#18 Norman Rosson & Bionca Monroe: Unlocking business growth with net-30 terms

Learn about the power of net-30 terms with Norman Rosson and Bianca Monroe from Branded Apparel Club. Norman and Bianca share how offering net-30 terms has helped their members grow, and offer practical advice for entrepreneurs looking to leverage net-30 accounts to enhance their operations. Plus, they’re offering an exclusive Branded Apparel Club discount code for our listeners: Use code nav10 at checkout for 10% off a Branded Apparel Club annual membership fee.*

*Offer valid for new Branded Apparel Club memberships only. One-time discount applied to initial membership fee. Existing members may contact Branded Apparel Club for personalized promotional options.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Overcoming fear and finding purpose in business
• 3:46 How Branded Apparel Club began: From apparel shop to credit-building service
• 6:06 Norman and Bionca’s story: From partners in business to partners in life
• 10:04 Turning fear into faith: Entrepreneur mindset advice
• 12:45 Understanding net-30 terms and how they can help you build business credit
• 16:04 Membership benefits that help small businesses save and scale
• 18:46 How to build trust, creditworthiness, and vendor relationships
• 31:33 How to prepare your business for the holiday season
• 32:09 How branded merchandise builds brand identity and customer loyalty
• 44:56 Special offer: Get 10% off with promo code nav10

Transcript

Bionca (00:00)

You're gonna be scared. You're gonna be uncomfortable but when you get that uncomfortable feeling and your fear and you're scared and you have this anticipation in your heart that you know, this is something that you desire, that you want to do. You're just nervous… that feeling, instead of running from it, go towards it.

That is the beginning of you stepping outside of your fear and you're stepping into faith.

Norman Rosson (00:24)

The fear is eliminated once you find your purpose. If you're walking into something that you know, this is what you're supposed to be doing. It's just nature. You're just doing what you're called upon for something that you're talented at. you just got to find your purpose.

And there is no fear in it because you just walk in so confidently with such surety that you're going to succeed, you know what you're doing, and it comes off in your spirit, it comes off in everything that you do. So as long as you're walking in your purpose, I think fear automatically kind of wipes itself out.

Tiffany (00:58)

Welcome to Main Street Makers, a bi-weekly podcast that features real, local small business owners who have transformed their passions into profitable businesses. Learn from fellow small business owners on how they overcome challenges, find opportunities, and create thriving operations that make our neighborhoods more vibrant, connected places to live.

I'm Tiffany and this podcast is brought to you by Nav, the business credit platform that believes every small business owner deserves the chance to succeed. Now let's get to this week's show.

Tiffany (01:28)

Hi and welcome to Main Street Makers. Today we're very excited to bring on two members or owners of the Branded Apparel Club, Norman Rosson and Bianca Monroe. Welcome.

Norman Rosson (01:42)

Thank you, welcome boy. Thank you. Thank you for having us.

Bionca (01:42)

Thank you. Thank you for having us.

Tiffany (01:45)

We're so glad that you decided to join us. So your business is Branded Apparel Club and it's such an interesting model. So what gave you the idea to start Branded Apparel Club and how did you come up with your membership model? If you could walk us through that.

Norman Rosson (03:46)

Yes, yes. So I found it before it became branded Apparel Club, it was actually Business T-shirt Club. And so we did a full rebrand back in 2023. Just because it's, know, to me, branded Apparel Club just sounded a little bit more flow better and was more self explanatory versus people asking, you know, what is Business T-shirt Club? but to answer your question,

I started it. I was in the apparel business or I had an e-commerce or not even an e-commerce but I had an actual store in the Chicagoland area. It was like an apparel brand. And so I was accumulating a lot of resources doing that. But I was also learning through that process of trying to finance and grow the business. 

And so I started getting into credit business credit business funding and things of that nature and started learning about the net-30 programs out there, your normal vendors who are out there who report to all of the different business credit reporting agencies. So I started to kind of formulate this idea of, “Well, I have these resources in my apparel brand business. How can I turn it into an actual service for small businesses and nationwide? And also be able to do it on credit terms?” 

