Ten Ways to Grow Your Garment Decorating Business at NBM Charlotte
Last Friday AnaJet had the honor of sponsoring a full 90-minute seminar presentation at NBM Charlotte! It featured one of our top customers, Chuck Northcutt of DTG Ready and Creative Promotions in Seattle, WA. Joe Longtin was the other speaker. We had approximately 100 attendees in the audience and more trickled in as the presentation began.
THANK YOU to all of the NBM attendees for making this, our first sponsored NBM session, a huge success. Dozens stayed on after the 65-minute presentation concluded for a rousing Q&A session.
Many of you asked to see the PowerPoint presentation, so here it is in PDF format. If you have not already done so, please register for a webinar or reach out to your regional manager with any questions.
Also critical was the first official conference where we premiered the new mPower i-series printer. We ran the mP5i and mP10i on the show floor and also delivered “in the hall” training sessions that were standing room only in some instances. Wish we could appear at Charlotte EVERY year and have attendance like this!
10 Ways Accelerate GarDec Business NBM Charlotte
AnaJet Exhibiting New mPower i-series DTG Printer at ACUP 2013
We’re proud to announce that AnaJet will exhibit at the 48th annual ACUP conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We’ll be featuring the new version of the mPower, the i-series printer. This conference is important because it draws together in-plant printing administrators and staff from colleges and universities all over the United States. We have long been exhibiting at events like CAMEX, which is intended to serve colleges and college bookstores. This is a national conference but the location changes every year in order to better serve the needs of the administrators who are members, so that they don’t always have to travel quite so far. If you’re an ACUP member, we look forward to seeing you there!
ISA Las Vegas Running Full Tilt: Direct to Garment Printing at #4507!
Here are some photos from the show floor. We’re busy as ever at ISA Las Vegas with our fans in the sign/large format printing and auto wrapping businesses. We are previewing the new i-series of the mPower. Stay tuned for an announcement very shortly. If you are looking to invest in direct to garment printing, or thinking about in-sourcing t-shirt printing, check us out here and at upcoming trade shows.
Paul Green on Getting Started with DTG at ISS Orlando
Paul Green, product manager at AnaJet, is delivering his popular presentation on the basics of direct to garment. He’ll cover its origins, the direction the technology has evolved, and the requirements for a garment decorator or other imaging business that is considering investing.
Paul has spoken on the topic of DTG and marketing a digital apparel line of business in numerous forums, most recently with ISS at Long Beach and previously on webinars with ASI.
If you’re in the Orlando area or attending the ISS Show there, don’t miss the seminar. It’s Saturday, April 13 from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m at ISS Orlando. Bring your tablets!
Thanks for Visiting at ASI Show Long Beach!
Long Beach in 2013 was a first for ASI so we didn’t know what to expect. The ASI Show Long Beach crowd did not disappoint, with over 2000 attendees, hundreds of distributors seeing AnaJet for the first time in person. We also enjoyed seeing several customers stop by to view the performance of the new version of the mPower, the i-series. We ran a SPRINT and an mPower mP5i.
It also was an opportunity to clear up some misconceptions about our technical support! Apparently someone was looking to buy a used SPRINT from a third party. They called and spoke to a sales person here at AnaJet to see if they would be supported.
Somehow, the buyer came away from the conversation thinking that we would not support them unless they got a $2,500 refurbishment. This perception is false. Let’s be absolutely clear:
AnaJet’s Support Promise
For USA customers, AnaJet supports all of its printers directly, for the lifespan of the printer, regardless of who owns it. We haven’t grown into the most popular direct to garment printer maker by abandoning anyone who bought second-hand.
We do not charge a dime when a third-party USA AnaJet owner calls for tech support, registers their name as new owner, logs into our customer forum, or emails us with tech questions. Which happens on a daily basis.
AnaJet makes its money after original sale only if you are buying AnaJet ink and supplies. So it’s in our best interest to see that you can get tech help – or buy replacement parts – when you need them.
Buying Third Party
If you buy an AnaJet printer from a third party and they have taken good care of it, there is no reason it should not function well. The caveat is that if they have not, you definitely should ship the printer in for inspection, repair and replacement of any wear items.
Our service team charges for the inspection, parts that require replacement and labor. This may be several hundred to a couple thousand, depending on its condition. Now, what we cannot do is transfer a warranty from owner to owner. In rare cases, it may seem inconvenient or pedantic, but overall this policy allows us to limit our overhead and keep prices down. (cf. to when you buy and sell a house: you pay for a title search, recording and other fees, no matter how long the home has been occupied. To circumvent these relatively minor fees could be financial suicide!)
Some third-party buyers negotiate with the previous owner to factor the costs of inspection/refurbishment and a new warranty into the price. Also, using an escrow account to pay the seller a negotiated amount for these costs could protect a third-party buyer from misrepresentations by the seller.
Regardless, by stepping into direct to garment, you’re giving your imaging business a new, sophisticated engine.
It’s a revenue-generating piece of equipment that could become your primary driver of income. If you buy third-party and you believe you’re saving $$, cover your assumptions. Plow that savings into refurbishment and buying a manufacturer’s warranty before you even think about taking orders.
NBM Arlington Show features Education Station
NBM Arlington (March 7-9) was a sedate entry in the typically busy NBM Show circuit. Thank you to all the attendees who visited us or stood in on one of the “Education Station” sessions with Chuck Northcutt. Many of the attendees were familiar faces, including several customers. We introduced two new regional managers to the public, Tom Hopkins and Todd Sommers, a veteran in the industry.
