The WE Pivot Podcast
The WE Pivot Podcast educates women entrepreneurs on the different digital marketing strategies, tools, and the newest trends and insights that have helped others succeed. Al and Tona have crafted each episode to help you learn the strategies, tools, and techniques you need to compete online while cheering you along the way!
The WE Pivot Podcast
Print on Demand: Lessons, Wins, and Game-Changing Tips
Ever wondered how to navigate the complex world of print-on-demand for your creative business? In this episode, I’ll take you through my 11-year journey, highlighting lessons learned, from the importance of choosing reliable partners to the realities of pricing, product quality, and variety. Along the way, I’ll share stories about our experiences with platforms like Zenfolio and Printful, and the crucial role research and product testing play in maintaining quality control.
You’ll also hear candid tales of resilience, like overcoming a problematic order with a smelly blue jean jacket and navigating the 2020 inventory crisis. With each story, my mission to empower others in their entrepreneurial journey shines through, reminding us all of the power of persistence and quality service. Whether you’re just starting out or looking for inspiration, this episode is packed with insights to motivate you to make a positive impact through print-on-demand. Join me as we dive into the behind-the-scenes world of building a creative business that matters.
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The we Pivot podcast is for you if you're a woman who has recently pivoted into entrepreneurship. You'll find digital marketing tips, trends and strategies to help grow your business in today's digital world. Join Tona and Al Haywood as we have fun breaking down all things digital marketing. So sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Hello everyone, today I'm taking you behind the scenes to share what I have learned from working with print-on-demand companies for over 11 years. It's been a journey of insights, surprises and hard-learned lessons, and if you're thinking about using print-on-demand, this episode may just be the guide you need. So let's dive in. So before I start, let me tell you a story about one of the first print-on-demand company. It was called Zenfolio. Maybe some of you know it, maybe not.
Speaker 1:Well, in the beginning, when we started our doing artwork, we were doing everything by hand, but after a while, we realized that the only way to really be able to get this out to more people is we needed a company that could do a lot of the back-end work for us. Well, in walks not really walks, but in comes Zemfolio. We thought this was going to be just what we need. We could upload our pictures and they could send it out for us and it would be great and it was in theory, but we didn't really have our own website at the time. We had to just send people a link to go to purchase and the profit from doing a lot of those pictures was very, very small. You want to know how small, like 20 cents. And we realized not too long into it that this was not going to work for us. So what we decided was to research some other companies. Now, initially, one of the reasons why we decided that we were going to use print-on-demand is because at the time I was a high school biology teacher, my husband was also doing administrative work in the Chicago public schools and because of that it was really hard for us to take up all of our time, to have inventory in our home and to be sending out things to our various customers who decided to purchase. So Print on Demand was the perfect idea for us, or the perfect solution to our problem idea for us, or the perfect solution to our problem.
Speaker 1:Once we started, we came across Printful, which I'm pretty sure everyone knows, and Printful is a company that basically they have a lot of different products and you can take your designs, pretty much, plop them on and they will do all the labor on the back end for you. So that is what pretty much drew us first to deciding to really work with print on demand companies was just the fact that we did not have the time or energy to have inventory to send out the different packages to different people, so we decided print-on-demand would be the most effective way to do this. Now, one of the most surprising things that I learned about print-on-demand is that every company is different. They may have the same types of items, but each one will charge a different price. One company might charge $10 for a sweatshirt, another company might charge $20. Important for you to decide which company is going to work best for the amount of profit that you want to get from selling those items, and also just which company has the best items or the best variety of items that you would like to use.
Speaker 1:Some of the ways that print-on-demand has affected my creative process, like I said, when I started, we started with Zenfolio and technically we actually started selling pictures first and combining our talents to sell pictures. But when print-on-demand came on the scene, where more print-on-demand companies came on the scene, I realized that I could really try to do varying designs based off of just different things that I saw, inspirations that I saw. I would do a lot of typography and things of that nature. And then I started playing around with Illustrator. So my creative process it kind of changed over time because I was always trying to practice to make the next best selling design in my store. So having a print on demand company to use so having a print-on-demand company to use it meant that I could be more creative because I didn't have to just rely on one design. I could just keep pumping out more and more designs so that I could put them out to people to see which ones resonated with people the most.