And then that question became, “Well, okay, well, how do I become a data furniture? How do I report to the business credit bureaus like some of the other players out in the space who are data furnishers and helping businesses build credit and extending credit and things like that?” 

So all of that just kind of built and turned out and it became what is now Branded Apparel Club. We're a service-based business. We do extend credit terms to our members — that credit line could be anywhere from $2,500 to $5,000. And so a lot of things will be changing in terms of that part of it as far as credit limits. But yeah, that's, that's just, you know, the, the main component and just formulating that over years and into what became now Branded Apparel Club.

Tiffany (06:06)

That's very cool and I definitely want to talk more about the net-30 in a bit. But first off, Bianca, how do you guys know each other? We like to ask this question.

Bionca (06:16)

So I kind of know him just a little bit. He's my husband. So I kind of know him. I'll get back to you on that. But no I started helping Norman with Business T-shirt Club while we were really good friends and then the business bonded us.

Tiffany (06:26)

Nice.

Bionca (06:40)

And we got married. We’re in this together, partnership in real life. So yeah, that's how we know each other.

Tiffany (06:53)

That's amazing. Actually, you're the second couple that we've talked to that did that same trajectory of doing business and then getting married.

Bionca (06:58)

Really? I mean, marriage is a business at the end of the day. You're dealing with the kids, you're dealing with real life, everyday life. And when you own a business, it's your everyday life. There is no clocking in, clocking out, and no leaving your work at the office and not bringing it home. So I'm not surprised to hear that it does work hand in hand.

Norman Rosson (07:32)

Yeah, kind of speaking to that, what she just said, she would see, as I was going through different struggles as a business owner, she would kind of see it on my face. And so she would just be talking to me and she would just see that I was like out of it. 

I wasn't really engaged in whatever conversation we were having that wasn't related to business, but it was always just something on my mind. You know, the little different challenges that I was going through and she just was like, “What's going on? What kind of challenges are you having in the business?” 

And so I started to express, you know, telling her, what was going on with the business. And a lot of it was just kind of administrative and I was wearing a lot of different hats. You know, I wasn't really at the position at the time where I could afford to hire people or the appropriate people that I needed to hire.

I was, at a point in time, I was picking up the phones and answering the actual phone, you know, and doing all of that type of stuff. Then she, she came in and said, “Well, I'll jump in. I'll help you with some of these orders.” We were kind of behind on a few orders and things like that. And so she jumped in and, once, I saw that she was, had a vested interest in my business and was willing to help.

And it helped me turn it around because she knew it would put me in a better place. That kind of made me look at her differently and made her look like, okay, this is somebody that I could potentially even build up a long lasting partner relationship with. And so here we are.

Bionca (09:05)

Thank you, honey.

Tiffany (09:07)

That is so sweet.

Bionca (09:09)

But seriously, he did inspire me. Honestly, I'm not giving this advice to anyone listening, but Norman helped me quit my job. I was working a job. I was in corporate. I worked for a huge company and they were just not treating me right. And I was really good at what I did and I would see him working so hard. And I was like, man, I always had dreams of being a business owner, but I was scared.

Literally is the words the fear of failing and all I knew is the comfortability of getting paid every two weeks and Norman did inspire me and helped me jump off the porch When it comes to that fear and just taking a leap of faith and it's the best decision I ever made the scariest Yet the best decision I ever made my life has changed Completely once I stepped out on stage

Tiffany (10:04)

I love that. We hear that all the time: Fear holds people back and people have to overcome it. I think every small business owner has to overcome fear when they're starting. Do you have any advice for people? Maybe in the fear stage?

Bionca (10:15)

Absolutely.

Yes, I want to say this and I tell this to my kids. Our children are just starting college. And they're scared. Anytime that your life is about to change, you're gonna be scared. You're gonna be uncomfortable. 

What I learned and trust me it took a while for me to learn this but when you get that uncomfortable feeling and your fear and you're scared and you have this anticipation in your heart that you know, this is something that you desire that you want to do what you're just nervous that feeling Instead of running from it go towards it. I would say don't run from it, go towards it when you get that feeling in your gut and you're nervous.

