monogrammed kids gifts be sure to stop by Layette!

After the first day of training I went to dinner with Ailsa and her 5 year old son Cam.  What a cutie that boy is!  I just have to say that Ailsa is doing a great job raising a respectful and outgoing son.  While at the restaurant I was impressed when Cam told the waitress what he would like for dinner (a challenging enough thing for a young person to do).  What I was more impress with is how Ailsa is instilling in Cam the importance of making eye contact with people when he speaks to them - I think the waitress was impressed with Cam as well.  Kudos to you Ailsa!


I met Ailsa (the founder and owner of Layette) at the ISS Show in Fort Worth in October 2011 while demonstrating the BRAVO embroidery machine in the EnMart booth.   Ailsa decided to purchase her machine from me because she didn't know anything about embroidery and wanted the two days of on-site training that I offer when I sell a machine.

I wish Ailsa and her great friends the best of luck in their new endeavor!

All work and no play...

After not near enough training I went to Florida to run the Disney World Half Marathon. My goal this year was not to beat my time from last year, but to enjoy the run and to meet new people, and I did... both. Early in the run (maybe mile 2) I saw the back of a shirt that said "I run for mental health" - so I started a conversation with the young lady by saying "I run for mental health too". I of course meant stress relief, but it turns out that Rachel, Rob, Daniel and Hannah have created a team to raise money for the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. They are such a nice family and I ended up seeing them off and on throughout the race. I am going to follow the family on Facebook and might just look into becoming part of their team! For more information on the family check out their website at

I ended up finishing in 2 hours and 29 minutes. 7 minutes slower than last year, but like I said, I didn't really train much this year and I had a great time.

While in Florida I also had a chance to enjoy a slice of key lime pie at Bahama Breeze, pigged out on some rock shrimp and checked out some alligators in the wild.