Speaker 1:Now, of course, working with print on demand, there's going to be some challenges, and one of the biggest challenges working with print on demand companies is the fact that sometimes, because you're working with all of these different companies, you are not really in control of the products that are sent out, of the products that are sent out, and you have to trust that the print-on-demand company that you've chosen is going to do the best possible job that they can to get the best product in front of the customers that have purchased from you. But I think one of the ways to get around that is to make sure that you really do a lot of research on the company that you want to use first and test a variety of different products, have them sent to you to see how the process is for yourself before actually choosing one. I believe one of that specific challenge and how I can overcome it is basically by researching. When I research, I'm really trying to figure out the best company for me, based off of how long it takes to get to me. When it gets to me, do I like it? And if I like it or other people in my family like it, then I know that it's going to be a winner with my other customers who purchase.
Speaker 1:Now, when it comes to choosing a print-on-demand company to work with, the main criteria that is most important to me is, first, how much are they actually charging? So what is their price structure like and how quickly can they get the item to the individual customer that has ordered? I also care about the quality of the items that I am going to be picking as well. Also, variety Do they have a lot of variety of items? Because, yes, I do sell mostly T-shirts and sweatshirts and things like that, but there might be other items that might be trending at a time that I'd like to add my designs to to test out, to test out the market. So those are really important. And also their customer service on the backend. Do I do they have the ability to have either a live chat or someone you can email that will get back to you relatively quickly and pretty much solve any problem that you have. Those are going to be my specific criteria that are very important to me.
Speaker 1:Now, can I share, or I can share one time when a print on demand order didn't go as planned and how did I handle it? Basically, recently I had blue jean jackets on my store and it was from a specific print on demand company and one of my loyal customers, who always purchases for me, decided that she wanted to purchase this blue jean jacket. She purchased the jacket and when she got it, when she received it, she emailed me and told me that the blue jean jacket it had a really bad odor to it and she explained how it smelled and all of these different things. And I let her know that if she was not satisfied then I would be giving her a refund on that specific jacket. So if she would like, she can wash it again, she can donate, she can do whatever she would like with that particular jacket, and I also contacted my print-on-demand company about that issue as well.
Speaker 1:Now, the main thing when dealing with things like that, you have to really have your process in place and your solutions kind of ahead of time, on how you want to solve those issues. But as long as you have a company that is going to be easy to work with, usually you won't have any problems trying to solve those issues when they come up. The other thing that happened and that was back in 2020, when everything started to shut down and people were not able to get items like they used to because of the varying inventory problems I had to actually just shut down my store. During that time and the company I was working for working with, I had to really start researching other companies, because they weren't able to send things out. They were having lots of inventory problems, and so during that time, I used that time to actually find another company to work with, and it's been the best decision for myself to work with this other company, because they were just starting out, it seems, and now I have more of a relationship with this company and it has just been great.
Speaker 1:Now, if someone were considering starting a print on demand or using print on demand to meet their e-commerce needs, the one tip that I would give a person is to really research, research first, and really determine why you want to do this, because, even though a lot of people say that it's passive income, it's not really passive because there's a lot of work that goes into it. You can put out a design and send it to people that you know. You can put it on social media. That doesn't necessarily mean that people are going to buy. It's a long-term game and sometimes people aren't really willing to wait, and so being patient is something that you really have to do. Make sure you research, research, research the print-on-demand company that's going to be best for you, and also make sure that you test and order different things, like, if you want to put out t-shirts, you should definitely test and see. Put out t-shirts, you should definitely test and see how the t-shirts are, sweatshirts or any other product.
Speaker 1:My philosophy is I can't put something out that I haven't first bought and tried myself. If I try it myself and I like it and I'm a fan. If I try it myself and I like it and I'm a fan, then I can add it to my store. If not, I can't add it Now. Something that keeps me motivated to help me to keep creating through print on demand, especially when things don't go as planned or especially when I don't get a lot of sales as planned, or especially when I don't get a lot of sales.
Speaker 1:I believe that my purpose in doing Call to Edify is the thing that helps to keep me going. I know that my husband and I we do the podcast. We also build websites for small businesses, so we have a lot of other things that we do, but my purpose is still to encourage and build up women with the word of God and in any way that I can do that, using print on demand as a way to do that, I will continue to do that. Even when things don't go as planned or even if I don't get a lot of sales, I still feel that I am making an impact Over the years I have been here. I haven't shut down. I am still doing what the Lord has called me to do, and so I will keep creating with print on demand and until next time, take care we're so excited that you tuned in to the latest episode of the we Pivot podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you for joining us Now. Whether this is your first time or not, please make sure to subscribe and share with a friend who can also use some digital marketing guidance as well. Until next time.