That is the beginning of you stepping outside of your fear and you're stepping into faith. So I would turn fear into faith is my short answer and I will go for it. I mean, you only get one life. You're gonna have regrets later on if you don't try. I wanna say, if you have a position where they're treating you okay, still work your job and start working on your business until you have the courage.

And that will help you, the more you pour into your business, that will give you the courage to kind of put that fear aside.

Norman Rosson (11:36)

Yeah, I agree. I think the fear is eliminated once you find your purpose. If you're walking into something that you know, this is what you're supposed to be doing. It's just, it's just nature. You're just doing what you're called upon, something that you're talented at. I don't know if that's cooking. I don't know if there's acting, that can be drawing, whatever it is. Like you just got to find your, find your purpose.

Bionca (11:45)

That's right.

Norman Rosson (12:05)

And there is no fear in it because you just walk in so confidently and with such surety that you're going to succeed, you know what you're doing, and it comes off in your spirit, it comes off in everything that you do. So as long as you're walking in your purpose, I think fear automatically kind of wipes itself out.

Bionca (12:26)

This is true.

Tiffany (12:27)

That is so beautiful. And I think that's just general life advice too, even for more than small business owners. I love that. So let's go back to the net-30 terms. So first off, can you explain what net-30 terms are for anybody who's unfamiliar?

Bionca (12:31)

Yes.

Norman Rosson (12:34)

Absolutely, absolutely.

Yeah, so net-30 is, mean, just to kind of simplify it in layman's terms, is buying you 30 days to pay your bill. So there's net-30, there's net-60 for 60 days, net-90. So the number represents the days you have until you pay that bill. So we're net-30. So essentially we give people, our members 30 days to pay their bills so they can place an order on credit terms.

Depending on the business — and it's just a relationship — we usually require a 50% deposit down on that order and then the remaining balance is due in 30 days. We do have some options where you can do the full balance on credit terms, especially if the relationship is there. 

You've shown good payment history, things of that nature, then we can waive that 50% deposit requirement. But yeah, it's just 30 days to pay your bill. And then you know with us is that obviously you can get business credit terms with many different vendors out there. But there are only so many that are reporting to the credit reporting agencies And so that's the key is that for us is that we report to the business credit reporting agencies and so now That payment that you would otherwise be getting you be doing that anyway

You're getting credit for it and it's helping you build your business credit which is ultimately helping you get access to funding to continue to grow and scale your business. And so that's the key component for us and especially for small businesses and ones that are looking to build a business credit and get funding for their business.

Tiffany (14:25)

That's amazing. So why did you decide to offer net-30 terms?

Norman Rosson (14:29)

I mean, there's something in me that wants to help people. You know, I don't know what that is, but it's just, it's just, I want to help people. and so as I'm accumulating resources, again, I was a business owner. had my own store. had different ventures that I've dabbled in. And so a part of that was like, okay, I don't always have the money in my pocket, you know, at the moment.

And so I started seeking out resources on how I can get financing and fix my credit and build my business credit. So over those years, I accumulated those resources. And so I started actually consulting people on how to build their business credit, how to get funding for their business. 

And I still do that on the side as a consultant, but now it was like, okay, I was sending people to the other net-30 vendors who were reporting and it was just like, well, why don't I just turn what I have and what service that I'm doing and become a data furnisher, go through that whole process and do it myself instead of sending these people to all of these different companies. 

Every business needs a branded shirt. Need to brand themselves. They should be wanting to — if they're really trying to build an actual brand and an actual business. And so it's like, you're already a walking billboard. And that just made me want to just extend those credit terms and make it a membership-based type thing. That was how it all started.

Tiffany (16:04)

I think that's so wonderful because yes, it is difficult. And we've heard this from so many people that it's really difficult or can be difficult to either qualify for or get net-30 terms and to build that business credit and all of that. How does the membership play into that? Bianca, maybe you could answer that.

Bionca (16:23)

Sure, the membership — and we call it that because it's not just ordering apparel and getting it printed. We offer so much more to our members. You can kind of think of us as like the Sam's Club of print companies or merge companies because there is a membership fee that's annual. 

And with that, you get access to all of our wholesale pricing on our garments before you print. And then, of course, the quality printing processes that we offer. So also with that membership, though, we extend the membership perks. So we have different discounts for our members just because they belong to Branded Apparel Club, now they can go and use one of our other corporate partners in their everyday life or their business life. For example, we have Restaurants.com.

A lot of business you still have to eat at the end of the day You have to entertain clients at dinner. So you are able to get a discount with restaurants, for all of your meals. We have tons of them. We have Budget rental car rental. So if you're on a business trip you to discount for that. So we have so many different membership perks. 

We also have the credit reporting aspect of the membership that's included and then concierge services — we have concierge service, so if you have questions about your logo, or don't know where to start… a lot of business owners don't have a logo. They don't have artwork ready to print. They don't know what they want to print on their shirts/ They don't know what they want to brand yet. They're just starting out and because we've been there we have account managers who can facilitate helping you with your logo helping you brainstorm.

It's just basically getting started, getting your feet off the ground and you might not be able to get all of that information and education from just any other print.

Norman Rosson (18:19)

It's very, very true. Very true.

Tiffany (18:23)

That yeah, that's fantastic. I love that it's called a club because it feels like a club. That's so fun. Yeah, it's great. So with the net-30 terms, could you provide them so you sort of have a back like a behind the curtain peek into what matters? So for people who are trying to build relationships with net-30 vendors and first off, why is that beneficial?

You said that once people build a relationship with you, then you're more trusting of them. So can you speak on, in general, with anyone trying to build that relationship, what are the things that small business owners are going to want to do?

Norman Rosson (19:09)

Yeah, so you obviously you're gonna want to pay your bills, you know, as long as you're placing orders and I mean, that's what any creditor is looking at is, how often does this person pay their bills and, is it, I have to chase you for it or are they early? And that helps in terms of like when you're trying to increase your credit line. 

So for example, you'll start off with any, this is just a net-30. This is on the overall credit space. Whether it's a financial institution that'll give you a $5,000, $10,000 business credit card or even a personal credit card, just in general, they're going to start you off with that initial limit. And then you'll want to increase that limit over time, which just helps you with your spending power. And the way to do that is by making on-time payments. Just being on top of the business aspect and the finances. 

And so now that creditor can look back and say, “Okay, this person's business, they want a credit limit increase. They started off at $2,500.” You're gonna look at, “Okay, if this person has been utilizing that credit limit, you know, is there any justification on why we should increase this limit? Are they spending at the that $2,500, are they close to that threshold of their credit limit to justify saying, ‘Okay, yeah, we'll bump it up to $5,000 now, $10,000 now?’” 

So especially if you're coming in with a purchase order and saying, “Hey, I want to place an order for $5,000.” 

There's also that whole underwriting process, just making sure that business is legit, credible. Making sure that I can go online and see that, you know, this business has a website, has a phone number to have, everything, they're registered, all of these, the credibility aspect of it. Whether it's net-30 or whether it's revolving credit or whether it's a loan or line of credit would no matter the finance product, you'll have more chances of approval and growing that credit, your spending power, by just making sure that you're paying your bills on time. It really just comes down to that.

Bionca (21:21)

Absolutely. And being on the reporting end of it and being able to see it from that perspective, it's very important, like you said, to pay on time. So anytime you're trying to acquire credit or acquire something like this, usually you have to have something already in place. 

That's what I know from being a business owner when you're looking to acquire funding or you're looking to get a credit line. Normally, you already have to have something in place that they can reference that they can call and say,” Hey, did you work with them before?” And a lot of times small businesses don't have that opportunity. Because they have they're just starting so we are kind of like that starting point where you don't need a personal guarantee to get this

credit line with us. 

We are doing this in the name of small business, in the name of getting your feet wet, in the name of getting you started and getting you going. Because I do trade references daily. See, I'm on the operations side of it. I hear, you know, there are other vendors or creditors that they go to looking for a higher credit line. 

They call me and they say, “Well, hey, I see that they are a member of yours or a customer of yours.

“Yes.” And they want to know how your payment history is. And we do those every day, all day for our members. And I take pride in that because I'm like, yeah, they're making it to the next location. They're going to the next stop. They're moving up. You know, they'll call and say, “This member is trying to get $25,000 now.” And then I looked their account up. They have excellent payment history. This is a great candidate for that. And it makes everything that we do on the entry level so much more worth it because they are taking the program that we have and they're utilizing it and they're moving up the scale.

Norman Rosson (23:24)

Yeah, yeah. And that kind of goes back into your previous questions on why I did this. And, you know, what made me want to get into it was that they just, like she said, to build credit, you need to get credit, right? And so a lot of the vendors out there, whether that's on again, whether it's net-30 trade credit, as they call it, or whether that's actual financial credit, there's just not a lot of what we are considered — a Tier 1 vendor. It's a tier one, you know, trade credit or net-30 vendors. So us being that Tier 1 where, “Hey, we'll take a chance on you.” You know, we take losses, and there's things in place in terms of how we protect ourselves, but we're willing to take that risk.

Bionca (24:07)

Yeah.

Norman Rosson (24:18)

There's going to be some bad apples in a bunch, but it's more good apples in the bunch and actual people who are looking to build legitimate businesses and business credit. And so we don't let the bad apples stop us from, you know, still helping small businesses in America.

Bionca (24:24)

Yes, absolutely.

Tiffany (24:38)

I love that. Yeah, you have to trust people will do what they say they're going to do. So that's fantastic.

Norman Rosson (24:46)

That's pretty much the gist of what credit is. It's just trust. Are you honoring your word? You know, are you going to do what you said that you were going to do? You know, so if that invoice says you won't pay in 30 days, are you going to stick to that? So it's just really a testament to you and your credit worthiness and your characteristics as a person and as a company.

Tiffany (25:07)

Yeah, yeah, that's so true. You mentioned early payment? Have you noticed that that does help?

Bionca (25:11)

Yes, it does. Substantially. It's just that ideally they're coming in to not only get wonderful customized merchandise, but they also are coming to do the business model that we have in place for them. The majority of our customers love to do that in advance just so they don't have to worry about it. We don't do reminders because like I said, this is a stepping stone. You have to learn how to do this on your own. 

So instead of them forgetting about making that payment, they say, “You know what, I'll just pay it upfront.” And that way I can mark you as paid prompt. And you're winning. So you have your merchandise. You don't have to worry about remembering in 30 days. And you're good to go.

Norman Rosson (25:55)

In terms of paying early, that's that's always going to help, especially if you're in the mindset of I want to grow my credit limit or I want to grow this relationship with this vendor or with this bank, and then so when now when I go to request a credit limit increase.

I mean, if I go and look at your account and I see that you pay your invoices early. So yeah, you have 30 days to pay it, but you normally pay it on the 10th day or the 15th day or the 20th day. I don't have to chase you and things like that. and that helps. That helps with like, okay, this person, you know, I'm looking at it. I'm okay with this person, given this person is increasing his credit limit just based on.

They're on time, they're early.

Bionca (26:38)

Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (26:38)

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. So I want to switch gears real quick. We are currently in the holiday season, basically, while we're recording this. And it's a busy time for small business owners. And a lot of people ramp up for Small Business Saturday. How do you help your members or even yourselves get ready for the holiday season?

Bionca (27:08)

So I think for us, what we like to do is we like to just take a look at how the year is going. It's quarter four. So we are just evaluating quarters one through three. And we're looking at what we can do better. What can we do better next year? What goals did we not reach right now? And let's use this time to focus on how we're going to ramp up and end this quarter with a bang.

Let's get going for what we do for that's what we do for ourselves and so what in turn what we do for our small business owners are members we like to create different holiday campaigns different holiday promotions we even have a retail shop guys where some of our members can actually just go in and place an order for pre-decorated items that we already have printed for holiday occasions and they're all kind of kind of sort of centered around entrepreneurship because that's what we're catering to.

But we have different retail products for all the holidays, just to kind of get them something fun to bring up the morale because it's all about having fun during this season in offices and businesses and just showing appreciation. So we'd like to do that for our members during this time and just let them know, you know, it's not easy, but we want to make it as easy as possible for you guys to get going with this. 

We lower our budget for minimum requirements. The good part about us is that we are business owners and we've started off right where you are. So we cater to the old us, if that makes sense. We cater to the little us that started off and whatever we thought we needed during this time, we try to remember and provide it to our members so that they can have that same access.

Norman Rosson (28:59)

Yeah, for sure. For sure. And another thing that we offer too is… it's just more so about launching and it's called Print On Demand. And so, obviously with the holiday season, that's a big shopping… everybody's doing like the cyber Monday. And so now with the print on demand is more of an e-commerce solution. So for example, you got a restaurant. Obviously your restaurant, you sell food. That's your main thing. 

But on the flip side of that, there's an opportunity there for like, you see it all the time where there are a lot of businesses, the bigger brands are getting more into merch selling merch and using merch as a way to build stronger relationships with their audience. But also be more relevant. You're standing in the face of your business, your audience, I should say. And so now as a small business owner, this print on demand option is just basically it's almost a lot of people more familiar with drop shipping. So there could just be a mock-up version of a T-shirt that you can sell on your website. You don't have to print it. You don't have to have a whole bunch of inventory.

This is what you can place this image on the website and people can buy it. You can promote it. People will buy it. We'll fulfill it on the back end and send it to your customer to your end customer as if it came from you. So we'll do the whole blind shipping type thing. And so that's a great tool for small businesses where they don't have to have so much investment and inventory in and different things. 

You could just go out and promote a brand or drop a merch line. During the holiday season, people are looking for different things to buy and support during this time. And so that allows you as a small business owner to get out there and say, “Hey you know I'm a restaurant but we are dropping a merch line we have a know custom holiday shirt,” or whatever it is. Have whatever campaign you want to run or how you want to put it out there. 

But it allows you to get some sales, and people want to go out and support it. So especially, like I said, during this time where people are actively shopping, it starts now — people are Christmas shopping right now, already, so if you can capitalize as a small business owner without having to invest so much in inventory and resources and just go to market ASAP without having an investment. I mean, I feel like that's helping you in that area in regards to the holiday season.

Bionca (31:18)

And really our membership perks, this is the time that thrives. This is the time most of our members take advantage of those discount perks. Because everyone's looking for a deal right now, even though it's always been there. Right around this time is where everyone starts looking for discounts. So we like to ramp that up a lot. They have so much access that they can just go on and just click a button, and there's your discount. So we like to make sure they have those tools necessary as well.

We even have something special for our viewers for this — clock us at the end to kick off this holiday season, just for joining our Branded Apparel Club. So we'll talk about that in a bit.

Tiffany (32:16)

Yes, we have a discount code for anybody who... Yeah, I'm excited about that. That was so kind of you to offer that.

Bionca (32:20)

Hmm. Of course. It's that season.

Norman Rosson (32:25)

And really quick with that, we're really ramping up that whole perks program where with the perks, we're adding more corporate partners. So like she said, there's the Restaurant.com, there's the Budget, there's the Avis, there's all of these UPS, Constant Contact. 

We're building this out to where, let's just say, even if you never placed an order for a T-shirt or whatever, the benefit of having access to all of these exclusive member only offers is going to pay for the membership in itself. And that's how much more we're investing into the offers, the exclusive offers and member only access accessible offers that we'll be having in the perks program. And it will be launching more in 2026.

But yeah, it's really good even now. So that's what we built it out to where it's like, if you never place an order, you just use it for that. It's worth the membership in itself.

Tiffany (33:28)

Yeah, I love that. I looked on your website and it's actually a really affordable membership. How much is it?

Bionca (33:34)

It's $69.99 annually, every year.

Tiffany (33:38)

Yeah, I mean, I find that that's a great deal.

Norman Rosson (33:42)

Yeah, and so it's 69, yeah, it's 69.99 now they'll be going into 2026, there'll be different membership tiers. It's 69.99 right now, but it actually may even go up to be honest to maybe like 99 a year, there'll be a free version of the account that will obviously have some limitations there in terms of the standard membership.

But then there'll be the professional level membership, and then there'll be the executive. And this will be for companies that are maybe a little bit bigger in terms of size and revenues, but they're looking for a little bit more of an account. They're looking for an actual account executive looking more consultation, they're looking for someone who can help them, you know, release campaigns and incorporate apparel into what they're doing, no matter what type of business that may be.

Tiffany (34:36)

Yeah, mean, you gotta keep up with inflation, it makes perfect sense.

Bionca (34:43)

One major part that we did not discuss really quickly that we offer for our small business owners and members, as the affiliate program that we have. our members and non-members can actually benefit from our affiliate program. So we didn't want to leave anyone out. 

Our affiliate program is just spreading awareness, letting others know that this type of company exists because you don't have anywhere else to go and everyone's telling you, no, we're gonna help you get your feet wet and get started and not only help you, but we're gonna educate you along the way. So with that being said, all of our affiliates, non-members get paid $10 for every small business that becomes a member with us. 

And all of our current members, when you go spread the word and let your friends know, your other business partners know, your other business friends in your network know that this company exists and that you've benefited from it. And they sign up, receive $20 for everyone. So you can essentially make your membership back in four people, three people at the most, three companies that you spread the word and you're helping them. And in turn, you're benefiting from helping another business.

Tiffany (35:54)

Yeah, that's fantastic. I love that. I want to end with sort of like a final piece of advice, but very specific. So if a small business wants to incorporate branded merchandise into their brand, what's your top piece of advice that you'd give?

Bionca (36:11)

You wanna go first, Norman?

Norman Rosson (36:11)

I would just say… be authentic. I think the key in anything is just being true to who you are and whatever that may be, whether it's you personally or… I think a lot of business owners, especially at the smaller stage, they don't realize that even as a business, it has a personality and it has what's called a brand personality. 

And so, you know, that's very important into developing knowing what your brand personality is, what your brand voice is, what your brand identity is. And so therefore you can go out and speak to people who relate to your brand base because you have an identity.

And me as an individual, I'm looking at your company and say, like what this company represents. I like what they do. We know this from Chick-fil-A, everybody likes Chick-fil-A. There's just different companies out there. I don't know why I keep saying Chick-fil-A, but there's just a lot of companies out there that have brand...

Bionca (37:24)

Because you love them and that's how we want them to say us. That's how you want them to talk about us.

Norman Rosson (37:29)

Yeah, so there's a lot of companies out there with a personality and that's how you attach to your apples, your McDonald's, and your big, you know. So once you know your brand, your brand personality and all of those things, it's easier to go to market with different things that you can do in terms of not only just apparel, but just merch overall. Merch and merchandising is not just restricted to just apparel.

Now, you know, that's our kind of bread and butter, but we have capabilities of doing drinkware. Anything — a custom Chinese box, take-out box for Chinese, you know, just different things. And so whatever it is, is being creative is helping making sure that you're staying relevant, staying fresh and, you know, in tune with the time so people can take a liking to your brand and…

Bionca (38:07)

Bags. Yeah. Yeah.

Norman Rosson (38:26)

get some type of emotion or feeling from your brand. And that's how you get recurring business and people care about what you have to say and what you're doing instead of just people just scrolling along and saying, they just ain't talking about nothing. They're just always selling me something. And so that's what I guess my advice would be.

Bionca (38:47)

I agree. My advice, if I was starting out, and this is going to sound crazy, but it's true. If Branded Apparel Club existed, my advice would be to reach out to Branded Apparel Club only because that, I know it sounds crazy, but really that's the business model. That's why he created it for people who are confused and don't know what to do or don't need advice or maybe not know the right question to ask. 

Maybe they don't know the advice that they need. So we do offer that. But one thing for sure is to scale, scale down. You know, I've been there where we had boxes and boxes of just shirts and hoodies and all of these things. And now you have an opportunity where you don't have to have all of that stuff stocked up.

You don't even have to touch a piece of inventory to make money off of it anymore. that we can show you how to do. can show you how to start from top to bottom. Look, we started out small and that's how we set everything up for you to be able to come along. We've done this. We've extended our personal credit to get things that we need. And we know that you don't necessarily have to do that anymore.

That's not where we are in 2025 going into 2026 and I just feel like knowing that we can… we’ve been able to secure hundreds of thousands and business credit ourselves. So we're not telling you anything that we have not done before or we can't show you how to get on that path. So my biggest advice is to join our club.

Join our club even if you don't order anything like he said the benefits the education the one-on-one the hand you can speak to a real live person is going to answer and we are all specialized in just catering to our business owners and letting you know that you are not alone and we are here to help you and hold your hand through the process.

Tiffany (40:57)

That's fantastic. I think some small business owners probably would be afraid of doing branded merchandise for the cost, but I'm guessing there's a pretty big return on investment, right?

Norman Rosson (41:12)

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. let's say Main Street Makers, they're gonna go and do a live stream at some conference. so now people are walking by and you wanna give people t-shirts and say Main Street Makers on it. And so now you've touched that person.

Bionca (41:12)

For sure.

Norman Rosson (41:38)

And that person's gonna come back and say, “Hey, I wanna be a guest on your show. How does that work?” And all of these different types of things. Now obviously the trickle down effects of that is you get your up and your viewers and then from that point now you're generating more sponsorship because you have a bigger audience. And so there's a whole trickle down effect to just what one piece of a T-shirt could do for you in terms of that and just people wearing that shirt, they're walking around, they're wearing it proud.

Bionca (42:13)

It's a walking advertisement. It's a conversation piece. You can give that shirt away that says mainstream on it, markets on it and everyone she walks past is gonna ask, what is that? What is that? Where'd you get that shirt from? Even if you never wear the shirt, you're looking in your closet and you'll see the shirt and just be like, man, I'll remember them. I need to connect back with them.

And like I wanted to be 100 % clear, we don't just do shirts. We're just saying that for the sake of argument or the sake of conversation, have polos, corporate wear, drink wear. So now we're launching drinkwear with your brand in their hand every day. So imagine everyone walking around with your brand, drinking coffee or water, just like the Stanley cups. We have tons of those as well. So, you know, it's walking advertisement.

That's what I would say the biggest benefit of it is and the biggest return of investment is the conversation. Someone's talking about your business that might not have talked about it had they not seen this piece of a branded apparel with your name on it.

So sign up today. But no, seriously, we also do work with Nav as well. That's one of our membership perks. You can get a discount as well by being a member with us to Nav. We're actually going to start pushing that campaign very, very soon. Get the word out. We're trying to get the word about us and we're trying to get the word out about everyone else too at the same time.

Tiffany (43:46)

That's great. That's fantastic. Do you want to share the promo code?

Bionca (43:50)

Yes, I guess it is about that time. So all of our viewers: We have a very special gift for you guys. Because our annual membership fee is already at a great rate, we decided to give you guys an opportunity to join us. We're going to give you 10% off of your membership fee for the entire year. So use nav10 at checkout and that will actually allow you to type that in when you're joining and it will give you the discount when you are checking out to start your membership.

Tiffany (44:30)

That's fantastic. And we will put that in the show notes as well so people can, yeah, people can find it. That's great.

Bionca (44:33)

Nice. I love that. I love that. So yeah, if you guys have any questions, I've provided our phone number. We are very good at responding to emails. So our biggest focus is to reach out to us online, support tickets. But if you need to talk to a live person, because that's just what we do, you can reach out and talk to us directly.

Tiffany (44:58)

That's fantastic.

Alright, well thank you so much both of you for joining us today. I think this was so helpful for anybody looking for net-30 terms, anybody who needs branded apparel, they know where to go now. You even gave a discount code, which is awesome. I'm so inspired by your business model and, you know, growing your business by helping others. It's just so awesome.

Bionca (45:22)

Thank you. Thank you.

We really appreciate you guys for having us. I'm a very big fan of Nav and I'm also a fan of Main Street Makers, you know, and so I do look forward to, know, obviously this interview, but looking into more interviews as far as, you know, different business owners and what they offer and their unique stories and drawing inspiration from them as well and maybe becoming a sponsor on Main Street Makers. I don't know what that looks like, but maybe something's down the line.

Tiffany (46:00)

You never know. That sounds fun. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much again. It's such a pleasure. And that's why we build this is so people can inspire each other. So we really appreciate it.

Bionca (46:01)

Thank you.

Tiffany (46:14)

Thank you to our guests for sharing their story and thank you for listening today. Keep in mind that every small business is unique and there is no such thing as one size fits all advice, so take only what you find helpful. We look forward to next time.